#2: A special birthday celebration
Jackie woke up on the morning of her 16th birthday
Jackie yawned, and inhaled the weight of the rest of her life, one year briefer,
Jackie gasped as it crushed her
Jackie brushed her teeth with a grimace
Jackie hates mint
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Jackie walked around thinking about what it meant to be 16
Jackie had never kissed anyone
(In three months she would seduce the kitchen boy at her girls camp, he would essentially eat her face)
Jackie had never had sex
(In two years and three months she would spitefully sleep with a boy she thought was as frustrated as she was, it would be an unfortunate experience)
Jackie had never had a boyfriend
(In two years and six months she would pursue a tall boy with lovely eyes, her first success)
Jackie was no closer to the meaning of life but was distinctly closer, she felt, to death
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Jackie enjoyed her classmate’s birthday wishes, despite her feeling of stagnation and rot
Jackie spent the day pounding bloody fists against the walls in her head
Jackie was very polite on her birthday, and waited until she was alone to start crying
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Jackie’s parents insisted on her favorite restaurant
Jackie just wanted to sink into the couch, stop being her and be something else
Jackie begged her parents to let her be
Jackie’s parents would have none of it
Jackie bucked her seatbelt and leaned her cheek against the car window
Jackie’s temple felt nice against the cool glass of her container
Jackie closed her eyes and tried to disappear
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Jackie entered the California Pizza Kitchen and was very surprised to see all of her friends there
Jackie tried to figure out the probability of all of them eating there on the same day
Jackie did this for about four seconds before she figured it out
Jackie’s parents smiled down at her,
Jackie’s parents threw the exact same surprise party at the exact same place last year for her
Jackie was somehow still completely oblivious and surprised
Jackie smiled up at her parents, and hugged them
Jackie was suddenly and unexplainably present
Jackie decided it was time to pay more attention.
