“Thanks, everyone,” Colby says. “The cake looks great, Dax.”
Mom begins taking the candles off Colby’s cake and cutting slices for everyone while Dax assumes ice-cream-scooping duties.
“None for me,” I say when Mom offers me a thick slice.
“Are you feeling okay, honey?” Mom asks. “You look a bit peaked.” She hands Ryan the piece of cake she’d offered to me.
“I’m fine. I just went a little crazy at the karaoke bar with friends last night,” I say. “Shouldn’t have had that last martini.”
Mom shoots me a scolding look. “You weren’t driving, I hope?” she asks. She hands a huge slice of cake to Keane.
“Nope,” I say.
“And whoever was driving wasn’t drinking?”
“Correct,” I say.
“Never drink and drive,” Mom says firmly. She slides a noticeably slim piece of cake to Dad. “Just get that Uber-thingy on your phone and they’ll pick you right up.”
“You mean the Uberapp,Mom?” Dax asks, shooting me an amused look.
“Yep. It’s called Uber. They’ll pick you right up.”
“Wow. Sounds neat-o, Mom,” I say, returning Dax’s smile. She’s so cute.
“Did you hit ’em with your karaoke-specialty last night?” Keane asks. He puts his hand on his heart and breaks into a full-throated chorus of “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”
“Of course,” I say. I toss my hair over my shoulder. “And Inailedit, too.”
“Aw, you cheated on me, Baby-Gravy?” Ryan asks. “I’m devastated.”
“Sorry, Ry,” I say. “The opportunity presented itself and I had to take it. I thought you’d understand.”
“Well, Idon’tunderstand,” Ryan says. “That’sourthing, Kum Shot.”
“Stop with the semen-nicknames,” Mom says. “You know I hate that.”
“Sorry, Mom,” Ryan says. “But I think your disciplinary efforts would be better spent telling Ebenezer Splooge over there not to stab me in the heart with a rusty blade.”
“Aw, come on,” I say. “I couldn’t let the moment pass me by.YOLO,brah. That’s how I dooz it.”
Ryan scoffs, utterly miffed.
“YOLO,” Dax mutters with disdain. “I wanna strangle the genius who came up with that.”
“What’s ‘YOLO’?” Dad asks, happily chomping on his little morsel of cake.
“‘You only live once,’” Dax answers, practically holding his nose.
“Oh,carpe diemisn’t cool enough for the kids these days, huh?” Dad says.
“That’s too long to text,” Mom says, taking a bite of ice cream. “They shorten everything these days, honey. ‘LOL! OMG!’” She throws up her hands, apparently imitating a spazzoid-teenager at a mall.
Derby Field! Namibia!,I think to myself, my heart panging.
“So who sang my part for you last night?” Ryan asks. “Whoever the bastard was, I guarantee he didn’t even come close to doingthis.” He breaks into singing the ‘Turn around, Bright Eyes’ part of the song with hilarious gusto.
I laugh despite myself. Ryan can always make me laugh, no matter how dark my mood. “You’re right. The guy who sang it didn’t even come close to doingthat.”
