Chapter 5

                                    

                                          
2010, December 12th - Friday | 5 pm
                          
Narrator P.O.V: 
                          
Like it happens every year, Aster's birthday dawned awfully cold. Even though she liked to watch the snow falling from the sky and loved to wear her favorite knitted sweater, she also envied those who were born during the summer and could throw pool parties to celebrate their birthdays. 
                          
She could only imagine how much fun it would be to have all of her friends in bathing suits, swimming around the huge pool in the backyard of her house, drinking virgin margaritas and lying under the sun to tan their skins. Instead, every year her birthday was the exact opposite - her father would hire a party crew to put together a big, white heated tent in the backyard, a buffet service making sure all her guests were well served, loud music for the teenagers and fancy drinks for the adults. It was fun, Aster couldn't deny it, but it was just not what she pictured as the perfect party. 
                          
But deep down, she knew she would never have a perfect party, not because she was born in December, but because her parties would always miss the two most important persons in her life - her old sister and her mother. Her birthdays were never the same after that cold night 8 years ago, and if she was being honest, she didn't even want to have birthdays parties anymore. It felt weird to celebrate one more year in her life while her sister's was so abruptly interrupted. However, she knew those parties were a big deal to her father, who used to concentrate all his expectations on her, and expected Aster to live her life to its fullest, for her and for her dead sister. 
                          
She woke up that day with an expectation feeling she hadn't proved for a long time. All of her friends would come to her house, and even though she wasn't happy about celebrating her birthday under the snow, she found herself willing to try and have a great day around the people she loved the most in the world. Albeit they hadn't have any kind of contact for three years now, Aster even dared to flirt with the possibility of her mother showing up. Maybe she would make her a surprise, for her 15th birthday, right? That was always a possibility, and even though deep down Aster knew she was only going to hurt herself by expecting a miracle to happen, she didn't lose hope anyway.
                          
She came back from the beauty salon with her hair, makeup and nails done, and while changing her daily clothes to a beautiful pink strapless dress, Aster wondered if he would come. Well, he said he would, and to this day he hadn't disappointed her, but she still wondered. Every time she was about to see him, she spent hours creating imaginary scenarios in her head, thinking about what he would wear that day, how his curly mop of hair would be stylish, how their interactions could be. She loved to imagine what he would say to her, if he would like her clothes, if he would look at her differently someday. Like she looked at him. 
                          
Harry and Aster weren't blood related, but their families were so close, they practically grew together. Some people liked to say they were like brother and sister, but Aster wasn't one of those people. She liked to believe they were just close friends, definitely not related. Not because she thought any bad about Harry's family, but because she knew it would be weird to have a crush in someone who was actually related by blood. 
                          
Yeah, she had a crush on Harry. A huge one, for that matter. But Aster liked to think it was completely his fault. She only had a crush on him because of the way his cheeks would sink in two cute dimples every time he smiled. It was not her fault that he always knew what to say, that he always smelled so good, or that he was the most handsome boy at the school. She wasn't the only one who day dreamed about him - in fact, all of her friends and half the school shared the same type of feelings for him. Just like Harry's charming manners and his exotic accent, it was only natural to fall for him eventually. 
                          
But even though she was closer to him than any other girl, Aster knew she was the only one who hadn't even the tiniest of chances with him. He was older, smarter and so protective of her, she was sure he saw her like a sister. Loved her like a sister, she was sure of it. So she never tried to win his affections in the way she actually wanted, being satisfied with just staying close to him, no matter in what way. That's why when Chase, from her math class asked Aster to be his girlfriend, she said yes. At the age of 14, she was the only one in her group of friends who hadn't kissed yet, but it didn't change after dating Chase for three weeks - she kept postponing their first kiss, which was driving him crazy and making her friends think that Aster was crazy herself. Chase was a good looking guy, had a promising career in baseball, good grades and a dirty blonde hair that made his golden eyes look even brighter.