To this day, everything about what happened is blurry. Yet, when I close my eyes to sleep, i can always see the worst parts.
"Happy Birthday!" My parents cheered, the flickering light of the candle on the vanilla cake flickering weakly from their shouting. My face burned in sudden embarrassment as eyes were drawn to our table from their enthusiastic shouting. The waitress giggled as I sank into my chair, red faced like the wallpaper behind us, my aunt joining in as my parents had giant clown like smiles across their lips.
"Mom! Dad!" I hissed and tried to hide myself behind my long sandy blonde hair, my parents starting to chatter and laugh louder, making even more of a humiliating scene. The Chinese buffets gold and red lounge was only filled with their cheers and my embarrassed groans, a few table speaking up to sing happy birthday softly. With each cheer and word I grew more and more like I wanted to sink into a puddle onto the floor.
"Come on birthday girl, blow out your candles." My aunt reached out and squeezed my arm gently, coaxing me to lift my head even with my heated face. Her beautiful ebony kinky hair pulled back out of her face, smiling sweetly at me as she pointed towards the yellow candle. I huffed and managed to sit myself up, pouting like a child although I was still holding back laughter as my mother-- technically step mother but I never viewed it in that manner-- crossed her hazel eyes and stuck out her tongue.
"You guys are so embarrassing," I grumbled and sighed, blowing out the candle was also showing my growing annoyance to their childish antics.
"Oh are we embarrassing you?" My father gasped and feigned hurt. My father looked towards my mother sharing a shit eating grin like the cat that ate the canary.
"I bet we can be even worse." My mother was about to stand up and I nearly jumped from my seat to hold her in place. My father and aunt burst into laughter while my mothers hands shot out and wrapped around my neck. Her fingers danced around the sides of my neck and I squealed as the ticklish feeling spread down my neck and caused me to jerk back.
"We are in public!" I squealed and threw myself back in the chair, my hand swiping across my cake. Instinctively I lifted my hand to my mouth and licked off the whip cream from my hand as the three giggled at me and the room returned to its chattering and bustling prior to my birthday embarrassment.
"I can't take you two anywhere." I rolled my eyes at their giggled and teasing finger wiggling as they mocked my behavior with their own sighing and eye rolling. The lamp above us started to flicker as if cheering them on, and I grew a little restless.
"Sometimes, I forget that you are the child and they are the parents." My aunt rubbed her elbow against my arm, and I cracked a small smile, peering through my hair at the so called 'adults'. Even though they were embarrassing and hard to handle, I appreciated their energy and silliness. They saw my smile and stopped their silly behavior, my mother latching onto my fathers skinny arm and resting her head on his shoulder.
"How do you feel being a whole fifteen years old not, sugarplum?" My father asked, pushing his matching hair to mind back out of his eyes. He then laced his fingers through my mothers rich caramel hands.
"Like a princess on top of the world," My voice was dripping with sarcasm, but I was still smiling like a buffoon. I could not help but smile at them, their warm smiles and affection making the slightly cold room heat up. It seemed like all the staff and patrons passing by could not help but smile as they passed my parents
"You look like a princess, but you don't act like one sunshine." My mom kicked my leg playfully from under the table, and I kicked her back with the same force. This continued until we called for the check and swiftly exited the restaurant with full bellies and happy faces. I was between my mother and father, my father's scrawny arm wrapped around my shoulder and my mothers hand tangled in mine. My aunt was several feet in front of us, as we walked through the parking lot. Since we lives in a small town, the parking lot for the family run restaurant was small as well, so we had to park on the side of the road. We reached the sidewalk, talking about meaningless nonsense and laughing about old stories. My aunt ran a bit ahead towards her SUV, clicking the unlock button and doing a small chicken dance causing us to laugh. I moved forward out of my fathers grasp to kick my aunt playfully in the butt as she scurried away.
"You're even more embarrassing than they are!" I screamed, just as the sound of tires screechign against pavement made me turn my head a bit. That's when everything happened. Like a flash, all I remember next is hearing the grinding of gears and the sound of metal hitting flesh. Bone crunching under wheels, and I was flown air born. I heard metal slam against metal before I hit the gravel painfully, the sudden force knocking the breath out of my lungs and stars in my eyes. I didn't know what happened, other than that pain was radiating over my body. I realized I wasn't seeing stars, but rather the night sky above me. My neck gave out and my head lolled to the side only to see what would forever be engraved in my mind. The bloody and mangled body of my parents fallen on the ground-- unmoving and still. A large black Range Rover was crashed into the side of my aunts SUV. At first I thought my aunt was leaning over the hood so look inside of the car. I blinked my blurriness away enough to realize she wasn't leaning over the hood on her own volition. The Range Rover had her pinned against her SUV. I could hear screaming through the blood rushing through my head and realized it was bystanders running to us from the parking lot, as well as the inhuman screams on my aunt as blood poured from her mouth. My heart rate quickened and I felt warmth spread across my waist and groin. For a split second in my mind I wondered why I couldn't feel my legs, but instead a scream was torn from my throat forcefully with sorrow and grief. I screamed and cried, barely feeling the heat of my tears over the warmth of the blood splattered on my face. My vision blurred with black before everything became corrupted and I was snapped from reality.