a little colour

She wasn’t the type of person to walk around all day wearing a huge fucking sign that said ‘Happy Birthday’ pinned to her chest nor did she put any corny post on social media about her birthday, forcing people to say Happy Birthday to her. She may have mentioned her birthday once or twice to Lex, but didn’t expect him to remember it, even if it was a big birthday. The big two one. Finally she could go into a bar and order vodka lime soda, not that drinking what her thing, but it was nice to have the option.

It bothered her growing up that her dad never remembered her birthday. The man didn’t even know what day of the week it was, so obviously he wasn’t going to remember his daughter's birthday. Winter tried to remind him, even telling him the night before but by sunrise, he’d forgotten. Passed out on the couch, clutching a bottle of whatever whilst his friends were either passed out too or still drinking. Once a year she even pinned a sticky note to the fridge to remind him, thinking he could never miss that because the fridge was where all his precious alcohol was stashed, but the note was crumpled up on the floor the following morning. So whilst the other children were showing off their birthday gifts at school and had balloons scattered across the living room it was just another day for Winter. She never got to experience the sheer excitement the night before her birthday where it was impossible to sleep because there wasn’t anything to look forward to the following day. At least Lori remembered sometimes and in the years she did remember she would bring a cake over for Winter. In the later years, she would receive a text message from Jeremiah wishing her Happy Birthday.

Her phone had been on silent from the day she bought it and she certainly didn’t set an alarm yet her phone screamed out that morning causing Winter to jump before peeling her eye mask off. “What the fuck? I ain’t set no alarm.” She muttered, reaching for her phone, trying to switch the damn thing off. There was a small smile on her face when she spotted the text across the screen, wishing her Happy Birthday. “I’m assuming this is your doing?” Finally the sound stopped and Winter placed her phone back down on the bedside table before turning back over to fall back asleep for another hour.

A text message came through from Jeremiah as she was collecting her iced latte from the counter at The Coffee Bean. “Jesus fuck…” She reached into her bag, pulling her phone out as the ringtone blared loudly. Winter quickly grabbed her order from the counter and scurried out of The Coffee Bean, flicking through her phone settings to make sure everything was on silent. She was almost certain Lex was behind it all.

Thankfully she didn’t have her birthday advertised on Facebook, so no one posted on her page nor did she receive any more texts but whenever a general notification went off the jingle would still play.

She managed to wrap her phone up in her scarf and coat then stuff it in the bottom of her bag to minimize the sound, and also to avoid Penny losing her temper and going all dragon on her. Then as she was leaving work the phone chimed up again. A message from Lex complaining about her hair blocking the shower drain. She let out a long ass sigh before responding to Lex to say she would be back in five minutes.

Winter rushed through the door, ready to listen to Lex complain about her hair, the drain, the potential flooding, etc, etc but instead he was sitting on the end of her bed with a bouquet of flowers and chocolates. She wasn’t about to jump to conclusions by assuming the flowers and chocolates were for her because he could have been going out on a date, considering the fresh shirt he was wearing.

It was clear there was no emergency because Lex was totally cool. “I think my mom assumed it was winter because there was snow outside.” It could have been a toss-up between Winter and Snow. If that was true she was grateful her mom stuck with Winter.

Winter broke into a wide smile, taking the flowers from him. “Thank you so much!” Tears almost started to form in her eyes, “No ones ever bought me flowers before… they’re really beautiful.” She admired the bouquet, the smile not fading from her face at all, “I’m guessing you were behind the shit thats been happening with my phone today?” She pulled her eyes away from the flowers, resting them on Lex. “I would give you a hug but I don’t wanna predict your death y’know.”


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It was nothing short of a miracle that her mom didn’t look outside to see the white snow and thought of crack and called her daughter Crack. Who knows what kind of input the midwives had in the whole situation though. They could have steered her mom away from some tragic names whilst attempting to pry the baby out of her arms, knowing she wasn’t fit to be a mom in the first place, but failed. Winter smiled “I would have done some kind of thing to have it changed.” It was tempting to change her surname when she ran away with the fair, but there was no point. No one was looking for her.

She wasn’t about to cry in front of Lex because she’d never hear the end of it, digging at her for crying because someone brought her flowers, but it seriously made her sooooo happy. “No! No one. Ever.” Even some of the creepy customers she had at the fair didn’t give her flowers nor did any of the boys at school. God, not even the regular crackhead at the corner of her road bought her flowers despite throwing compliments at her every day on her way to school. Well, they weren’t so much compliments, rather vulgar statements. But still, no flowers.

She should have realised from the outset that it was Lex fucking with her phone. It was a prank that his name was written all over it, but she was too caught up in the embarrassment caused. “Ah yes. It must have been some other dude who can like crawl into phones and shit.” She had watched him do it so many times, but never understood how he did it. Was there a mini version of him running around inside her phone? Thank God she didn’t have any questionable pictures on there.

One day she might be able to prevent someone from dying after predicting their death, but it had failed horribly the past two times. She didn’t want to make it a third with Lex, even though nothing happened when she hugged him at the auction. Even though he didn’t do hugs he certainly hugged her back at the auction.

The gifts only got better. A box of chocolates too! Lex had truly spoilt her. She moved past him, placing the flowers down gently on her bedside table before picking the chocolates. “These look fancy as hell.” She unwrapped them as gracefully as possible, even though she wanted to just rip the lid off. She picked up one of the chocolates, placed it in her mouth and offered the box over to Lex. “Nice chocolates too!” She mumbled as chewed her way through the piece before swallowing, “Thank you so much Lex. You didn’t have to do all this for me.” She would have been over the moon with a card from Lex, but this made her next level happy.


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