Happy Birthday!

There were ten items on Coke McDonald’s to-do list on June, 17, but jumping off a cliff was NOT one of them.

At least, it was not mentioned in very specific, technical detail on this particular birthday list of his.

It all started this morning, when his cousin, Phoebe, came over, to wish him a happy birthday. She greeted him with a bear hug and a loud obnoxious rendition of “Happy Birthday” (You may have thought that you have heard the most obnoxious rendition of it in your lifetime, but trust me when I say that Phoebe takes the cake on this one).

After blowing his eardrums out, she asks him what he wants to do today. At first, he hesitated, but then pulls the list out of his pocket to show her. She began reading it out loud,

“Number one: pay rent. Seriously? This is on your birthday list?”

“Hey, it needs to be done,” He held his hands up in defense.

Phoebe rolled her eyes at him and continued, “Number 2: Go to the beach. Wow, that’s original.”

Coke crossed his arms and sighed, “Well it’s not like I’ve been there recently. Will you stop being so judgmental and just read all the way through before adding your own freakin’ commentary?”

She looked up at the ceiling and finally, in a very exasperated voice, said, “Fine.”

“Thank you. Now continue.” She read number’s three through nine without a pause, which are:

Number three: Hang out with Phoebe for the day (If this wasn’t on the list, Phoebe would have forced him to add it, so he decided to do so on his own).

Number four: Sleep in (This may not sound exciting for some people, but Coke McDonald was not one who usually let himself sleep in late, so he thought his birthday would be a good day for it).

Number five: Wear mismatching socks (Usually Coke McDonald loves to have his clothing in order, but he wanted to go a little crazy on his birthday, but not too crazy. He figured that mismatching socks were easier to hide than bright colored pants or polka dotted shirts).

Number six: No house cleaning (Not only does he like to have his clothes in order, he also loves having a clean house. He thought that he should give himself a break for one day, because why not? It’s his birthday!)

Number seven: Buy the top three books on his wish list (He loves reading, but hates spending money, so he thought this would be a great birthday gift to himself).

Number eight: Pick up his favorite cake from the local bakery down the street (This bakery, simply called Dawn’s Bakery, has the best red velvet cake he has ever had. Dawn knows Coke very well, as he comes in every day to moon over the cakes, but will only ever buy one on his own birthday).

Number 9: Feed the ducks at the duck pond (This is actually something he does every day, but he loves doing it, so there’s no way he would skip this on his birthday).

When she finally got to number ten, a grin crept over her face, and eventually became a smirk full of pure evil. The last thing on Coke’s birthday list was to do something out of the ordinary, something extraordinary in order to celebrate his day of officially being one year older.

And Phoebe knew exactly what he should do, “Come with me dear cousin.”

“Where are we going?”

“We’re going to do something extraordinary for your birthday, just like you wanted.”

And now here they are, Coke and Phoebe about to go cliff diving into the ocean (which actually crosses off number two on his list, since he is on the beach after all. Might as well kill two birds with one stone). Phoebe glances over at Coke, who is staring intently at the ocean below them, his eyes bulging out of his head with fright, “Hey Coke, you ready?”

Coke tears his gaze away from the ocean, “I don’t know.”

Phoebe smiles at him encouragingly, “Trust me, you are,” And she squeezes his hand, “Now JUMP!” and without further warning, Phoebe jumps off the cliff, and Coke follows soon after, since they are holding hands after all.

Coke is screaming in pure fright as Phoebe laughs maniacally next to him. The wind rushes past him, pulling their hair back in long willowy strands, Coke’s heart is in his throat, and he can’t seem to stop thinking that Phoebe secretly just wanted to kill the two of them and decided to cover it by saying it was a birthday surprise.

In what seems like the longest, yet shortest moment of his life, Coke hits the water with a splash, and it is over. Phoebe had let go of his hand as soon as they hit the water, so Coke goes to find her. He swims back up to the surface to see Phoebe already floating up there with the most satisfied look on her face. Hearing him splash around, she turns her head lazily towards him, “So cuz, what did ya think of that?”

Coke is silent for a moment, his eyes wide with shock, “I think that was the most extraordinary thing in my life.”

“How did it make you feel?”

“More alive than I ever have before.”

“Good. Now let’s get back to the shore, I wanna go get some cake.”

Coke laughs for no reason other than pure joy, “That sounds like a great idea to me.” So the two cousins swim back to shore, and the whole time, Coke replays the moment over and over again with the biggest grin on his face.