Birthday Boy

My first mistake today was deciding it was safe to leave my room at four in the morning to go have breakfast. My second mistake was taking the long way to get to the cafeteria, because that's the way my mother is coming, carrying a thousand things in her arms.

I make a strangled sound and start backing up to make an escape to the left, hoping she hasn't seen me, but it's too late.

"Elliot!" she shouts and hurries up the walk, “Happy Birthday!”

I know her well enough to know that she'll try to hug me even with all that stuff she’s carrying, which will end in disaster, so I reach over to grab the cake and the gas balloons that say 'happy birthday' 'it's a boy' 'I love you' etc., leaving her hands freer for when she stamps herself against me and surrounds my body like a snake, trying to carry me, "...so big and so handsome, I always knew you would become the most beautiful, respectable, perfect alpha. You are the most important thing I have, my biggest pride, my handsome boy, the only go