If anyone said that they wish to live a richer life with fewer things to worry about spending then I wished that they could take my place, but it’s more of a curse and lonesome. I never spent time outside of my house to wander around the neighborhood and I would always have someone driving me to school then take me straight home once it was over. To top it off, my mother left last winter so there have been bad rumors floating about and how my dad has been struggling to keep his company running after a few sponsors ended their contract because of their reputation. I wasn’t too sure of what to think of this, but today I’m having my classmates come over to celebrate my birthday and I think Dad only wants the party to meet the parents to make himself known.

I wouldn’t have cared if Dad was using me to collect clients, but I honestly don’t talk much with my classmates and I don’t think they like me as well. I’ve always been shy and kept to myself in school. I was surprised that the kids came to the party, but maybe their parents wanted to snoop around to see what we had and it wasn’t like I was excited to celebrate my fifteenth birthday anyway. They can all do as they want and I could only hope that the party would end so everyone can leave.

Right now I hid away from the party and was sitting down at the small garden my mom grew when I was younger. We spent a lot of our time here before she left and it was always my favorite spot when I would hide from dad. Also, Dad doesn’t like coming here so this is the only time that I can be alone without him nagging about my studies or trying to have me sign up for extra tutor lessons.

“Look, it’s the birthday boy.”

I was plucking out the dead leaves when I heard footsteps behind me, “You're not allowed to be in this area.” I said standing up and brushing the dirt off my pants.

“You really call that a party?”

“It’s a waste of our weekend, more like.” Another kid said.

I turned around and sighed seeing three boys who aren’t the friendliest of the class. “I didn’t invite you guys.”

“Your dad was the one that sent out the invitation.” One of them said walking past me to look around before turning back to me. “My mom forced me to come just so she can talk to Jennifer’s Dad.”

“Because her company is falling apart and she needs a new contract before she loses money?” I asked, glancing around as well and could only see the new gardener Dad hired yesterday.

“I don’t think that’s any of your business.” He replied back, pushing me hard that I fell back.

When I was falling down I tried to catch myself but my arm landed on the bushes. “Ow,” I saw my arm scratched from the thorns.

“Dude, watch it or we’ll get in trouble.”

“Does it matter? We’re leaving this shitty party anyway.” He retorts. “You know his dad is only using him to try and make himself known again after that lawsuit they went through.”

“My dad didn’t do anything. He proved that he was innocent.” I said getting myself up and shoved him back.

“David, let’s go.” The other boy said catching him from falling. “There’s a worker nearby.”

David pulled himself out of their hold and reached out to grab my shirt. “I still need to give the birthday boy his gift.”

I’m not too sure how many times he hit me, but David began to hit me with his fist and I wasn’t sure what to do since I’ve never been in a fight before. I was beginning to lose my breath when he finally dropped me to the ground seeing them starting to run off and I lay there confused for a second until I saw someone standing over me. I’ve never seen this person before and he reached out to check on me before turning away. I turned facing the ground, covering myself, as I tried to catch my breath and I could only see blood dripping from my chin.

“Don’t move,” the person said as he reached out to grab my shoulder. “My dad went to report what happened.”

“Who are you?” I asked, seeing that it was another boy the same age as me but he’s not from my class.

“My dad’s the gardener here. I only came to help bring the tools that he needs.” He answered as he checked his pocket pulling out a small hand towel and pressed it against my nose.

“Here, just hold it and it should stop the bleeding,” he tells me and stands up to look around.

I held the towel and tried to ignore the pain, “Tell your dad to leave it. He shouldn’t get involved.” I said.

“That kid was beating you up and in your own home,” He said like he’s trying to remind me what happened.

I slowly stood up noticing that a large patch of the garden was ruined during the fight and I sighed heavily turning away, “Just let it go. It doesn’t matter. I didn’t care about this stupid party anyway.” I said making my way inside.

I began making my way inside through the side door from the kitchen, a few of the staff were surprised when they saw me, and I made my way to the staircase trying to quietly make my way to my room. I instantly took off my shirt and put on something more comfortable than walked to my bathroom to wash my face. My face sting when I washed off the blood and there’s a large bruise covering my nose to my cheeks that is too obvious to hide. I was about to lay down on my bed when I heard shuffling outside my door and my dad stepped inside not bothering to knock.

“Where have you been?” He asked, fumes already blowing from his ears.

“Hiding,” I said, turning away from him. “I told you that I didn’t want this party.”

“It’s just a small party with your classmates and all I asked of you to put a happy face while I handle everything.” He told me then moved closer to look at me. “What happened to you?”

“I fell,” I answered and reached for a clean jacket. “You can’t just let everyone go. I don’t want to go back down like this.”

My dad looked at the bruise before sighing heavily. “Fine. I’ll just say that you have a stomachache, but you better thank everyone when you go back to school on Monday and send the parents a thank you card too. We need to collect some names-”

“Okay, okay. Just have everyone leave, please.” I said, laying back down on the bed and pulled the covers over my head feeling sore.

My dad didn’t say anything as he watched me then I heard the sound of my door and I looked up to see that he left the room. I closed my eyes, laying back down, and I tried to have myself fall asleep hoping that by the time I woke up again the day would be over. The sound of shuffling can be heard outside my room and it was waking me up. I slowly got up, taking my time to step out of my room and wondering what the noise is about when I saw a tray at the foot of my door.

I was about to reach down to pick it up, turning to see who left it when I noticed the kid who helped me, “Hey, come back,” I called stepping over the tray to follow after him.

He stopped at the staircase and slowly turned to face me. “I just wanted to see if you were okay before I head home.” He tells me.

“Are you leaving already? How long was I asleep for?” I asked, turning to look out the window.

“It’s been over three hours since I saw you in the garden… Are you okay? They really put a number on you before I got there.” He asked as he walked over to me. “By the way, my name is Elliot.”

“I’m Michael.”

“I know. Your dad gave a speech to my dad on who lives here and restrictions.” He said, looking at me before turning away. “And your wounds?”

“I’m fine. A little sore, but I kind of expected that after that first hit.” I said rubbing my cheeks but it hurt so I put my hands down.

“We tried to tell your dad about what happened but it seems like he didn’t care too much and didn’t really want to listen,” Elliot said and sighed, turning to look at me again. “I’m sorry I couldn’t help you sooner.”

“You don’t have to apologize… It's my fault for taunting them when I knew that I couldn’t win.” I tell him and I can feel that awkward atmosphere around us. “Are you coming back tomorrow?”

“Do you want me to?”

“Yeah,” I answered looking over at him and now feeling shy. “Can I meet you in the gardens then?”

Elliot started taking a step or two down, “Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Bye,” I mumbled.

I watched him leave and I couldn’t help leaning a little closer to the rail to watch him until he was out of my site. Clearing my throat, I turned away returning back to my room, and picked up the tray to take it inside my room before closing the door. I ate what must be the leftover meal from the party and once I was done I left the tray outside my door in the hallways. Sighing, once my head touched the pillow, I tried to not move, feeling tired again and I wondered how it went when Elliot's Dad tried to defend the situation for me. My dad might not have cared to listen if this meant he has to approach their parents and also show that it could have been my fault if it meant to have the whole situation slide.

In the morning, I went downstairs to the dining room where breakfast was already served and there was no one waiting for me when I sat down. It wouldn't be the first time I ate alone either breakfast or dinner or both, but I would have thought my dad would want to discuss what happened yesterday and what was done with the guys that hit me. I ate quietly then made my way back upstairs taking a small nap because I still felt tired and I think my body was still trying to recover from the bruised areas. When I finally woke up I checked the time, seeing it was past two in the afternoon and I wasn’t going to think much of it before I quickly jolted out of bed.

I was tripping over trying to put on my shoes while changing my shirt and at a quick pace I started making my way outside. I wanted to see him before he was done with his work, but I don’t know what time that would be or how long he’s been waiting if he is there already. I ran through the kitchen grabbing a pair of soda cans and any sort of snacks around then made my way to the garden. When I arrived there I saw the spot of my mother’s garden empty, but the bed of roses that were destroyed was gone and I got the things aside as I took a closer look. I’ve never seen this spot so bare before and I ran my hands over the dry dirt as I recall the times Mom planned her roses or lilies.

“We had to get rid of the damaged flowers and it’ll be replaced in a few days.”

I turned around and saw Elliot standing behind me. “It’s just weird seeing it so empty,” I mumbled.

“Yeah, Dad felt bad after seeing what happened and thought it wasn’t fair that they did all that on your birthday.” He said, moving to sit beside me.

I sighed, “I don’t really care about them beating me up or that it was my birthday, but this was my mom’s garden and it's been well kept since she moved away.”

“Oh… I’m sorry, but it still wasn’t right of them to hurt you even if you don’t care,” he tells me and looks at the things beside me. “Are you hungry?”

“No, it’s for you and your dad if you want them. I usually give the workers some meals when Dad isn’t looking. A few workers think it’s better to skip their lunch break when my dad comes home from work or do extra cleaning in case things don’t look perfect.” I said then shrug my shoulders. “Dad can be very specific about how he wants things. He cares too much about appearance.”

“It seems like he’s strict with other things.” He mumbled, opening a soda can. “Thank you for this by the way. It’s really nice of you.”

I glanced over at him, “Your dad is also fixing the garden so I need to thank him and for helping me too.”

“I’ll tell him if he doesn’t pass by.” He said and looked over at me. “You're really different than those kids from yesterday. Your classmates. Do you not fit in with them?”

“No… I honestly have bad communication skills that sometimes I’m just comfortable with myself and I guess that puts me in a bad situation like yesterday.” I said, looking at the ground and picking at the dirt. “That’s why it doesn’t matter to me how much they hit me because it’s meaningless to me and I know that I did nothing wrong for them to react that way.”

Elliot smiled, shaking his head. “Then you were really brave to just let them hit you like that even when it's wrong. You do know that your face is still a bit swollen, right?”

“Yeah… It hurts when I touch it.” I said, glancing over at him before turning away. “I’m just a little embarrassed that you caught that because the people that already know our situation tend to just ignore me or those kids like to try and see how far they can go.”

“Situation? What does that mean?” He asked, confused.

“Our family name is well known by my dad’s father so when people found out that my mom walked out on us, it gave us a bad reputation,” I explained. “Dad has been trying to find a way to boost up the value of our name again since people think we’re not worth getting involved anymore and he wanted this party to just meet their parents hoping to get some contact information.”

“So, he was just using your birthday as an excuse to make a business meeting?” Elliot asked.

I looked down at the ground and picked at the dirt again, “Yeah.”

“I’m sorry that it was a shitty birthday….” Elliot said looking down at me and sighed heavily. “Well, maybe next time we can try and do something or we can go out somewhere to make it up.”

I turned to him, surprised. “Go somewhere? You want to hang out with me?”

He smiled, “I can’t? Is there a higher class rule that says you can’t be friends with the gardener's son?”

I shook my head, “No. It’s just…. I haven’t really…” I felt shy telling him that I haven’t hung out with a friend for a while.

Elliot waited for me to finish and seemed like he took the hint when I didn’t finish my sentence. “How about next weekend? We can go to the mall or someplace else.”

I pressed my lips together, not wanting to show my excitement. “Yeah… let’s try Saturday?” I asked.

“Saturday is fine. I’ll come with my dad again and we can go from here.” He told me and took a sip from the soda that he had in his hand.

I glanced at him before turning away, “Elliot.”

“Yeah?”

“You're not trying to be friends with me out of pity right?” I asked him.

“What? No. No, I wouldn’t do anything like that.” Looking bewildered by my question. “Come on, do I look like the type of person to be pitting on people?”

I shook my head and felt a little embarrassed after hearing his response. “No, sorry. I guess I just haven’t really hung out with people… I mean, like going out as friends.” I stumbled on my response.

“It’s fine.” He said, reaching a hand out to place on my shoulder, and smiled. “Come on, let’s share some of these snacks then go hand the rest to my dad.”

We spent the rest of our time snacking while continuing our conversation and getting to know each other more. Elliot told me about his family, which school he goes to, and talked about his older brother. It was nice listening about his family; it sounded so perfect compared to my own and also normal.