Page 1 of The Dragon's Perfect Omega
1
Zim
My 21st birthdaydid not go the way I’d expected. I’d pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I’d be bored the whole day, but that wasn’t what happened, even though all signs pointed in that direction.
It wasn’t that I didn’t have a party. I had a huge party, with probably fifty guests in attendance. Problem was, they'd all been invited by my parents. Aunts and uncles and cousins and even some of my dad's business partners. Not the most exciting party guests.
Drink in hand, I leaned back against the wall of our dining room, which had been festively decorated for this occasion, flowers and banners everywhere. My mom had hired a company to hang the decorations and clean up after, as she did with all parties we held here. This time, though, she'd wanted the whole house decorated. It was avery special occasion, after all. I'd rolled my eyes a little at that. Did we have to make a big event out of everything?
My mom had once thrown me a party for losing atoothwhen I was a child. Which was almost as embarrassing as the ‘learned to ride his bike without training wheels’ party we’d had shortly after.
At leastthisparty had an open bar.
I sipped at my drink—something orange and a bit too fruity to taste the alcohol—when Kathy, one of my best friends, found me. Not all of my friends had been invited to this more or less formal event, but Kathy, well—Kathy was special.
"There you are!" She said, eyes narrowing as they fell on me. "Hiding from the party again?"
"You know huge crowds aren't for me," I said, trying to wave her off.
"Please." She only gave me a look. "Crowds are totally your thing. You've simply decided that you don't likethiscrowd."
"They're all adults."
"You're an adult," she reminded me. "Even if you don't often act like one."
"I'm not an adult," I argued. "I only look like one."
Kathy huffed in amusement. "Youhardlylook like an adult."
"What, because of this?" I ran my fingers through the streak of blue in my black hair. "That's a racing stripe."
She shook her head. "I can't believe your parents let you get away with that."
I grinned at her. "You wouldn't?"
"No." She pursed her lips. "That kind of juvenile behavior had better stop when we're married," she said in her best imitation of the stuck up high-class ladies we were surrounded by at this party.
I snorted. "You know I'm not going to change just because we marry."
"No, I know. I wouldn't want you to, anyway." She gave me a small kiss on the cheek. I gave her a smile in return. We weren't in love, but very few marriages in our circles were based on romance. At least the two of us had been friends for a very long time and we both knew what we were getting into. Neither of us had any illusions about the nature of our relationship. I could have done a lot worse for a spouse, especially considering that... Well, considering that I could never have what Ireallywanted, anyway.
In truth, my family let me get away with precious little.
"Derick wants to see you outside,” Kathy said, pulling me out of my thoughts.
“Derick is here?” I’d no idea he would come. Persona-non-grata with my parents, my rebellious friend certainly wasn’t on my mom’s guest list.
“He says he has a gift for you.”
"Oh?" My curiosity was piqued. “Guess I’ll go look.”
“He’s hiding by the pool.”
“Hiding, right, I bet he’s swiping margaritas.”
Kathy shrugged. “You know it.”
Indeed, when I made my way out of the dining room and to the pool, I found my friend with a salt-rimmed margarita glass in his hand, checking out one of the waitresses my mom had hired to help with the event. “Derick!” I tried to get his attention.
