It was my eighteenth birthday and here I sat twiddling my thumbs, I should have been having a party, but mum couldn't afford it. I should have been going out, but I couldn't afford it. My not so little sister and mum had vanished into the kitchen nearly an hour before to cook up a birthday surprise, but I felt so frustrated that I was not looking forward to it. Things had gone downhill, money-wise, since dad had walked out six months ago, he'd been in touch just once since he'd left and that had been to pick up some things he had forgotten to take. I suppose that his forgetting my birthday didn't help my mood any either.
Mind you I couldn't blame mum for his departure, in any man's book she was a looker even at forty. Why dad left was known only to him and he wasn't about to talk. My sister, who was a year younger than me, was a younger version of mum, maybe not quite so pretty, but still pleasant to look at. I was a little surprised at the tone of my thoughts towards my mother and sister and could only put it down to the fact that my girlfriend Dawn had not only refused my advances over the past few weeks, but also had finally given me the elbow the night before.
"Happy birthday Mark." My mother's voice said from the living room doorway.