Chapter 201: Birthday Boy
The next two weeks passed in a general blur with Ari doing his best to become the most diligent student ever.
He only went from school to the restaurant to the church, and occasionally to Jamie’s studio, making sure that he was never alone or doing anything wrong.
And when Jamie had to go back to the Pop Star Academy dorm, he limited his movement and refused to go anywhere that wasn’t the school or the restaurant, especially because he always spotted a police car lurking about.
Since he had received a notification from the production team that he would be allowed to return to the show the day after he turned 18, Ari was simply waiting for his birthday to arrive.
And as that day finally came, Ari got ready as if it were a normal day, eating breakfast with Grace and preparing to leave, since he had already informed everyone that he needed the morning and afternoon off.
No one knew that it was his birthday, and he had no plans to make a big deal out of it.
"Make sure to be back by 6 pm because I have to go hang out with my friends! 6 pm and not a moment later got it?!" Grace yelled, her face scrunched up.
"Yeah, yeah, I’ll be back at 6. Stop nagging or you’ll get more wrinkles than your granddad," Ari replied before quickly walking out the door before Grace started shouting like she usually did when Ari teased her.
Getting into the taxi he had already called for himself, he sat quietly in the back as it first took him to a flower shop to pick up his order, then a pastry shop that sold French pastries, before taking him to the cemetery where his parents were buried.
Thankfully, it was a nice day, and as he walked to the correct spot, he was a bit happy to see that it was quite empty, which meant he had it all to himself.
"Bonjour maman, salut papa. Ça faisait longtemps (It’s been a long time). J’ai un an de plus maintenant (I’m a year older now)..."
With slow movements, Ari slowly cleaned the grave stones, plucking the weeds that were around them and laying the new flowers neatly on each grave stone before sitting in between the two of them.