Daniela

I walked over to Dorian and grabbed his hand.

We walked to Monica who was holding Nico in her hands.

Dorian grabbed her hand when Nico climbed up her shoulder.

Then we went to Mark and he grabbed my other hand.

We went to Damien who would not hold hands with anyone.

Then when William showed up and he held hands with Monica and Damien.

“Happy birthday, Dani and Dorian,” Monica said.

“Happy Birthday you two,” William said looking at me and Dorian.

“Dani, Dorian I don’t want to fucking say Happy birthday to you two,” Damien said.

“Happy 13th birthday,” Mark said along with Nico.

“Happy birthday, Dani,” Dorian told me.

“You too!” I said back.

We sat down on the sand together.

I leaned my head on Dorian’s shoulder, and he leaned his head on mine.

I closed my eyes when I heard footsteps.

I opened my eyes to see Alex holding out two boxes, one said: To Dani, and the other said To Dorian.

“Happy 13th birthday guys,” Alex said. “Take the one that has your name on it.”

Dorian

I reached out for the gift excitedly, my smile widening as I tore off the paper wrapping to reveal a big plain white box. I tried to shake it a bit, not anticipating it to be pretty heavy to hold. "What is it? A new console?" I peeked over at Dani, who had her box sitting on her lap. It was identical to mine.

Alex shrugged, sitting down heavily on the sand and spraying bits of it onto my hands. "Open it and you'll find out." I gave the gift another solid shake, turning back to Dani. She whispered to me, "On the count of three. Ready? One, two... three!" We took the lids off at the same time, and I was seriously expecting it to be something stupid for a prank, based on Alex's reaction to my question. But what we got was much worse than I thought.

Dani screamed and flung the box away from her, scrambling to her feet and backing away. I leaned over my box, my eyes widening once it hit me what was in the box.

A real live snake. One that appeared to be upset I had tossed it around like a ragdoll. I could vaguely hear the others, even stone cold Damien, yelling and trying to get away from our boxes. But I felt hypnotised by the snake's eyes as it raised itself up, uncoiling itself. My eyes made contact with it, and it was the last thing I saw before it struck me between the eyes.

Dani held my face all the way to the hospital, crumpled Kleenex attempting to stem the bleeding, screaming “Jesus, Alex! What did you do!” until the paramedics forced us into the ambulance and away from the playground.

Damien had rung his mum, who had rang our mum, who were all on the way to the hospital together. I saw the flash of blue Audi speeding down the road behind us before the paramedics lay me down.

Alex, apparently, was fighting animal control and the cops over the loss of his beautiful King Cobra, facing down an angry cop and the mother that had called them on him.

I tried to envision what he looked like, but my head was spinning.

“Sir, can you tell me what you’ve been bitten by?”

I try to answer, but no sound leaves my mouth, either from my throat constricting or pure delirium.

”A cobra,” Dani answers for me. “His name is Dorian Johnson, he’s 13.”

The paramedics scribbles this all down. “When was he bitten?”

”Just now,” Dani replies, out of breath. “Like 15 minutes ago.”

”Alright, Dani. We’re going to give your brother some epinephrine, okay?”

Dani speaks my thoughts out loud. “Isn’t that allergy medicine?”

"It helps with the venom," the paramedic explained quickly, not looking up from my arm as she inserted the IV. "It'll keep his blood pressure stable until we get antivenom into him."

"Dorian." Dani leaned close to my ear. "Stay with me, okay? Mum's going to absolutely kill Alex when she gets there, and you need to be awake to see it."

I felt my mouth twitch slightly.

The ambulance lurched to a stop and the doors flew open, and suddenly there were more hands than I could count pulling the stretcher out. Dani jumped down after us, refusing to let go of my hand until a nurse physically stepped between us.

"Are you family?"

"I'm his twin sister."

"Okay, sweetheart. You need to wait out here."

"But—"

"We'll come get you the second we can."

The doors swung shut between us and Dani stood there in the corridor, still holding the crumpled, bloody Kleenex.

The first thing I was aware of was the smell. It hit me the minute the doors of the ward opened, blasting cool air and the stench of antiseptic and vomit, sharp enough to cut through the fog in my head. I tried to open my eyes but the light was too bright and my head was pounding like someone had taken a hammer to it right between my eyes. Which, I supposed, wasn't too far from the truth.

I don't know how long I was out after that.

"He's waking up." I forced my eyes open anyway, blinking until the white blur above me sharpened into a ceiling. Then Dani's face hovering over mine, eyes red-rimmed and still somehow managing to look annoyed at me.

"You scared me," she said.

"Sorry," I croaked. My throat felt like sandpaper. "Didn't exactly plan it."

She let out a breath that was half laugh, half something else entirely, and sat back in the chair pulled up beside my bed. I turned my head slowly, taking in the room. White walls. A monitor beeping steadily beside me. An IV taped to the back of my hand.

"Dorian!"

I turned. Mum was sprinting down the corridor in her work clothes, Damien's mum half a step behind her, both of them looking like they'd run red lights the whole way here. Mum grabbed my face in both hands, scanning me like she was checking for damage.

"Hey Mum," I said.

"Don't you 'hey Mum' me," she said, but her voice cracked on the last word and she moved to the side of the bed and grabbed my hand, careful around the IV. "You're okay. You're okay."

She pulled me into a hug so tight I could feel her heartbeat, or maybe that was mine. Over her shoulder I could see Damien standing at the end of the corridor with his hands in his pockets, staring at the floor. He didn't say anything. Neither did I. But he walked over and stood next to me, which, for Damien, was basically the same thing.

"How long was I out?" I asked.

"Three hours," Dani said. "Give or take."

I tried to sit up and immediately regretted it. The room tilted sideways and I felt Mum's hand on my shoulder pressing me gently back down.

"Don't," she said firmly. "The antivenom takes time. You need to stay still."

"Did it work?"

"Obviously," Dani said. "You're talking, aren't you?"

I looked down at my hand where the IV was taped. Then up at the monitor. Then at the small swollen mark between my eyes that I couldn't see but could absolutely feel, throbbing in time with my heartbeat.

"Where's Alex?" I asked.

The room went quiet in a specific way that told me the answer was complicated.

Dani glanced at Mum.

Mum uncrossed her arms. "He's been spoken to by the police. His parents are dealing with it."

"So he's not here."

"No," Mum said, in a tone that closed the subject as neatly as it could be closed.

I stared at the ceiling for a moment, thinking about the snake's eyes right before it struck. The way everything had just gone dark and quiet all at once, like someone turning off a TV. I hadn't been scared, which was the strange part. I hadn't felt much of anything.

I felt it now though.

"Dani."

"Yeah?"

"Next year we're just having cake."

She laughed, loud enough that the nurse passing outside the door glanced in. Mum shook her head but I could see the corner of her mouth pulling upward despite everything.

Happy birthday to us, I thought, and let myself drift back to sleep.