"Vee, this birthday is different. You're turning twenty this year. Isn't that something of a milestone?" Anthony asked with a smile tugging at his lips.
"Please," Vega replied dismissively, her tone calm, her expression unbothered. "There are thousands, if not millions, of people turning twenty every single day. Nothing special about it. Age is just a number, you know."
Ordinarily, a girl her age would be brimming with excitement, already making preparations, planning parties, picking out dresses, gathering gifts, deciding on who to invite, perhaps even arranging a girl's night out on the eve of her birthday.
Later, as time passed and decades turned into centuries, that excitement would slowly wane as they grew older, perhaps more refined, until the ritual of celebrating birthdays became little more than a worldly, mortal-like tradition.
But Vega was unlike others. She did not care for any of it.
