LbA: Birthday Homework

The rest of Thanksgiving went by smoothly.  Miriam and Tom had actually left, after having a long, private conversation with my parents.  I was hoping to talk with him before they left, but I didn’t have the chance.  My mom had told me afterwards it was for the best, as tensions were running high.  She said something along the lines of knowing me and my lack of censoring myself, and it wouldn’t be in the best interest of any sort of future relationship with my brother. 

I had also made plans with Natalia and Nicole to come and stay with me after the new year in my apartment.  They were thrilled.  They also drilled me about Chase.  And Aaron.  Natalia liked Chase.  She thought he sounded stable and sweet.  Nicole preferred Aaron.  She said he seemed sexy and exciting.  Natalia refuted by saying cops cheat, and Nicole said that Chase sounds boring.  It went back and forth like that each time I told them different stories about each of the guys.

I ended up Black Friday shopping with Lexi.  The day was a blur, due to being so tired and mentally drained from the prior day.  Even though I didn’t know her well, I confided in her what had happened with Chase.

“You know, I’ve been around Chase quite a bit, since he and Jack have a bromance going on, and I had heard of Amanda, too.  I’ve never heard him talk about Amanda, but Jack had briefly given me a rundown when I asked him why Chase was single, because he seemed so normal and like a quality guy.  Jack didn’t like her.  He thought she was controlling and kinda psycho.  But he talked about you.  And he really lit up when he did.  I really don’t think he would ever do something like that.  I think Chase is really faithful, and not shady.”

“Maybe, but we aren’t official,” I tried arguing her points.

“Trust me when I say that Chase isn’t a serial dater.  Nor is a more than one woman kind of guy.”

I dropped it after that.  Lamely, the only thing I bought while out shopping was yarn.  I know how to knit scarves, but hadn’t in a couple of years, and decided to start up again.

We grabbed brunch and went our separate ways to sleep.

I had texted Chase and told him I wasn’t ready to talk yet, but would let him know when I was.  After Thanksgiving break, I only had 2 weeks of classes and then final exams.  I had been doing really well in my classes and wanted to finish strong. 

It was December 4^th, my birthday, and I was sitting curled up on the couch in the apartment, doing homework.  My parents, friends, and Chase had all tried to get me to do dinner with each of them, but I had declined.  Procrastination had really caught up with me regarding some of the end of semester research papers I needed to do.  I was trying to catch up, since I had 3 due on Monday.  That only left me 4 days to finish them around classes and practices.  Since I had to have them all submitted Monday, I had told my parents I would do birthday dinner with them the following Tuesday.  My friends were all going out Friday night to celebrate.  And I had told Chase that we could talk on Saturday for a little bit.

I was having a moment of thinking overload, and had my head resting on the back of the couch, staring at the ceiling.  I was considering calling it a night when I heard a knock on the door.  I frowned and looked at the clock.  I wasn’t expecting anyone, Nellie was in bed and never had visitors, and neither Sarah, nor Maddie, were there.  It also was 9:45 p.m., so I don’t know who would’ve been there, anyway.

I set my laptop off to the side and moved slowly, stretching out my stiff legs on the way over to the door.  I opened it up and my eyebrows raised in surprise and a huge smile immediately broke on my face. 

“What are you doing here?”  I playfully demanded, but honestly confused.

Aaron was smiling just as widely as me.  “Well, a little birdie told me it was your birthday...” He trailed off as he brandished a single stargazer lily from behind his back, handing it to me.

My absolute favorite flower.

My lips slightly parted.  “How did you...” and it was my turn to trail off.

He winked.  He appraised me in my sweats and hoodie.  “You’re probably going to firstly, put that in water, and secondly, put on something warmer.”

I looked at him confused.  “What?”

“Waahhhh-terrrrrrr.” He slowly enunciated, like I was slow.

I playfully smacked him on the arm.  “Stop, you know what I mean,” I laughed.  “I mean, what are you talking about putting on something warmer.”

At this point he had let himself into my apartment, moving past me, and was opening up the small kitchen’s cabinets, looking for a vase.  Which, if he’d asked, I could have told him we don’t have.  He finally settled on a water bottle, and started filling it with water.

“Just go change, please.”

“I’m working on a paper right now.”

“Aleah,” he started, his eyes looking sincere, “I promise I won’t take up the rest of your night.”

It wasn’t going to take much for him to convince me to go, I already knew, but I still had wanted to put up a fight.  But even if he hadn’t stopped by, I probably was done writing for the night. 

I fake-annoyed sighed.  “Oh fine.  How warm do I need to be?”

“Layers.”  And with that, he mischievously grinned at me, and turned to put the water in the bottle and put it on the counter.

I quickly stripped from my sweats, putting on fleece lined leggings, throwing my sweats back on over them, 2 layers of socks, a tshirt, long sleeved tshirt, sweatshirt, Northface jacket, and Uggs.  I threw on a scarf and mittens for added measure.  Although it was fairly mild for December during the day, the nighttime was still cold.  I had made sure to check out Aaron’s outfit before heading in there, and he had on what appeared to be thick sweat pants, so I wasn’t too concerned with dressing nicely.

Once we walked out of my apartment building, Aaron grabbed my mittened hand and guided me.  I saw his blacked out Charger police car parked right next to mine, but he walked me past both of our cars.  “Where are we going?” I questioned.

He just looked at me and smiled, his eyes twinkling.  “We’ll be there soon.  Promise.”

He led me a few minutes down the sidewalk towards campus.  He cut off the sidewalk, pulling me along behind him through the now dead grass.  He walked around a couple of bushes.  First, I saw a guy I’d never seen standing there and acknowledge Aaron.  The guy then nodded at him, and turned and left.  I started to look at Aaron, to question him what was going on, but then I knew what was going on.

There before us, on the ground, were several blankets, and a picnic basket.  “Oh, Aaron,” I whispered.  I was astonished at what appeared to be a romantic side of this man.

He was standing just beside me, and he wrapped his arms around me pulling me close to him.  He leaned down and quietly said into my ear, “Happy birthday.”

He spread a couple blankets on the ground and had me sit down.  He sat close next to me wrapping the third blanket around us.  He pulled two cupcakes out of the basket and a thermos and two Styrofoam cups.  He poured each of us hot chocolate, and then took out a bottle of whipped cream.  He smiled naughtily at me.

I giggled.  “You thought of everything.”

He sprayed whipped cream on the top of both of our hot chocolates.  Lastly, he took a candle out of the basket and jammed it into the middle of my cupcake and lit it.  “Make a wish.”

I closed my eyes and blew out the candle, but honestly couldn’t think of anything to wish for that would’ve made me happier than I already was in that moment.