Happy

I tapped my pen against the side of desk as I stared at the clock, watching as the minute hand moved agonizingly slowly. Not that I had anything to look forward to. I moved my gaze to my text book and let my eyes wander blankly over the geographical text, not taking anything in at all. I looked back to the clock to find that not even half a minute had gone since I had last looked and I quietly groaned as I slumped back in my chair a little and resumed my tapping.

I carried on staring at the clock and waited for the last couple of minutes to go past so I could go back to my dorm and get into my pyjamas and watch a film, on my own, and eat my weight in ice cream. Seemed like a pretty good plan B for my birthday.

Plan A had been to go out with my girls but they’d all flaked out on me. Sarah was complaining that she was too tired. Taylor and Niki had forgotten that it was my birthday and had made plans with their boyfriends. So I was left on my own.

I sighed in relief as our class was dismissed and quickly packed up my stuff and made my way out of the room so I could hurry to my dorm.

“Rhian!”

I slowed down and looked over my shoulder to see Sarah running towards me with a small smile. I chewed my lip and mustered up the happiest smile I could but I didn’t fool Sarah. I knew this because she started to pout at me.

“Ducky, don’t be sad,” Sarah insisted and slung her arm around my shoulders as I rose my eyebrows at her. “You’ll have a good birthday, I promise.”

“Mm, yes I’m sure it’s going to be rather excellent,” I replied with a sarcastic grin. “What could be a better way to celebrate turning 19 than to stay in, by myself, and watch a film before having an early night?”

Sarah pouted again and dropped her arm from around me. “Rhian, I’m sorry that I can’t come out tonight but I’m so tired. And I’ve got so much work to do and it’s just all piling up on top of me.”

“I know,” I sighed as Sarah and I crossed the campus and over to the dorm buildings.

“It’ll be a good night,” Sarah decided with a nod as we walked inside. “I promise.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I waved off dismissively.

Sarah smiled brightly at me before hugging me and skipping off towards her dorm.

“Happy birthday ducky!”

I rolled my eyes as she disappeared into her room and turned so I could go to the stairs and make my way up to my floor. I adjusted my bag over my shoulder and chewed my lip slightly as I thought about what movie I wanted to watch. I was a little bit torn about what to watch, not knowing if I wanted to watch an actual movie or put in my NCSI DVD’s and have a bit of a marathon. I was quite tempted by the NCSI. I mean, if I was going to be myself for the evening then I might as well have something nice to look at. And let me tell you...Michael Weatherly is just...there are no actual words.

With a little bit of a smile, at the prospect of a good few hours of NCSI, I made it to my floor only for my smile to fall a little as confusion flashed through my face. This was simply because I didn’t know why Taylor and Niki were leaving my room and giggling.

“What have you two done to my room?” I asked loudly as I began to make my way over to them.

Taylor jumped and turned to look at me with a sheepish smile as Niki grinned at me.

“Hey sug,” Niki greeted me and bounced forward to hug me. “Happy birthday!”

“Mhm,” I replied blandly as I hugged her back before eyeing two of my best friends. “Seriously guys, what were you doing in my room? I just want to have a quiet night since the rest of you abandoned me.”

Taylor rolled her eyes and grabbed me in a hug, squeezing me gently before letting me go and holding my shoulders, looking at me square in the eyes.

“We have done nothing,” she promised me with a smile. “Just...enjoy your birthday dude, okay? It’s going to be a good one.”

“Why do people keep saying that?” I groaned. “Have you all forgotten what I’m doing for my birthday?”

Niki and Taylor blinked at me and I scoffed a little to myself.

“Nothing,” I shot out, letting my hands fly up in the air and narrowly missing Taylor’s face. “I am doing nothing.”

Niki chuckled and went to say something when we heard two familiar guys shouting their names. I looked over my shoulder as Brian and Matt walked over with big grins.

“Happy birthday!” They shouted and tackled me in a hug, making me groan as they squeezed the very life out of me.

“Guys!” I squeaked. “I hate it when you do this!”

They both chuckled and let me go, their arms soon winding around their girlfriends as they all smiled over at me. Brian pressed his lips to the side of Niki’s head and muttered something that made her smirk a little. I rolled my eyes before turning to my dorm door and shoving my keys in the lock, wanting away from the happiness in the hallway and wanting to put Michael Weatherly on my TV.

“Have a good night Rhian,” Matt smiled.

“Yeah, yeah,” I dismissed before looking over at Taylor as she spoke.

“It’ll be a happy birthday, promise.”

I frowned a little before slipping into my dorm as they all began to move down the hallway. I sighed and let my bag fall into the crook of my arm as I dragged it along the floor and through to the common room and over to my bedroom. I looked around, wondering why it was so quiet and where my roommate was. Not that I was too bothered about her. As lovely as she was, she was a bit dippy and got on my nerves sometimes and I wasn’t really in the mood to deal with her.

My eyes caught something on our fridge and I wandered over to it, pulling the vibrant post it off the fridge and chuckling a little at what was written.

I was threatened by Niki and Taylor, so I’m staying with Graham tonight. Have a good birthday! I promise, it’s gonna be a happy one.

I did wonder what it was that everyone thought was going to make my night a happy night. Maybe they just know me too well and knew that I would end up watching NCIS all night. Sounds like a pretty happy night to me, even considering the crappy reason I was having a NCSI marathon. I shrugged it off and walked through to my bedroom to get changed into my pyjamas but when I opened my bedroom door I had a small heart attack.

I screamed and jumped back a little as I realised there was a shadowy figure in my bedroom. My survival instinct kicked in and I threw my bag at whoever it was, resulting in a girlish shriek to fall from them...a very familiar girlish shriek.

“Jimmy?” I voiced, my hand reaching out to find the light switch.

My room was soon bathed in light and I couldn’t help but chuckle a little at the way Jimmy was pouting at me.

“What are you doing here?”

“Being attacked,” Jimmy mentioned but with a smile so I knew he wasn’t too upset about me hurling things at him.

“Sorry,” I apologised, a little sheepishly. “You just startled me. I didn’t know you were here. And in my defence, you were also lurking in the shadows.”

Jimmy grinned and walked over to me, his hands falling against my waist and his lips soon falling on to mine. I groaned a little at the feeling and wound my arms around his neck, relishing in his touch as we hadn’t seen one another in a while.

“I thought you were with your family for the holidays,” I whispered as I pulled away and looked up at my boyfriend, my fingers twirling his hair gently as he smiled warmly down at me.

“I was, but I wasn’t going to miss your birthday so I drove back,” he explained.

I bit down on my lip to stop myself from grinning too much and reached up to kiss him quickly.

“Did everyone else know you were coming back?” I asked as I pulled away from him completely and went in search of my pyjamas, not caring about getting changed in front of Jimmy. He’d seen it all anyway.

“Yeah they did why?”

I shrugged and pulled my T-shirt over my head, reaching for my vest a second later and pulling that on.

“No real reason,” I replied as I adjusted the bottom of my vest and then began to undo my jeans as I turned to look at Jimmy. “They were just all saying sorry for leaving me on my own but then they all kept promising me that I’d have a ‘good night’ and how it was going to be a ‘happy birthday’.”

Jimmy rolled his eyes before letting his gaze drop down my legs as I stripped out of my jeans.

“I swear I can’t tell those guys anything.”

I chuckled and pulled my pyjama bottoms on before leaning over my bed and to the shelves above it and plucking up my NCSI box-set. Just because my boyfriend was here doesn’t mean that I couldn’t have a bit of Michael Weatherly time as well.

“What are you going to make me watch?” Jimmy asked warily as I hid the box behind my back and grinned at him as I grabbed his hand and pulled him to the common room. “You’ve got that smile on your face that means I’m going to have sit through you perving on some other dude.”

I chuckled and shook my head, turning my body as Jimmy tried to peer behind me to see what I was hiding.

“No peeking,” I told him before pushing him down on to the couch and going over to the TV to slip one of the disks in, deciding that I’d make Jimmy watch my favourite episode and then we could do something else.

“NCSI?” He voiced making me nod excitedly.

“You know it,” I retorted with a childish grin as I bounded over to Jimmy and climbed onto the couch beside him, grabbing up the blanket beside us to throw over my legs which I had stretched across Jimmy’s lap. “But I promise, just the one episode and then we’ll watch something we will both enjoy.”

Jimmy chuckled and pulled me to him, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and dropping his lips to the side of my head.

“It’s your birthday baby, so we can watch what you want to.”

I gazed up at him and smiled, pressing my lips to the underside of his jaw before reaching over for the remote and starting up the programme.

“Oh!” Jimmy suddenly exclaimed and jumped up off the sofa, making me topple to the side a little as he ran into my bedroom.

I cocked an eyebrow and pushed myself upright, pausing the TV as I waited to see what Jimmy was doing.

“I got you a present,” he grinned as he came back out of my room, brandishing an envelope.

“Babe,” I sighed. “I thought we agreed, no presents this year.”

Jimmy shrugged and sat beside me. “I couldn’t resist. Besides technically I never agreed.”

I opened my mouth to say something but Jimmy simply playfully slapped the envelope over my mouth. I rolled my eyes and took the envelope from him, giggling a little at the eager smile on his face as I slowly opened the envelope and peeked inside. My eyes widened a little bit and my jaw went slack as I pulled out of the contents, fanning out the four tickets in my hand.

“Oh my...babe,” I breathed as I stared at the tickets that were for the upcoming Three Days Grace tour.

“There’s one for me and you and one for Sarah and Jason, because I thought Sarah might kill me if I got tickets for me and you,” Jimmy chuckled. “But didn’t get tickets for her. Jason’s paying for Sarah as her birthday present.”

I grinned and silently placed the tickets back into the envelope and placed it on the coffee table before standing up.

“Baby?” Jimmy questioned warily.

I bit my lip and grabbed Jimmy’s hand, pulling him to his feet and leading him to my bedroom. I closed the door behind us, my gaze flicking over to the TV where I had paused it on Michael Weatherly. I shook my head, not minding at all that I wasn’t going to be watching NCSI.

My friends were all right, I thought as I walked over to my boyfriend and kissed him, pushing him back down on my bed and melting as his hands ran across my body. My birthday was going to be a good one.