Cash In Now Honey

“I think I’m gonna go up to Mammoth tonight. You wanna come?” Mason asked me as we sat and watched TV. I looked at him and frowned.

“I kinda wanted to be home for my birthday,” I told him

“Birthday?” Mason asked. Yeah, I hadn’t actually told anyone the date of my birthday. Scotty knew but I didn’t want the guys to make a big deal about it.

“Yeah. Tomorrow is my 20th birthday. I didn’t mention it because I didn’t want you guys to make a big deal about it. I kind of just wanted to spend a day with you,” I said to him.

“We could have thrown you, no, we are going to throw you a super kickin’ party tomorrow night. I’m gonna take you out tomorrow morning, we’ll spend the whole day together and then you’re going to get so drunk, you won’t remember shit,” Mason said with a chuckle.

“I’ve already done that with you guys once,” I told him. “Mason, I really don’t want you to make a big deal out of this.”

“Too bad, it’s being made into a big deal babe,” Mason said, wrapping me in a hug, kissing my head. I tipped up on my toes and kissed him. The rest of the day I spent at work. I went surfing with my boss to de-stress and felt a lot better. When we got back to the office, Jeff turned to me.

“Carson, you’ve got tomorrow off. Have a good birthday,” he said before disappearing into his office. I packed up and headed home. I made baked chicken and wild rice and put it in a casserole pan and went over to Kevin’s. I rang the doorbell and opened the front door, walking in.

“Kevin?” I yelled.

“We’re in the kitchen,” he replied. I walked in and saw Danny.

“Hey Dan,” I said, giving him an one armed hug.

“Hey Carson,” he replied. He was scruffier than the last time I’d seen him, which I didn’t think was possible.

“Hey Kev,” I said as I sat the pan on the counter.

“Hi,” he replied, giving me a hug before he grabbed plates and silverware.

“What, is this like a tradition or something?” Danny asked as I began dishing food onto three plates.

“More like a routine. I make Kevin dinner like every night. We just rotate which house we eat at,” I told him as I sat a plate in front of him.

“I’m coming to visit more often then,” Danny said. I laughed and handed Kevin his plate.

“I’m happy I decided to make the rest of what I had. I almost just made two pieces of chicken,” I said.

“I’m happy you did too,” Danny replied. “So, how’s Mase?”

“Good,” I told him. “Be prepared for a rager tomorrow night.”

“Why?” Kevin asked.

“It’s my birthday and Mason decided we’re partying it up,” I told them.

“It’s your birthday?” Danny asked with a mouthful of food. I laughed and nodded. I hung out with Kevin and Danny the rest of the night. I slept in the next day until I felt weight shift on my bed and opened my eyes. I looked over to see Mason laying down beside me.

“Happy birthday,” he said to me with a smile before kissing me.

“Thanks,” I replied.

“Get ready. Wear something pretty, we’re going out for lunch,” he told me. I looked over at my alarm clock and saw it was almost eleven. I went and took a shower and then decided on what I wanted to wear. I got dressed in a white ruffled tank top with a bow around the waist, a denim mini, and a pair of green and brown wedges. I put on some accessories and was ready to go. Mason took me to a beach front restaurant for lunch and then we just walked and drove around the rest of the day. He told me he wanted to get me something to wear for my party but I said no.

“It’s your birthday present,” he told me.

“This whole day has been way more than enough,” I told him.

“Too bad,” he replied before kissing me. Damn, he knew how to get me. I ended up letting Mason get me this amazing cream crochet sundress and a pair of sandals that matched. As shallow as it sounds, I made sure the outfit matched my hair and makeup the way I had because I had a feeling I wasn’t going to be let back into my house until later tonight. At six o’clock, Mason took me to dinner. I smiled when I saw the guys sitting at a table towards the back of the restaurant.

“Happy birthday,” they all said in unison when Mason and I walked up to the table. I smiled at them and was introduced to Danny’s girlfriend, Hayley.

“It’s nice to meet you. Danny has told me quite a bit about you,” I told her as I sat across from her at the table.

“Yeah, same here. He says you’re like Scotty in female form but you’re not a dick,” she said. I laughed but Scotty looked appalled.

“What?” he exclaimed. I laughed again and we all ordered drinks. I looked over at Scotty, who was sitting beside me. Kevin was at one of the table with Jack at the other. Hayley was sitting between Luke and Danny on the other side of the table. The waitress came back with our drinks and took our food orders. I talked to Hayley a bunch. She was really chill and someone I could see myself getting along really well with. Our food came and we ate. Once plates were cleared, the guys pulled out presents.

“No you guys,” I said to them. “Honestly.”

“We want to,” Kevin said.

“Really, it isn’t needed. I should be the one getting you guys stuff. Over the past few months, with the exception of Scotty, you all have welcomed me into your close knit group and made me feel nothing but welcome. I could have never expected this to happen and you’ve all honestly made my life so much better and made me such a more selfless person just from being around you,” I told them.

“Yeah, Keir’s gonna like you,” Danny said. The guys knew Keir knew who I was but we didn’t know each other well, he just knew my uncle. Scotty especially was looking forward to me actually getting to know him.

“Why was I an exception?” Scotty asked me.

“You’ve known me forever. You accepted all of my weirdness a long time ago,” I told him. He smiled and gave me a hug.

“Okay, me first,” Kevin announced, passing the box to Scotty who handed it to me. I opened the box and was shocked.

“Oh my gosh,” I said as I pulled the Nikon D3100 from the box. “This is too much.”

“No, it’s from Jack, Danny, Luke and myself,” he told me.

“Thank you guys so much,” I said to them. Scotty was next. He handed me a slim but large square box. I opened it and laughed. There was a picture of him and I on the front from my junior homecoming. I opened it and saw it was a bunch of pictures of the two of us, ones from when I still lived in Vermont and from different events. There were little hand written notes inside as well, saying things about the events from Scotty’s point of view. As I flipped through it further, there were pictures of me and the Frends crew. One was from the first time I’d gone shredding with the entire crew, the next being that same day when I got buried and Scotty and Mason had had to dig me out. There were just a bunch of them from the past few months. I loved the one of Luke, Kevin and I at Mason’s house when Luke had given me a whole bunch of Volcom stuff. That night became a little less blurry as I looked over the pictures. The one in the back was a picture of all of the guys, Keir included. Around there were notes from all of the guys, wishing me a happy birthday. They must have done this early this afternoon. Even Keir had put in a note, wishing me a happy birthday. I hugged Scotty and then got up and gave each of the guys a hug. I kissed Mason on the cheek and took a drink of my soda.

“One last thing,” Hayley announced. Danny smiled at her as she waved at a waiter, who disappeared into the kitchen. He reappeared with a beautiful two tiered white cake with black lace detail on it. It had a single candle on top and I couldn’t have wiped the grin off my face for anything. The guys sang me happy birthday, which both Hayley and I found very comical and I blew out the candle. The cake was cut and it was red velvet, my favorite. I took a bite and was in heaven.

“This is amazing,” I said. I turned to Mason and he was smiling at me.

“Happy birthday babe,” he said to me as he leaned over and kissed me. I grinned and kissed him back.

“Thank you for today. It was way more than I could have ever asked for,” I told him. I
looked across the table and I saw Luke quickly look down at his cake and was a bit perplexed about that little fact. It was just kind of odd. After all of us ate our cake, the guys said it was time to go. The waiter put my cake in a fancy cake box and I took the remainder of it with me. There was a little parade of cars going back to my house and when Mason pulled into my driveway, I was shocked by the amount of cars that were in front of my house and Kevin’s.

“I guess Scotty had been planning this party,” Mason told me. We got out of his car and walked into my house. I put the cake on my counter and put my bags in my room. “Your house is closed off to everyone, except the pool.” Mason took my hand and led me out the front door. There were lights strung between my house and Kevin’s and a fire pit burning in Kevin’s backyard. The lights in his house were glowing bright and everyone was milling around in his house and the yard between his house and mine. Molly came rushing over and gave me a huge hug, wishing me a happy birthday. A similar greeting came from Maddy a few seconds later. Mason led me over to Kevin’s house and went inside and got me a drink. I was looking around when an arm wrapped around my shoulders. I looked up and smiled when I saw Jake Blauvelt. I wrapped him in a hug and he told me happy birthday.

“You have good timing. It’s the end of the season, good way to wind down,” he said. I laughed and nodded. Mason appeared with a cup and handed it to me, telling Jake hi. I told Mason I was gonna go say hi to some people and he nodded, taking a seat next to Danny at Kevin’s patio table. I said hi to Louie Vito, who Scotty had introduced me to long ago. I said hi to Eric Jackson and Matt Ladley, two people I’d met at competitions. Eric, or E-Jacks, was a good friend of the guys. I was picked up and spun in the air in the middle of talking to them and was surprised.

“Happy birthday,” a very Norwegian voice said.

“Bang, my favorite Norwegian friend,” I said as I spun and gave Mikkel Bang a hug. He was an unofficial Frends crew member and one of Luke’s best friends. “Happy you could make it.”

“I got you a present but I’ll have to give it to you somewhere a little more private,” he said. I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not. I decided to make a joke out of it.

“Mikkel, an STD is not a good birthday present,” I said. Eric spit his drink all over and began laughing. Matt was slowly able to swallow his drink through his laughs. The night was really chill, which I appreciated. Well, so I thought. At around midnight, Mason came over to me and put his arm around my waist. I’d noticed he’d been knocking them back pretty good, and strong too.

“Hey babe,” he slurred with a grin.

“Mase,” I said to him, placing my hands against his chest. He led me over to the lawn between my house and Kevin’s and kissed me.

“I have something I need to tell you,” he said to me. Oh no, this could not be good.

“Mason, can’t it wait till the morning?” I asked him.

“No because I don’t want to keep hurting you,” he said. “Carson, I still like my ex-girlfriend.” Oh fuck.

“Okay?” I replied, not sure where he was taking this.

“I love you a lot but she’s kind of like my Scotty. She’s always been my friend but unlike you, I haven’t stop having feelings for her,” he said. He was quite loud while drunk and I saw Scotty and and Danny coming towards us. “Plus, Luke’s in love with you.”

“Alright brother. I think you’re done for the night,” Scotty said as he wrapped an arm around Mason.

“No, I need to finish telling Carson about how much Squid loves her,” he slurred. Oh my gosh, how drunk was he?

“Mase, come on man. Let’s get you inside,” Danny said.

“I’m sorry Car. I love you but I needed to tell you. Maybe you should be with Luke. He’d be a lot better boyfriend than me anyways. He’d be able to give you everything want and need,” Mason said, the last part as he was being pulled away from me and towards Kevin’s house. I needed to breathe so I went over to my backyard and sat on the swing I had hanging from my tree. I took a drink from my cup and sighed. I looked up when I heard the gate to my fence squeak and saw Luke walking towards me with something in his hand.

“Hey,” he said to me as he stood in front of me.

“Hi,” I replied.

“What are you doing over here? The party’s still going strong,” he said.

“I just needed a breather,” I told him. Luke wiped his palm against his cargo shorts and looked up at me.

“I, uh, I got you something else besides your camera,” he said, handing me a small box. I pulled off the lid and smiled when I saw a leather bracelet that had gold beads going around it and a gold heart charm. “I saw it one day when I was walking around in Truckee. I thought you might like it. It seemed like something you’d wear.”

“I love it, Luke,” I said to him as I took it out of the box and tried to put it on but I had my cup so I couldn’t.

“Here, let me help,” he said as he stepped forward and took it from me. He slid it over my hand and tightened it around my wrist. “Is it tight enough?” I nodded.

“Thank you Luke,” I said to him, giving him a hug.

“Of course. Happy birthday Carson,” he said as he hugged me back. He pulled back and stepped behind me, giving me a little push to get me swinging. We stayed in my backyard for a long time, talking about stuff and laughing. Being around Luke just seemed to come naturally to me. It felt like home.