A Birthday Surprise

Walking through the front door of my house I frowned when I was met with complete darkness. It was 7:30 at night and I had just finished working 13 hours straight at the local hospital. I was hoping that I would come home to find Brian waiting for me with a cake or something, I mean is that too much to expect on your birthday?

I sighed and slipped out of my shoes, setting my purse and keys down on the table next to the door. I stood up, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the darkness before I made my way up the stairs and into our bedroom. I walked over to my dresser pulling out a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt and walked into the bathroom. My plan was to take a bubble bath and relax since it seemed like everyone else had forgot about my birthday.

I pulled the hair-tie out of my hair, shaking my head and letting my hair fall before I heard my phone going off from the bedroom. I groaned and walked back into the bedroom, hoping that it wasn’t the hospital calling to ask if I could come back in.

“Hello?”

“Jaime! I need your help!” My best friend Nikki yelled through the phone.

“What? What’s going on?” I asked sitting down on my bed and running my hand through my hair.

“I’m trying to make this dinner because Zack’s parents are coming over for a late birthday dinner since they were on tour and...damnit!” She yelled.

“It’s not going so well?” I asked shaking my head.

“Can you come help me please?”

“Okay.” I hung up and shook my head.

Not only did my own husband forget my birthday, but apparently my best friend did too. I sighed and pushed myself up off the bed, I grabbed a pair of jeans and walked into the bathroom. Taking off my scrubs and slipping the jeans and t-shirt on I threw my hair back up into a bun and walked down the stairs sliding on my flip-flops before grabbing my purse and keys and walking out the door.

When I pulled up to Nikki and Zack’s house I saw her car in the driveway but not Zack’s. I shut my car off and walked up to her front door. None of us ever knocked anymore when it came to coming over to someone’s house, everyone just let themselves in. I pushed open the door and saw a light coming from the kitchen.

“Nikki?”

“I’m in here!” I heard her yell from the kitchen.

I set my purse down and walked into the kitchen laughing at what I saw.

“What the hell happened to you?” I asked looking at her.

She was covered from head to toe in flour along with the rest of her kitchen.

“Shut up. Zack decided that it would be fun to dump the flour everywhere.” She mumbled turning around and washing her hands.

“Where is Zack? Or any of the guys for that matter?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Zack said he would be home at seven but he called and said something came up.”

“Oh.” I mumbled looking around.

Did she really forget my birthday? Was that even possible? I mean, I’ve known her since I was in diapers so how do you forget someone’s birthday when you’ve known them your whole life.

“Hey, can you do me a favor?” She turned looking at me. “I don’t think I ever let the dogs in, can you go do that?”

I nodded and walked towards the back of their house. The backyard was pitch black which was unusual since Zacky normally had lights around the pool on along with some that lined their back yard. I opened the door and stepped outside, getting ready to call out for the dogs when a hand reached over and grabbed my arm.

“WHAT THE-“

“SURPRISE!”

I screamed as the lights in the backyard were flicked on. There in front of me stood everyone I knew, all the Avenged boys stood there with their wives, their parents, Brian’s parents and mine. I looked down at the hand that was holding onto my arm and saw “BORO” tattooed on the knuckles. Looking up I saw Brian standing there with a huge smile on his face.

“You asshole!” I yelled slapping his arm. “You almost gave me a heart attack! You could have killed me!”

He laughed and shook his head, leaning down to kiss me. “I’m sorry babe. But how else was I supposed to surprise you?”

“What do you mean?” I asked looking at him confused.

“You really think we forgot your birthday?” Nikki asked sliding through the door from behind me.

“You...you planned this?” I asked looking at Brian and then Nikki.

“Well he wasn’t going to plan it all himself.” She said laughing at the look on Brian’s face before walking over to Zacky and kissing him.

“You really didn’t forget my birthday?” I whispered turning to look at Brian.

“Of course not, why would I do that?” He asked wrapping his arms around me.

“I just...I thought because you weren’t there when I got home and then Nikki called me about Zack’s birthday dinner with his parents since you guys were gone and I just...wow.” I said looking around.

The whole backyard was decorated. The lights Zacky had put up for Christmas were all turned on, lighting up the backyard. I turned back to Brian and smiled hugging him tightly.

“Thank you so much for it.”

“Anything for you babe.” He kissed my head and turned me around.

“Happy Birthday.”

I smiled big, kissing his cheek before wandering off to thank everyone who came.

“You bitch!” I yelled slapping Nikki’s arm. “I can’t believe you lied to me!”

“Well it’s not like I could say, hey Jaime...yeah can you come over here, your surprise birthday party is getting ready to start.” She said rolling her eyes and laughing at me.

“Then what was with all the flour?” I asked looking at her confused.

“Jimmy and Zack started this big huge flour fight while I was making cookies earlier.” She said shrugging.

“Jaime come on! I want cake!” Jimmy yelled from across the back yard pointing to the birthday cake that was on the table.

“James Owen Sullivan!” Leana yelled. “Don’t you dare touch that cake.”

“Alright, alright. Everyone!” Brian yelled lighting all the candles on the cake and pulling me towards him. “Let’s see happy birthday before Jimmy messes up the cake.” Brian held up his hand, waiting until everyone had their eyes on him. “Okay, one...two...three...”

Happy Brithday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Jaime, happy birthday to you.

I smiled listening to everyone sing happy birthday before I leaned down to blow out all my candles, making a wish in the process.

“Can I have some cake now?” Jimmy asked looking at Brian and Leana.

“Yes Jimmy.” I said laughing as his face light up.

Val cut the cake while Lacey and Leana handed out pieces to everyone, making sure to give Jimmy the first piece.

“So, what do you think?” I heard behind me before the arms I loved to be in wrapped around my waist.

“I think you did pretty damn good.” I said turning around in his arms and smiling at him.

“Does that mean I might be lucky tonight?” He asked wiggling his eyebrows at me.

“You’re impossible.” I laughed shaking my head at him.

The rest of the night I spent celebrating my birthday with everyone who I care about. I couldn’t imagine having a better birthday and I felt so happy to have the friends and family I did. When it came time to open my gifts I was blown away.

Nikki and Zack had bought me the camera I had been wanting forever but I could never talk myself into spending that much on one item. Matt and Val had bought Brian and I plane tickets to New York to see the New York Giants play in the playoffs. Jimmy and Leana gave me a bunch of things that could be used in the bedroom, all of which I’m sure Brian was very happy with. Johnny and Lacey gave me a new MacBook after Johnny had ruined mine during the tour in the summer when he accidently peed on it. I still honestly didn’t know how that happened. But what blew me away the most was Brian’s gift.

“What is this for?” I asked holding up a gold key.

“That.” He said pointing to the key. “Is the key to your own studio.”

“My...what?” I asked looking at him shocked.

He nodded his head and smiled. “I bought you a studio, right on PCH. It’s not that big, but it’s big enough that you can display a lot of your photography and paintings.”

“Oh my god Brian...” I whispered, my eyes filled up with tears as I thought about how much this really meant to me.

Although working at the hospital was a job I enjoyed, my dream job was to become a professional photographer and have a studio where I could display my work and hopefully attract clients.

“Oh on more thing.” Brian said turning to look at Matt.

“Oh, right.” Matt said stepping forward. “Jaime, we wanted to know if you would be our photographer for our next tour and we wanted to know if you would work with Zacky on designing our next album cover.”

I covered my mouth with my hands and stared at everyone. I couldn’t believe how lucky I was, I had an amazing husband, amazing friends, amazing family and know they were all offering me my dream job.

“Are you guys serious?” I asked looking around.

“Of course we are.” Johnny said.

“I’m sure you can come up with something a lot better for the album cover than I can.” Zacky said nodding his head.

I couldn’t help it anymore, I started to cry. “Yes. YES! Of course I will. Oh my god, thank you. Thank you! Thank you!” I yelled going around and hugging everyone.

Later that night, Brian and I walked back into our house and headed up towards the bedroom.

“I have one more surprise for you.” He said kissing my head before walking down the hallway towards the room where he kept all his guitars.

“What’s that?” I asked looking at him.

“Sit down on the bed.”

I sat down on the edge of the bed, watching as he sat down next to me.

“I know this isn’t a new song, but...I know how much you love it so I just wanted to play it for you.” He said looking at me.

I smiled and nodded my head waiting for him to start.

He started strumming on his guitar and immediately I recognized the song.

“Size the day or die regretting the time you lost, it’s empty and cold without you here too many people to ache over...”

I smiled watching and listening to him play Seize the Day for me. I always loved listening to his voice and I really loved when he would play his acoustic guitar and sing one of their songs to me. It just added to making my birthday special.

“You’re amazing.” I mumbled leaning over to kiss him when he was down.

He set his guitar down on the bench by the window and walked back over smiling at me. “Not as amazing as you.”

I laughed and shook my head, standing up and changing into my pajamas before crawling into bed and waiting for him. He pulled his v-neck shirt over his head and slipped out of his jeans, shutting the light off before crawling into bed next to me and pulling me close to him.

“Did you have a good birthday?” He asked looking down at me. I nodded and smiled up at him.

“All thanks to you.”

“Well, everyone helped me with the party.” He said wrapping his arms tightly around my waist. “But I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

“Thank you so much for the studio babe, I don’t even know what I can do to thank you. I mean, how am I going to top that?” I asked looking up at him.

He laughed and shook his head, kissing my head. “Don’t even worry about. Having you is enough for me.”

I smiled and scooted closer to him. “I love you Mr. Haner.”

He pushed his head up, leaning down to kiss me. “I love you too Mrs. Haner.”