Status: HappyBirthdayBoo.
Find a Way
1/1
If you asked a room full of five-hundred people what they were doing at 9 p.m. on April 17, 2011, it would be a very safe gamble to bet none of them would be able to tell you what happened on that day, much less at a specific time, unless Alyssa Connors or Nick Rotteveel —more commonly known by his stage name, Nicky Romero—were amongst the crowd.
It was Alyssa’s 18th birthday and she had gone into the city to see Nicky DJ at one of the clubs in Pittsburgh. Her best friend, Carson, had accompanied her on the condition that Alyssa would wear a birthday girl tiara and sash—something she had adamantly fought against, but ironically would end up thanking Carson for until the day she died.
Exactly three years later, Alyssa was curled up on a stylish black futon in the upscale apartment she shared with Carson that was conveniently located across the street from a Starbucks and a couple blocks away from the University of Seattle, where both girls were well over halfway through with their sophomore year. She was more than a little upset that somehow every person she wanted to spend her 21st birthday with had found some reason to be MIA. Understandably, her family didn’t have the financial means to travel across the country from her hometown in Pennsylvania. Carson, while being a full-time student, worked full-time at a bar across town; she was having to pick up a double shift today and had to last-minute cancel the plans she and Alyssa made months prior. Nicky was performing tonight, out of country as per-usual.
What wasn’t usual was the lack of a ‘happy birthday’ or ‘happy two-year anniversary’ phone call or text from Nicky. They had been texting throughout the day like normal, but there was a 7-hour time difference between the two lovers that was beginning to take its toll as the weeks drug on and melted into months. More often than not, Alyssa found herself cursing the decision to move with Carson to Seattle for college instead of Miami—somewhere Nicky always, always made time to visit regularly every month or two. But how could she have predicted anything more than a friendship would sprout from when Nicky pulled her onstage to sing happy-birthday to her all those years ago?
***
By 5 o’ clock in the evening Alyssa was freshly showered, donning a pair of blue and pink checkered pajama shorts and a Dragon Ball Z t-shirt she had swiped from Nicky, with her long brunette hair thrown into a loose, messy bun atop her head. Several guys from her and Carsons’ Criminal & Deviant Behavior course at the University had offered to take her bar-hopping for her big 2-1 birthday and up until roughly three hours ago, Alyssa had every intention of taking them up on the offer. However when Carson had to cancel, that unfortunately meant Alyssa had to cancel as well.
They were great guys, but Alyssa had made a promise to Nicky long ago that she wouldn’t go to parties, clubs, or drink outside of the apartment without Carson or him—and it wasn’t because he was controlling, the man just worried over her well-being and wanted someone he trusted there to look out for her. That very stringently narrowed down Alyssa’s party-buddies and partying in general—Carson was the only person Nicky trusted to keep her safe besides himself; she had spent the last four years becoming a black-belt in Brazilian Jujitsu, and worked almost every waking moment she wasn’t in class. Of course Nicky trusted her, she was practically a body-guard best friend who had grown up with a police officer and learned at a very early age how to protect herself and everyone else in the area.
Carson definitely put a damper on party routines, but it rarely bothered Alyssa anymore. She was one of the highest students in the entire Criminal Justice program; holding a steady 3.8 GPA and an all A’s grade report, Carson was one of the only students who even came close to her impeccable record—something that blew Alyssa’s mind entirely in and of itself, considering the work-a-haulic nearly slept through every class they shared.
She had promised herself that she would not study, work-out, or do anything productive on her birthday if she couldn’t go out, and she intended to keep that promise. So that’s why she was curled into the futon, playing FIFA on the rarely used PlayStation 4, and nursing her second glass of wine that evening.
A quarter through the match, there was a soft knock on the apartment door. Alyssa paused the video game and stared in confusion at the apartment door. The second set of knocks had her springing to her feet, remembering her mother had mentioned the birthday gift would be delivered roughly around 6 that evening, but evidently the UPS was a little early.
“Coming!” called Alyssa, padding over to the entrance. “I’m sorry, I was in the ba—“
The sentence froze in her lungs, hanging un-finished in the crisp air, as her heart skipped a couple beats. Nicky couldn’t be standing in front of her—he was halfway around the fucking world, performing right now.
She blinked several times and rubbed her blue eyes before giving the boy another hard look. And she had been right—her eyes and mind were only playing cruel tricks on her. The delivery boy had a few similarities to Nicky such as height and blonde hair, but he most definitely wasn’t her Dutchman.
She was convinced any blonde-haired boy would instantly be turned into Nicky by her mind; she missed him more than anything and couldn’t wait to see him in just one more short month.
“Um, could you just sign here, Miss?” he asked, shoving a clipboard and BIC inkpin into her hands without waiting for a response.
“Yeah, sure,” she mumbled, scrawling her name across the indicated blank and handing it back to the boy. He nodded, producing a small rectangular box.
“Have a good night, miss,” he said curtly, the box hardly leaving his hands before had turned on his heels to leave.
She rolled her eyes and shut the door loudly behind her, moving into Carson’s bedroom. Just inside the doorway, hidden underneath several bills and class schedules in the first drawer of the table, laid one of her roommates many concealed knifes. She plucked it from the hiding place and sliced through the tape, placed it back in its place, and moved to her own bedroom.
Inside the box was a birthday card, several twenty-dollar bills, and a simple, elegant white-gold necklace with a sapphire pendant that perfectly matched the sapphire earrings Alyssa had received that morning from Carson.
She quickly snapped a picture and sent it to her best friend, captioned “You and my mom conspire together for my birthday presents now?”, not respecting the immediate response.
From: Carson
Guilty as charged. Be there in three minutes with dinner, I’ve got an hour for my lunch break.
Alyssa pocketed the cell phone and moved back into the living area to resume dominating her match against Real Madrid.
“Hey C, I’m in here!” she called upon hearing their door open and close. Keys were dropped onto the table, but no smell of her favorite pizza filled the apartment. Again, Alyssa paused the video game and moved to get up—but an arm and a hand stopped her.
A loud shriek left pierced through the silence, so loud that she was shocked it was her own voice. But Carson wasn’t a very physical person, and the hand covering her eyes wasn’t slender and feminine nor was the arm holding her against the futon.
“Sshhhh,” he whispered low in her ear, the voice making the hair on her arms and neck stand on end. “It’s okay. You’re okay.”
Alyssa couldn’t launch around the small piece of furniture or latch onto the lithe body standing behind it fast enough. A soft, musical chuckle filled the air as a pair of lean arms wrapped around her small frame, holding her tightly to him.
Several moments passed before either of them made another sound.
“What are you doing here, Nicky?” she mumbled, tilting back her head to look into his eyes. “You’re supposed to be performing, halfway around the world right now.”
“No, I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be right now, baby,” he replied as his lips brushed across her forehead. “There was never a show tonight. My flight landed about forty minutes ago.”
“How’d you get here?”
“Carson picked me up from the airport. She actually requested off for today about two months ago when we began planning this with your mum.”
Alyssa could only stare up at him in shock, feeling more than a little silly for thinking Nicky had forgotten her birthday and their anniversary. He cupped her face in one hand and pressed the softest of kisses to her lips, squeezing her even closer to him if at all possible with his other arm.
“God, I’ve missed you,” he murmured against her lips. “You’re so beautiful.”
Even after knowing Nicky for three years and dating him for two of them, his compliments never ceased to fluster Alyssa. While she hated the effects he had on her, he found them all more than adorable, though.
“Nicky—“
Nicky cut her off with another swift kiss, relishing the time he would get to spend with his Alyssa.
“Sshh, I’m not done yet,” he said quietly, letting his hands run down the exposed skin of her arms.
“By all means, continue. Don’t let me stop you,” she giggled, lacing their fingers together.
“Well, I just wanted to say happy birthday to the most amazing woman I’ve ever met and happy anniversary to my better half.”
Before Alyssa could reply, there was an almost inaudible knock upon the door. She glanced quizzically up at Nicky, who flashed her a devilish smile. Holding up one finger, he slipped away to the door only to return moments later.
“My sidekick,” he briefly explained. “Sicilian pizza, with pepperoni and mushrooms, is on the counter in the kitchen. But, first…”
Nicky grasped her left hand in one of his hands while his other fist hovered over her flat palm. His eyes flickered from their hands to Alyssa’s eyes and slowly pressed the cool metal against her warm skin.
“You’ve changed my life in so many ways and made it so much better when I thought I couldn’t be happier. I never would have guessed that a girl wearing a birthday sash would catch my eye at a show, and I surely wouldn’t have ever guessed she would be the most important part of my life.”
He withdrew his hand slowly, revealing a white-gold ring that had one large diamond in the center, with smaller sapphires on either side. Alyssa gasped lightly, her eyes widening a little more with each second that passed as she took in the shimmering ring.
“I’m not proposing—I’m not ready for that right now—and I know this isn’t exactly a traditional promise ring, but I want you to know that you’re truly the only woman I want to be with from here on out. You’re my world, Alysssa… and I- I love you. I’m in love with you.”
That was it. Nicky had said the one thing he swore to never tell a girl unless he absolutely meant it with all of his heart. And he did, he loved Alyssa with every ounce of his being. He wasn’t ready for an engagement right now, and he certainly wasn’t ready for a marriage, but he wanted her to know exactly how he felt. He wanted to marry her one day, and could only hope that she felt the same.
And judging by the tears in her eyes and the radiant smile upon her lips, she did.
“Nicky,” she breathed, unable to believe this was actually her life. “Nicky, I love you too.”
“Happy birthday, my love.”
And with those words, he kissed her with all the passion he'd put into all his shows combined.
It was Alyssa’s 18th birthday and she had gone into the city to see Nicky DJ at one of the clubs in Pittsburgh. Her best friend, Carson, had accompanied her on the condition that Alyssa would wear a birthday girl tiara and sash—something she had adamantly fought against, but ironically would end up thanking Carson for until the day she died.
Exactly three years later, Alyssa was curled up on a stylish black futon in the upscale apartment she shared with Carson that was conveniently located across the street from a Starbucks and a couple blocks away from the University of Seattle, where both girls were well over halfway through with their sophomore year. She was more than a little upset that somehow every person she wanted to spend her 21st birthday with had found some reason to be MIA. Understandably, her family didn’t have the financial means to travel across the country from her hometown in Pennsylvania. Carson, while being a full-time student, worked full-time at a bar across town; she was having to pick up a double shift today and had to last-minute cancel the plans she and Alyssa made months prior. Nicky was performing tonight, out of country as per-usual.
What wasn’t usual was the lack of a ‘happy birthday’ or ‘happy two-year anniversary’ phone call or text from Nicky. They had been texting throughout the day like normal, but there was a 7-hour time difference between the two lovers that was beginning to take its toll as the weeks drug on and melted into months. More often than not, Alyssa found herself cursing the decision to move with Carson to Seattle for college instead of Miami—somewhere Nicky always, always made time to visit regularly every month or two. But how could she have predicted anything more than a friendship would sprout from when Nicky pulled her onstage to sing happy-birthday to her all those years ago?
***
By 5 o’ clock in the evening Alyssa was freshly showered, donning a pair of blue and pink checkered pajama shorts and a Dragon Ball Z t-shirt she had swiped from Nicky, with her long brunette hair thrown into a loose, messy bun atop her head. Several guys from her and Carsons’ Criminal & Deviant Behavior course at the University had offered to take her bar-hopping for her big 2-1 birthday and up until roughly three hours ago, Alyssa had every intention of taking them up on the offer. However when Carson had to cancel, that unfortunately meant Alyssa had to cancel as well.
They were great guys, but Alyssa had made a promise to Nicky long ago that she wouldn’t go to parties, clubs, or drink outside of the apartment without Carson or him—and it wasn’t because he was controlling, the man just worried over her well-being and wanted someone he trusted there to look out for her. That very stringently narrowed down Alyssa’s party-buddies and partying in general—Carson was the only person Nicky trusted to keep her safe besides himself; she had spent the last four years becoming a black-belt in Brazilian Jujitsu, and worked almost every waking moment she wasn’t in class. Of course Nicky trusted her, she was practically a body-guard best friend who had grown up with a police officer and learned at a very early age how to protect herself and everyone else in the area.
Carson definitely put a damper on party routines, but it rarely bothered Alyssa anymore. She was one of the highest students in the entire Criminal Justice program; holding a steady 3.8 GPA and an all A’s grade report, Carson was one of the only students who even came close to her impeccable record—something that blew Alyssa’s mind entirely in and of itself, considering the work-a-haulic nearly slept through every class they shared.
She had promised herself that she would not study, work-out, or do anything productive on her birthday if she couldn’t go out, and she intended to keep that promise. So that’s why she was curled into the futon, playing FIFA on the rarely used PlayStation 4, and nursing her second glass of wine that evening.
A quarter through the match, there was a soft knock on the apartment door. Alyssa paused the video game and stared in confusion at the apartment door. The second set of knocks had her springing to her feet, remembering her mother had mentioned the birthday gift would be delivered roughly around 6 that evening, but evidently the UPS was a little early.
“Coming!” called Alyssa, padding over to the entrance. “I’m sorry, I was in the ba—“
The sentence froze in her lungs, hanging un-finished in the crisp air, as her heart skipped a couple beats. Nicky couldn’t be standing in front of her—he was halfway around the fucking world, performing right now.
She blinked several times and rubbed her blue eyes before giving the boy another hard look. And she had been right—her eyes and mind were only playing cruel tricks on her. The delivery boy had a few similarities to Nicky such as height and blonde hair, but he most definitely wasn’t her Dutchman.
She was convinced any blonde-haired boy would instantly be turned into Nicky by her mind; she missed him more than anything and couldn’t wait to see him in just one more short month.
“Um, could you just sign here, Miss?” he asked, shoving a clipboard and BIC inkpin into her hands without waiting for a response.
“Yeah, sure,” she mumbled, scrawling her name across the indicated blank and handing it back to the boy. He nodded, producing a small rectangular box.
“Have a good night, miss,” he said curtly, the box hardly leaving his hands before had turned on his heels to leave.
She rolled her eyes and shut the door loudly behind her, moving into Carson’s bedroom. Just inside the doorway, hidden underneath several bills and class schedules in the first drawer of the table, laid one of her roommates many concealed knifes. She plucked it from the hiding place and sliced through the tape, placed it back in its place, and moved to her own bedroom.
Inside the box was a birthday card, several twenty-dollar bills, and a simple, elegant white-gold necklace with a sapphire pendant that perfectly matched the sapphire earrings Alyssa had received that morning from Carson.
She quickly snapped a picture and sent it to her best friend, captioned “You and my mom conspire together for my birthday presents now?”, not respecting the immediate response.
From: Carson
Guilty as charged. Be there in three minutes with dinner, I’ve got an hour for my lunch break.
Alyssa pocketed the cell phone and moved back into the living area to resume dominating her match against Real Madrid.
“Hey C, I’m in here!” she called upon hearing their door open and close. Keys were dropped onto the table, but no smell of her favorite pizza filled the apartment. Again, Alyssa paused the video game and moved to get up—but an arm and a hand stopped her.
A loud shriek left pierced through the silence, so loud that she was shocked it was her own voice. But Carson wasn’t a very physical person, and the hand covering her eyes wasn’t slender and feminine nor was the arm holding her against the futon.
“Sshhhh,” he whispered low in her ear, the voice making the hair on her arms and neck stand on end. “It’s okay. You’re okay.”
Alyssa couldn’t launch around the small piece of furniture or latch onto the lithe body standing behind it fast enough. A soft, musical chuckle filled the air as a pair of lean arms wrapped around her small frame, holding her tightly to him.
Several moments passed before either of them made another sound.
“What are you doing here, Nicky?” she mumbled, tilting back her head to look into his eyes. “You’re supposed to be performing, halfway around the world right now.”
“No, I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be right now, baby,” he replied as his lips brushed across her forehead. “There was never a show tonight. My flight landed about forty minutes ago.”
“How’d you get here?”
“Carson picked me up from the airport. She actually requested off for today about two months ago when we began planning this with your mum.”
Alyssa could only stare up at him in shock, feeling more than a little silly for thinking Nicky had forgotten her birthday and their anniversary. He cupped her face in one hand and pressed the softest of kisses to her lips, squeezing her even closer to him if at all possible with his other arm.
“God, I’ve missed you,” he murmured against her lips. “You’re so beautiful.”
Even after knowing Nicky for three years and dating him for two of them, his compliments never ceased to fluster Alyssa. While she hated the effects he had on her, he found them all more than adorable, though.
“Nicky—“
Nicky cut her off with another swift kiss, relishing the time he would get to spend with his Alyssa.
“Sshh, I’m not done yet,” he said quietly, letting his hands run down the exposed skin of her arms.
“By all means, continue. Don’t let me stop you,” she giggled, lacing their fingers together.
“Well, I just wanted to say happy birthday to the most amazing woman I’ve ever met and happy anniversary to my better half.”
Before Alyssa could reply, there was an almost inaudible knock upon the door. She glanced quizzically up at Nicky, who flashed her a devilish smile. Holding up one finger, he slipped away to the door only to return moments later.
“My sidekick,” he briefly explained. “Sicilian pizza, with pepperoni and mushrooms, is on the counter in the kitchen. But, first…”
Nicky grasped her left hand in one of his hands while his other fist hovered over her flat palm. His eyes flickered from their hands to Alyssa’s eyes and slowly pressed the cool metal against her warm skin.
“You’ve changed my life in so many ways and made it so much better when I thought I couldn’t be happier. I never would have guessed that a girl wearing a birthday sash would catch my eye at a show, and I surely wouldn’t have ever guessed she would be the most important part of my life.”
He withdrew his hand slowly, revealing a white-gold ring that had one large diamond in the center, with smaller sapphires on either side. Alyssa gasped lightly, her eyes widening a little more with each second that passed as she took in the shimmering ring.
“I’m not proposing—I’m not ready for that right now—and I know this isn’t exactly a traditional promise ring, but I want you to know that you’re truly the only woman I want to be with from here on out. You’re my world, Alysssa… and I- I love you. I’m in love with you.”
That was it. Nicky had said the one thing he swore to never tell a girl unless he absolutely meant it with all of his heart. And he did, he loved Alyssa with every ounce of his being. He wasn’t ready for an engagement right now, and he certainly wasn’t ready for a marriage, but he wanted her to know exactly how he felt. He wanted to marry her one day, and could only hope that she felt the same.
And judging by the tears in her eyes and the radiant smile upon her lips, she did.
“Nicky,” she breathed, unable to believe this was actually her life. “Nicky, I love you too.”
“Happy birthday, my love.”
And with those words, he kissed her with all the passion he'd put into all his shows combined.
♠ ♠ ♠
Hope this is alright, booooo.Happy Birthday.