You know you’re in for a long night, but nature has never really been your thing. Nor has making slightly dangerous jumps, or looking for pay phones in nothing but swim shorts. It’s not too hard to convince everyone to stay put. “I’m not going,” you tell the guys who are all still judging how difficult climbing down the mountain would be. “There are coyotes and possibly mountain lions down there, and if we do make it to the bottom, five Backstreet boys in bathing suits strolling Sunset boulevard in search of a phone will make more than the front page of the tabloids.”
“So what do we do now?” Nick asks as if it’s your fault you’re all locked on the back porch.
“Hang out?” you suggest. After all, what other option is there?
You have fun talking for a while and once it gets dark you start up the fire pit and somehow end up telling ghost stories as if you’d planned a camp out all along. You stay up for hours laughing over old stories and dirty jokes. Eventually you are all so tired you each find some kind of bench or lounge chair to crash on, and when it gets quiet you let out a small laugh. It may not have turned out as originally planned, but you can’t remember when you’ve had more fun on your birthday. “This birthday will definitely be one to remember.”
“Happy birthday,” they all laugh and then Brian clears his voice and hums a pitch.
Without a single spoken word AJ, Nick, Kevin, and Brian burst into a harmonious version of the happy birthday song.
You listen to the voices you’ve grown to know better than your own, and look around at the four men who mean as much to you as brothers. You can’t help feeling sentimental. “Thanks for coming today, guys,” you say kind of bashfully. It’s clear that you’ve become a little choked up.
“It’s your party, Howie,” Kevin teases lightly with underlining sincerity, “you can cry if you want to.”
“Cry if you want to, cry if you want to!” Nick echoes in his best falsetto.
You can hear a round of snickers, and then all together you can’t help but burst into one last song. “You would cry too, if it happened to you!”
The End.
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Skin created by Kali & edited by Karen.