Chapter Text
“You haven’t registered yet?”
“No, I was busy juggling the syllabus and my part-time job so, no. I haven’t completed it yet.”
“Well, it’s very easy. Let me do it for you.” He opened a tab on his laptop and started registering your student profile.
“Name. I know that. Address. Check. College Department…” You hear him typing away and you smile at the fact that he knew your details enough to fill your student profile for you.
“Huh… I don’t know this one. I know we’re the same age but when's your date of birth?”
“Oh… It’s uh… It’s today”
“What? Today’s your birthday??” He stared at you like you were insane.
A group two tables from you shushed the both of you and gave you dirty looks. You mouthed an apology and turned back to a very incredulous Bradley.
“Yeah and keep it down will you?”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Why would I? We’re just classmates”
“Okay. Ouch”
“I didn’t mean it that way. We don’t know each other that well and I just- I don’t go around telling people when my birthday is” you shrug.
“Besides, it’s not a big deal. I was going to finish up translating some of the text on our presentation for next week anyway. I think Professor Garcia would chew us out again if we make another mistake-“
“You’re seriously still on Spanish homework?”
“Well, yeah. This is due next week and I cannot afford to fail”
“Please. You are literally one of the top students at UVA, failing is not in your dictionary”
“Thanks for the optimism but it’s only like the first semester of freshman year, I doubt that I’ll be one of the top students here”
“Always the pessimist, y/n. Would it kill you to acknowledge that you are smarter than you think you are?”
He moves to get up then starts shutting your textbooks and shoving the highlighters in your pencil case.
“What… are you doing?”
He gently shut your laptop and grabbed the jacket off the back of your chair.
“We are going out. Come on.” He holds out your jacket nodding towards himself and you skeptically put your arms through the sleeves as he smooths the jacket on your shoulders.
“Why?…”
He grabs you by the sides of your arms and turns you towards him with a big smile.
“We are going out to celebrate!”
“Uh.. no thanks.” You move to sit back down and reach for your laptop but he grabs it and keeps it behind his back.
“Come on, y/n. It’s your birthday! How can we just sit here and worry about whether or not Professor Garcia will get an aneurysm over our presentation when we could be getting drinks and cake and dinner? Not specifically in that order.”
“Bradley, we don’t have to go. It’s fine.” You reach behind him to try to grab your laptop from him but he extends his arm backward and you roll your eyes at his childish manners.
“Why not??”
“Can we please not talk about this right now.”
He stares at you with a bemused expression and holds your laptop above his head.
“No.”
“Bradley, just-“
He holds the laptop higher which annoys you as he's a whole foot taller than you. He refuses to relent after several tries of reaching and you feel yourself getting pissed off every second so you sink your heels back down and purse your lips. The smile on his face instantly disappears when you stop reaching for him and he immediately feels guilty for pushing on you too hard.
“Hey, I’m sorry, I shouldn't have-“
“I don’t like celebrating my birthdays.”
He keeps his mouth shut, silently urging you to continue.
“I never felt like it was special enough to celebrate. If it wasn’t forgotten, it would be a late greeting, or said in passing without meaning so I just…. I don’t celebrate it or say when it is because it makes me feel like I'm begging people to feel like they need to be reminded that I exist”
He’s silent for a bit and you begin to think that maybe you’ve overshared. He probably thinks that you’re pathetic now. “Oh woe is me, nobody likes me enough to remember my birthday”. Birthdays are not that deep he probably thinks, it’s not supposed to be complicated. It’s just a marker for celebrating another year around the sun, alive. He probably thinks you’re overreacting over something that doesn’t require any emotional value. You feel the familiar embarrassment of divulging too much has started to weasel itself into the recesses of your brain so you move to grab your things.
“Let's eat”
You pause and turn to him while grasping your highlighters.
“What?”
He simply shrugs and gives you a soft smile.
“I’m hungry. Let’s eat”
“I don’t know about you, Bradshaw, but my allowance definitely can’t handle eating here.” You say while staring at the fancy restaurant’s bougie exterior. The marble floors and dim lights mock your bank account.
“We’re not eating here. Although it is incredibly flattering that you think I can afford to dine here, Sunshine” He nudges you with his shoulder and you feel the edges of your mouth quirking up.
You gave him a small smile. Relieved that your aversion to birthday celebrations did not affect how he treats you.
“I’m just picking something up. Go line up to the truck we passed, I won’t be long”
“Wait what did you want?” Before you could even finish he was already in the cafe.
You walked back to where the burger truck was located and lined up. There was a bit of a line when you got there, judging by the smell and the people lining up, it looked legit.
You were waiting for your order when Bradley came up beside you.
“I got you a cheeseburger. That okay?”
”Hell yeah!” He nods enthusiastically.
“What’d you get?” You eye the paper bag he is holding.
“Eh, little of this, little of that” He shrugs and examines the chalkboard menu.
“I thought that restaurant was too rich for your blood?” You ask as you nod towards the bag.
He chuckles.
”I helped the owner with a small plumbing issue. Apparently it was bothering her for weeks and ever since I fixed the issue she thinks I walk on water. So she said I could get anything off the menu for the rest of my life. But no matter how much I refuse her offer she always calls me to pick up something at the restaurant.”
“Honestly, she saved me from dining on ramen noodles for a good chunk of the semester”
“I think she might have a crush on you”
He laughs.
“Yeah, I don’t think so”
”Why not?”
”Aside from the fact that she’s well into her sixties? I don’t think I’m her type. Her wife’s the sous chef”
The guy manning the truck hands you your orders. You reach for the cash in your pocket but Bradley already had his hand out before you could pay.
“Hey!”
“Keep the change, man” He says while taking your orders.
”Dinner’s on me” He says with a wink.
“At least let me split it”
“Nope”
You settled on eating at the soccer field of the university. It was late enough that no more varsity players were training, so no worries of flying soccer balls coming your way.
You leaned back into your hands and stared at the night sky.
“I never knew that truck had good food.” He says as he chews the last mouthful of his burger.
“Me too. I always walked past it thinking it was one of those weird fusion food trucks that fade within a month because either the food was too eclectic or too expensive for daily consumption”
He chuckles and crumples the wrapper into a paper bag.
You see a bit of mustard dribble down his chin and you gesture to his face.
“You got a little bit…“
His brows shoot up and he swipes at the corners of his mouth, completely missing the mustard on his chin.
“Did I get it?”
“Not even close” You laugh as you reach in your bag to look for a wet wipe.
He wipes around his mouth, only this time smudging the mustard all over his chin now.
“Oh shit”
You laugh.
“Here, let me”
He watches you kneel beside him and gently wipe his face. He tries to make his breath even in your proximity. Your hands were slightly cold from the night, he hoped to all the gods above that you couldn’t feel his face going warm from your sudden contact.
“There.”
He clears his throat and mumbles thanks as you sigh and look around the field.
“We should get back to our dorms”
“What’s the rush? It’s only- WAY past our curfew. Okay, damn I did not expect we’d be out this late” He scratches the back of his neck and glanced around the field.
You laugh and move to clean up the boxes of takeaway food and random pieces of tissue and foil.
“Okay, wait. Before we go, I want to show you something”
You narrow your eyes at him.
“What is it?”
“Close your eyes”
“What? Why?”
“Just close ‘em”
You gave him a hesitant look
“I won’t do anything questionable. Promise.” He crosses his heart and clasps his hands together. You laugh at his childish demeanor.
“Pleaaaase”
You smile, relenting to him and he smiles big as you do.
“Alright, okay. But no funny business, Bradshaw”
You close your eyes.
“No peeking. I can tell if you’re peeking”
“I’m not, I swear!”
You hear the grass rustle beneath him and the sound of a paper bag crumpling.
“This better not be a prank”
“I promise it's not”
You hear the sound of a lighter flicking and more grass rustling.
“Ow!”
“You okay?”
“No peeking!”
“I am not! Though, I’m very concerned by the exclamation of pain”
You hear him chuckle.
“Okay. Open”
You gently opened your eyes and he was sitting in front of you with a slice of tiramisu and a singular candle sticking out of the slice.
“I know you said you didn’t want to celebrate but I couldn’t help it because I’m just so happy that you exist and your birthday is a reminder of that. So, happy birthday, y/n”
You didn’t how to respond but your heart was so full by the gesture however the tears in your eyes combined with your silence made him think that it was too much.
“Shit, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to push it so I- But I could just put this out and we could-“ He moved to blow out the candle but you waved at him, shaking your head.
“No! It’s okay, it’s just-“ You gave him a watery smile and this eased him a bit.
“Nobody’s ever done this for me before so… uh… It’s new” You laughed softly and wiped the tears away.
“Thank you.”
He smiled warmly and moved the tiramisu closer to you.
“Make a wish before the candle melts”
You nodded and closed your eyes. Candlelight reflecting off of your features, he thought you were the most beautiful person he’d seen in his entire life. He knew right then and there that he wanted to make you happy for as long as he could.