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“Oh, shoot!” Joel suddenly exclaimed after having looked at something on his phone. They all sat around Joel’s desk eating, Grian and Joel were enjoying some burgers and fries while Jimmy was eating a chicken nugget and a single fry. Though, sometimes he’d have a second one if he was feeling extra hungry. Jimmy turned away from his food though to give Joel a raised eyebrow.
“What’s wrong?” Jimmy asked.
“I just remembered it’s my mom’s birthday today! I need to text her. And probably call her later…” He mumbled the last bit more to himself as he was already typing away on his phone.
“Wow, forgetting your mom’s birthday? That’s a new low.” Grian said, a teasing smirk on his face. Joel glared at him.
“Says the guy who forgot his sister’s birthday.” Joel retorted back. Grian’s teasing smirk was wiped off his face.
“I was 7!” Grian exclaimed.
“You’re twins !” Joel said and then laughed when he fully remembered the absurdity of it and the pout that had appeared on Grian’s face.
Jimmy took another bite of his nugget as he watched the familiar way his humans liked to tease each other. Though the topic of birthdays was one that hadn’t come up before. He had seen plenty of humans celebrate a birthday before. They usually threw a big party about it and opened a lot of presents. “Is she going to throw a party?” Jimmy decided to ask.
Joel wiped away the tears from his laughter and looked over at Jimmy. “Nah, she’d rather keep it casual, ya know? Her and my dad are probably just going to go out to dinner tonight.” Joel answered with a shrug.
Grian got a thoughtful look on his face. “Hey, Jimmy, when is your birthday anyway?” Grian asked, realizing that they never have. He hoped that they hadn’t missed it already.
Jimmy blinked. “Oh, uh…well, I don’t actually know.” Jimmy said, looking back down at his food.
Grian and Joel’s eyes went wide. “You don’t know?” Joel asked incredulously. “How do you not know?”
“Hey, borrowers don’t keep dates and time like humans do.” Jimmy explained, huffing a bit. “I’ve gotten a bit better at it, living in the college dorm and now with you guys. But back when I was a kid, there was no real way for my parents to pin the exact date I was born. Just that it was sometime in the spring.” Jimmy continued, thinking back.
“So, do you just celebrate it on a random day in spring then?” Joel asked again but Jimmy shook his head.
“No, birthdays aren’t really a…thing, for borrowers. I never even knew about birthdays until I moved here.” Jimmy said and then winced when Grian and Joel got those sad looks on their faces.
“So you’ve never celebrated your birthday.” Grian stated more than asked but Jimmy nodded all the same.
“I never really saw the point to.” Jimmy said with a small shrug. He didn’t even know what day his actual birthday was on, after all. And what could he have even done? Party, presents, and other people seemed to be the main things needed to celebrate a birthday and that had been impossible for Jimmy.
Grian hummed in thought and his gaze moved away from Jimmy. Joel looked like he wanted to say something more but Grian caught his eyes and shook his head. Joel sighed and took a rather passionate bite out of his hamburger. “I guess that makes sense.” Grian said, a bit too offhandedly for his previous reaction. “Anyway, Joel, did you see the test results for that math test the other day?” Grian said, changing the subject a little too suddenly. Jimmy looked at both of them suspiciously but didn’t say anything more, just continued to eat as he listened to them speak overhead.
He’s sure it was nothing.
Two days later and Jimmy had all but forgotten their conversation on birthdays. It was Friday afternoon and Jimmy was scrolling through Joel’s phone, waiting for his two humans to get back. Jimmy glanced at the time on the upper left side of the phone and frowned when he realized how late they were. Usually their classes on Fridays got out at 3 and it was already well on its way to becoming 5. Where could they be?
It was as if his thought summoned them because a moment later, Jimmy heard the sound of the door unlocking. He smiled and shut off the phone, turning toward the door. But instead of coming in normally, all of a sudden the door slammed open and Grian and Joel shouted in unison. “Surprise!”
“Ahh!” Jimmy screamed, almost falling over in how quickly he had backed up. He took a moment to recover but when he did, he noticed Grian and Joel were carrying things. Grian was carrying about three balloons of varying colors in one hand and a small box in the other. Joel had both his hands on a see-through container that was holding chocolate cake.
Grian bumped the door closed behind him and grinned at Jimmy. “Happy Birthday, Jimmy!”
“Yeah! Happy Birthday!” Joel also chimed in.
Jimmy blinked, looking back and forth between the two of them with wide eyes. “What?”
Joel chuckled and came closer after putting the cake down on his desk. He crouched down near his nightstand to be more eye level with Jimmy. “You said the other day that you’ve never celebrated your birthday before. So we’re here to change that!” Joel explained with a grin.
Grian came up from behind Joel, having put the box on the desk and the balloons tied to Joel’s chair. “We know it’s not spring anymore but we figured this could be a celebration of all the birthdays you’ve missed.” Grian said with his own grin.
They…wanted to celebrate his birthday? They had gone out of their way and bought things for him so they could all celebrate not just one birthday, but all the birthdays he had missed?
Jimmy could feel tears start to form in his eyes and he took in a shaky breath. He let out a little laugh as a few tears fell. “You guys…” He let out another laugh as he wiped away more and more tears.
“Oh, Jim.” Grian said softly but Joel was the one to reach forward and cup his hands around Jimmy, lifting him up and bringing him close, standing as he did so. Jimmy continued to wipe at his tears but moved his hands as Joel’s thumb came up and took over that job. Wiping gently at his face. Jimmy sniffed and leaned into the touch.
“You guys didn’t have to do this.” Jimmy said after a moment. Joel’s thumb lifted off his face and his tears were now more or less staying in his eyes.
“But we wanted to.” Joel said. “You deserve to celebrate your birthday just like everyone else.”
Jimmy sniffed and grinned. “Thank you. You guys are…you guys are the best.” Jimmy was so very lucky to have them.
Grian and Joel smiled down at him, their smiles soft and fond. “Don’t thank us yet.” Grian joked and moved out of Jimmy’s line of sight until Joel turned around, heading to the desk where Grian was pulling it away from the wall once again to use as a table. “You might hate the present we got you.” He continued to joke.
Jimmy rolled his eyes, his tears all but gone now. “I highly doubt it.”
“But, first things first.” Joel said and passed Jimmy over to Grian before he took the top off the cake. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a candle and a lighter. He put the candle in the center of the cake and then used the lighter to light it. “You gotta blow out your candle. Make a wish, Jimmy.”
Grian brought Jimmy closer to the flame and Jimmy looked at it for a moment before closing his eyes. Make a wish…
Jimmy smiled. He only really wished for one thing. That he, Grian, and Joel would continue to be friends for the rest of their lives. With this wish in mind, he blew as hard as he could and the fire went out.
As he opened his eyes back up and grinned at Grian and Joel, he knew without a doubt that his wish would come true.