A/N: Hi everybody! I have been working on this one-shot for a while but seeing the premiere of season 5 last night inspired me to finish it. So here it is and I hope you enjoy it.
P.S. Towards the end when it says "soft, quiet music flooded the loft" there are so many songs that could work but I like to think they were listening to "Beautiful In My Eyes" by Joshua Kadison.
Most mornings I wake up to the sound of my alarm clock. But today wasn't an ordinary morning.
"Happy birthday, Spence!" Hanna, Emily, and Aria shout as they jump on top of me.
Yep, that's right, today is my eighteenth birthday. And like every year the girls sleepover the night before so they can be the first ones to wish me a happy birthday.
"Thanks you guys you're the best. I love you to death and I couldn't ask for better friends but this will be my last birthday if you don't get off of me."
"Oops, sorry," Aria says as she and the others get off.
"It's okay. I kinda deserve to get crushed after I accidently elbowed Hanna in the neck on Emily's birthday." I replied as I too sat up.
"Ah, yes, the injuries we receive while jumping on our best friend on their birthday. My favorite birthday memories." Hanna dramatically stated.
"I don't care what anyone says. Yes, being crushed or elbowed in the neck isn't pleasant but it is nothing compared to being punched in the face on your thirteenth birthday." Emily said.
"Oh my gosh, I totally forgot about, Em." Hanna said as she started to laugh.
"Just when I thought I had lived that down." Aria mumbled.
"Its okay, Aria, it was four and half years ago. A black eye isn't exactly how I imagined I would look once I was finally a teenager but I've never been known to hold a grudge." Emily said as she gave Aria a hug.
"Wow, if we have this many birthday injury stories at eighteen we'll have enough to write a book in a few more years." I said and we all laughed.
"Yeah, we could call it A Collection of Birthday Traditions Gone Wrong." Hanna suggested.
"Yet, we still group jump on the birthday girl no matter how many injuries we receive." Emily commented.
"Yeah, and we'll still probably jump on each other when we're eighty years old and in nursing homes." Aria joked.
The four of us continued talking about birthdays past and were having a great time. That was until reality hit us in the form of my mother pounding on my door and telling me that she was leaving for work and that I had to be at school in an hour. Well, our fun had to come to an end at some point.
"Ouch, not even a 'Happy birthday' or 'Welcome to Adulthood' your mom really is tough, Spence." Hanna said as she started walking towards my closet.
"Well, Hanna, this is the Hastings family you know. I'll probably get home from school and find a fancy, store-bought card on the counter with a hundred dollar bill inside. And a note that says 'Happy birthday Spencer, so sorry but we're stuck in Philly with Melissa.'" I sighed.
"Cheer up, Spence, who cares if you're parents don't acknowledge your birthday. At least you'll get to spend it with us today and tonight with Toby." Emily said as she came out of the bathroom.
"Yeah, you're kind of right." I said. "Hanna, what are you doing?"
"I am picking out your outfit. And why is Emily only kind of right? Do you think we're gonna ditch you on your birthday?"
"You guys aren't the ones ditching me on my birthday. Toby is." I stated. "And why exactly are you picking out my outfit?"
"Because, if you choose your outfit you'll choose something you wear everyday. And you are not going to wear a blouse and pencil skirt on your eighteenth birthday, not on my watch." Hanna stated firmly.
I knew better than to argue with Hanna. There were only three things that Hanna was ever serious about and they were clothes, jewelry, and makeup.
"Hanna, Spencer just said that Toby is ditching her on her birthday and you're talking about clothes?" Emily asked.
"Sorry, but I don't involve myself in conversations concerning Toby. Now, Spencer, go get dressed while I go downstairs and make breakfast and Emily and Aria will clean up." Hanna said.
"Is it me or is Hanna acting really weird?" I asked after she had left
"I don't know. Maybe she's insulted because you questioned why she was picking out your outfit." Aria said as she started rolling up the sleeping bags.
Something was definitely going on between the girls and I was going to find out what it was. But in the meantime I decided to get dressed even if I was scared of what Hanna picked. Luckily for me she chose a light blue fit-and-flare dress, a navy blue bolero, and a pair of black, lace up, high heel boots.
After I got dressed and Aria and Emily had put away the sleeping bag we went downstairs where Hanna had coffee and my favorite chocolate chip muffins waiting.
"You guys are the best." I said as I sat down at the counter.
"Well, it's not everyday your best friend turns an adult." Aria said as she sat down next to me.
"Hey, Spence, these were on your mailbox." Hanna says to me as she hands me some white daisies.
"Thanks, Han, who are they from?" I asked as I stared at the flowers.
"I don't know there wasn't a card and they were just sitting on top of your mailbox." She replied.
"Who would someone just leave you flowers on your mailbox without a note?" Aria asked. "And why would they only leave eight?"
"Maybe they're from Toby." Emily suggested.
"No, they can't be from Toby. The reason he's not here to celebrate my birthday with me is because he's working at a construction site somewhere in Maryland." I replied.
"Well, then maybe she has a secret admirer." Hanna commented. "And if I were you, Spence, I'd tell Toby to step his game up if you have admirers that buy you flowers."
"Yeah, Han, I have a secret admirer that is too cheap to buy a full bouquet. I don't think Toby has to worry about competition." I said sarcastically.
I knew Hanna was still didn't fully trust Toby and I accepted that. But it still got on my nerves when she started picking on him and telling me that he had room for improvement.
"Well, we should probably get to school. We wouldn't want the birthday girl to be late and end up in detention." Aria suggested. She probably could sense the tension and decided to play peacemaker.
"Yeah, that's the last thing I want on my first day of adulthood." I said as I grabbed my bag. The girls followed suit and then we were out the door.
The school day passed rather quickly. A few people in the hallways wished me a happy birthday but other than that it was uneventful. But things picked up when I got home.
"Hey, the birthday girl finally arrived." Aria shouted as I walked through the door.
"How do you guys always beat me to my own house?" I asked as I followed the girls upstairs.
"Because, Spencer, you take the regular way instead of taking the short-cut." Hanna said as she took a seat on my bed.
"What short-cut? There's no short-cut to my house."
"Yeah, there is, and no, we aren't going to tell you where it is. That is a secret that not even A can make us tell." Emily replied with a smug look.
"Fine, because this is my birthday and I don't feel like interrogating you guys so I'll drop it."
"Hey, Spence, did you find out if your secret admirer is someone from school?" Hanna asked.
"No, Hanna, I didn't. But after school there were seven more daisies in a glass vase in my locker." I replied as I carefully took the flowers out of my bag.
"Did they leave a note this time?" Aria asked as she put the daisies from this morning into the vase I got this afternoon.
"Not unless you count a business card from the flower shop on Main Street." I stated.
"Is it me or is this starting to get a little weird? I mean, anyone can leave flowers on someone's mailbox but who knows your locker combination?" Emily pointed out.
"I don't know, but what I do know is that it's my birthday and the last thing I want to do is think about the possibility of a second stalker."
"So, what does Miss Eighteen want to do? Watch a movie, make those fudge cookies you like, go somewhere?" Aria suggested.
"I have an idea, let's give Spence her presents." Hanna said as she got up and walked over to her purse.
"Hanna, it's too early for presents. It's like a tradition that we wait until late at night to open presents." I said.
"Well, screw tradition. You're gonna love my gift and I can't wait any longer to give it to you." She smugly replied as she handed me my gift.
I looked in the bag and was shocked at what I saw inside. "Hanna, you got me a bottle of vodka!?" I almost shouted.
"Of course, what's the point of being eighteen and finally of legal drinking age if you don't have alcohol?" she responded defensively.
"The legal drinking age is twenty-one, Han." Emily commented.
"Well, that gift is ruined. At least I splurged and got a second." Hanna said as she handed me a small gift bag.
"Thanks, Han, I love it." I said when I opened the jewelry box. Inside was an eighteen charm for my Pandora bracelet.
"Well, Aria got you the bracelet for your fifteenth, Emily got you the sixteen-charm, and so I figured I'd get you eighteen." She replied.
"Okay, now for mine." Aria said as she handed me mine.
"Aria, this is awesome! I can't believe you made a collage of all of my birthday party pictures." I said as I gave her a hug.
"I'm glad you like it, Spence, I've been working on it for a while. It was originally supposed to be a Christmas present but there were just too make pictures so it took forever to decide which ones to use." Aria explained.
"Last but not least," Emily joked as she handed me her gift.
When I opened the gift I immediately started laughing. Emily's gift was a gift certificate to the Brew and an iPhone case that said 'A Yawn is a Silent Scream for Coffee.'
"This is perfect for me, Em. This is one of my favorite coffee sayings."
"You're welcome, Spence." Emily replied and she gave me a hug which quickly turned into a group hug.
"You guys are the best, thank you so much." I said after our hug.
"Well, now that we've done presents, how about some cake and vodka?" Hanna suggested.
"First of all, Han, I want to remember my eighteenth birthday not drink it away. Secondly, I promised myself that I would never get drunk again after last time when I ended up sleeping on Wren's couch. And thirdly, it is way too early to do cake; it's barely five o'clock. Do you guys want to get the birthday traditions done and over with so you can abandon me and send time with your significant others?" I said as I started to get offended.
"No, it's not that, Spence. We want to spend your birthday with you its just…" Aria started to explain.
"It's just what, Aria; because it sounds like you guys don't want to be with me." I said.
"Spence, please don't hate us." Emily stated with a nervous look. "We want to be with you, Spence, we really do. The reason we're doing stuff early is because we have a surprise for you for later."
"Em, why did you tell her? Now Toby's gonna kill us." Hanna blurted out.
"Hanna!" Both Aria and Emily shouted.
"Okay guys, what the hell going on?" I asked.
"Well…Toby or someone else may or may not have asked us to help him or her plan a big or small surprise for you or someone else for your or their birthday." Hanna answered.
"Hanna, I didn't understand a word of what you just said." I said as laughed and shook my head at her crazy answer.
"What Hanna means is Toby asked us to help him plan something so he could surprise you on your birthday." Aria explained.
"I knew something was up! You guys have been acting weird ever since I said that Toby wasn't able to be here on my birthday." I shouted in excited at finally figuring out why the girls were acting strange.
"Yeah, so now you know why we're breaking tradition and doing everything early, but if you don't act surprised Toby will kill us." Hanna warned. "Now, let's have cake and no vodka before I blurt out anything else about the surprise."
So that's what we did. The girls sang 'Happy Birthday' and I made a wish as I blew out the candles. We ate our cake and watched a movie until the girls decided to continue our celebration at the Brew.
When we got there all of the lights were off and there was a sign on the door that said closed.
"Emily, how come the Brew is closed at seven o'clock at night?" I asked.
I turned around when there was no answer. The only thing there was a daisy on the hood of my car.
"Emily was right. This is getting really weird." I mumbled to myself as I grabbed the daisy.
"I was kind of going for romantic." A heard a man's voice say from behind me.
"Toby!?" I shouted with excitement when I turned around and saw who it was.
"Happy birthday, Spence." He said to me as he leaned in to give me a kiss.
"How…I thought you were in Maryland and wouldn't be able to make it?" I asked trying to make sense of everything.
"Like I would miss your eighteenth birthday? You clearly don't know me that well if you thought I would miss this." He replied. "Come on let's go inside."
When we got inside the first thing I saw was a booth with two lit candlesticks and a vase with three more daisies. I knew the girls said that Toby was going to surprise me but I definitely wasn't expecting all this.
"Toby, how did you do all this? It's…wow." I said as I sat down and placed my daisy in the vase with the other three.
"Well, I had some help from the girls." He admitted as he poured the drinks.
"I kind of figured that." I commented before taking a sip of my drink.
"Aria cooked all the food last night and told me how to heat it up so blame her if it isn't that good." Toby said as he passed me a full plate.
"I'm sure it's great, Tobes. Aria has been cooking since she learned to walk." I stated confidently. "So what did you have Emily and Hanna do?"
"Well, Emily was the one who helped me get the Brew. Originally I wanted the girls to find a way to get you inside the loft without raising suspicion. But then Emily told me that the Brew just happened to be closing today and tomorrow because of electrical problem that needed to be fixed." Toby explained.
"So the candle light isn't just for the romantic setting?" I asked.
"No, they definitely are for the romance, but now they're here for the romance and because they're the only light source other than flashlights." He replied.
"Well, I say that a lot of things have worked out in your favor with this to have turned out as amazing as it did."
"You really like it?"
"To be honest I really don't like it." I replied. I paused just for the dramatic effect and to see the look on Toby's face before continuing. "I don't like it because I really love it."
"Wow, you really scared me there for a minute, Spence." He replied wiping his hand across his face.
"Toby, how could I not love this? This is the sweetest thing anybody has ever done for me on my birthday or any day for that matter." I replied as I leaned across the table to kiss him.
We ate our dinner and our dessert and the time was filled with loving and lively conversations. After we finished Toby took me upstairs to the loft. And just like the Brew it was completely dark.
Toby lit and I light a bunch of candles and placed them around the room. Just as I placed the last candle on the window sill soft, quiet music flooded the loft. Toby came up behind me and took me in his arms and we started dancing slowly to the music.
"Happy birthday, Spence." He whispered in my ear.
"Thank you." I whispered back. "This has been the best birthday I've ever had. I'll remember it forever."
"You don't need to thank me, Spence. I'd go to the moon and back for you. I love you."
"I love you too, Tobes."
Our lips met for a soft and loving kiss just as the song ended.
Toby was the one to break the kiss, much to my disappointment, and he walked over to the fridge. The clock on his bookcase chimed nine times meaning that it was already nine o'clock. Time was really flying; I hoped that Toby offered to let me stay with him tonight because I never wanted this night to end. It might sound cliché but tonight really was perfect.
He came back over to me holding two daisies.
"Okay, the daisies are lovely and I really appreciate them but why do you keep giving them to me in odd amounts?" I said taking them from him and placing them in the vase with the other four.
"Well, I chose daisies because Aria informed me that daisies are the flower for the month of April. And the odd amounts are because of the hour." He explained.
I got the part about daisies being my birth flower but I didn't get the part about the hour. Toby must have sensed that I didn't understand so he explained further.
"Since there are twenty-four hours in a day I bought two dozen daisies. Hanna gave you eight daisies are eight o'clock in the morning. Then you found seven daisies in your locker around three for a total of fifteen because three o'clock is the fifteenth hour of the day."
"So I got four when I got here at seven making nineteen for the nineteenth hour. And two more at nine o'clock equals twenty-one so you have three more to give me." I interrupted once I had caught on. Wow, I really had the sweetest boyfriend on Earth.
"Yes, I do. And I would be honored if you would stay the night so that I can give you the last daisy at midnight." Toby said.
"I would love to spend the rest of my birthday with you." I replied before kissing him.
"So, you got Hanna to help you? How did you manage that? Last time I checked she still hated you for what happened on our anniversary." I asked once we broke apart. This time because air was necessary.
"Well, at first she wanted nothing to do with it. But when she heard my plan she said that it was, and I quote, 'unbearably sweet and adorable.' Then she said that if I took the time to come up with this and plan it out that I must have really loved you all along. So after that she was completely on board. She actually demanded to be the one to hide the flowers." Toby answered.
We both laughed at how Hanna had reacted, especially when Toby tried mimicking Hanna when he said unbearably sweet and adorable.
"I'm glad Hanna likes you now." I said to him as we sat down together on the couch. "I'm also really glad that you love me enough to do this for me."
"I'm glad that I have someone as special and amazing as you to do this for." He replied before kissing me.
The kiss quickly became heated and before I knew what was happening Toby and I were on his bed.
Later that night Toby and I lay together in each others arms. Toby was playing with the ends of my hair and I had my hand placed right above his heart. Tonight was definitely the most amazing night of my life. The only other time I had been nearly this happy was when Toby and I got back together after we thought A was gone when Mona went to Radley.
The peaceful silence in the room was interrupted by the clock chiming twelve times. Toby leaned over and grabbed the twenty-fourth daisy from the nightstand.
"Happy birthday, Babe, I hope you enjoyed." He said to me as he handed me the daisy.
"For the record, I more than enjoyed it." I said to him before giving him a kiss.
After the kiss I got up from the bed and placed the twenty-fourth daisy with the others. I crawled back to bed and Toby covered me with both the blanket and his strong arms. I was exhausted but I couldn't quite fall asleep. Hearing Toby's slow rhythmic breathing meant that he had fallen asleep. I was glad that he was getting some rest because I knew that he probably hadn't gotten much sleep the night before trying to pull this wonderful birthday surprise off. He deserved to rest because today had been amazing and perfect. I couldn't imagine spending my eighteenth birthday with anyone else. As far I was concerned I wanted to spend every birthday for the rest of my life with Toby. I finally fell asleep and I dreamed about Toby, our future, and my two dozen daisies.