Alfred found himself staring at the piece of plastic on his hand. He, at first, was confused. This was 2015 and he was given a mixtape. Without a clue in the world he assumed someone gave this to him as a present of some kind for his birthday. It was rad. Alfred remembered the days when all the cool kids had super large Sony Walkman cases that were too large but could play their music outdoors. Alfred remembered having his own Walkman and how many years ago it was his favorite item of choice.
Now, holding the small cassette tape with two sides possibly containing music, he felt nostalgia running on his fingertips. Smiling slightly, his own feelings emerged from nostalgic to some bit of confusion. Who gave him this gift? From the tape all he saw for writing was 'side A' and 'B'. Curiosity fled the American's mind as he carefully puts it in his pocket and heads forward out of the living room to upstairs.
A few minutes later, while searching for a Walkman, he successfully found it from his bedroom closet. With a battery pack he also found inside and putting it in the large metal-cased blue-and-silver player he realized he lost his old pair of headphones. Pouting slightly, he decided to just use his earplugs in hopes it would work. Excluding his bedroom's mess from that search while searching for his good pair of earplugs, he guessed this mixtape was from Matthew, or maybe someone.
"Now where are those..." Alfred then got over to the pillows of his messy bed, looked under it, and found a black pair. "Found them!"
Sitting on his bum he plugged the ear buds in his ears and, feeling excited, his first reaction was total shock…when he heard his boyfriend's voice speaking.
"Bloody thing…" he heard Arthur's voice say from the tape, "…uh, if this thing works…then you are possibly listening to me right now… Well, if you got this now I'm in England and I have work for a while, but I just wanted to say…happy birthday, sweetheart. Sorry I cannot attend to your birthday party but work is terrible. Um…I really miss you, Alfred, and I hope you're enjoying yourself. Make sure Matthew isn't drinking too much maple syrup on his birthday.
As Arthur's sweet yet tired voice resounded in Alfred's ears…he felt as though Arthur was speaking to him. Not like through his voice alone, but it was like he was sitting next to him, physically, whilst speaking in his ear affectionately. However, Arthur was in another country, and Alfred was all alone in his house. It was surprising how lonely a person can be...
"Oh, and, if you flip the mixtape around—which I don't think you should unless you want to—then you'll hear me singing happy birthday. I want to say I love you and I'm apologize for not coming to your birthday party soon; things back home are going on and…I love you, and I miss you so much. Let's get together later when I come back. Seriously, don't play the other side..."
Tape A tape silently ended. Alfred then did the exact opposite of what he said: putting the tape around and listen to Arthur (attempting) to sing Happy Birthday without sounding too menicing. Other than that, Alfred...really felt Arthur by his side, and smiled sincerely.