Happy Birthday Bethany
A birthday is supposed to be a happy day, filled with gifts, celebrating and well-wishers. Bethany had always enjoyed peaceful birthdays. A quite meal with her family and a few select gifts were all she expected from the day. She wanted nothing fancy, nothing wild and nothing extravagant.
In fact, she'd have happily spent the whole day in bed, and it would have been a perfect birthday.
It was just too bad her friends had a few different ideas.
The phone's ring cut shrilly through the darkness. Bethany jerked awake, confused. It was still dark. Why was the phone ringing?
She dragged herself sleepily from her bed and stumbled into the hall. By the time she reached the phone she'd begun to panic. It was never good to receive a phone call early in the morning or late at night, as it normally meant urgent and terrible news.
Gingerly she lifted the receiver to her ear. The shrieking ring halted abruptly.
"Happy birthday Bethany!" shouted an excited voice from the other end of the line.
Bethany's disorientated brain took a while to process this information. Judging by the caller's tone no one important had died.
"Beth…Beth! Hello, you there? Wake up Bethany!"
"Monica," Bethany began slowly, "is that you?"
"Yup!" came the short and sweet response.
"Why is it you?" Bethany questioned.
"Well who do you want it to be? Raj is still asleep right now."
Bethany blinked to adjust her vision as she flicked on the light so that she could see the time. "No, I don't mean that. I mean: why are you calling me at three in the morning?"
"Oh," Monica said, completely disregarding the danger in Beth's tone. "Well, you see, Chris and I have this bet…"
Monica's voice washed over Bethany without her taking in the explanation. Now she was starting to wake up Beth was also starting to get rather angry.
"Look, Monica, it's three a.m.," she interrupted dryly.
"I know. Awesome plan to be the first to give you birthday wishes, don't you think?!"
"I think it's a ridiculously stupid plan," deadpanned Bethany. "I'm going to go back to bed now. Where sane people normally are this early."
"Okay, well have fun!" It would seem that no tone of voice, no matter how scary, would ever faze Monica. "Say hi to Hyu-Jeong for me!"
"Isn't that supposed to be my line?" Bethany asked warily, but Monica hung up without answering.
Beth decided not to dwell on Monica's insane ramblings.
She curled up in bed and vowed to forget this unpleasant experience. The rest of her birthday would be perfect.
Only five minutes later the phone rang again. It wasn't totally fair on Christie that she got on the wrong end of Bethany's temper.
Chris learnt that even pacifists can be aggressive in the early hours of the morning.
Beth hadn't suspected another ulterior motive to the early morning calls, but it turned out that Monica had included them into a more elaborate plan. After waking up so early Beth had slept like a log, and logs didn't often wake up when their flats were broken into in the early hours of the morning.
Hyu-Jeong had carried out the break in perfectly. All credit to the two cat girls, they must have planned the stunt months in advance: Bethany's spare key had gone missing last August.
Littered across the flat and pinned to every surface was the same photo print, which had been taken at YattaCon the previous summer: Raj in his boxers. Hyu-Jeong was sat on the sofa, drinking a cup of coffee and helping herself to Beth's supply of chocolate biscuits.
"Good morning," Hyu-Jeong said pleasantly. "Happy birthday."
Bethany observed the mess with amusement. "So this is what Monica meant, huh?" She bent to pick up one of the photographs. "Did Raj know you were planning on wallpapering my flat with these?"
Hyu-Jeong smiled. "No, Raj thought I had some other surprise present. You see, he thought he'd destroyed the only copy of this picture left in existence. Not that it wouldn't have been easy for Monica to sneak into his room to get another one: she's been taking embarrassing pictures of him since high school."
Bethany appraised the picture as she made herself some breakfast. As far as birthday gifts went, this was definitely the craziest, but it wasn't necessarily the worst.
"You're less mad than I thought you would be," Hyu-Jeong commented.
Bethany sighed. "I used up most of my ranting energy yelling at Christie this morning." She looked guilty. "I should probably go call her and apologize before I clear this lot up."
"I'm insulted! I spent all morning on this."
Bethany grinned. "I appreciate your time and effort, and I'll continue to appreciate it whilst I'm on the phone. But my mother's coming over for lunch today and she probably won't appreciate it."
Hyu-Jeong's face fell. "I'll help."
"Thanks."
Clearing the flat of the photos took more time than Beth had expected. Hyu-Jeong had done a truly thorough job of hiding them all over the flat. It was rather embarrassing to find images of a half naked boy pasted all over the bathroom walls. She was glad that Hyu-Jeong had stuck around to help: Beth never would have thought to look in there, and she really didn't want to explain that to her mother.
The two girls prepared the meal for Beth's mother together. Hyu-Jeong kept her company until just before Mrs Peters was due to arrive. Beth thanked her profusely for her help. So far this might not have been Beth's idea of a peaceful birthday, but her friends had managed to keep her entertained.
She appreciated it even more later on, after she had endured a couple of hours with her mother.
Bethany had unwittingly left a letter from her editor on the coffee table. Her mother, ever nosey, had read it without asking. Soon she was quizzing Beth about every aspect of her new job. Mrs Peters may have conceded to her daughter's career choice, but it didn't mean she liked it.
By the time she hugged her mother goodbye Bethany felt completely worn out. She sat down to munch on the box of pawky that Christie had given to her for her birthday (a very generous gift, considering her addiction) and to get some art drawn.
She was only just beginning to unwind when the doorbell rang.
"That'll be Monica," Bethany muttered to herself. "She'll have rounded up the whole crew for an all night party, when she knows I've got college tomorrow. The flat will be a mess, I'll have freaks sleeping all over my carpet, and I'll never get this chapter finished on time. With friends like mine, who needs enemies?" She chuckled fondly.
But when she unlatched the door she didn't find a hyperactive fangirl.
Raj's hands were tucked behind his back, hiding something. When Bethany smiled at him warmly, he smiled back bashfully, and his face tinged red with embarrassment.
"Hey," he said shyly.
"Hey yourself," she responded. "Come on in."
Bethany bumbled around offering drinks and finding biscuits that hadn't been eaten by her uninvited guests earlier. "I'm glad it's you, Raj. I was expecting Monica to turn up on a mission to liven up my evening."
Raj just stood in the middle of the living room awkwardly. The conversation flowed back and forth between the kitchen and the living room easily enough. Raj was glad he didn't have to talk to her face to face straight away; that way he had time to work up his courage. "Well, she probably will turn up before the evening's out. I think she was planning to follow me. She's been looking at her camera all day."
Bethany laughed. "I can believe that." She walked into the living room carrying two mugs. "Sit down, Raj. My sofa's not going to bite."
He sat obediently.
"Oh, um, I brought you flowers," he announced after a pause. He handed her a bouquet.
She beamed. "Thanks, Raj, that's really sweet." She leaned over and pecked his cheek. He burned a darker shade of red. She gave him time to recover as she arranged the flowers in a vase on the windowsill.
Beth quaked slightly as she stroked the petals of one of the roses. This had to be the single most thoughtful thing a guy had ever done for her. He had driven quite a distance to see her today. "This has got to be the most normal present I've received all day," Bethany said thoughtfully as she continued to gaze out of the window. "And the most thoughtful." She spun around to smile at him. "Thank you, Raj. Really."
He ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah, well, flowers are generally considered a more romantic present than photos of me half naked."
It was Bethany's turn to blush crimson. "Y-y-you knew about that?" she stuttered.
Raj chuckled. "Monica's too much of a loud mouth to keep anything secret. Of course I knew about that."
Beth was nearly speechless. "Then why didn't you stop her?!"
Raj grinned. "Because I value my life too much to try." He chortled again as he let his eyes fall away from Bethany's face to study the carpet. "I've missed you," he admitted in a mutter.
Bethany's heart skipped a beat at his words, and then spluttered into overdrive. Just three syllables were enough to send her pulse racing when he said them like that. "I've been hoping you'd visit," she confessed. "I've just never had the gal to ask. But I've wanted to see you too."
Raj crossed the room in just three steps. He reached out an arm to rap it around her shoulders, but stopped short as his hand brushed her cheek. He stood there, feeling very self-conscious, and rested his palm against Bethany's face.
"I…um…" he faltered. "Sorry."
She reached up both her hands to cover his, gazing at him unblinkingly. "It's okay." As she held his hand in place Beth smiled encouragingly. "It's more than okay."
"Can I…" Raj began, inhaling deeply in an attempt to calm his nerves "…can I kiss you?"
She nodded gently.
Raj's kiss was soft and sweet. It didn't last long, because he was ever the gentleman and didn't force Beth into anything. She had to grab his face and pull his lips back to hers just to convince him that she was more than happy for him to do more.
Bethany only let him go when she was completely breathless. "Only you would ask," she muttered exasperatedly. She smiled. "You're wonderful, Raj. What've I done to deserve a guy like that?"
His face remained scarlet. Bethany wondered how long it would take for him to stop being embarrassed when he kissed her. She found that she didn't really mind if it took a while. Raj looked adorable when he blushed.
She leaned in to touch her lips to his again, and he met her half way. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he placed his hands gently on her waist.
Then the doorbell rang.
"Monica," they chorused simultaneously.
Bethany felt angrily disappointed. Raj looked scared.
Bethany wrapped her arms tighter around Raj's neck, pulling him closer. "How about we leave her outside for a few minutes? She won't mind if we finish up here."
Raj used his arms to pull her even closer. "I like that plan."
Luckily for Monica's ever-growing photo album, Bethany had left the front door unlocked.