Chapter Summary: Everyone forgot Matthew's birthday. Including the author.
"Your birthday was Wednesday and you didn't tell us about it?" Gilbert yelled at Matthew. It was the 4th of July and while everyone was getting ready for the annual 4th of July beach party Matthew let it slip that his birthday was a couple days ago and his mother had sent a care package.
"But thank god she sent more maple syrup" Antonio added, having quickly become a fan of the natural stuff.
"I wish I'd have known, I'd've gotten you something." Gilbert was still bothered by the fact that he'd missed Matthew's birthday. He was really good at finding birthday gifts. He also really liked giving birthday gifts. More than anything, he liked being praised for finding a really good birthday gift.
"You don't need to get me anything honestly. I've never been super big on celebrating my birthday since it's so close to Alfred's." Alfred was like an attention vampire. Big parties were more his thing anyway, so it worked out well. "Speaking of which, I should call him back."
"Don't try to change the subject Mattie." The sound of the nickname only people close to Matthew- read as Alfred- called him coming from Gilbert's lips was refreshing. "It may be late but I will get you a present."
"Why don't we make this into an interesting little game." Francis remembered his conversation with Arthur a couple of days prior and decided to take some action.
"A game?" Gilbert was interested.
"What do you mean by a game." Matthew was less so.
"Fireworks start at 10 pm. If Gilbert can find the perfect gift for Matthew and deliver it by the time the fireworks start then, Gilbert wins." The rules were simple enough. Francis felt pretty good about himself coming up with a plan all on his own.
"And what do I win when I give him his gift." Of course there was that little detail.
Clearly Francis couldn't make Matthew do anything, that would be unfair. But what did he have that Gilbert would want. His go-to gifts of sex and booze seemed irrelevant in that situation. Gilbert didn't really care about designer clothing. There was really only one option left. "Bragging rights."
"Sick!" While most people would consider 'bragging rights' a poor option for a prize, Gilbert was always up for having people forcibly listen to him talk about bragging rights. "I get to brag about how awesome I am for an entire month!"
"A week." Francis corrected. No scheme he had ever made was worth listening to Gilbert brag for an entire month.
"That's fair." A week was still good enough for Gilbert. "It's a deal."
Matthew had no idea what Gilbert was going to get him for his birthday. Unfortunately neither did Gilbert. He was great at buying gifts but normally the people he bought gifts for had a list of material things on standby to be picked up and delivered. Matthew wasn't that into material things, which made shopping for him a pain. Francis and Elizaveta had already bought him an entirely new wardrobe and they had to twist his arm to get him to agree. He couldn't get anything imported in that amount of time and the few times he had seen Matthew drink he hadn't had much of of anything.
Gilbert sat in his car on the way to the city trying to think of a good enough gift for Matthew. It had been a while since he had thought that hard about anything but he really wanted to get Matthew the perfect gift. Although he normally insisted on doing everything by himself, he decided this time that he needed help.
"Hey Alfred." Gilbert spoke into his phone. "First of all, happy birthday. Matthew told me that it's a pretty big deal so, um, happy 16."
"Oh thanks man, but how did you get my phone number." What Alfred didn't know is that Gilbert didn't need a private investigator to get his phone number, although his father did have one on standby. The fact that Alfred had his number posted on his facebook page was good enough for him.
"Yeah, anyway." Gilbert decided to ignore the question. "So Matthew never mentioned that his birthday was just a couple of days ago and long story short I only have a couple of hours to get him a really awesome gift and as much as I hate to admit it, I need your help."
There was a pause in the conversation. "You called me. . . on my birthday. . . to talk about gifts to get my brother. Who already had his birthday."
"That's what I said isn't it? Is there a problem?" Gilbert asked, not wanting to waste time exchanging pleasantries.
"No, there isn't." Alfred started. "It's just. . . usually people make a bigger deal out of my birthday than Matthew's. Usually people make a bigger deal about me in general, it's kind of refreshing being ignored for once in a weird sort of way."
"Well if Matthew actually told people about his birthday I'm sure more people would make a bigger deal out of it." Certainly if they had known there would have been a huge party. Elizaveta would have gone crazy trying to plan it all, Francis would find all of the hottest people to invite, and the twins wouldn't rest until they had the best food in town, even if they had to fly someone in to cook it themselves.
"That would require that there would be people to tell. Matthew doesn't have too many friends back here." Alfred admitted.
Gilbert had not seen that coming at all. He thought Matthew was delightful, the perfect link between two worlds. He couldn't possibly imagine Matthew not having a bunch of friends back home. "How is that possible, do poor people all just have bad taste?"
Alfred laughed. "It's not that, he just doesn't stand out too much here. I personally think that he's great but for some reason I can't get many people to jump on the same wagon y'know. It isn't that people dislike him here, it's just that they don't really notice that he's there. But that's why it's so great that he gets to go hang out with you guys all summer. I'm really happy for him, even if it's only for a short period of time he gets to know what it's like to have a bunch of friends."
"Yeah." Gilbert had an idea. "Thanks for your help but I think I've figured everything out. I'll talk to you later."
"He's late." Arthur looked at his watch, pacing back and forth as he watched for Gilbert to arrive. "I knew it, the plan isn't going to work. You should have consulted me first before you sent him out on a wild goose chase."
"Calm down Arthur, he still has ten minutes. He's going to make it." Francis couldn't believe that he was giving up a chance for hanky panky under a firework lit sky to hang out with Arthur Kirkland. Unless Arthur was up for it. Which he wasn't. Francis has already checked.
"10 minutes!" Arthur yelled. "He's had 10 hours and nobody has heard anything from him."
"Look, there he is!" Thankfully Gilbert had arrived before Arthur had an aneurysm. "But where is the gift?"
"Matthew!" Gilbert called out, running to the beach of the manmade lake the camp had been situated on. "I'm so glad I caught you before time ran out."
"Yeah we wouldn't want you to lose your game." Matthew felt a little bit annoyed but it was to be expected.
"That would never happen, I'm Gilbert Beilschmidt." Which apparently meant that he was very good at finishing things at the last possible moment to still succeed. "But that's beyond the point."
"Well, where is the big gift? I was kind of expecting something extravagant." Did he maybe leave it at the cabin? Matthew felt incredibly anxious about what he might have received, he didn't have any more room in his luggage to take something big back home.
Instead he was handed an envelope. "Here."
"What is that? Where is the present?" Arthur whispered to Francis. While Francis was a bit better at playing it cool, he too was a bit confused about what Gilbert was doing. "I wish I could hear what they are saying."
"Let me get Antonio over here he's great at reading lips."
"Open it." Gilbert pushed. Matthew opened the envelope. He pulled out a piece of paper with the words "boarding pass" written on the top. "You haven't lived until you've seen Central Park in the winter. Your brother said that you like ice skating and the always have a huge rink in the middle of the park."
"You bought me plane tickets?" Matthew was certainly surprised.
"Yeah, it's for winter break. I got tickets for the rest of your family too of course. I ran it by them first. But even though you're obviously coming back to camp next year it would kind of suck if I had to wait an entire year to see you again. There is a caveat though, I understand that you will have a lot of stuff to do with your family but you will have to at least spend an entire day with me."
Matthew was speechless. It wasn't the physical gift that was really touching, it was the meaning behind it. Matthew had certainly had fun with his friends at camp- but it was just for his time at camp. Sure everyone always says "yeah let's keep in touch" but it's usually a hollow statement. He may have been reading too much into it but by Gilbert going out of his way to get him to come hang out with him, it was something that he had never experienced before.
"Gilbert, this is. . ." Amazing. Wonderful. So uncharacteristically sweet. There were so many things that Matthew could say but he had trouble getting them out. He felt something wet on his cheek.
"Oh my god Matthew are you crying?" Did Matthew not like the gift. For once in his life Gilbert felt a bit unsure.
"Oh my god is he crying." Arthur's whisper was a bit too loud to actually be considered a whisper. "I'm going to fucking murder Gilbert if he hurts him."
"Yeah, I guess I am. Sorry, it's just. . . nobody has really gone so far out of their way to hang out with me." Matthew wiped his eyes on his sleeve.
"Oh here, let me." Gilbert grabbed a handkerchief from his pocket and personally wiped the tears from Matthew's eyes.
"Is that an embroidered handkerchief?" Matthew giggled as he tried to ignore his hastening heartbeat. "That's so fucking pretentious."
"I guess it is." Gilbert followed suit, putting the handkerchief back in his pocket without breaking eye contact with Matthew. Their faces were really close. Almost too close, yet at the same time not close enough.
"Oh my god he's going in for the kill!" Arthur narrated, grabbing both Antonio and Francis in excitement.
"Nice save bro!" Francis was going to have to take notes on the handkerchief move. It seemed pretty effective.
"And right when the fireworks are starting." Antonio added.
Gilbert began to lean in when he was suddenly interrupted by a shrill voice. "Oh Matthew! I've been looking all over for you"
Matthew and Gilbert jumped apart. Standing in front of them was Anna Sophia Hughes, fresh from her performance as the special guest at that night's festivities. Matthew realised what he had just almost done. "I'm sorry, you have?"
"Yeah I have!" She responded as if it wasn't a ridiculous statement to begin with. "You know Lili Zwingli, right?"
"Yeah we have experimental biology together, why do you ask?"
"Well I'm shooting a music video on Wednesday and she told me you're a pretty good guitar player. I need some extras and came to ask you to join me."
"I'm sorry but what makes you think that I'm at all suited for that sort of thing." And Lili didn't seem like the type to hang around Anna Sophia.
"I have a good eye for these kind of things. So you'll do it? That's wonderful." Matthew tried to remember when in the past couple moments he agreed to do her music video but failed to do so.
"Hey, um we were kind of talking here." Gilbert butted in, a little confused about why Anna Sophia was talking to Matthew and really confused about what he was planning on doing if he had actually leaned in all the way.
"Sorry, this shoot is A-list only and since you unceremoniously dumped Isabella you're off the A-list and any list that gets you into my parties." Anna Sophia was such a good friend. At least for the time being. She grabbed Matthew's arm. "Now if you excuse us I have some people for you to meet Matthew. You'll love it."