About a week later, Abigail approached me as I was fishing.
"Hey!" she greeted me, still standing.
"Hi!" I replied. "How are you doing?"
"I'm doing okay," she responded. "I came to ask if you'd like to help with something."
"Oh?" I replied. "What's up?"
"Sam's birthday is in a couple of days," she said. "He's been talking about this pair of headphones he saw in town, and Sebastian and I were thinking we could all pool some money together to buy them."
"That sounds awesome!" I responded. "How much are they?"
"About 30,000G," Abigail answered.
It felt weird realizing that even paying the whole amount would be no problem for me. I may not have been born with a silver spoon in my mouth, but I guess I'd picked one up when I moved to Stardew Valley.
I almost offered to pay the entire thing off, actually, but I supposed Sebastian and Abigail were going for a group-gift idea, and I didn't want to ruin that or steal all the glory.
"How much do you need?" I asked.
"We were thinking we'd each do 10,000," Abigail answered.
"No problem!" I smiled, reaching into my bag, finding my wallet, and withdrawing 10,000G. I extended it to her, saying "Here you are!"
"Thanks!" she said, taking the money off my hands. "Sebastian was planning on going into the city today to get them, so I'll take this over to him!"
"Awesome!" I replied.
"We also need to figure out when we're going to get together and surprise him with the gift," she then said. "Would… 5pm or so at the saloon work for you?"
"Yeah!" I replied, feeling excitement bubble up inside me. "Well, wait… just for clarification, is that when we should meet, or when we're expecting Sam to be there?"
"We'll all try to meet there at 5pm," said Abigail. "We'll have Sam get there when we're all there."
"Sounds good," I said.
"Awesome!" she smiled. "See you then!"
I couldn't remember the last time I'd been this excited. As I cast my line (far out since there was nobody nearby I had to avoid striking), I tried to picture how Sam's face would light up when he saw us there. Thinking about that made it harder for me to wait!
It didn't occur to me until Sebastian, Abigail, and I were at the saloon a couple of days later that the headphones themselves were the only surprise in play here. I figured that the moment we called Sam to the saloon, on his birthday, he'd know something was up.
The three of us sat in the game room (well, Abigail and I sat, and Sebastian leaned against the pool table). Sam's present, almost a perfect cube wrapped in red wrapping paper with golden stars on it, sat behind Sebastian on the table.
Before I knew it, Sebastian looked up from his phone and said "Okay, Sam's on his way."
My nerves were completely on edge since I'd woken up that morning, but hearing those words come out of Sebastian's mouth set my heart racing and a shock rippling through my body.
I didn't notice that Abigail had picked the present up and was holding it out toward me.
"Here," she said. "You give it to him."
"Me?" I asked. "I-I mean, I can do it, but…"
No going back: I was a mess, and Abigail knew it.
"Come on!" she giggled. "You can do it!"
I took a deep breath, which did nothing to slow my racing heart, and said "Alright, if you think it's best."
"I do," she replied… rather matter-of-factly.
Then, she winked. I'd just revealed everything she needed to know, hadn't I? She knew I liked Sam now, didn't she?
I took the present from her and proceeded to stare down the front door to the saloon. We'd have no trouble spotting him when he walked in; the saloon barely had any patrons yet. In fact, it seemed there was only one person sitting at the bar, a woman I felt like I'd spoken to once before.
Right when I thought I couldn't get any more tense, the door opened, and there Sam was. He had a sort of youthful look on his face, which was ironic given he was turning a year older today.
As soon as he turned and noticed us, Abigail stood up and said "Surprise!" Saying that wasn't exactly a plan we'd made, so it took a second for me and Sebastian to follow suit.
All the stress left my body the moment Sam's face lit up with a smile. We'd made him happy. We'd succeeded.
And he'd be even happier when he uncovered what it was I was holding.
I walked toward him, said "Here you are," and handed the gift to him.
"Aw, guys," he said, taking it and blushing a bit. "You didn't have to do any of this."
I couldn't help but smile at this point. We'd made him feel awesome, and for that, I felt awesome.
"Go ahead and open it!" said Abigail.
Sam took the gift over to the pool table and set it on the edge, then opened it, uncovering an expensive-looking pair of headphones. I'd been in the headphone market once upon a time, and not even I had seen these before. Parts of them seemed to be plated with gold. I wouldn't be surprised if that was actual gold. And these were only 30,000G?
But… this is incredibly cheesy, but it's true: if anything was worth more in gold than these headphones, it was the look on Sam's face. He looked as if he'd just uncovered a pirate's treasure or saved a kitten or something. His mouth was agape, and his eyes were wide. It didn't seem like he could believe what he was seeing.
"These…" he said. "You guys got me the headphones I saw in town?!"
"You're looking at them," Sebastian said with a bit of a laugh. "Splitting the cost between the three of us, it was easy. They're yours."
"Oh my…" he reacted, looking at the three of us. "You guys are insane!"
Abigail and I laughed, and Sam immediately hugged Sebastian (Sebastian didn't seem to be a fan, but let it happen), then Abigail, then me. He then went back to the headphones and picked them up, almost seeming to hug them.
"Thank you guys so much!" he beamed.
"You're welcome!" Abigail replied.
I compared today to Sam's last birthday. I'd take being surrounded by people I could call friends and getting a hug from Sam over tripping and falling in the mud any day.