pam's birthday! (or at least, the beginnings of it...) i wasn't sure when her birthday is canonically, (apparently its in march?) but for the purposes of this fic it's october 21st. :)

also, I've made a minor setback to the plot, as i was unaware that americans get time off from school for thanksgiving! (seriously i had no idea!) but it won't make any huge differences.

title taken from: "Drunk Text Romance" by Cyberbully Mom Club :)

The leaves were starting to turn brown, and the nights became freezing, and somehow the beginning of October passed largely without any incidents.

October 21st was going to be a special day, this year. Jim had it marked specifically on his calendar, the one he was supposed to use for schoolwork but didn't.

Pam's birthday.

He had been counting down pretty much since she told him the date, and now, it was only 3 days away.

He had a few things planned, but the main event, he hoped, would be the card. He had picked it out specially for her, putting more effort into finding the perfect birthday card than he did for most classes. It looked pretty simple; the front read "Happy Birthday!" in golden cursive, with eh outline of a party hat, and the inside was blank… Until now.

Birthdays, he supposed, were the best times to tell people how you really felt about them.

"So, what were you thinking of doing for your birthday?" Kelly asked, yanking a hair tie from her head.

Pam was a little surprised she even remembered that her birthday was coming up, especially considering she hadn't really made a big deal out of it this year. "Nothing, really. I'll probably just invite a couple people up here - Jim, maybe Ryan - for an hour or so, if that's okay."

Kelly nodded, solemnly. "I'll make sure Ryan comes."

"Thanks. Oh, and, uh, Roy's coming."

"Really?" Kelly finally managed to untangle the hair tie, and shook out her hair before searching her bed for a brush.

"Yeah." Pam nodded, feeling herself become more excited as she explained. "He said he's definitely going to make it. He'll have to cut a couple of classes, but he said he won't miss it for the world."

"That's awesome, Pam! I'm really happy for you. You guys'll be so cute together!" Kelly squealed, jumping up from her bed to go hug her friend.

"What's it like to be almost 19?" Jim asked, in lieu of a hello.

The cafeteria was, thankfully, pretty quiet. He and Pam had started taking their lunch breaks a little earlier than most people did, in order to not have to deal with the wrath of Dwight over lunch.

"What's it like being indistinguishable from a high school student?"

"Touche." He set down his tray - tuna sandwich, grape soda, a plastic carton of fruit; the usual - and slid into the seat across from Pam.

"I'm actually a little nervous, to be honest."

"For your birthday? Why?"

She let out a heavy sigh, shoulders slumped. "I just feel like it might be a little weird, you know? It's my first birthday spent away from home, away from family. It just feels a kind of… Off, to be spending my 19th birthday in a boring, grey-brick building."

"I beg to differ. Dunder-Mifflin is the most exciting grey-brick building I've ever seen."

She laughed, and for the first time since the previous day, her mood lifted a little. After a slight pause, she changed topics. "So, what do we have in store for Dwight today?"

Jim launched into the plan for their classmate - it was pretty good, if he said so himself; it involved a fake phone call, a couple of "private" whisper-conversations with Pam, and a rubber pig - and before they knew it, it was time for class.

The day had been entirely uneventful, as most days in this school had went. The highlight, as per usual, had been joking around with Pam, and he kept this in mind as he opened her birthday card flat out on his desk.

He had already decided to not just go for the usual "happy birthday!" spiel.

Because this was Pam, and she deserved more than that.

(Because this was Pam, and he knew at this point that he probably loved her.)

He wanted to tell her how he really felt. How he had, perhaps, been feeling ever since he first met her.

"Dear Pam-"

His hand was shaking. What could he say next? Why was just writing this down - writing down the thoughts he had running through his head at all time of the day - so painfully awkward, so difficult?

'Good to know I'm not the only one whose roommate is insane.'

Pam was the first person he had met in this place who he really felt a connection with. Dwight was just… Dwight. Even Ryan did not see eye-to-eye with Jim, despite all the things they seemed to have in common.

Talking to Pam was easy, and maybe that was the trick.

He just had to write what he wanted to say to he whenever they were together.

'I'm not the one standing outside at 3am in my underwear.'

Jim was never a fast writer, but the words just seemed to be falling out onto the page. He wrote what he felt, he wrote what he wanted to say, he wrote what he thought could happen, and he wrote what he dreamed.

'You somehow look worse now than you did before.'

She laughed at him. Jim was used to people laughing at him and laughing with him - he was a pretty funny guy, after all - but Pam was different. When Pam laughed at him, he felt his chest soar.

'I thought you might want to be saved from sitting with Dwight.'

His writing was tiny, and there were a few more things he wanted to say, but he had run out of space on the card. There was a few centimetres of space left at the bottom, so he quickly signed it:

"Love from, Jim."

sent 20:48

TO: Pam

FROM: Roy Anderson

sorry, cant make ur bday. kennys taking the riders down to the lake, said i would go. ill make it up to u when u come for thanksgiving ;)

read 20:49