We were in Illinois for Jack's birthday. We rolled in the night before at seven o'clock. We stayed up till ten and then Jack fell asleep and I was awake until three. The next morning I woke up first. I got a shower and then just sat using my IPad for while. Jack's phone vibrated on the nightstand and curiosity got the best of me so I picked it up. The first thing I noticed was his lock screen. It was the picture he took at the ice cream shop on my gotcha day. The amount of happiness in that picture was overwhelming. He had three text messages. All three had a variation of happy birthday. They were from Alex, Rian and Zack. That was when I realized it was Jack's birthday. I started coming up with a plan to surprise him. I couldn't come up with much, but as long as he would let me pick the things we did and the places we went everything would be fine. I was looking at the informational packet that was left on the desk, trying to pick some fun things for us to do when I got another idea. I grabbed my phone and looked through my very limited contacts before finding Alex's number. After an hour of conversation about nothing I finally got him to pay attention long enough for me to explain my plan to him. Not long after that Jack woke up. I discovered that morning that he was one of those people who only needs five minutes before they're willing to talk and do things. I need at least ten minutes plus a shower before I'm anything like human.
"Happy birthday!" I said and sat down in front of him on the bed.
"Thanks." He smiled.
"You should get ready for the day. It's already ten. Breakfast ends in a half hour." He grabbed his phone off the nightstand.
"Why did you let me sleep in?" I shrugged and stood.
"Mostly because I forgot. Now seriously get up." I started packing things back into my bags before picking up Jack's shirt from the night before and chucking it at him.
"Hey!"
"Get up." I threw a sock and then his jeans at him too.
"For the love of-" I threw another sock and then accidentally threw my layering tank top at him, "I'm up! I'm up! Jesus Christ." I giggled and kept packing things right up until Jack dropped the pile of dirty clothes I'd thrown at him on top of my head.
"Asshole." I said as I dropped the pile into his suitcase.
"Love you too." Jack replied before grabbing clean clothes and heading for the bathroom.
"Be quick or you won't get breakfast." I reminded him.
"As long as I get coffee we should be good." And then he closed the door and proceeded to finally get ready for the day. By the time he was out and dressed breakfast was over. He finished throwing stuff back into his suitcase and the zipped it up.
"Did we get everything?" I glanced around and noticed my book laying on the nightstand. I grabbed and stuffed it into my already full backpack.
"I think so. Do you have your phone charger?"
"Yup. Alrighty then let's head for the car." He headed toward the door and then said in much deeper voice, "Onward my fair princess!" And took off out the door at a surprisingly fast pace considering he was hauling his suitcase after him. I giggled, grabbed the handle of my suitcase and took off after him. He was waiting by the elevator when I caught up to him. When the elevator doors opened he bowed me into the elevator first.
"Weirdo." I said as I walked past him.
"How dare you call your king a weirdo." He said as he stepped in after me.
"In what universe are you my king? You're more like the . . . court jester." He wrapped an arm around me and tickled me. I let out a squeal and tried to wiggle away from him.
"Stop it!"
"Never." And then the doors slid open and he let go of me. A middle aged woman in a pantsuit stepped in, despite the fact that she looked appalled. I tried to hide my giggles behind my hand and failed miserably. I felt a little bad for the woman, but she chose to get in with us. When we reached the ground floor business lady was very ready to get out. The doors opened and she shot out. Jack and I didn't try to contain our laughter anymore. Somehow Jack managed to compose himself long enough to check us out and then we went out to the car. We loaded all our stuff and got in.
"The first thing I need is coffee, but then I don't care what we do."
"I would like to find a mall, but then I don't care either."
"Pick an album to put in. Who knows how long a drive we have, plus we're in the city so we'll probably end up stuck in traffic." I gazed out the window ahead of us.
"I don't know. We slept in pretty late today. We missed rush hour, so maybe it won't be so bad." It was bad. Apparently in Chicago every hour is rush hour. We finally made to Starbucks and that was the first time Jack realized I don't like coffee.
"You don't drink coffee?"
"How long have I been living with you that you haven't realized this yet?"
"Not long enough apparently. Are you hungry?"
"I guess, but-"
"No buts. Would a blueberry muffin be okay?" I smiled and nodded. We went through the drive-thru and then we sat in the mall parking lot to eat our breakfast. The mall was one of the largest I've ever seen.
"Would you mind if I went off on my own? Just for a little bit."
"Go ahead."
"Thanks. I'll find you in a bit."
"Keep your phone on."
"I will." I gave him a smile and then headed off. I wanted to get Jack a gift. I tried multiple stores, but I couldn't find anything that screamed Jack. I found a mug that said world's best dad and then I went into a different store and found him a card that said, Since it's your birthday I'll refrain from saying something snarky about how old you're getting, then if you opened it said, Even though it's true. Happy birthday old timer! I bought a gift bag and some tissues paper, wrote in the card and then texted Jack. We met in the food court.
"I got you a birthday present." I said and held up the bag when I saw him.
"You didn't have to do that." I shrugged.
"I wanted to. You've done a lot for me I figured it was time I did something for you." I handed him the bag. We found a table and sat down. He pulled the card from bag and read it first. He chuckled when he read what was printed on the card and then got more serious when he read what I wrote. He closed the card and pulled the tissue paper out of the bag, then he pulled the mug out. He smiled.
"Thank you."
"Do you like it? I mean I know it's not amazing or anything, but-"
"I love it." He got up and gave me a hug. "It is without a doubt the best gift I've ever gotten. Thank you." He let go of me and put the mug back in the bag. "Now I know what you're gonna say, but I got something for you too."
"It's your birthday. You shouldn't be buying things for me."
"Shut up. I like buying things for you." He picked up a plastic bag and handed it to me. The bag said Hot Topic on the front. I stuck my hand in and felt soft fabric. I pulled it out and unfolded it. It was a band t-shirt. An All Time Low t-shirt to be exact.
"Thanks." I put it back in the bag. We browsed the mall for a little while longer and then decided to hit the road. Nothing in Chicago interested either of us all that much. We got pizza for lunch. At like one thirty. And then we headed for another destination we wouldn't know until we reached. I tried to convince Jack to pick something fun for us to do since it was his birthday, and he responded with something corny like 'Just spending time with you is fun.'
It annoyed me to no end that he refused to do anything fun for his birthday. I did convince him to go down to the hotel bar and get a drink that night though. I called Leo while he was down there and ended up talking with Allison and Jaz instead. Then I took bath. He got back while I was in the bath and then shortly after that we went to bed, but not before I sang him the happy birthday song.