Fix: A Two-Part Story

Spring, age 17

"Wake up, birthday boy."

If the sweet words weren't enough to rouse him from an amazing dream, the whack of a pillow to the head, did the trick. Josephine, the wielder of the pillow and subject of the dream, stood over his bed. Gage pressed his face into the mattress with a groan. He wanted to keep dreaming. He wanted a moment to himself because the dream was that good.

"It's not my birthday, yet," he mumbled into the bed. The smart remark got him another whack with the pillow.

"Okay, fair enough." She pulled the blanket off of him. The cold air to his back sent a shock to his system and he groaned again. "Seriously, we are so far behind schedule, no one's alarms went off."

"What time is it?" he asked. Pulling his head away from the bed he still made no effort to move. He mentally willed away the images from his dream, it was almost safe enough to sit up. I need to start locking my door.

"Nearly ten-thirty," she said. Gage never saw her look so flustered and agitated. "No one got up on time. The only people up and ready are Tabitha and me. I wanted to leave—"

"By seven," Gage said. Finally calmed down enough to sit up in bed. "So that we can hit the scenic route. Go to all the gift shops and hike to this waterfall. All to arrive by noon, at the latest and go to the beach first thing. I know." He tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes. Even though Gage knew little to nothing about the real specifics of their trip that much was clear. Josephine had the travel time scheduled down to the minute. Something she didn't mind repeating for the last few days.

Josephine hit him with the pillow again while the heel of his hands rubbed his eyes.

"Hey!"

"If you knew that, then why aren't you ready to go?"

Hopping off the bed, he stood close to her. "Does it help that I already have my bag packed and it's downstairs?"

Josephine pulled her lips into her mouth, trying not to stare at his bare chest, as she nodded. Gage smiled at the red tint pooling in her cheeks. It was on her that she came and woke him up; she was lucky he bothered to put on pajama pants before bed. He moved toward the closet, not wanting to push his luck. Teasing her was all well and good but after the dream he just had he'd take any opportunity to cross that line.

"What about Gerry? You said you and Tabitha are good to go, but nothing about him." He left the closet open just enough to hear Josephine's response as he got dressed.

"That asshole," she snapped with a huff. "He is the real problem here. He's taking his sweet ass time, showering and 'finalizing his packing'," she mocked.

Gage pulled on a pair of sweats and a t-shirt. "I'll see what's up," he said, grabbing a pair of clean socks from a drawer. Before exiting the closet, he slid his wallet in his pocket. "I'm surprised Tabitha couldn't kick his ass in gear."

Josephine threw her arms in the air exasperated. "Right?"

"Let me brush my teeth and I'll get Gerry moving," he promised. He unplugged his phone and slid it in his other pocket.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," Josephine said with a sigh of relief. "Don't worry about eating something, I'm going to swing through a drive-thru before we get on the interstate."

Gage nodded in understanding, and she left the room. His birthday trip or not, he knew Josephine put a lot of effort into making this trip happen over the last few days. In truth, the bar was so low for his own birthday the fact that she put in the effort to acknowledge his birthday made it unlike any of his earlier birthdays. If Gerry and her didn't ask what he wanted to do the week prior, he probably would have forgotten about it entirely.