Odd One Out | Jacob Black

5.

I sat on the couch waiting for Jeremy to take me to lunch again. Except this time it was my birthday lunch. The house has been quiet all day. I assumed both dad and Jen were at work and Brady was at school.

I hadn't heard from dad yet but that was pretty normal. He'll come home from work tonight with some gift. He'll share a cupcake, or this year a cookie, with me and that will be the end of that. Birthdays were never a big thing around here. Except Jeremy loved to celebrate mine so my mini celebration was usually with him.

'I'm outside' my phone buzzed and I quickly grabbed my purse and darted out the front door.

"Jesus Christ kid. You're too fast. Can't even get the shit out of the car fast enough." He was pulling out a giant golden 8 balloon out of his back seat followed by a matching 1. It had a few white and light blue balloons around it.

"You didn't have to do this." I laughed watching him struggle with the ballon bouquet.

"Yes I did. It's you're 18th birthday. That's a big fucking deal." He carefully set the weight holding the balloons down on the driveway and reached into his back seat again pulling out an actual bouquet of flowers, holding them out for me. I took them from him wondering what else he was struggling to pull out.

It was a peach colored giant bucket. He finally managed to get it out and plopped it on the ground by its rope handles. And sitting atop a bucket full of yarn was what looked like a blue giraffe squishmallow.

"Is this whole thing filled with yarn?" I questioned.

"The whole bucket. And, I feel like I deserve some credit here for getting a cute colored bucket because they had some bright blue one and I knew you'd say it wasn't girly enough."

This was a lot to take in. "How much yarn is in here?" I questioned and Jeremy shrugged.

"As much yarn that can fit into a 17 gallon bucket. They weren't horribly expensive. So I thought I'd fill the whole thing."

"And the squishmallow?" I giggled picking him up.

"Yeah, well it's your birthday. Couldn't exactly say no." He rolled his eyes and I laughed while launching into his arms. 

"Happy birthday, peanut." I could feel him kiss the top of my head. "You're officially an adult now!"

"Gross." I joked. "Now help me carry this inside."

"You grab the balloons. I'll get the bucket."

After everything was safely tucked away in my room (because I didn't trust Brady not to come home and fuck with it), Jeremy and I headed to a cute little place in Forks.

"I can't believe you wanted pizza for your birthday. I thought for sure you'd what something closer to me. Like McDonald's." He teased.

"I do love McDonald's. But I eat that almost every time I go to your place." Which was true. "And I haven't had pizza in a while."

"Whatever the birthday girl wants." He laughed.

"So, want to hear something I just learned!" I leaned across the table.

"Sure. Hit me with your new adult wisdom."

"A biologist tried to sue Disney because of the hyenas in the lion king not being portrayed correctly." And so went my birthday lunch. Jeremy let me prattle on for the whole time before talking about our shows. All while slyly sending snapchats to Jake while Jeremy was busy taking bites of pizza.

"You sure you don't want me to hang out with you?" He asked as we pulled back into the driveway.

"That's okay. I'm going to start on my cookies and you have a long drive home!" I told him.