AH collections

the sugar baby escapades (18)

OT6
Word count: 17704
Chapters: 18

Jeremy asks for nothing in life. He has five absurdly rich partners who would move heaven and hell for him (who already have on many occasions) so when it comes to birthdays and holidays, there's not really much Jeremy would ask for. So often times these events would be full of inside jokes—maybe some exponentially wealthy thing like Geoff deciding to take Jeremy to Italy of all places just so he could complete an assignment for one of his college courses. Usually those sorts of trips are for special occasions. They're too caught up in whatever shitstorms they're causing in Los Santos to be running off to enjoy drinks on the beach. Plus Jeremy has a soft spot in him to donate most of his money to charity. Arts programs usually because he's typical like that. He's supporting what he likes. But sometimes they just blow their money on dumb stuff—like Gavin. Who always seems to waste his money on the dumbest shit—making bets he never wins, leaving money on tables at restaurants that way out pays anything they bought, donating to charities that sometimes turn out to be ponsi schemes because he never does the research. He's just not smart with his money.

But as it, Jeremy is turning twenty-five. A pretty big deal, being a quarter century young. He'll admit, there was a bit of a rough patch there when he was fifteen, going on nineteen. But he came around. He found some good people in the end, and they showed him love and compassion and how good life could be. But twenty-five is a big deal.

"I remember when I was twenty-five," Geoff says. "It was a wild fucking year. Was on a lot of shit I shouldn't have been, but hey. Everyone grows up differently."

He knows about Geoff's past and his struggles with addiction and substance abuse. It's not a secret here. Most of them have seen him go through it, and even Jeremy met him at the beginning of his journey to sobriety.

They all have different stories of their twenty-fifth year ("Happy quarter century, J," Gavin had said) and more or less they were involved with the crew. Sometimes small stuff. Ryan had only wanted to go horseback riding because it reminded him of life back home before he came to live in the city. And then there was Michael, who wanted to take everyone sky diving. Which they did, with Geoff and Gavin screaming the entire way down. But Jeremy doesn't really know what he wants. He has five people in his life willing to do whatever he asks. Pay for whatever he wants. Buy whatever he desires. And he sort of wants those decisions to be taken out of his hands.

"You know what, Jack?" he asks her one day when he's stretched out on the couch after a long workout. "I've never had a surprise party before. You hear about them so often, you know? Like on TV and shit and it's supposed to be this big deal, like making sure the person's not there, and through a comedy of errors it's somehow pulled off perfectly. I like that kind of stuff.

"Okay, Jeremy," she says, and that's all she says, because Jack likes to spoil her boys. In ways that many of them don't expect. She can be very surprising and very spontaneous, picking up on the small details they say and filing them away for later when they least expect it.

But it's not a secret that Jeremy likes surprises. He thinks they're fun and entertaining, just like that trip to Italy with Geoff. Just like those art shows put on by his department at school. When he's asked to submit a portfolio piece because someone thought he had potential. Or another time when someone offered to buy a piece from a showcase he was a part of. Surprising, out of the blue, and fulfilling. That's sort of what he's going for.

But needless to say, he always has low expectations because birthdays were always hard when he was a kid living barely above the poverty line. Even seeing the amount of money in his bank account sometimes makes him sick—like it's just sitting there, so he'll donate a hefty chunk until the numbers are somewhat in line with how he lived as a kid and then he'll feel a bit better.