The Birthday Surprise (JaDine)

                 

James woke up to the sound of his annoying chicken alarm. He must admit it was a very effective alarm because he wakes up every time it rings the first time.

Still with eyes begging to close, he reached out for the phone on the desk by his bedside.

Only there was no desk.

He forgot he moved in to his new condo last night. The furnitures were still in disarray and his things were still in boxes.

The chicken continued to scream its lungs out.

He swore under his breath and lifted his head. "Where is that damn phone..." he lazily pushed himself up and found the phone. He had been sleeping on it the whole time.

He muffled another profanity.

When the screaming chicken had been turned off, he suddenly remembered what day it was.

"JAMESSSS! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!" Bret's text was the first message on his notifications, complete with a kissing and party popper emoji.

"Bro happy beerday. See you tonight!" said another friend via text.

His number of birthday greeting texts was endless, not to mention Instagram DMs and comments. Thank goodness he turned Twitter and Facebook off.

Family.

Friends.

Bosses.

Co-workers.

People.

People.

People.

The birthday texts kept coming and his battery indicator suddenly turned bloody red.

He groaned as he got up to charge his phone. As he scrolled to the unending list of text messages, he noticed something odd. Where was Nadine's text message? He already reached the last message from Lauren.

He shrugged, thinking she must be up to something again just like on his 22nd birthday last year.

Half naked and with messed up hair, James walked towards the mirror to look at himself.

"Happy 23rd birthday, Robert James Reid."

He looked at himself. Nothing's changed so much...except his abs; they're there but not really. He should hit the gym soon.

He took his time fixing his messy hair, making sure the strands he was stroking were in their proper places.

"Good, good," he spoke like they were alive and listening. Not that it reminded him of Leah Olivar or anything. As he groomed himself, he couldn't stop taking quick glances at his charging phone.

What was Nadine Lustre up to?

So he sort remembered Leah Olivar a bit... just a bit.

He couldn't deny he was giddy. Nadine was the only person who had all the excuses in the world to make cheesy surprises without being labeled his girlfriend.

After showering, he received a text from Caryl. She had a family emergency to attend to and couldn't go to his dinner party that night. James' heart sank.

But he silently hoped she was taking part in his birthday surprise. Of course she is. She's Caryl, for goodness sake.

He looked at his phone, which was again filled with birthday texts from friends, but none from Nadine.

A little bit disgruntled, he started cleaning the new condo to take his head off the surprise he wasn't even sure was going to happen.

He started in the kitchen, to the living room and finally to the bedroom. He dragged the small desk beside his bed, making sure he was going to wake up the next day without his phone sleeping with him anymore.