Us and Our House

A Birthday Gift (2)

On the morning of Eli's birthday...

Eli hardly remembered it was his birthday. This morning he got up to make the guys breakfast, but to his surprise, none of them were home. None.

He had expected all the guys to be home to wish him a happy birthday or to make him breakfast or do whatever friends do. To his disappointment, he got none of it. He sighed and decided that their jobs were probably where they were at and that should be their number one priority.

He drew in a deep breath and dragged his feet down the hallway to see the rec room was still a mess from the last night. "Layne..." Eli blamed knowingly. There were blankets and snack bowls and video games scattered all over the floor, and Eli didn't have the time nor energy to clean it up. Besides, it wasn't his job.

Eli felt a hungry ache in the pit of his empty stomach, so he decided to get something to eat for breakfast and head into the kitchen.

When he entered the room, he only discovered that the kitchen was a disaster from either Earl and Geoff's midnight snack raiding... or they had breakfast. Hell. he thought, Probably both.

Eli shut his eyes for a moment and rubbed his temples. "Okay... I'm going out for breakfast." he decided on with a stressed tone.

With that, the shorter man headed into the bathroom to get himself ready, only to see Tony's aesthetic products littered all over the bathroom counter. "Really, Tony?" Eli muttered through gritted teeth and tried to move things aside, knowing they belonged in Tony's room, and naturally not having any idea where he could leave them.

They boys knew he couldn't stand a messy house, and he couldn't leave the house and have a good day knowing about it. No matter what, Eli would feel uncomfortable the entire day.

After the struggle of brushing his teeth and washing his face, he finally left the bathroom and grabbed his coat to gladly head to work.

~•~

Geoff: Hey Tony. Whenever u have a chance to answer, I just wanna know what ur doing for Eli's bday.

Tony: I already got him something. I'm almost off work so I can tell u latr but right now I g2g.

Geoff: k. Do u need a ride from work?

Tony: sure.

Geoff waited outside the barber shop for his friend. As time passed, the bass would every so often glance towards the cake in the backseat to make sure it wasn't melting too much.

With his hands still on the leather-covered wheel, his brown eyes peered up into the rear-view mirror to spot his black-haired friend finally exit the building.

Tony's eyes squinted as sunlight struck them, instinctively raising a hand to shield his eyes from the harsh light. He then scanned the area around him and caught sight of a police car parked just outside of the shop.

As soon as Tony opened the car door and got into the passenger's seat, Geoff said, "Hey, man. How was work?"

"It was work." he sighed before strapping his seatbelt over his chest and clicking in the lock. "How about you?"

Geoff started the vehicle up once more before beginning to drive them both homeward. "It's been busy. I'm on my lunch break right now." he sighed, "But it's seriously a bummer that none of us got off on Eli's birthday."