KISS: Road Trip

Ch 41: Birthday Boy (Eric)

I woke up to the smell of breakfast and fumbled about for my glasses before sitting up with a yawn. Bruce's bed was empty which made sense since someone was cooking at the moment. Smiling, I stumbled into the kitchen, feeling my jaw immediately drop. Bruce had prepared a huge spread of breakfast food and was just flipping the last pancake on a plate. He gave me a wide smile, handing me a cup of coffee. "Well good morning sleepyhead!" he said cheerfully. "Why'd you make so much food?" I asked, still staring at the table. His smile only got bigger and he ruffled my hair affectionately.

"Because I know you like breakfast foods and since it's your birthday I decided to make you a bunch of them! Happy birthday, by the way." My heart immediately melted and I set down my mug to give him a huge hug. "Aww thanks Bruce, you remembered!" I cried. He laughed, hugging me back. "You're my best friend, I'm not going to forget your birthday! Anyway, let's eat, shall we?"

Still grinning, I sat at the table, immediately piling my plate high with food, taking a bite. "Oh my gosh Bruce it's so good!" I said excitedly. He smiled, grabbing some eggs and bacon and putting them on his own plate. "Good, I'm glad!" I kept eating the really good breakfast before freezing. "Oh damn what smells so good?"

Bruce's face turned pink and he shrugged, giving me a sheepish smile. "Um okay so I'm trying to make you a cake. But bear in mind I...have no idea how to bake." My heart somehow melted even more as I gave him a smile. "Awwwww! Thanks Bruce, you didn't have to do that!" "Well no, but I wanted to! It might turn out horribly, I'm not sure. I've never baked anything before." "Well hey, it can't be worse than the cake Ace made for Paul senior year!" I said cheerfully. He shrugged. "No it probably could."

I kept scarfing down delicious breakfast food that Bruce had so lovingly made me before all the food was gone and I moved to gather up some of the plates but Bruce jumped to his feet first. "Not a chance, sit down. You're the birthday boy, you don't have to do the dishes." "Wait no there's so many dishes I don't want you to have to--" "Eric. You are the birthday boy. You're not doing the dishes," he said with a smile, taking my plate.

I sat on the counter, sipping another mug of coffee as Bruce washed the dishes. "Thanks for breakfast and for doing the dishes, that was really nice and you didn't have to do that," I said with a smile. He gave me a grin, shaking his head. "Actually as your best friend I did have to. Anyway, it's your special day today, what are you going to do?"

Shrugging, I finished off my coffee, reaching over and pouring myself a refill. "I dunno, good question! What should I do?" "Hey, it's your birthday. Do whatever the hell you want, within reason. And anything you want me to do for you I will."

"I'm fine with just hanging out here! Probably gonna have to answer some phone calls from my parents and my girlfriend and all that. But yeah we can just chill here!" He gave me a warm smile, ruffling my hair and getting soapy water all over me. "Sounds like a plan. Oh! I got you a gift, hold on," he said, shutting off the sink and walking into our room. He came back a minute later, handing me a gift bag.

Smile splitting my face, I pulled out the tissue paper. "Aww! Bruce! This is so nice of you!" I cried, looking at the sketchbook and nice ass set of markers as well as a card. He gave me a satisfied smile. "Open the card. There's more of your gift in there."

Raising an eyebrow, I opened the card, quickly reading what he had written there in his usual neat handwriting.

Happy birthday Eric!

As your best friend I obviously know what you like and I also know that you play the drums really fucking well. So the five of us and Carrie got you a drum kit. Since I don't hate the neighbors or myself we don't have it here, it's at Carrie's house.

Happy birthday again!

~Bruce

I looked at him, looking back at the card before looking at him again, so happy and so touched I was trying really hard not to cry. "B-Bruce that's so nice of you!" I choked out at last. He grinned, giving me a tight hug. "It's what you deserve. Happy birthday."

By the time it was evening, Bruce had finished baking and decorating my cake, putting 24 candles in it. Face burning, he set it on the table, and it took everything in me not to laugh as I stared at the mess in front of me. "Okay so...so it's really bad," he said sheepishly. "N-no! No it's beautiful, I love it!" I choked, biting back laughter.

"Shut up it looks like shit and you know it. But hopefully it tastes good." He slid the cake toward me. "Okay now blow out the candles!" "Aw what you're not going to sing to me?" I teased. His face grew even redder. "Eric I love you but I'm not singing happy birthday to you by myself. Now come on, just blow out the candles!"

Grinning, I silently wished that we would be able to be friends forever and blew out all the candles, saving one. "Well Carrie's going to be happy to know you still have a girlfriend," Bruce said with a smile, extinguishing the last candle and handing me a knife. "At my house it's a tradition that the birthday boy gets to cut his own piece of cake." My face lit up and I cut myself a huge slice. "You're too nice, you know that?" "Why yes, I did know that actually," he said, cutting himself a much smaller piece.

"Anyway I really don't know how to bake so it might be really, really bad," he said, picking at his piece with his fork but not actually taking a bite. "No, I'm sure it'll be fine!" I said cheerfully, taking a huge bite and almost immediately regretting it. I tried to keep my face neutral as I forced down the bite, before forcing a smile. "Oh it's um...it's really...good," I choked.

Bruce nodded slowly, face turning red. "It's disgusting isn't it?" he asked with a sigh. "N-no! No it's great! I love it, really!" I said hastily. Raising an eyebrow, he took a bite before immediately bursting into laughter. "Oh shit how did I fuck that up so badly?!" he cried. "I don't know! Bruce I'm so sorry but it's really, really bad! How did you...it's both too dry and too wet?! And it tastes...like metal, almost? Like I'm so sorry, it was really sweet of you to try but holy shit Bruce you suck at baking!"

Shaking his head, he walked to the freezer, pulling out a store bought ice cream cake with a grin and setting it in front of me. "Here, I got a backup because I didn't trust myself. I trust Ice Scream, You Scream, I'm sure they make good ice cream cake." I cut myself a slice, setting it on my plate. "Ooh wait hold on I wanna send this to Gene and ask him if it brings back memories," I said with a grin, sending him a quick snapchat.

"I can't believe Nick was born a few days before your birthday," Bruce said with a faint smile, discretely throwing away the rest of the cake he had made. "Would've been cool if we shared a birthday! I'm excited to see him in a few weeks though, that'll be fun!" I said cheerfully, looking at the snapchat Gene had sent me. fucking hated working there don't give me flashbacks

"Yeah, it will be. Happy birthday though, I hope it was good!"

I gave him a huge smile. "It was perfect, Bruce."