I was awoken in a very similar fashion as exactly a year before, only this time there wasn’t a cupcake with one single candle involved. Actually, there wasn’t any loud off-key singing either… Nor was it in the same bed or at the same time. So, basically, everything was different other than it being my birthday and Jack being the one to excitedly wake me up. But was there something else I was supposed to expect on this specific day?

“Happy birthday, baby!” Jack screamed as he jumped on top of me, not leaving me any time to comfortably wake up. I was literally shaken out of my sleep. If it weren’t for the fact that I had gotten used to it, I would have shot up straight out of fear.

I groaned audibly and slapped him lamely on his cheek. My mind hadn’t fully been able to register what was going on yet, it was still trying to figure out exactly where I was. Honestly, I was so confused. Slowly but surely everything was piecing together. I was still in Mauritius on holiday with my family and Jack’s family, it was my birthday, I was still in bed and Jack was being the hyperactive monkey he was.

“Happy birthday!” He exclaimed again, but I couldn’t match his excitement at all. I actually felt quite horrible.

“Come on, say it back!” He urged, pressing on my arms lightly out of anticipation.

I looked up at him, a frown on my face that both portrayed my confusion and bad mood, and muttered, “what?”

“Say it back.” He repeated, still as hyper as before.

“Happy birthday?” I said more as a question that was asking him whether or not he wanted me to say that.

Well, apparently it was exactly what he wanted to hear because instead of giving me an answer, he replied something completely different. “Woah! It’s your birthday too?!”

I was about to ask him what the hell was going on and why he thought it was his birthday as well, when it suddenly hit me. Jack wasn’t just saying some random nonsense. It made perfect sense. So, I answered in the way he wanted to, my voice quiet, a smile forming on my face, and a tear escaping my eye, “no way, it’s mine too…”

Instead of ending it the way Cam always would do by saying ‘Ok, bye’ and either leaving the room or hanging up the phone, Jack left out that line and wiped away the tear that had fallen. He softly kissed me, my mood having changed. I was both sad about not having Cam here anymore, that I no longer had somebody to share my birthday with, but also happy because Jack did something so special without having to try.

“Where did you get that from?” I asked, wondering how he had been able to repeat the lines without any mistakes. It wasn’t a lot of words, but still. He only heard my side of the conversation once exactly a year ago when we were outside on a boat. There was no way he could have just remembered it.

“Let’s just say you weren’t the only one Cameron left letter for,” he told me honestly, the information coming as a surprise to me. “Granted, he wrote you a shit load more, but I found two in that box of yours that were addressed to me. I haven’t opened one, but the other has many reminders for me… only I have seemed to have misplaced it, so I hope it’s somewhere back at home…”

“I love you,” I whispered, deciding that that was the only way I could end a conversation like this.

Before he could say it back, another thought crossed his mind, as evident by the look on his face. “Wait, I want to give you your first birthday gift!” He jumped off me and rushed over to his suitcase.

“But didn’t you already ‘give’ me my first one?” I asked in confusion, really not having expected that he would have gotten me anything else. Knowing Jack, he probably thought sex was good enough for a gift. Apparently, however, he thought differently this time.

“No, this is a proper gift. It will be the best gift you have ever received.” He returned with some odd-shaped wrapped object and a letter.

I took it from him as I sat up against the headboard. The gift was strangely squishy and the letter obviously wasn’t from him. Right on the envelope, Cam’s handwriting formed the words ‘birthday no. 1’. I had completely forgotten about the fact that my brother had also written something for my birthday. If it weren’t for Jack, it would have still been at home.

I put the letter to the side and decided to start with the gift Jack had gotten me. “I’ll have you know that nobody will ever beat my dad’s gifts. It doesn’t matter what he gets me. It could be a scrap piece of paper, and it would still be better than anything else.”

“Well, he’s got competition now.” Jack smirked.

I rolled my eyes and slowly started unwrapping the gift. As I saw the contents, I immediately understood why the wrapping hadn’t been done so greatly. When I took away the wrapping paper with balloons on it, I found a yellow plush duck. It was pretty fat and had beady eyes, but I had to admit and say it was cute.

Before I could give a reaction, Jack was already trying to justify it. “It has a sound box which allows you to record a personalized message, so I already did that. It’s kind of cheesy, but I know you love ducks, so…”

I squeezed the ducks body and Jack’s message starting playing ‘Happy 25th birthday, baby! I love you.’

“I love it, Jack.” I smiled up at him. “It really does seem like my dad has some competition. I’m going to take it on tour with me every single time now and annoy everybody else with it.”

“As long as they don’t react aggressively towards me when they see me due to my voice, I don’t care what you do with it.” Jack shrugged and looked towards the door, where the sound of pans falling came from. “I’m going to help set up for breakfast, you come when you’re ready, alright?”

I nodded, knowing he meant that I would get some time by myself to read the letter now. It obviously wasn’t because I needed to make myself look presentable, Jack also was only wearing some pajama bottoms and a shirt he quickly threw on along with his glasses. And, let’s be honest, Jack probably was only going to cause more trouble when they were already people trying to set up the table.

So, after he left, I reached out for the letter I had put down beside me and slowly opened it.

Dear Sister,
It’s me again, here to make my voice echo through your mind again with my annoying words! Maybe you’re already fed up with reading these long ass letters. Well, I can’t really assume that. I don’t know how many letters you’ve already read. Maybe this is one of your first, maybe so many things have already happened that were letter worthy… huh… Maybe you somehow got married and had a kid before this birthday and I wouldn’t even know. That just feels so weird to even think about.
Anyway, enough of those semi-negative thoughts. It’s your birthday! I don’t know how old you are now, but happy birthday, Field. I hope you’re having or are going to have a great birthday. I know, I know, how the hell can a party be great without me there? I am great. It isn’t a party till I’m there.
But seriously, it’s still going to be great without me. You can do this. If Jack’s still there, I hope he made up for our amazing routine. If he’s there and didn’t do it, please get mad at him. If he isn’t there, please get mad at him. But if he did do it, please love him.
Have you already gotten your gifts or are you still going to get them? I hope they are fucking amazing. You deserve the best there is. Knowing dad, he probably got you something too great for words if he’s there. Otherwise, Jack better step up. I’m putting a lot of faith in Jack, here. I hope he doesn’t fuck up. That would suck and ruin so many of my letters. God… you better not end stuff with him. He has been mentioned too many times.
So, back to the fact that it’s your birthday. This is your first birthday without me there at all. I’m sorry about that… It was what I was trying to avoid for myself, but I brought you in that situation instead…
Wait, no, no negative thoughts.
I’m just going to give you some advice. I know you’re going to try to be happy for everybody else. Don’t do that unless you actually are happy. It’s ok to put up an act for some people, but you have to share your feelings with someone, whether it be Jack or mom or dad. It doesn’t matter, but please don’t shut yourself off. It won’t do you any good.
This letter is probably a really shitty birthday gift, but it seems weird buying things for you now without even knowing if it would still work at the time it should be gifted. So, my words are going to have to do.
I would like to recall some memories, but most of the good ones are ones I don’t know if you remember, so I’m going to shut up.
Before I ruin this all, I’ll just sign off and let you have your amazing birthday.
Happy Birthday!
Love,
Cam.

I wasn’t crying like I thought I would have been. I was fully prepared to try and make sure that my tears wouldn’t smudge the writing. But that didn’t even happen. The opposite happened. With each word, the smile on my face grew and grew. Somehow reading Cam’s letter made the empty feeling in me disappear. He didn’t say much and it was more humorous than deep like the other ones, but it was still great.

So, I put the letter on my bedside table and decided to get ready. All I did was brush my hair so it wasn’t sticking up all over the place. Just like Jack did, I put on my glasses like I did most mornings. Unlike him, however, I didn’t put on a shirt, since I already had one on, but I did put on some sweatshorts. I assumed nothing else needed to be done about my appearance.

I opened the door and went down the short hallway that was supposed to take me to the rest of the family. However, as I got there, everybody was still running around--yes, they were also in the pajamas except for our parents. They were busy hanging up balloons and banners, and setting up the table in a festive way. Jack specifically was up on a stool trying to hang up one end of a banner that said ‘Happy Birthday’ in large letters. May, however was the first to see me.

Her eyes went wide and she screeched, “Jack! I thought you said you had her occupied for a while!”

Jack’s head snapped towards where I was standing and he dropped the banner from his hands. He quickly jumped down and whined. “Noooo. You were supposed to take longer! Shoo! Go back to where you came from!”

I raised my hands up in defense and he made me turn around and pushed me back down the hallway. “I’ll act super surprised when I come out again later.”

And that was exactly what I did. I waited patiently in our bedroom until Jack came back to fetch me again. As he guided me back to the dining-slash-living-slash-kitchen room, I acted like they had given me the best surprise ever. I did it with a dramatic gasp and all. It was a whole different birthday than the year before but I wouldn’t say one was better than the other.

Oh, and my dad’s gift was pretty great. He went all out and got me an analog camera that worked with film so I could expand my photography. Now I had more than enough media to use whenever I had time to take photos on tour. Also, to make sure Jack didn’t seem like just a cheesy dude who got me a duck, he also had a charm to add to my bracelet again. What was it this time? A music note for this new chapter in my life.

Notes

For some reason, I have not been motivated to write for this story recently. I don't feel like there're many people who care or read this. I, personally, would really like to finish this story, but I feel like it won't work if I'm no longer motivated. If it continues on like this, I'm going to speed things up even more, ruining the story in itself, but I want you guys to be able to see how I wanted things to end.
In the meantime, go check out the one story I am motivated to write for right now: We Are The Rebellious Youth. (Although I feel like the few people who are still interested in this story like that one way more already).