Birthday Gifts
Changed By You
Smiling as he thinks of her, waiting for the date on his phone to change. He hopes it doesn’t worry her the possibility of people she loves - fans, friends, especially her family may forget what today is - how special it is to her. Today isn’t just any other day. It is her birthday.
He cannot be there the moment the clock strikes twelve. He wants to, badly. All he can do is to call to her and sing to her the song that it is meant for this occasion. As he sings to her, he is smiling from ear to ear, imagining her eyes twinkling like his as she hears his voice, for he knows, he is one of the reasons that makes her smile during the first couple of minutes of her birthday. That she is happy he remembers, that today’s special occasion does not slip his mind.
“Where is my gift?” She tells him, still smiling.
“My love is not enough for you.”
“Of course, it is not enough.” She laughs. “You promised.”
“Promised to love you always? Yes. I did promised that. I am keeping that promise.”
“It is customary to give a gift or gifts to be the birthday celebrant.”
He laughs, “You just used the word ‘customary’.
“Yeah, ‘cause I could talk.”
“You are already drunk, aren’t you? Started the celebration even before your actual birthday. What did you do to my Amber?”
“My Amber?”
“Yeah,” He says it the way she said it awhile ago, “you heard me. My Amber.”
“I am twenty ing one years old, Henry. I can drink whatever and whenever I want.”
“Since two years ago.”
“So where is my gift? Gimme. Gimme.”
“Sorry, he, your gift, can’t be there so he just decided to call you.”
“At least he didn’t forget now, not like what happened before.” She sounds like he hurt her feelings. She hopes her acting skills are improving.
“What? When did he forget your birthday? How dare he?” He knows all this time that Amber will remember and will bring that topic up.”
“Yeah, how dare he?”
“Hey, a promise is a promise. You know I don't break promises and I won't let myself break one anytime soon, not especially on your birthday."
“You really bought me one? I was just teasing you earlier.”
“I’ll put you on speaker, wait a sec.” He goes online and checks if she is. “Oh, you’re online. I am ending the call, okay.”
Amber looks at screen of her phone. “What the hell is going on?” Her phone rings, he is video calling her. She answers, “Henry,” grinning.
He uses a stack of books, leans his phone on them. He turns his phone horizontally. Amber does that too. He waves at the front camera. “Can you hear and see me clearly, Amber?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” He grabs his guitar. He sits in front of the camera, waving again.
“Is he gonna sing for you?” Min notices what Amber is watching.
“I think so.” Amber looks at Min.
Henry hears Min’s voice in the background. “Hi, Min.” “Hi, Henry.” Min replies.
“Amber, this isn’t the guitar that I will give you since this is my guitar,” he places his guitar on the sofa.
“I know you will sneak in my apartment anyways, steal my shirts, while I am gone, so I will just leave this,” he picks up a black guitar case placed near him, “here,” opening it, showing another guitar to her. He strums the strings as he tunes the guitar.
He starts playing the intro of the song. “Remember this song?”
Amber immediately smiles. “How could I forget?”
It is the song they sang together when they were still trainees. The first song among the few songs they had the chance to record. He sings his part, she sings hers.
The song ended, he greets her, “Happy Birthday”
‘Thank you.” Then she finally remembers where she first saw that guitar. “Is that…?” She notices the design.
“I know that is the one you wanted since you said it looked like the guitar you have back in L.A. I saw staring at it every time we passed by the shop.”
“Again, thank you.”
He can hear it in her voice, “Are you about to cry?”
“No, I am not.” She fixes her eyeglasses.
“Okay. You’re not.” He smiles at her again. “Sorry I can’t be there to give my gift.”
“It’s okay. I know, you are busy.”
“Enjoy your day.”
“I already am.”
“I miss you already.”
“I miss you too.”
“Wait for me, okay.”
“I will.”
“Don’t get sick. I can’t be there to care of you.”
“Don’t worry too much, Henry. I will take care of your girlfriend,” Min tells Henry, and Amber looks at her. “Oops, I meant, best friend,” smiling at Amber and Henry, and walks away.
-x-
Almost a week have passed, she brings a paper bag of clean t-shirts she took without any permission and the shirts and caps Henry left at her apartment.
She sees the guitar case with a big red ribbon taped on it placed on the sofa. She also sees a really big Happy Birthday card on the coffee table. It is from the gift shop where you say what design you want to put on the card - a white llama, a blue alien, and an orange anime character all wearing a birthday hats, hugging a white dog with black ears, wearing a black mouse hat.
Her smile grows wider when she opens the card, and her eyes begins to tear up upon reading the first sentence.
“Someone who I can’t live without, who I love so much. That is who you are to me. You are one of the reasons why I am who I am. There is a part of me, of who I am, of what kind of man I turned out to be, you are the reason behind it. I could have just said those words to anyone who was also one of the reasons, but I chose to say it to you first. Happy 21st Birthday, my Amber.”
-x-
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