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."

"Tell me about it." Tony sighed, "What're you doing for him?" he asked.

"I got the cake." Geoff answered as he gave a slight shrug of his shoulder to refer to the cake in the backseat. Then, he grinned a bit.

"Is 'cake' codeword for something...?" Tony assumed with a puzzled look, and it was quite obvious to Geoff that he was taking it the dirty way.

"Nah, man. You won't believe who I got on the phone yesterday." he smirked excitedly as he turned a corner.

"Lemme guess, some annoying younger cousin?" Tony assumed sarcastically.

"Nope." Geoff answered, then said, "Kelly."

"Really? She's in town?" Tony asked as he crossed his arms over his chest and sat back in his seat.

"Mhm. And she said she'd stop by, too." Geoff answered with a smile.

~•~

Meanwhile, Kirstie and Layne continues to work on their scrapbook. This meant Kirstie got to see some of their old pictures, a lot of which making her smile.

"How long have you guys known each other?" Kirstie finally asked the taller man.

Layne shrugged as he pondered it as he cut some scrapbook paper, "We've known each other forever, but... all five of us only became friends around middle school."

"That's cool." Kirstie said as she prepared the picture they were going to use.

"How about you? Have any friends?" Layne asked as he absentmindedly continued to shape and crop the paper. Kirstie then took the stencils and began to trace them onto paper.

"Yeah... Some." she said, then bit her bottom lip knowing that was hardly true at all. She had her friends, sure, but not many close enough to speak of. The girl couldn't help but feel the pit in his stomach sink even deeper as she admired all of the pictures they had. Her brown eyes peered up as her mind wandered, then she caught sight of Layne in the midst of making a mistake. "Oh, Layne." she mentioned to halt him, "Um, you're cutting too close to the edge."

"I am? Oh..." he trailed off as he slowly began to realize his mistake. 

"That's okay, it's an easy fix." Kirstie assured before she offered out her task to him, "Trade you?"

Layne smiled slightly and accepted the offer, trading his supplies for her's. "Sure. I can do that." he said optimistically.

Just then, the door opened and the bass and the baritone entered the house to see Kirstie and Layne sitting on the rec room floor. "Oh, hey, Kirsite." Geoff greeted kindly despite the unexpected visit. The bass quickly greeted her before hurriedly heading over to the kitchen to put the cake in the freezer.

"Hi." Tony smiled before adjusting his bag strap around his shoulder.

Kirstie returned the smile and gave a wave of her hand, "Hey."

Tony bit his bottom lip before giving a sideways glance to the clock hanging above the television. "Crap!" he cussed as it finally struck him. He hurriedly headed for his room, "I gotta clean yet!"

While Layne was busy focusing his energy on tracing the stencils perfectly, Geoff entered the rec room once more to head out the door. "Well, I gotta get back to work, see you guys." he said. They three said their goodbyes along with a muffled 'yep, bye'! from Tony.

Kirsite's brown eyes switched to Layne, her thoughts wrestling with her. "Um, Layne? Are you sure I'm not too much of a bother? If you guys need to do your thing I can get out of your way."

Layne met her eyes for a moment, showing no sign of anything close to a lie, "No way! You've been a big help!" he said positively, "I don't want to know what the scrapbook would've looked like if I woulda done it by myself!"

The blonde giggled slightly before turning back to her work.

Tony hurriedly paced from the hallway and into the rec room, though headed for the kitchen. "Hey, ummm..." he began, directed towards Kirsite, "I'm sorry this place is kinda a mess, I dunno..."

"Don't worry about it." Kirstie shrugged with an assuring look, "I grew up with six brothers."

"Really?" Layne asked.

She nodded her head and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, "Mhm. Five older and one younger." the girl then laughed a little, "Probably explains why I can be such a tomboy sometimes."

"Layne, Eli comes back at seven right?" Tony asked as he peeked into the rec room.

Layne then began to carefully cut out the letters. "Mhm." he answered simply.

"Crap!" Tony cussed again, then remembered Kirstie was sitting right next to Layne. "I mean, uh, sorry." he apologized quickly before bolting down the hall to get started on the chores.

Layne turned his brown eyes back down to his paper, then said, "Sorry about Tony. He cusses sometimes."

"That's fine. He seems like he's in a hurry." she commented as she, too, focused back on her work.

"Yeah, he was going to do all of Eli's chores today for his birthday and clean the house." Layne explained as he referred to the quite untidy house.

"Oh, that's pretty thoughtful." Kirstie said optimistically.

"Yeah. Eli's gonna be surprised." Layne smiled at the thought of it. "We're on the last page now..., Wow, five hours went by fast!"

Kirstie giggled, "It does when you have good company." she said subtly as she finished cutting the scrapbook paper.

"Thanks again for doing this with me, Kirstie. I appreciate it a lot!" Layne said gratefully. He was almost finished with the letters and still had his eyes fixed on the sheet so he could cut to the best of his abilities.

"Don't mention it." she shrugged, "It was a lot of fun."

Meanwhile, Tony dashed from room to room in attempt to tidy everything before getting into the real cleaning. "Hey, Layne?" Tony asked from the kitchen.

Layne reacted to his name and peered towards the door separating them. "Yeah?" he called.

"Are you making supper?" Tony asked in reference to their schedule.

"Earl wanted to bring Eli's favourite home from the Kitchen." Layne informed him, "He should be back before Eli's home."

"The Kitchen?" Kirstie asked Layne.

"Oh, yeah." Layne figured she probably didn't know where Earl worked, "Earl's a chef. Well, chef in training."

"Oh, that's cool." Kirstie smiled.

Half an hour passed and Geoff had finally come home. By this time, Kirstie and Layne had completed their scrapbook and Layne invited her to stay a little longer.

While Geoff began to set up the decorations, Layne and Kirstie wrapped the gift and the other things which needed wrapping paper or bags as well.

Tony was sitting on the living room couch folding laundry, which was one of Eli's tasks for the day.

Now, near the time when Eli was supposed to come back, Earl was home already and almost finished preparing their meal. The five had managed to get everything done which needed to be finished before the birthday boy came back.

"Do you want to stay for dinner?" Layne asked Kirstie before she had a chance to leave. "... 'cause I can't take take credit for the awesome work you did on the scrapbook and all the help you did and I'm sure Eli would appreciate it, too. We all appreciate it and this is the least we can do to repay you..." Layne rambled.

Kirstie smiled at how cute he was when he talked on and on, so she nodded and said in a kind voice, "I'd love to, if you're offering."

"Tony, get off off the floor. Eli's home in two minuets!" Geoff told the man laying exhausted on the floor.

"Okay, okay... I'm up." Tony grumbled as he pushed himself up and off the floor. He stumbled a bit before heading into the kitchen.

The five anticipated the arrival of their friend, and when the time came, Eli opened the door to the apartment.

The lights were off, which made the decorations and balloons at lot less noticeable. Earlier, he had a rough time at work and had gotten stuck in terrible traffic. Usually that wouldn't be too much of a bother, but his morning set him off the mood and everything seemed a little bit gloomier.

Eli sighed miserably as he shut the door behind him and dreading to look up to see the house a complete mess.

"Guys, you home?" Eli asked in a dull and tasteless voice.

"Heyyyyyy, Eli!" it was Geoff talking from the kitchen.

"Hi, Geoff—" However, when he did look up, his eyes saw a clean house. Nearly spotless. He was baffled for a moment, seeing that his chores were finished.

Then the door to the kitchen then opened and the five all came out with huge smiles. Earl flipped on the light switch, making the colorful array of streamers and balloons pop out against the cream-colored walls. All in unison, they chanted once, "Happy Birthday, Eli!"

Eli couldn't help but smile. The four guys held their wrapped presents in their hands while they wore colourful,
paper birthday hats.

"Guys..." Eli said, unable to form the words which he wanted to say, "You guys did all of this..? My chores, too?" he asked.

Tony shrugged, "You'd do it for me." he then paused, "Hell, you do do them sometimes!"

Eli knew how much Tony hated to clean, which gave him all the more reason to appreciate the gesture.

"Yeah, you keep us and this house in check." Geoff smirked.

"Wouldn't be the same without you, man." Earl said genuinely and warmly.

"We just wanna say we appreciate you and we love you, Eli." Layne finished for the rest of his friends. 

All the bad things that happened to Eli earlier seemed to disappear as the good things outweighed them tremendously. "I don't know what to say... thank you guys! I - I love it!"

"So, Eli, presents now or after we eat?" Geoff asked the birthday boy.

"Well you all have the gifts out now... so, we'll do that." Eli answered, then everyone headed over to the couches so he could sit.

While Eli sat in the middle, Earl sat on his right side and Geoff let Kirstie occupy the seat on his left. Tony, Geoff, and Layne took their seats on the floor in front of Eli.

By the time it came to the scrapbook, Layne handed the book to Eli, then mentioned, "I couldn't have done it without Kirstie." he smiled, "Well, I coulda, but it wouldn't look nearly as good."

Eli smiled, then set the book on his lap and opened it to the first page. "You're right, it does look great! Thanks Layne, and thanks Kirstie."

After a few moments of looking through the pages of the scrapbook, Earl said, "We have one more present." he then secretly motioned to Geoff.

"Yep!" Geoff exclaimed, then got up and rounded the couch. Eli turned to look over his shoulder just as the bass had jogged up to the door.

When Geoff had opened the door and peered around the corner, he made a hand motion. A blonde walked into the room with a huge smile. Eli's eyes lit up, matching the sparkle in her's.

"Kelly!" he exclaimed as he didn't waste any time to meet her. The two met halfway and hugged each other. "It's been too long!"

"Four years too long!" she agreed. They let each other go. Then Eli turned to Geoff, who smiled boyishly and held his hands behind his back.

"Can I keep her?" he joked, which earned a playful punch to the shoulder from Kelly.

"I already asked if I could tie a giant bow around her." Geoff mused, "She said no."

Eli laughed, turning his attention back to Kelly before saying, "But it's so great to see you again! How long've you been in town?"

"I'm just stopping in for a while. To visit relatives." she shrugged, but then smiled and said, "But there was no way I'd miss my favourite guy's birthday!" the girl then offered out a bagged gift out to Eli, who openly accepted it.

"Well do you wanna stay for supper?" Earl offered her with open arms, "Compliments of myself."

"That sounds cool!" Kelly nodded in agreement.

"Great!" Eli exclaimed, then turned to face all of his friends and some of the people he's held dearest to him for years. He drew in a deep breath, all the bad things not even relevant to him at all anymore. That's it, he had everything he loved smiling back at him.

"I don't think this could get any better than it already has." Eli said, "Thanks, all of you, I couldn't possibly love this any more than I already do."

"We all love you, Eli." Kelly answered in a voice that Eli could never get tired of.

"I ... Just – Just thanks again for making this day so special." Eli said once more. "It means the world to me. You all mean the world to me."

~•~

Hello!

I know, this loong overdue and I'm sorry for that! I was kinda behind schedule on my books and this actually came out on Geoff's birthday 😁

But I'll start of Geoff's ASAP so don't worry your pretty little minds!

If you enjoyed it, please vote and comment :) it means a lot to me.

~•~

ScarletMIX