"Carter."
The words were whispered into my ear and I whined at the intrusion of my sleep.
"Babe, wake up." The voice said again, this time much louder and I shifted in my slumber, coming into consciousness.
My eyes opened up slowly to see Ashton's hazel eyes baring down onto mine with an elated light.
"Happy Birthday." He smiled and I looked at him confused.
"What?" I asked, my voice cracking.
"It's April 15th, it's your birthday." He said and I lifted my head off the pillow.
I had forgotten my own birthday. The ultimate irony.
Being focused on absolutely everything but my own self I had forgotten about my birthday.
"Oh."I said and blinked heavily.
"Did you seriously forget your own birthday?" He asked me in disbelief.
"I guess so." I laughed lightly and sat up.
Cracking up at my forgetfulness we both got out of bed. Well technically I did because he was sitting on the comforter while I was curled up under the blankets.
Ashton was already dressed so I assumed he had already been awake for awhile.
Throwing on some sweatpants and putting my hair up in a pony tail, we walked into the living room where Gracie, Ender and Ann were all sitting at the kitchen counter.
"Mommy!" Gracie said loudly and reached out for me to pick her up. "It's your birthday!"
"I know!" I grinned at her, my voice higher like always whenever I spoke to her and she beamed radiantly.
"Happy Birthday, Car." Ender walked up and wrapped his arms around my middle, giving me a hug.
"Thanks, End." I smiled down at him.
"I'm sorry I didn't get you anything." He frowned.
"That's okay, I still love you I guess." I teased him and he stuck his tongue out at me in retaliation.
Ann came and gave me a hug telling me happy birthday as well and handed me a cup of coffee.
"Thanks guys." I smiled as I took a seat at the bar.
"So what do you want to do today?" Ann asked me. "It is your special day after all."
"Uh, I don't know, I hadn't really thought about it I guess." I said and took a sip of my coffee.
"Well, how about after we get ready we figure something out." Ashton suggested and I nodded in agreement.
Ann made us breakfast and handed me a plate of pancakes with a smiley face made of whipped cream, which had me laughing, and Ashton of course had to take a picture of the moment.
After breakfast I got dressed and ready for the day, even though I didn't know what we were going do.
I had a lot of energy though from sleeping in late and wanted to spend some time with Ender.
"Hey End, wanna go kick the ball around in the backyard?" I asked him and he jumped up from the sofa.
Ashton was in the other room on the phone so Ender and I went outside and grabbed the ball.
We took turns kicking the ball into the goal; the subconscious football player in me watching him and coaching him on how he could improve his form.
"Don't angle your foot so much." I said and he straightened it out a bit before kicking, the ball going more for the middle of the goal.
"There you go!" I said and he grinned.
"Hey Car, Coach Robin was talking about hiring an assistant coach...what if you took the job?" He randomly suggested.
I had to admit, the job sounded fun, but I would need more information.
"I'll ask him about it at practice on Tuesday." I said and he grinned.
It would be cool, helping coach Ender's team, but I had Gracie and she'd have to come with me and sit quietly on the sidelines or have someone babysit her.
Not really paying attention, I ran around the goal to circle the ball and come up on it to kick it as hard as I could, but my mind was thinking about the job and my foot missed, flying over the ball as my body fell backwards, knocking the wind out of me as I smacked onto the ground.
Shocked at first I laid there until I heard Ashton shouting.
"Jesus, Carter! Are you okay?" He yelled as he ran out to me from the back porch, crouching down next to me, his hands flitting about over me trying to figure out what to do.
But instead of crying or feeling pain, I gasped in a breath and then burst into laughter.
Ashton looked at me like I was crazy.
"Are you hurt? Carter you hit the ground hard." He said concerned but I continued laughing. "What the hell is so funny?"
"It's just that-" I tried to control myself, "I was just thinking about taking the assistant coach job at Ender's school, and then I fell." I laughed even harder at the end.
"Oh my God." He rolled his eyes and then took my hand, helping me up. "You are officially the weirdest person I've ever met."
We headed back inside and watched some television for a little while before we had lunch and then Ashton suggested that I practice driving again.
"Are you sure, I'd prefer not to kill us on my birthday." I said and he shook his head, grabbing his keys from the counter.
"Come on, we'll drive to the grocery store and come back."
Biting my lip I reluctantly followed along.
He backed his Jeep out of the garage and all but placed me himself behind the wheel.
Carefully and shakily, I backed up out of the drive and onto his street, slowly driving up to the first stop sign.
"Doing good babe, now take a left." I did as he said and eventually made my way out of the neighbourhood and onto city streets.
"Ashton, I'm not sure about this." I said as I was changing lanes.
"You're doing great, Carter. The store is just up the street." He smiled at me.
He told me where to turn in and we found a place with two empty parking spots so it was easier for me to park the car. I only had to back out and correct once.
"It's birthday luck." I said as Ashton praised me.
"Well if it keeps up maybe someone will get lucky tonight." He winked at me and I smacked his arm.
"Ashton!" I exclaimed, looking around the store to make sure no one heard us, but he burst out into laughter at my blushing cheeks.
"What do we need?" I asked as he grabbed a cart and we began to walk down the isles.
"I don't know, let's just look around." He said and I walked alongside him looking at the different things.
We went along the isles and ended up at the snack row. Ashton threw several bags of crisps into the cart and kept walking until we reached the drinks where he got several bottles of different sodas.
"Someone's hungry." I said talking about the basket full of snack foods and a little smirk crossed my lips as he looked down at me with a playful smile.
We turned down another isle and I began looking at granola bars while Ashton came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist, resting his head on my shoulder.
"See anything you want?" He asked me softly and I leaned my head back slightly.
"Kinda, but he's standing behind me so its kind of hard to see him." I smirked and he squeezed my waist before laughing.
"You're sassy today." He remarked and I shrugged innocently, and he leaned forward to kiss my cheek.
He let me go and I stood up on my tiptoes to reach a box of bars that looked promising but my fingers were only able to brush the edge.
"Does someone need help?" He snickered.
"Yes please." I said and he grabbed the box for me, throwing it in the cart.
Continuing on our trip down the isles we stopped on the ice cream row and began to pick out different flavors when a girl I didn't know walked up to us.
Her hair was straight and black and she had very pretty brown eyes. She must've been around 16.
"Hi, I'm sorry for interrupting you guys, but would you mind if I took a picture with you?"
My mouth dropped open in confusion and I looked at Ashton who had a wide eyed look.
"Uh, no, sorry." He said and reached up to scratch the back of his neck.
"That's okay. I hope you have a nice day." She smiled happily at us and then continued on her way, out of sight.
"That was weird." I said and Ashton snorted next to me.
"Yeah, it was."
We finished our shopping trip and I convinced Ashton to drive us back to his house to which he thankfully agreed.
When we arrived, we each grabbed bags of groceries and began to carry them in the house.
I noticed it seemed a little bit louder inside and when I turned the corner to the kitchen/living room area I found out why.
"Happy Birthday!" The small crowd that was standing in the living room shouted, almost giving me heart a heart attack.
Michael, Luke, Calum, Ann, Ender and Gracie stood there with smiles etched across their faces. Setting the bags on the ground my hands went up to cover my mouth that was open in surprise.
"Oh my God." I said and they all let out a laugh.
"This is why you made me drive to the store." I turned around to look accusingly at Ashton who just had an angelic grin on his face.
"Happy birthday." He said cheekily and came forward to hug me, lifting me off my feet as my hands wound around his neck.
"Thank you." I said into his ear and he hugged me to him tighter.
"Anything for you, Car." He said back and I smiled, so extraordinarily thankful.
Next the guys came to give me hugs and wish me a happy birthday.
They finished carrying the groceries inside for us and the reason why we bought so much snack food made much more sense. I insisted on helping Ann set it all up and noticed the beautiful cake that was on the counter. Happy Birthday Carter was written out in blue icing on top of the white frosted cake.
"Aw, this is so sweet, thank you." I gave Ann a hug.
Once everything was set up everyone began to eat, each person filling their plate then finding a place in the living room to sit.
"So how did your second driving lesson go?" Ann asked.
"She did pretty good." Ashton answered for me.
"I still need a lot more practice though." I laughed.
Continuing snacking for a few more minutes I remembered something.
"Oh! So when we were at the store, this random girl walked up to us and asked to take a picture with us. Isn't that so weird?" I said.
Focusing on Ender who was giving me a look like that didn't happen, I didn't notice everyone else in the room freeze. They all looked to Ashton with dead serious expressions on their face before Michael snapped into it and began to laugh.
Catching on, the rest did too.
After I had finished my food, Gracie stood up from where she was siting on the floor and climbed up into my lap, narrowly missing the plate that was still there, but Ashton quickly moved it out of the way.
By the look on her face I could tell she wanted to cuddle and she sat on my lap, hugging me, so I put my arms around her and held her close.
"I made you something." She looked up at me like a "very serious" four year old would.
"Really, do you want to show me?"
"No, you're comfy." She said and snuggled into me more.
"Oh okay." I laughed and so did everyone else.
We sat there and talked with each other for a while until it was dark outside.
Ann stood up and pulled the cake from its case and a knife and lighter as well; placing candles on it and then calling everyone into the kitchen.
We stood in a circle around the counter and Ashton directed me towards the middle, then counted off so they could start singing Happy Birthday to me.
At first I wasn't sure why, but a few tears came to my eyes and I quickly dabbed them away and tried to cover it up with a laugh.
Michael was on my right and pulled me into a shoulder hug as they finished the song.
"Thank you." I said in a tearful chuckle and Ashton took Michaels place by pulling me into him.
"Why are you crying?" He cooed at me, and stroked at my cheek with his thumb as his face pressed close to mine.
"Because I'm really happy." I said and he laughed with me as I sniffled to stop crying.
He let me go so I could fan at my eyes and then took a deep breath.
"Um, I just want to say thank you to you guys. A year ago it would've been me and Ender at home eating Chinese takeout, baking cookies and watching Peter Pan...but now I'm here with new friends, a new little member of the family," I reached over to poke Gracie's cheek, "And an amazing boyfriend. And I honestly think that's the best birthday gift ever."
A collective "Aw" passed through the room.
Gracie was surprisingly letting Luke hold her after his many attempted efforts to get her to talk to him and they were both beaming at me.
Ender was standing next to Calum and they both wore the happiest faces.
I blew out the candles and everyone cheered, Ann going ahead and cutting a piece of the circular cake for everyone.
We ate our cake and then Gracie dragged me into the living room so she could hand me her present which ended up being a sheet of paper, but when I turned it over it was so much more.
It was sketched by crayon and in a rainbow of colours, and depicted four stick figure people.
One was tall and had short brown hair while the one next to it was a little shorter but had longer brown hair. The one after that was shorter than the one before and had brown squibbels on top for curls while the other was smaller than all the rest and had brown hair as well, and a pink triangle dress.
"Gracie did you draw a picture of us?" I asked in disbelief and she nodded up smiling.
"Mhmm. That's Daddy, that's you, that's Ender, and that's me." She pointed out to each individual person.
"This is beautiful, thank you." I leaned in and kissed her cheek while she was still in Luke's arms.
The rest of the evening went by spectacularly and eventually the guys left, hours after Ashton and I had already put Ender and Gracie to bed.
We had stayed up talking about everything and anything until I began to yawn.
"Is the birthday girl sleepy?" Ashton chuckled next to me and I nodded, leaning my head on his arm.
"We'll leave you guys alone then." Calum said with a grin and stood up, Michael and Luke following.
"It was nice to see you." I said as I stood up.
"Glad we were able to be here for your birthday." Calum said and gave me a tight hug.
"And let me know about that Ninja Turtle movie marathon with Ender." Michael said and gave me a hug as well. He and Ender had made the plans after an hour long discussion about the comics.
"Gracie is seriously the cutest thing." Luke said as he put his arms around me.
"Thanks." I laughed lightly and Ashton and I followed them to the door.
"Night guys, thanks for coming." Ashton waved and they left, us closing the door behind them.
"Come on sleepy head, let's get you to bed." Ashton said and draped his arm around my shoulder, leading me to his room.
Droopy eyed, I changed into my pyjamas and then crawled into the blankets next to Ashton who tucked me into him before I fell soundly asleep.
The next morning Ashton and I woke up at the same time.
As we were sitting at the counter I remembered that today he had some surprise planned for me, and being the nosy person I was, I began to ask questions.
"So what's the plan for today?" I asked, nonchalantly taking a sip of my drink.
"Well, we are going to hang around here until around 5:00, and then I'm not telling you anything else." He turned and gave me a smug smile.
"Oh come on." I said and he shook his head.
"Okay at least give me a hint."
"Okay, you are going to need to pack a bag."
"So it's an overnight thing?"
"Yes, it is."
"What about Gracie?"
"She and Ender are going to stay here with my mom. I think Michael, Calum, and Luke's moms are coming over too. They'll be fine." He assured me.
"Okay." I said sceptically. "Oh I have another question. Is it related to my birthday?"
"Nope. Well one thing is, but it's small."
"Alright, I'll stop asking questions." I raised my hands in relent and he gave me a thankful smile.
As soon as Gracie was awake she was up in my arms like always, dozing off on my shoulder.
Ashton went to get our suitcases and he packed his overnight stuff in the bag while I reminded him to get things like socks and shoes. With Gracie still asleep on me I helped him pack my things by telling him what to get.
He got all of my toiletries first then moved on to get my clothes.
"Am I going to need anything nice to wear?" I asked.
"Yes." He said and I directed him to the closet where I had brought the dress he had bought me a while ago. He grabbed the boots that went along with it and packed them in the suitcase as well.
He got me some pyjamas and then moved on to get my underwear and bra when I stopped him.
"I'll get those later." I said and he rolled his eyes at me.
"Alright." He said and retreated.
Once Gracie awoke fully I got her ready for her day and finished getting ready myself.
When it came time for me and Ashton to leave, I prepared myself to really leave Gracie for the first time.
Ashton rolled our suitcases into the hallway and Gracie perked up at this.
"Are we leaving?" She asked from where she was siting cross legged on the couch.
"Me and Daddy are." I said to her and crouched down in front of her.
"You're going?" She said, her bottom lip beginning to poke out.
"Yes, sweetie. We won't be gone long though." I said and reach up to tuck her hair behind her ear.
"But I don't want you to leave." She whimpered.
"I know baby. I'm sorry but we have to go somewhere for tonight." I tried to explain but before I could finish getting my sentence out she began to cry.
"Gracie." I frowned and picked her up, hugging her. "It's gonna be okay." I petted her hair.
Ashton came up on the other side of me and put his arms around both of us.
"Hey, Grandma is going to be here with you and so is Ender. And you guys can play and colour and cook in the kitchen." He said trying to cheer her up.
"That sounds fun, Gracie." I leaned in to wipe away her tears with my thumb.
Glancing at the clock on the wall I noticed we had to go.
"Okay Gracie, we have to leave now." I said and Ann came to take her from me.
"I love you, be good." I said and kissed her cheek.
"Bye, sweetheart." Ashton kissed her cheek as well, and booped her nose making her smile slightly.
Ann told us to have a good night and I hugged Ender as we left.
Instead of getting in Ashton's jeep like I thought, a taxi was waiting in front of the house.
"We're taking a cab?" I raised an eyebrow.
"Mhmm." He nodded and placed our suitcases in the trunk.
He held the door open for me as we got in the taxi and he handed a piece of paper with the address of where we were going to the driver.
As we pulled away from the house, Ashton reached over and took my fingers in his, starting our special night together hand in hand.
--
Here's the next part!
The next chapter is a tear jerker so I hope you guys are ready (;
Anyways, as always vote and comment if you'd like and I'll see you guys in the next chapter!
much love xx -m