alright for this chapter i'm skipping all the way to december 4th (which is after south america!) and that's because most of you suggested skipping tour, so here we are. since the gang was in south america for laura's bday, they're celebrating it this chapter so they can be with the whole fam. anyways... thanks for all the feedback on the last chapter, except some awesome chapters coming soon :)
enjoy💜
If This Is Love: 38 | Birthday Gifts
| Laura Renae |
| Monday, December 4th, 2017 |
@laurarenae: Now that we're officially back in L.A. and all that's left is Japan for the New Addiction Tour, I just wanted to thank all the fans who've come out so far to the shows. You all are so amazing and supportive for everything! I love you all so so so so so so much it hurts sometimes 😘❤️❤️
@laurarenae: To add onto the supportive thing, I posted a video a couple weeks ago on my (new) YouTube channel about my mental health and I just want to say thank you all so much for the sweet messages you've sent me. You don't know how unbelievably happy it makes me when I read through the comments
@laurarenae: Speaking of YouTube, I've decided to give it a try. If you have any suggestions for videos let me know! I'll try my hardest to get a video up within the next couple weeks. Just got to figure out a few things 😏😉 my youtube name thing is Laura Renae and Rydel is teaching me all the tips and tricks about it still so go easy on me!
@laurarenae: One last thing... My birthday was several days ago and I totally forgot to say thank you for all the sweet birthday messages you sent me! Again, you make me happy and I'm so thankful for all of you. Now, I'm gonna go celebrate my bday with my loved ones ❤️
"Remind me again why you're in here on your phone while everyone else is outside throwing a party for you?" Ross asks, walking into the bedroom. We just got back in California yesterday and decided to just crash at his parents' place because it was so late. But now that we're back, both our families wanted to throw a mini party because we were in South America for my birthday.
"It's just family, right? De St Jeor's, you guys and my parents?" I ask, getting up off the bed. For today, I decided to dress simple with little to no makeup because I obviously the past seven or eight months I've been wearing heavy makeup and dressing up. I had on ripped blue jeans, a light floral print off the shoulder top, my hair curled, and some off white sandals. He gives me a thumbs up.
"You have a couple presents, too." He says, letting me walk through the bedroom door. As he walks behind me, he keeps a hand on my lower back to guide me to the back door.
"Are they from you?" I ask.
"One is them is, yeah." He says. I furrow my eyebrows and turn my head to look at him. "You'll open all of them after lunch." He tells me. "You look cute, by the way." He opens up the sliding door for me and I walk out, immediately spotting my parents. They're the first ones I hug, each hugging me so tight that I had trouble breathing.
"Twenty-two years old. My baby is growing up." My dad says. I roll my eyes. "Honey, you've got a serious boyfriend now!" He exclaims.
"I realize that." I say, laughing the slightest. "Your son is turning twenty-five in April, and you're saying I'm the old one?" I question.
"Don't make me push you in the pool." He replies.
"Wow, dad of the year right here!" I exclaim, pulling him back in for a hug.
"Well you're no daughter of the year." I couldn't help but laugh at him. "Happy belated birthday, sweetheart." He says, gently rubbing my back before I pull away from his hug. "Make sure you open our presents before we leave." I give him a thumbs up.
"I want a picture of you and Ross before I leave." My mom chimes in, pointing to my boyfriend who was currently across the yard with Gil and Gordy.
"Got it." I say, heading over to Gus, Ryland and Rocky. I quickly pull Gus in for a hug, thanking him as he tells me happy belated birthday. After him I head over to where Ross was with everyone else and give Gordy, Gil, Gator, Shor and Angie each a hug.
"Hey." I say quietly as I gently touch my fingertips to his bicep. He turns his head to me. "Before my parents leave my mom wants a picture of you and I." I tell him.
"Oh, okay." He says. "Um..." He trails off and scratches his stubble. I furrow my eyebrows up at him.
"Don't mind him, he's just nervous about the gift he got you." Ryland suddenly says with a smirk. When the hell did he get over here?
"You know what he got me?" I ask.
"Laura, I always know what he gets you." He tells me. I stare at him a bit before shaking my head and looking back at Ross.
"Babe, I'm sure whatever you got me is perfectly fine." I say. "But since we're on that topic... it's your birthday in a few weeks and I actually don't know what to get you. What do you even want?" I ask.
"Don't worry about it. I'd honestly be fine with you coming to Colorado around Christmas time." He tells me.
"Ross, Ellington and I fly down every year on either Christmas eve or Christmas Day. Now seriously, what do you want?" I ask.
"Can we talk about this later? We're celebrating you today, not me." He says. "Let's go get drinks." He says, grabbing my shoulders to turn me around. He walks behind me, guiding me with his hands firmly on my shoulders towards the table with all the drinks.
"Aw, and here's the birthday girl!" Rydel says, walking up to me with her camera. "Doesn't she look so cute?" I give the camera a cute smile and let her wrap an arm around my shoulders so she could vlog the two of us. "It's technically not her real birthday, but we were in South America for it so we're throwing her a small party with my family and hers." She tells the camera.
"Aye, get off my girl." Ross says, now walking up to us. I roll my eyes at his words and look at Rydel who only nods her head, completely understanding that I want that sentence cut out. Ross and I haven't publicly said we're dating, but some photos of us have been leaked of us holding hands and him kissing my cheek. The amount of times he or I have been asked in a interview if we were dating is insane, and we both laugh it off and avoid the question. Not even kidding, it's no surprise we're not dating. The people who think we aren't clearly don't know us well enough because we do make it pretty obvious. She takes her arm off from around me right as Ross wraps his around me, taking her place.
"Aw, give her a birthday kiss!" Rydel says, pointing her camera at us. I look up at Ross with a small smile. He gives me one back before leaning down and planting a single kiss on my cheek first. I laugh and look at the camera but immediately am taken aback when Ross grabs both sides of my face and kisses my lips. Literally everyone here claps and I smile against his lips. "Can I please leave this in?" Rydel asks the second I pull away from Ross.
"Yeah, go ahead." I say, shrugging my shoulders. That earned yet another kiss from Ross on my lips. "I'm guessing you don't care?"
"I've been waiting on you to not care." He says.
"Well, todays your lucky day." I say.
"Why don't you open presents now?" My mom asks. We all ate awhile ago and since then all of us have just been talking, not really doing anything fancy. Rydel already went to every picture my mom had out of me with her vlog camera, commenting on how cute and small I was. I do know the G's has to take off soon because Gordy has an audition at six downtown, and I'm almost positive my mom and dad were planning on taking me and my brother to dinner, maybe Ross and Rydel too.
"Sure." I say, shrugging my shoulders. "Does anybody want me to open theirs first?" I ask
"Ooo, do mine!" Ryland says. "Riker, Rocky and me all pitched in for this one, with the help of Vanni." Vanni couldn't make it today because she had to do something fora brand deal or whatever.
"Is it stupid?" I ask, walking towards the table of gifts. Riker's hands me a little brown paper bag with white tissue paper sticking out. I pull out the card first. Quickly reading the outside and the inside, which consisted of happy birthday small child. you're older than your boyfriend! love the boys. I smile and reach for the first item. "Are you for real?" I ask, holding up a box of condoms. "Shouldn't you be getting these for him instead of me?" I ask, earning laughs from everyone. Believe it or not, Rydel was filming me.
"Hey, it's always good for the both of you to have some handy." Rocky says, shrugging his shoulders. I roll my eyes and set it on the counter, picking up the next thing. It was a very pricey face moisturizer that I'm assuming Vanni bought. Then I pick up my favorite perfume bottle.
"Thanks, you guys. I really like the perfume and moisturizer. The condoms could have made a pass, though." I say, giving them a slight glare. I pick up the next gift which was a giant bagel basket which I know for a fact is from the G's. When I first met them, I was eating a bagel, along with the second and third time. Gus was really the only one who remembered all of it, but since then we've had an ongoing joke that I'm gonna then i to one. I open the card, which has a gift card to my favorite bagel shop in Hollywood. "You guys are so sweet." I laugh out, looking at the boys.
"Yeah those will be gone by friday." Ross states, pointing to the basket.
"Oh hush, you're gonna eat some to and you know it." I say. I pick up the next gift which was Mark and Stormie's. They already bought me flowers which were sitting on the other table. The card was as cute as ever, saying I'm the best second daughter they could have ever asked for. They also got me a couple boxes of my favorite teas that I drank literally everyday on tour.
"That is an apron Mamoo made for you." Stormie says as I hold up the last thing.
"Aw, this is so flipping cute!" I say. "Can we call her later tonight?" I ask her.
"Of course." I quickly thank them and open up my parents card next. They also got me flowers, which were right beside Mark and Stormie's.
"We both thought that we'd give you our present at dinner tonight. So for now it's just a card and flowers." My mom tells me.
"Aw, that's okay. I don't even need a present from you guys." I say, giving both of them a smile. For good measures, I walk over to them and hug them both. "You two already do too much for me." I add.
"Don't give us that bull shit. You're getting a present." Dad says.
"Yes, sir." I say, giving him a smile. He gently nudged my shoulder and I walk back over to the table to grab my brother and Rydel's gift. Again, the two got me flowers and a cute card. Rydel also got me a brand new mug with my favorite lip balms and lip glosses inside. And then I open the medium sized box and my eyes widen. "Seriously?" I ask.
"Yours is a bit old. Thought it'd be nice." Ellington says, shrugging his shoulders. It was a brand new mini Roland keyboard. I smile and stand up, walking straight over to him and hugging him tightly.
"Thank you." I say, hugging Rydel next. "You two rock." I walk back over to the table and look at the remaining card and box. It was from Ross, and I know that he was a little hesitant on me opening it in front of people. "Do I open the box in front of everyone or would you rather me do it later?" I ask, looking over at Ross, the box he had was a giant cardboard one, not even wrapped or taped, just closed normally.
"Uh..." I watch as he rubs his stubbly chin. "Can you just open the card?" He asks me.
"So no box?" I ask.
"Read the card." He says a little more quietly. I furrow my eyebrows and pick up the envelope and tear it, taking out the card. Inside were two concert tickets to PINK, which I knew she was coming in May of next year and talked Ross' ear off about wanting to go but haven't gotten around to buying them yet because everything has been hectic since tour and everything. I put them in between my thumb and the card, moving it away from the small hand written note he left.
You're an incredible, gorgeous, outstanding woman in all ways. I love you and hope you like these gifts. - love Big Bean
"Thank you, Ross." I say, putting the tickets safely back in the card.
"I also got us tickets to Disneyland. You know those three day passes you can get where you go from park to park whenever?" He asks.
"Wow, way to copy me and Rydel for our anniversary two months ago." Ellington says.
"We're even staying in the same hotel." Ross says, laughing the slightest. "It's not much, but I thought it'd be fun to go on some rides and walk around when it won't be busy." He tells me.
"You don't have to defend your gift. I love Disneyland and haven't been for awhile, I'm excited. Thank you." I say, walking up to him. I wrap my arms tightly around his neck, hugging me close to my body. "I love you." I whisper, feeling him hug me back. "Thank you for the tickets to pink and Disney, they're going to be so much fun." I pull away from hi, and give him another smile.
"You're welcome." He says. "Do you want to know what's in the box?" He asks me.
"Why can't I just open it and see for myself?" I ask him.
"Because you're not going to get it, bean. You're going to be super confused." He tells me. "Plus, I don't want you to look through it right now, it's kind of embarrassing for me and I don't want them all to see it." He adds.
"Is it stupid lingerie?" I ask, giving him a disgusted look.
"What? No, Laura. Why the hell would I put that in a giant ass box?" He asks.
"He's overreacting. It's not embarrassing." Ryland says, rolling his eyes.
"What the hell is it?" I ask, crossing my arms across my chest. He takes a deep breath and rubs his stubble again. "Ross!" I whine, looking back at the box.
"Open it and tell me what you think of it." He finally tells me with a sigh. I could tell by the look on his face that he was serious. So, I gently open the box and peak inside. The box was halfway full of papers and two journals. Furrowing my eyebrows, I pick up the first paper and flip it over, my eyes widening at the drawing. I knew Ross drew it because I know his style, but it was a drawing of me. He dated it 8/23/13, we were weren't even seventeen. I set it back down and pick up another sheet of paper and turn it over to see yet another drawing of me that was in color dated 2/03/11. I set it back and pick up a journal and open it to the first page, seeing song lyrics and my name scrubbed down with hearts around it on the side. My eyes widen.
"Is this full of all your stuff of me?" I ask, a small smile on my face as I look up at him.
"Everything but digital pictures. Those are on my laptop." He says. My smile widens as I set the journal back down and walk back over to him, giving him an even bigger hug. "I looked through the shed before we left for South America and kept it in Ryland's room." He tells me.
"I'm so confused." Gil says. I laugh the slightest and pull away from Ross.
"Apparently Ross had an obsession with me and wrote a ton of songs about me. Along with drawings and little journals." I say. "Didn't you threaten to break up with me if I ever looked through them?" I ask, slowly closing the box.
"Yeah but... you like the sentimental thing and I didn't really have time to get a good present-"I roll my eyes at him.
"Thank you, Ross. This is a great present." I say. "Thank you all of you. You're all too sweet."
• kind of a weird ending but at least i got a chapter up! next chapter will either be their trip to disneyland or just a random day i decide to write about. don't forget to vote, comment something sweet and follow me! love you, babes💜 •
-rydelly_belly💜