Chapter 3
The sun was rising again, yet another long night for both Justin and Shannon. Justin was awoken to the sound of the phone ringing. He picked it up to hear a happy voice on the other end. "Dude, you need to get over to JC’s!," Justin recognized Joey’s voice. Justin asked what was up and Joey just said to get his ass over there as soon as possible. Before Justin could speak another word, Joey hung up. Shaking Shannon awake, Justin hurried to get dressed. They hopped in the car and drove down to JC’s. All Justin could do was worry about why Joey wanted him there so bad. He had been a wreck lately, not even knowing what day it was. His worry was shaken away when Shannon leaned forward to pull something from under her seat. "Don’t look sweetie, wait till we get to a stoplight," she whispered gently. What could she possibly be hiding from me? He thought to himself, until he finally came to a red light. He looked at her with puppy dog eyes, and she couldn’t help but chuckle. She handed him a small box wrapped in a shiny paper. Smiling, he started to pull at the paper, finding a small gold box shining at him. A car behind him started honking, making him proceed down the road. "Stupid green lights!," he thought. He pulled into a small parking lot to find out what she had to give him. Tears welled up in his eyes once again as he slowly pulled a gold chain out of the box. "Its a locket sweetie. I know its corny for a guy, but I couldn’t think what to get you. Look inside; there is a picture of you and I," she told him gently. The tears were streaming once again. "Why did you get me this? What is so special about today that you had to give this to me?" She couldn’t help but laugh. "Don’t you realize what today is sweetie?," she asked, trying to not to laugh. Justin nodded his head and she just brushed her hand through his golden locks. "Its your birthday sweetie. How could you ever forget that?" Justin looked down into his lap, clearly he was embarrassed that he could forget about the day that he was born. "I’ve been so uptight lately that I completely forgot!" he said in a light whisper. She leaned in and gave him a light kiss and told him that they had better get to JC’s house.
Pulling up into JC’s driveway, he saw cars there, more than usual. "I wonder what is going on here." he asked with concern. Shannon just smiled lightly, and walked hand in hand with him to the door. Halfway to the door, Justin realized that he left his gift in the car. He ran back to get it that way he could show it off to the guys. He sighed deeply as he opened the door. There was no one in the house, and he just couldn’t figure out why Joey would call, then no one being there. He started calling out their names as he walked through the house. He walked towards the patio and looked out into the backyard. There was some sort of picnic, but what for? He opened up the glass door and stepped out. "SURPRISE!" everyone shouted at the same time. It seemed to him as if even though he totally ignored everyone, they still cared enough to throw him a party for his birthday; the birthday that even he forgot about.
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