lost | jariana

04

Jason stood at the entrance of the room in front of him, staring at the work he had just finished.

It was Ariana's room, the walls were pink and so were the bed sheets, pillows, and other random toys she had in her room. It was the usual room of a 6 year old girl, but with a touch of her best friend.

Jason had convinced Edward and Joan to take Ariana out for some early birthday plans and trust him to be alone in their house to work on his surprise for her. She was turning 7 tomorrow, and their families had plans to go to Disney World together, but Ariana didn't know that she would be seeing him sooner than she thinks.

Piled on her bed were stuffed animals of all different sorts. Jason noticed that Ariana was slowly growing out of her doll phase when she stopped dragging her dolls around wherever she went. She came over to his house one day and noticed his collection of teddy bears and was so intrigued with them, that he took the liberty to supply her with her own collection of a stuffed animal herd.

Using the rest of the money his parents gave him to get Ariana something special, he bought balloons, and lots of it. With the help of his parents, he managed to have the bedroom floor scattered with pink and white balloons, making it look like a giant ball pit - or a balloon pit. He knows that she's going to love it.

He walked inside the room quickly, when he heard the front door unlock and Ariana's little squeal. "Thank you Mommy and Daddy for today! It was so fun!"

"Are you full yet, honey?" Jason heard Joan ask.

He couldn't see Ariana nod when he shuffled his way through the pile of balloons purposely making a huge noise to get her to come up to her room. His hands were in his pockets, a hand playing with a little box wrapped in gift wrap.

"What was that?"

"What was what?" Edward asked, setting down the shopping bags of clothes they had bought for Ariana.

"I heard something from upstairs.."

"I didn't hear anything," Joan said nonchalantly. "Maybe you should go up there and check."

Jason smiled. He mentally made a note to himself to thank Joan for being such a great actress.

"Okay." He heard little pitter-patter footsteps on the stairs, getting closer and closer to the closed bedroom door. He watched as the doorknob twist open, and Ariana walked into the room, hands flying to her mouth immediately.

"Jason!"

"Happy birthday Ariana!" Jason smiled, grabbing as much balloons as his two arms could wrap around and throwing it in the air.

Ariana was squealing, jumping up and down as she ran towards him, throwing herself into his arms. "What is this?"

"It's your surprise, silly! I wanted to do something for you, and make a mess so you have to clean it up."

Ariana giggled. She grabbed a balloon and hit him in the chest with it, and he hit one back, laughing. She would usually say something mean back at him, but she didn't care. She was too happy. "You did all this for me?"

"Yea."

She leaned up and pecked his cheek. "This is so sweet. I love it!" Her attention turned to her bed, her smile widening even more.

"Stuffed animals?" she yelled, running over to the pile of stuffed plushies.

"I only have bears, but I wanted to give you the whole zoo," Jason chuckled. He was grinning widely, her smile and happy demeanor made him feel so good. He didn't mind that he was a little light headed from all the balloon blowing.. And when she kissed him on the cheek.