This Love

NYC Birthday

This one's for Hopelessangelxxx who was curious about Juice surprising Angela for her birthday. This one is also before they got together, before he left NYC, and when Raj was still very much in the picture! ;)

~'~'~'~

Juice walked into the party going strong in Angela's apartment for her birthday. He was late and had missed the surprise Raj had planned, but he wasn't going to miss the party entirely. He hadn't meant to be so late, but he'd had shit to do for the Ozone crew, and it'd taken a little longer than expected. The apartment was filled with people. People he recognized from Raj's pre-law fraternity as well as some from Angela's mortuary school. Raj must've invited them because he wanted as many of her friends as possible there. Little did he know, she wasn't close with any of them. Juice was always surprised by how hard it was for Angela to make friends. Strangely enough, she was always so guarded and quiet when it came to people she didn't know; it took her a while to let someone in.

The place was well decorated for a her birthday with balloons and banners and shit in purples and black even though her favorite colors were the warmer ones. Reds, yellows, and oranges. Juice wondered if Raj knew that, or if he was just guessing. Didn't matter, it was the thought that counted. At least the guy had done his best to celebrate her, even if she probably hated everything about it. Juice honestly didn't know how Raj had found the time to do it all when he hardly spent any time with Angela.

He pushed through the people, searching for her. Raj was standing in the corner with his usual friends, a plastic wine glass in his hand, but she wasn't with him. He went into the kitchen to find Nina standing there, staring longingly at Raj. "You seen Ang?" he asked, knowing that if she'd been watching Raj all night, she'd probably seen where Angela went.

"She disappeared a while ago," Nina answered on a shrug. Her words were slightly slurred, her teeth stained red. He wondered how much wine she'd had. She frowned as she leaned in closer to him, and he could smell the alcohol on her breath. "Didn't seem really thrilled by the surprise. Raj and I worked hard to make this perfect, and she didn't even care. Just thanked everyone and left. Real ungrateful of her."

Juice grimaced. Of course she'd disappeared, Angela hated being the center of attention. He had a good feeling where she went though. He grabbed the top tier of the cake from the table, candles and all. He got a few weird looks but no one stopped him. Cake in hand, he headed out of the apartment and up the stairs that led to the roof. It was a warm night, just a little humid. The sky was clear, giving them a great view of the Empire State building. Angela was reclining on one of the chaise lounge chairs they'd put up there one day, a red plastic cup in her hand, and a bottle of tequila beside her. Her dark hair was down with a slight crimp to it, which made him think it'd been in a braid at some point in the day. She was wearing a dark green halter top that looked like a handkerchief, the koi fish tattoo on her hip just barely visible because of the pointed bottom of the shirt and the low cut of her ripped black jeans. She'd gotten it when her cousin visited earlier that year. It was a stunning piece with its bright orange and yellow colors swirled with blue waves and pink cherry blossoms. It flowed perfectly with the curve of her body as if it was meant to be there. He'd been dying to run his finger over the inked lines of the fish's back ever since he first saw it. That was off limits though. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't touch her like that. Her feet were bare, black platform sandals were haphazardly laying on the ground beside the lounger.  She was deep in thought, her face lifted to the sky, eyes closed as she played with one of the rings on her finger.

  "There's the birthday girl," he exclaimed, smiling when she jumped a little.

"Hey you," she greeted with a sad little smile. She sat, turning towards the empty lounger. "Whatcha got there?"