stars || Joe Sugg

bonus.) twenty-six

okay, guys, so this is a bonus chapter that i wanted to write for this book and joe's birthday because i know a lot of you have been really enjoying it and honestly, i'm not exactly ready to abandon it either.

ruby

I feel like there's really only one way to wake up your boyfriend on his birthday, and that is not the way that I chose. I feel like it probably would've been appropriate for me to sing him 'Happy Birthday' to wake him up, but instead I dramatically roll on top of him, pushing him into the bed. I lay my head on top of his carefully while trying to find any comfortable way until he decides to push me off.

"Ruby." A soft groan comes from beneath me before I feel Joe's hand on my leg, trying to figure out just how much of me is on top of him. "What are you doing?"

"It's midnight. It's your birthday. You're twenty-six now; so old." I reply, before he begins pushing me off of him. He pushes me the opposite way that I came so I end up tumbling off the bed and onto the floor. "Now you have to stay up with me." I mutter. "You just injured me." The room is so dark that I can't exactly see him moving, but I hear the sheets rustling and eventually his head peeks over the side of the bed.

"You're not injured." He says quietly, reaching a hand down to me. I accept it but tug on him hard enough to pull him over the edge. The brunette falls a few inches away from me where he chuckles quietly before placing his forehead against mine. "Can we go back to sleep yet?" He asks quietly.

"You are absolutely no fun, Sugg." I say before kissing him quickly. "But, no. Come on. I thought you liked your birthday. I'm the only one allowed to be a cliche in this relationship."

"I don't think you're much of a cliche." He laughs, pulling me against him. I lay there for the longest time, almost letting myself go to sleep. I can feel Joe's breathing slow significantly, and I look up to see him sleeping quietly.

"Why are you doing this to me?" I say, much more dramatically - and loud - than needed.

"Babe, please, shut up." He laughs quietly. I continue to pester him, poking and prodding him wherever I can to keep him awake. "Fine, you win." He finally declares as he rolls onto his back. I cheer excitedly before standing up and pulling him up with me.

"I honestly can't believe I actually woke you up." I admit as I reach to turn the light on. Joe makes a small groaning noise behind me, but I ignore him and grab some clothes from the large cabinet next to the bed. I smile shortly at the bright white button-up still hanging in the middle of my clothes.

"Well, I guess that proves my love for you. This birthday better live up to its expectations." He jokes when he comes out of the bathroom. I slip past him to use the bathroom myself while he gets dressed. I pull on an old grey shirt that could literally belong to either of us and a pair of white jeans that are for sure mine.

Joe and I really have no boundaries when it comes to clothes anymore. We are too close to the same size to actually care about who wears what. The white shirt started a revolution with our clothes. Joe started stealing some of my clothes in exchange, and I'm almost certain he still has my tie-dye one somewhere hidden. Sweatpants are also fair game to us. The only thing that is completely off limits is jeans because my legs don't even remotely fit in his skinny ones so I told him that there was absolutely no way he could take mine without starting some kind of fight. Not even my green dress from Zoe's engagement party is off limits, and I'm pretty sure I've seen Joe in it at least once to bother me.

"Where are we going exactly? It's midnight for Chrissake." He says as soon as I leave the bathroom. I throw my pajamas somewhere near the hamper before pulling on his hand to get him to leave the room. "Is Caspar even up yet?"

"Probably not, to be honest." I answer, scared to let go of his hand because I feel like as soon as I do, he'll make a beeline back to bed. I flip on the light in the living room to find my shoes and instruct Joe to do the same.

As we quietly make our way down to the parking lot in front of the apartments, I lace my fingers with his and squeeze his hand reassuringly. To tell me that everything is okay, he brings my hand up to his lips to kiss me quickly. I swing Oli's keys around my finger, and Joe has just now realized that I have the brunette's keys and car. "Where is Oli?" He asks, completely confused.

"I don't know. I just bribed him for his car." I laugh, unlocking the doors to get behind the wheel. There was not much bribing involved. It was more just a simple text message argument about desperately needing a car, and Oli feeling bad enough to let me use his.

We drive for what feels like hours. Joe keeps one of his hands on either my thigh or neck at all times, and it makes me want my own car to do this all the time. I finally managed to get a UK driver's license, as well as get a job working for all the Buttercream Gang. It isn't the best, but it's nice and safe. I get paid for filming things usually, and even odd jobs, like when I had to put out a fire in one of Jack's videos. I'm kind of like a shared personal assistant.

I finally stop the car when we are basically in the middle of nowhere. There's a large field off to the side of the street and that's where I begin walking, waiting for Joe to catch up with me. "This present is more for me, which is kind of selfish, but I thought I'd bring you out here. Jack brought me here once." I being explaining as I lay down in the soft grass. He lays the opposite way of me, so he's head is upside down to me but also so much closer.

"No, I love hearing you talk about the stars." Joe smiles slowly before kissing me.

I begin listing off everything I can see, explaining different stories and myths. Almost halfway through my explanation of Orion's Belt, he kisses me mid-sentence, slightly scaring me. It lasts a lot longer than I expected and when he finally pulls away, I immediately ask him, "What was that for?"

"God, you don't even realize how beautiful you are." He whispers. His eyes scan my entire face like he is trying his best to count every freckle, every eyelash. I've seen people talk about the way he looks at me, but I hadn't seen the look myself until now. His blue eye shine so brightly as they slowly roll around to look at me completely. He looks so relaxed, yet so vulnerable at the same time. He looks so genuinely happy and it makes me even happier to know that it is me causing him all this joy. "I am madly, completely, and irrevocably in love with you, Ruby Devon."

I don't waste anytime to quickly kiss him, trying to keep myself from most likely crying. "And I am truly, deeply, and unconditionally in love with you, Joe Sugg." I say quietly back. We continue to just gaze at each other for the longest time, completely soaking up the light and joyous feeling of the love circling us. I eventually break the silence, pulling the small ring from my front pocket. "I have your birthday present with me. I didn't really know when to give it and I was just going to do it at the right time and now seems like it." I hold a hand up and wait for him to hand me his before slipping the ring on his pinkie finger.

"I know it's generally a guy-thing to give rings, but I honestly couldn't resist." I giggle quietly as I watch him carefully take the ring off to look at it closer. It's mainly just a simple silver band, but on the inside is 'I love you' written in my handwriting. It was the best idea that my little artistic brain could think of super late one night and I never officially changed my mind so it just stuck as it is.

"I thought we were beating cliches." He replies, smiling. He mutters appreciation against my lips before kissing my nose.

"Always." I smile in return.