the boxer // lrh au

forty eight ; birthday

"you have to get out of bed, c'mon bella," michael screeches in my ear.

"i don't wanna," i mumble. michael was currently trying to force me out of bed at six in the morning to get ready for breakfast. he said he had a plethora of activities planned for my birthday and we needed to get going immediately if we wanted to get everything done.

the problem, however, was that i didn't want to get out of bed. i was tired from talking to luke all night since it was daytime where he was, and i needed at least six hours of sleep to at least function for the day.

"you get pampered for the whole day and you don't want it? fine, i'm leaving and i hope you celebrate today alone and with no one else," michael huffs. i don't hear anything for a while, hoping he was actually gone. whether he meant it or not, even if michael left me to sleep in, i knew he would spend the day with me. he always did.

my eyes begin to droop, slowly becoming sleepy again. i'm just about to fall asleep when michael speaks again. "okay, are you seriously not getting up?" michael asks.

before i can answer, however, tyler emerges into the room with calum on the other side of him.

"happy birthday!" the two boys shout, joining michael's side. michael visually stiffens at tyler's entrance and slightly moves away since he was on the end with tyler, who was in between michael and calum.

"guess i am getting up," i mutter, getting up and thanking the boys. tyler and calum both had bags in their hands and i wondered about the contents in calum's bag. i already knew what tyler got me considering he accidentally told me about it a week before. i had been asking for weeks about a silver ring that i saw at the mall the other day. i wanted to buy it myself but our mom always left the money with tyler, so everything had to go through him.

i asked him to buy it again a week ago, telling tyler that i will do all the chores around the house for a month- even though i usually did them anyway. in response, he told me to shut up and wait a week, disclosing the information that he had gotten the ring for my birthday.

calum, on the other hand, hadn't said a word about what he got me. his bag was unusually big and for most of my birthdays, he went for quality over quantity-which i appreciated- but that also lead me to wonder what was in his bag.

i tell the boys that i had to brush my teeth before i even thought about opening the presents, to which michael adamantly told me to hurry up so i can open his first.

when i was done brushing my teeth, i went over to the three boys that were still in my room. calum was sitting on my bed, on his phone, and tyler was poking michael whilst michael- with his arms crossed and jaw locked- pretended to read a book off of my bookshelf.

when i enter the room, tyler immediately takes his hand away from michael's body and rushes over to me, giving me my present.

"thank you ty," i say sincerely. i had been wanting this ring for so long and it made me happy knowing he got me it.

"you're welcome bella. mom said her gift was arriving in the mail any day now but i don't think it's here yet," tyler explains. this was common for our mom, however. she wasn't the best at showing affection so she would usually mail over some generic gift that always arrived days after our birthdays.

"me next!" michael shouts, taking my hand and dragging me away from tyler and towards the opposite side of the room.

michael's gift was wrapped in a small box with a tiny yellow bow on it. when i take it from his hands, i get distracted from the contents of the box and notice a bracelet that michael usually didn't wear on his wrist.