*Song title will be at the end of this part. It would give away too much...
Hope sat up in her bed on the morning of her 19th birthday feeling both sad and exilarated. She missed Ethan more than she imagined was possible, but she knew that she would see him soon.
After she left Morro Bay, they made plans to talk every day and see each other at least once a month. Hope had spent most of the month of June up there and had returned in late July for a long weekend. She also knew Ethan had finished his summer courses and would have a chance to come visit her. She could hardly wait.
With his decision to take a full load of courses and work part time, he had also decided to move into the dorms rather than stay in his apartment. His roommate, Josh, however had convinced him to stay and get a third roommate to split the bills with them. They were able to find a roommate quickly so everything on that end was settled.
Hope wanted to keep busy over the summer so she got a job at a local grocery store to save money. During her last week in Morro Bay, she had been checking out programs at both Cal Poly and a local Junior college. She thought that if things with Ethan continued to go well, she might want to move up there for school. With her love of the ocean and nature, she was interested in the ecology degree at Cal Poly. She wasn't sure yet, but open to the possibility.
One thing she was looking forward to was surprising Ethan with concert tickets. On the night of their drive to the hilltop they had talked about music. He seemed to really like AC/DC and her dad had gotten tickets for himself, Brad, Hope and her uncle to their upcoming concert at Dodger stadium. Hope had told Brad that if he let her use his ticket for Ethan, she would buy him a new game for his X-box. He was all over that!
Now Hope just had to wait a few days until Ethan got here to surprise him!
Hope got out of bed to start her day. Brad was at a friends house and her mom was already at work. She continued to be amazed at how well she and her mom were doing.
When she got back from Morro Bay, sad and missing Ethan, her mom had just held her and let her cry. Then she took her out for ice cream and a girls day. They bonded over mani-pedis and chocolate chunk. Hope was excited to be developing a much better relationship with her.
With breakfast done and the day opening up, Hope put on some music and decided to clean the house to surprise her mom. After cleaning campground toilets, cleaning up after Brad was no big deal! She was elbow deep in the toilet when she heard her phone ring.
Quickly wiping off her hands, she grabbed the phone and saw that it was Ethan.
"Hey!" She answered excitedly.
"Happy birthday, beautiful!" Ethan's greeting brought a blush to her cheeks.
"Thank you! I didn't think I'd hear from you til later."
"Well, I had some time to call sooner than I thought and I couldn't wait. How's your day so far?"
"Oh, you know, the usual" she said as she put the toilet brush back in its stand.
Just then the doorbell rang. "Hang on, Ethan. Someone's at the door."
"Okay, I'll wait." He said as she walked to the front of the house. Hope pulled the door open and gasped. There with a bouquet of red roses and a huge smile, was Ethan.
"What are you doing here!" She squeeled.
"Surprising you on your birthday. Are you surprised?"
"Oh my gosh, YES! How...when...what..." Hope was now speechless. All she could do was throw her arms around his neck and plant a big smootch right on his lips. At first he chuckled, but then he pulled her in closer and deepend the kiss, with a final dip before putting her back down. Hope pulled away, breathless and blushing.
"There's that blush I love" Ethan commented, causing her to blush even more.
"I should seriously have a birthday more often!" She smiled. Then she started rambling, "How long are you staying? what do you want to do? I've got to tell my mom you're here, she's gonna flip! What are your plans, and what about work?..."
"Whoa, Hope, slow down! Your mom already knows, I called and worked it out with her. Yes I took off work but its no big deal, and I'm staying til Sunday afternoon. We can do whatever you want until 5 because we have plans for the evening."
"Wow, wow, I don't know what to say! This is seriously the best birthday ever! Wait, what plans do we have tonight?"
"Well, let's go in the house and I'll tell you about it."
"Ha, yeah, right, okay." Hope hadn't realized they were still standing in the front door. She stepped in with Ethan and let him put his bags down. She couldn't believe that he had gone to all this trouble to surprise her. Then she had a terrible thought.
"Oh no, I have to work this weekend. We won't be able to do much together." She told him sadly.
Ethan gave her a smirk, "Actually, I took care of that too. Your mom called your boss and had your schedule rearranged. You have the next four days off."
"What? When will the surprises end?"
"Um, just one more." Ethan reached into his back pocket and pulled out an envelope. He handed it to Hope, "Open it."
She took the envelope and eyed Ethan suspisously. With a shake of her head, she opened the envelope and pulled out two slips of paper. Then she screamed.
"Are you kidding me right now?" In her hand she held two tickets to that night's Taylor Swift concert. Her mouth hung open in shock, not knowing what to say. Finally, she was able to restart her brain.
"Ethan, this is amazing! I can't believe it!"
"I'm glad you like it. Ever since we took that drive, I've been thinking about doing something like this" he had a grin as he spoke.
Hope was unable to contain herself. Not only was Ethan right in front of her, but he was taking her to a concert. And it hadn't been lost on her that he had the exact same idea that she did about concert tickets. She decided to surprise him right then.
"This reminds me of something," she started, "sit down for a second. I need to get something."
Ethan went to sit on the couch while Hope ran back to her room to get the flyer for the concert. Her dad held onto the tickets so she couldn't show those to him yet.
As she came back into the living room, she was struck with a thought, as if she had been hit with electricity. She really was falling in love with him. Falling, as in it was still happening. She reminded herself to take things slowly. This was her first relationship and she had literally just turned 19. Now that she had overcome her fears and started to face life, she didn't want to become so wrapped up in Ethan that she forgot about everything else...
That was becoming harder and harder to do, so she told herself again to take things one step at a time. And that's all she could do.
Ethan looked up at her as she walked back into the room, a smile still plastered on his face. That's when another thought hit her. It was so obvious, he's in love with me. Her heart skipped a beat. Although he had never said it, the look on his face told the whole story. It was the same look she had on her face, and she knew exactly how she felt about him.
She smiled at him and gave him the flyer.
"What's this?" He asked
"Well, take a look at the date, and mark it on your calendar, because we're going." Hope told him.
He looked more closely at the flyer, then back up at Hope.
"What the... Are you serious right now?" He brought a hand up to his head in shock.
"Yup, with my dad and uncle. I bought Brad's ticket for you. Looks like we think alike!"
"Come here." He said. Hope sat down next to him on the couch and he wrapped his arms around her. "How did I get so lucky to have you..."
"I feel the same way." Hope snuggled into his embrace and savored the moment.
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Epilogue title - You Are In Love - taylor swift