One Day in December

Fast forward to June 5, Laurie’s 23rd birthday. She is awakened by an eager Sarah, who puts her into Pink Lady clothes from the movie Grease. The day is meant to be a surprise, and Laurie realizes “how hard she’s trying to give me a fun birthday […]. Whatever it is she has planned for us today, I need to give her my one hundred percent best” (72). Sarah and Laurie take a train to a surprise destination, where they are greeted by Jack and his friend Billy. Laurie suspects a set-up, but Billy is not her type.

Jack is eager to please the girls on Laurie’s birthday, even though he is a bit embarrassed by their location. The Barnes Common is set up to look like a 1950s American high school, with music from Grease playing and carnival activities spread around. Now months into his relationship with Sarah, Jack reflects, “I’ve always got off on the feeling that I’m running to keep up with her, it keeps me on my toes, but lately she’s sprinting so fast that sometimes I feel like I lose sight of her altogether” (77). As Jack tries to keep up with the exuberant Sarah, Billy suggests to him that he’ll make a move on Laurie. Jack feels protective over Laurie and becomes a little envious as Billy and Laurie begin to get along.

Laurie lets down her guard a bit more as her birthday continues. She insists to herself that she has become very good at accepting the relationship between Jack and Sarah. She thinks:

Perhaps if things had been different, if I’d found him first maybe, then he’d have his arm around me right now and be about to kiss me […]. Or maybe we would have been a terrible romantic match, and the very best outcome for all of us is exactly what’s come to pass. He’s in my life and I’m glad of him. It’s enough (82).

She drinks, participates in the activities, and begins enjoying Billy’s company. Billy shows her photos of his younger brother, and Laurie begins to see the different layers to his personality. While watching Billy and Sarah compete in a dancing competition, Laurie mentions that she wants to go on the Ferris wheel, so Jack volunteers himself as company. A romantic song (“Hopelessly Devoted to You”) plays as the Ferris wheel starts, and Laurie and Jack trade jokes about being scared of heights. Laurie, who has been avoiding her mother’s phone calls all day, checks her text messages. On the Ferris wheel, Laurie finds out that her father has had a heart attack and is in the hospital.