Zap! (M. Clifford/5SOS)

Chapter 3: Wrapped Around Your Finger

"Yeah, that sounds good," Calum responds and Luke agrees.

We reach my home and I say goodbye to Cal and Luke, disappearing into the house. The scent of dinner fills my nose as I walk into the kitchen and see my mum cooking.

"Dinner will be ready in a little bit!" she calls after me, watching me walk up the stairs to my room.

"Okay!" I respond back to her. I have a few things I need to get done first before I eat with my parents. First order of business: contact Ashton, the lad I knew who played drums. I met him at a party and people kept telling me he was pretty talented, and now that we really need him, I'm hoping he'll be available and want to back us up. I open my laptop and boot it up, logging into Facebook right away. Searching his name, I'm relieved when I find him and I click on Send Message.

"Hey man, I don't know if you know our band, 5 Seconds of Summer, but we're doing this gig in the city soon - do you wanna play drums for us?" I type. I read it over so many times to make sure it sounds good and then I hit Send. Facebook doesn't say he's online, so I close my laptop and focus on the birthday party.

The cake is ordered, friends and family have been invited, and now I'm just worrying about decorations and Monica's present. I picked up a pack of balloons and a few rolls of streamers in her favorite colors and my goal for tomorrow is to get the cake and adorn her house with the decorations, with help from Tatiana, Luke, and Calum. My present for her is a movie package: a stuffed animal in the shape of a puppy, a box of popcorn, and a few of her favorite films. She loves having movie nights and this is perfect.

While I wrap her gifts, I can't help but think about how amazing it will be when we cuddle up together and watch something and then suddenly, she falls asleep on me. We've snuggled before during some movie nights, but not like how I always imagine it, and she usually never nods off. One day it will happen and I will fall in love with her even more. I just hope she feels the same way.

After I finish tying the bow on one of the boxes, my mum calls me down for dinner. I set the box in my closet for safekeeping and then head downstairs to eat. My stomach is growling by the time I descend the stairs and I pile my plate full of my mum's good cooking, downing it in what feels like seconds. But before I can hide out in my room again, my parents chat with me about the birthday party tomorrow and how they'll be there later in the day instead of whatever time it starts. I try to hurry the conversation up because I still have so much to do, and luckily they get the idea and let me go.

Racing up the stairs, I enter my bedroom and begin wrapping the other presents. It doesn't take me as long this time, but I'm relieved when I'm finished. I place these two boxes with the other one in my closet and relax on my bed with my laptop, hoping Ashton replied back. I doubt it since I just sent him the message like two hours ago, but you never know. Kids these days are always on social media.

Facebook loads up and I see that I have a new message. Clicking on it, it brings me to the conversation with Ashton and I'm very excited to find out he's responded. I'm even more ecstatic to discover his reply is positive.

"Yeah man, I'd love to!"

Typing back, I say, "Thank you! Our gig is on Sunday, Dec 3rd. Is there any time you could come by this week for a practice?" And Send.

For the rest of the night, I figure out what all needs to be done for the party. As I've expressed before, I really want this to be the best birthday she's ever had. Monica means so much to me and maybe this will open her eyes to see how much I really do love her.

Monica's P.O.V.

Finally it's the last day of doing my service for Calypso. The routine has now been embedded into my brain and I hate it. I'm just glad this is almost over because I can't stand doing this anymore. Replacing all these parts on these dummies gets tiring after a while, considering you're loosening so many screws and then putting them back on once you've replaced the plates.