Procrastinators on Stage (Chris Kendall/crabstickz fanfic) *unedited*

Part 6- I Don't Like New People

Carrie followed me inside, shutting the door quietly behind her before stepping to my side and linking hands with me again. She shot me an encouraging smile before facing Mia. "Do you think the boy's will be upstairs? You and Dan have got the biggest living room after all," she asked Mia casually. I presumed from Carrie's tone that 'the boys', and everyone else for that matter, were waiting upstairs for us.

Mia shrugged, smiling slightly. "I dunno, just a second." She cleared her throat slightly, lifting her chin in a lofty manner. "Dan, Phil? Where are you?" she called out. Her barely accented voice vibrated through the air around us, making my ears hum with the sudden increase in volume.

"Charlie? Lynn? Chris?" Lucy joined in, probably trying not to arouse suspicion in Mia. The three of us who were in the know about the party were well informed that everyone else would be remaining silent until Mia joined them.

"That's odd," Mia muttered as she clapped her cold hands together and looked around the small entrance room. "I hope they haven't managed to hurt themselves or something..." She took a leap onto the bottom step and then began to climb, her feet leaving a heavy rhythm in the air.

"Lynn would have sorted them all out, you know that," Carrie pointed out as we all followed Mia's footsteps. The anticipation and excitement was rolling off our bodies like a dense fog of emotion, and Mia was completely oblivious to that. Mia hummed in agreement before she pushed down the tarnished handle to the blue door.

Mia waltzed into the darkened room without a second thought whilst we held our breath. We watched her unwind the scarf from her neck with one hand, and reach blindly for the light switch with the other hand.

"Happy Birthday, Mia!" multiple voices yelled out in a wall of sound. I heard some party poppers go off, and I watched as the paper streamers floated down through the air, before they were scooped up by somebody's hand. My gaze followed the hand to see that it had been Chris who'd set off the party poppers. He was grinning excitedly as he piled the streamers onto the head of a curly haired guy with green eyes who was standing next to him in a Jake from Adventure Time onesie. The two of them chuckled together as they tried to load the streamers onto each other. Admittedly, the sight of these two people acting so childishly did make me smile.

The birthday girl froze, her body rigid for a moment as she looked into the now brightly lit room at the ten people who were crowded in her living room, every single one of them wearing a onesie and their arms spread as they offered up gifts. Mia lowered her hands from the light switch and moved that hand to cover her mouth as she gave an audible gasp.

Carrie, Lucy and I moved around behind Mia, coming to stand at the edge of the group of onesie-clad people. I glanced at Mia's face, which was now expressing a mixture of glee, shock and a hint of pride that showed through the tears that were collecting in her eyes.

Someone from the crowd chuckled fondly, breaking away from the group and walking towards Mia in a green dinosaur onesie. He set his gift into the arms of somebody who was dressed as a Pikachu and made his way across the floor to Mia. His strides were extended as he went over to her. He smiled down at her, his face gentle yet happy as he set his hand in hers, bringing their linked hands to his lips and kissing her fingers.

"Happy Birthday, Quartz," he said, his voice filled with care as he lifted his other hand to wipe at the happy tears that were leaking from Mia's pretty eyes. I could easily tell that this was Dan.

My gut twisted as everyone else started chatting, bringing Mia, Lucy, Carrie and I into the circle of conversation. I'd wanted to get Mia and Chris together just so that my new flatmate could be happy, but now, that challenge seemed even more impossible than I'd first interpreted it to be. Mia and Dan were perfect, but from the stories I'd heard, Chris had been the first YouTuber that Mia had met, that's why they were both so close.