Ride (h.s)

12

Jane

Niall and I had breakfast together to discuss him working on Wednesday afternoon without any supervision. My siblings had called last week and said they would be coming over to see us. Being the last week of September I had a pretty good feeling why.

It was my birthday.

"So twenty-two, not such an important birthday, but can still be fun." He said cheerfully. "What are your plans?"

"Well, my siblings are gonna stay with us and we're probably gonna have dinner and my sister Phoebe is going to be staying in my room again like when we were kids." I sighed, I wasn't looking forward to it.

"What about your boyfriend?" I gave Niall a look. Harry and I have been seeing a lot of each other for the past two weeks. Just a few days ago he came into the library just to say hi and give me a quick kiss. Niall saw it and has been non-stop making fun of me when I told him we weren't together.

"He's not my boyfriend, I don't even think he knows it's my birthday." I don't remember it coming up in conversation. "Anyways, all I want is to have a nice dinner and that's it. I don't need presents or even cake." I thought about it for a second. "Okay cake is fine, but only carrot cake."

"So tomorrow is the big twenty-two, and all you want is a carrot cake and dinner. You're pretty easy to shop for." He joked picking up our trash. We walked back into the library and noticed my mom sitting at the front desk talking on the phone.

"-Holden if you don't bring my grandbabies I will not let you into my house." She threatened. "Good, both of them." She hung up and looked at me. "Oh sweet pea, if you want to take off you can do that. It is your birthday week after all. Perks of being the daughter of the boss." She joked. I did have some homework I needed to finish before everyone got to my house.

"Well okay, I do have some homework." She smiled patting my back. I grabbed my things saying bye to Niall and walking out. I went home and luckily it was empty. I worked on my homework for a few hours and eventually fell asleep on my bed.

The sound of people arguing and the floor creaking woke me up. I opened my eyes and saw two people standing by my door. I turned on the light and it was my sisters. "Oh my god!" They ran and jumped on me causing me to fall back.

My sister Phoebe was three years older than me and was engaged to a guy she met in Chicago. She was a vegan who thought she knew everything about life and wanted to be this free spirit, yet ended up getting engaged to the first guy she met back home. My other sister Sunny was six years older than me and had just had a new baby a few months ago, my third nephew. She met her husband here in California and bonded on how much they both love Chicago, so they moved there together.

"Hey loser, I get to punch you twenty-two times." Phoebe threatened me. "And one for good luck."

"I wouldn't do that, you're turning twenty-six in a few months and she'll punch you too and you'll start crying," Sunny warned her in her high pitched voice, the complete opposite of Phoebe's deeper voice.

"Yeah like she'll come all the way to Chicago to punch me." She laughed. I flipped her over putting her into a headlock. We all began play fighting when my brother came in.

"Sister fight without me, I don't think so." He ran jumping on us causing us to start to play fighting together. Holden was the oldest and most immature. Somehow he was married with two kids. "Don't bite me or I'm telling mom." He threatened.

I ended up on the floor with my hair completely disheveled. "Nice to see everyone again," I said sarcastically. "Where are my children?" I asked about my three nephews. We all stood and I sighed at how tall they all were. Phoebe was about my height but always wore heels so she was taller than me. They all looked at me and got closer to give me a group hug. "I want to see my kids, we talk every other day on face time, they need to see me in person." I slid out of the hug and out to the living room where I saw the twin boys playing with my mom, and the little baby sleeping comfortably in my dad's arms.

"Theo, Xander where are my hugs?" I said smiling.

"Aunt Jane!" They yelled running full speed, knocking me down. My brother's wife was greek hence the names. Sunny named her son Charles after my dad.

I said hello to my brother's wife and my sister's husband. Phoebe was alone because her fiancé was working back home. My mom had ordered food and was setting plates for a late dinner. We sat around and everyone began telling each other what was going on in their lives. It made me laugh because no one really asked about me, and yet they lived only twenty minutes from each, not two thousand miles away.

We ate and laughed until suddenly I hear my sister. "So mom says you have a new boyfriend?" Sunny asks. A silence formed in the room and my brother began choking on his chicken. "Are we going to meet him?"

I looked at my mom, I had told her that Harry and I got close, but she liked to exaggerate everything. "I don't have a boyfriend. He's my friend, just my friend." I took another bite trying to ignore the looks I was getting. I dropped my fork. "He hasn't asked me but we're basically dating jeez!" They all started laughing making me quickly stand up to put my plate in the sink. I excused myself and went to my room.
It made me think about what Harry and I were. He said he didn't think relationships were his thing, or that he didn't see the point in them, but it didn't make sense to be doing what we've been doing for the past few weeks. I sighed looking at my phone. I unlocked it and saw a text from Harry.

Harry: what are you doing?

The text was only sent a few minutes ago so I decided to call him. The phone rang three times and then he answered. "Jane? Did you get my text?"

"Yeah, I did. I just wanted to let you know that my birthday is tomorrow." I spoke quickly.

He chuckled. "Really? Why didn't you tell me before, I would have gotten you a present." I looked around trying to think of what to say. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm okay, I just have my siblings over and they are really embarrassing when it comes to my personal life." I took a deep breath. "They asked me if I had a boyfriend, and started making fun of me because I said no, and my mom brought you up so...." I lost track of what I was saying and smacked my forehead for doing this over the phone.

"Oh, well I don't know what to say." He said almost confused.

I bit my nail, an annoying habit I had when I was nervous. "Are we dating, honestly because I feel like what we have been doing is dating."

"I've never exactly dated, so I wouldn't know." He said honestly.

"Well if you like me, here's the opportunity to do something about it." It was quiet for a moment.

"Jane, I-I really like you, but I'm not really good at being that type of guy that you would want me to be."

"You know what?" I cut him off. "It's okay, just forget I said anything, it was just a thought."

"Jane-" a knock at my door and my sister poking her head in got my attention

"Dude mom said to come back." My sister said walking back out.

"Jane I didn't mean to make you upset-" Harry began but I didn't feel like being rejected the day before my birthday.

"Don't worry about it. I have to go." I hung up putting the phone on silent and walking back out to the kitchen.

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Thank you for reading. Xx

-k