Smile For Me || Niall Horan

35: Escape

Even when everything is perfect, a simple thing can ruin it all. But as long as you still have someone there who loves you, you're going to be okay. 

"Claire why don't you open this one," I say, handing her a gift from the top of the large pile.

The boys really went all out on her birthday. When she woke up she was greeted by cake for breakfast, which I hesitantly allowed due to her big day of turning five. Each of the guys got her at least five gifts, which I considered a bit of an overkill. It's not like she needs more toys.

"THAT ONE'S FROM ME!" Harry announces happily, watching her anxiously as she ripped open the wrapping paper.

I sat back, leaning against the wall as I watched her reaction to the doll Harry got her. I smiled when she jumped on him as a thank-you. She puts it over with the mountain of things she's already opened so far and moves on to the next one.

"What does this say?" she asks Liam in her adorable little kid voice that I love so much, holding up the card for him to read.

He smiles and reads it out to her. "It says, From Nialler. To Claire Bear. Happy birthday! But be careful opening the present!"

Claire looks at it again, smiling. When she's done evaluating the card, she puts it down and rips into the gift. She's careful though, like the note said.

We have literally spent an hour so far opening gifts. There's so many. It's never going to end.

Niall takes a seat next to me, watching Claire open his gift to her. I lean my head on his shoulder. "This is taking forever."

"At least she's entertained." He laughs silently to himself.

"True." It doesn't take much to entertain Claire, but with all these toys she's probably going to get overwhelmed with decisions of what to do.

"It's a fishy!" Claire squeals, looking into the large bag that the gift was in. I stared at Niall with my mouth open.

"You got her a fish..."

He chuckles. "She seems to like it. Her first pet."

I smile at him while he helps her to take the bowl out of the bag and place it on the kitchen counter. A small orange and white fish was swimming around, and Claire was staring at it. I smile, happy she has experienced her first pet.

"What are you going to name it?" Zayn asks. She thinks for a moment.

"Chris."

I chuckle. Chris the fish. Nice name.

She hugs Niall and refuses to let go for a while. Finally she runs over and picks up a gift from Zayn. We still had a minimum of ten gifts left to open.

Zayn ended up getting her a coloring set which she enjoyed as she tried to draw all over her arms with the markers.

Louis got her a marshmallow gun and at least fifteen bags of marshmallows to reload it. As soon as she opened it she loaded it up and started shooting marshmallows at everyone. Mostly Louis.

Liam got her a bunch of toy story stuff. She pretended that Liam was the bad guy and proceeded to throw the Buzz Lightyear toy at him. Creative kid. 

I got a call on my phone and saw it was Austin. I smiled and pressed answer, handing the phone to Claire. "It's Austin!" I tell her. She smiles and uses two hands to hold the phone up to her ear. 

"Hello?" 

"Happy birthday Claire-bear!" I hear him say through the other end. I smile as they talk. 

"Austin says to give the phone to you," she says after they finish, giving it to me. I smile and thank her. 

"Big birthday?" he assumes. I smile. 

"I guess you could say that. She's not bored." I chuckle. 

"That's good." 

"Is something wrong?" I ask him. He just seemed...off.

I need to tell you something and it's not good. Kind of a party killer. I just don't want you to freak out." 

"Why would I freak out?" I ask. Niall glances at me curiously. Claire was too busy with her toys to care what was going on. Louis and Zayn were playing with her, but the other boys were glancing at me, wondering what was going on. 

"Are you around people?" 

"Yeah..." He stays silent for a moment. I sigh and get up, heading to the other room. "Okay, I'm alone. What is it?" 

"I need you to take a deep breath first."

"Austin! Just spit it out!" I snap, getting impatient. He sighs. 

"He got out." 

"What? Who got out?" I ask, having no idea what he was talking about. 

"The killer. The man who shot Mom, Dad, and Jake. He escaped from jail." I dropped the phone. 

This can't be happening. 

AUTHORS NOTE
aww shnap :/ idk what to write for this authors note cuz there isnt much i need to tell you guys XD umm just please vote or comment? :) or BOTH ? ;D hahaha so yeah i wonder whats gonna happen next.... love you <3 byee