the new year

fifty-seven

F I F T Y - S E V E N :

For the last three or so months Charlie had relentlessly being trying to piece together the best birthday party he could, for Oak and as of right now, he was stressed to shit. He'd had the invites sent out about two months ago to ensure he had an idea on the amount of people that were to show up, everyone had contacted him back who he'd sent an invite to or they'd contacted Louise, Oak's mum, letting her know if they could.

Charlie and Louise had been working together, it was his initial idea and he was in charge of the friends side of invites and Louise was in charge of the family side of it all, which was a lot harder than she thought it was going to be--trying to tell an eight-two year old to not tell the girl when they next saw each other was harder than first anticipated, poor Violet didn't quite grasp the idea of it being a secret because she was so excited about spending time with her family and feeling young again.

Charlie was now on a trip, with Alex and Elias picking out alcohol that'd be suitable for the party that was commencing next week. Louise said she'd get some too along with decorations and food, they'd all agreed to split it and help out financially so that there wasn't a dip in anyone's pockets, Tom and Seb were also helping along with Joe and Harper who were currently trying to finalise the karaoke machine order that they thought would be a good laugh. Things were going as swimmingly as they could at this point.

The venue owners had encouraged Charlie to get everything shifted into the venue quite some time before so that they felt less stressed on the day. They all wanted to make sure that this was going to be the best party Oak had ever had thrown for her because she deserved it. Also with light to what happened to her with her dad not long ago, they wanted to make her feel on top of the world. They all loved her and she deserved nothing but smiles and good times, which was also the reason her dad wasn't invited. The friends and family all made a pact not to mention it to David because they knew that they had their big differences at times-all the time actually.

"I don't even know where to begin. . ." Alex sighed out stressed, they had to carefully pick different drinks and foods to ensure it catered to everyone's tastes; they had decided to colour code the tables at the venue so the guests knew where to go for the buffet, they were doing a red table cloth for the meat eaters, a blue table cloth for the vegetarians and a green for the vegans, which also included allergy-free foods-it was a tricky operation, which none of them wish to commence in ever again.

"Neither do I mate, there's too much selection I feel like I'm deciding my death," Charlie responded with an equally as stressed out sigh.

"I thought you said the venue had a bar?" Elias finally brought up after questioning his thoughts, he vaguely remembers Charlie mentioning it when the idea was first brought up in the friendship group but then wasn't completely sure if it applied to the part where they were hosting the party--this whole thing was a fantastic idea from a distance but now they were just around the corner from it, it was beyond pressurised.

Alex looked at Charlie with a look as if to say 'are you fucking serious?' Charlie in response just looked at the ground sheepishly, he'd forgotten about that fact. "Oh shit yeah, it does. . ." He replied with an awkward laugh, after all the pissing about and tearing hair out, there was a bar in the venue all along.

"You fucking knob," Alex insulted with a laugh and a shake of his head, of course, he'd forgotten about the fact. It was funny because drinking in the UK is like second nature, how on earth did he forget about that factor? He had all three of them running around looking for spirits, beers, ciders and anything that had a percent of alcohol in it so it could cater for everyone to then later discover that the bloody venue had a bar.