Run - a.i // au

Sixteen

A New Year's Special
Ani's Pov

I took in a deep breath of the last cool winter air of 2014. A few snowflakes lightly drifted down immediately melting as they hit my warm skin. I was on my way in my panda slippers to Lazy where Calum and I always met up for our weekly Sunday Pj Coffee.

Ever since he moved here a few years ago, every Sunday we went down to Lazy in our pajamas and just sat and talked for a while. I pushed open the door and scanned to find Cal waiting in his plaid pj bottoms and a cup of steaming coffee waiting with an empty seat.

"Happy New Years Hood!" I said as I sat down at the empty side, he watched my panda slippers with a small smile. "Happy New Years Brooks! We did it, that was a crazy year" he laughed to himself taking a sip of his coffee. "Its so amazing thinking about how much our lives have changed this year, the boutique closed, you met Michael, Ashton came, Sawyer and Luke met and then dated and then ended it, all in all this year has been so refreshing to me" "Ani's so deep this morning, pause for a second so I can get out my phone and record this" he reached for his pocket and pretended to dig out his phone as he started to laugh at himself.

I just shook my head holding my coffee so it warmed my hands. "Luke told me about your bike incident you don't want that going out everywhere do you?" "Aniston Brooks plays pretty dirty but rarely does she use a threat" he said in a reporter voice and we both started laughing.

"Calum Hood always does stupid things but rarely does he bike straight into a pole looking at a girl" I shot back and he raised his eyebrow pouting "we don't need to speak of those tragic times" his warm brown eyes crinkled at the edges as he broke into a smile. "Got any big plans for 2015?" "Well I for sure want to go back to my hometown in Colorado and visit all my old friends back there and I really want to travel to like Australia or Europe" "that would be so fun going to Ireland or Germany!" "If we went together to one of those places that would be a total mess oh my god" he said smiling to himself.

"They would see us coming then just turn the 'Open' sign to 'Closed" I giggled imagining me and Calum alone in a foreign country. "What about you? Got any things you want to do?" Calum asked me "I really don't know, I don't really like planning things ahead I just like doing and going with the flow which is sort of lame" "thats not lame Ani!" He replied.

We spent a few more hours having random chatter about 2015 before we walked home together and back to our apartments. I was upstairs turning on the water in my shower when someone knocked on the door.

I switched off the faucet and ran downstairs in my fluffy pink robe opening the door to Ashton who had a huge smile on his face. His curls were tucked back in a grey beanie "Happy New Years! I brought you something" he smiled giving me a small kiss on the cheek and handing me a small strip of paper.

Scribbled in his messy handwriting was 'New York- Times Square' at the top and smaller things like admission price and attractions on it. "I'm taking you to Times Square tonight, meet me out front at 9" "i'm so excited! See you then i'm gonna go finish getting ready!" "See ya babe" he gave me another kiss on the cheek and spun me around before walking down the hall with a huge smile on his face. Babe.

I leaned against my door frame grinning holding my Irwin made Times Square ticket in my hand. I probably looked like a complete idiot but I couldn't help it he was just so darn cute it made me so happy.
******
I slipped on a simple half sleeve grey sweater dress with a peach coat and cream knit infinity scarf. I curled my hair and left it down taking a small handbag with me as I made my way downstairs at 9, my little paper ticket in hand. Once I opened the door and there was a red carpet leading to a tall black tent.

I smiled walking along the red carpet to the entrance of the tent where Ashton was dressed in a dark grey button up and black skinny jeans. His face light up when he saw me and we shared a quick hug "you're so gorgeous Ani I feel so lucky" he whispered into my ear making me shiver. "I love you so much Ashton" "I love you too, alright close your eyes i'll tell you when to open them" he giggled.

I shut my eyes taking ahold of his hand as he lead me into the tent, my heart was pumping super fast with extreme excitement. "Okay open your eyes" he said and when I opened my eyes my mouth hung open in shock. The walls of the tent were made up of boards that had black building silhouettes painted on a dark navy background with lights poking through that looked like stars. The whole celling of the tent was strung with white lights and on one wall there was a TV playing the New Year's eve Special. Calum, Michael, Luke and Sawyer where all there too with the little blue hats on that you always see people wearing on TV.

They were all smiling and laughing and yelled "Happy New Years!" All holding up red solo cups of various drinks. There was also a small snack table off to the side "I tried my best, sorry its not exactly Times Square but i've been planning and working on this for a while now" Ashton said rubbing the back of his neck and I gave him a quick kiss on the lips "Ash this is way more than enough, this is literally amazing" He rested his arm around me as I kept looking at the decorations.

No one had ever done this much for me before. Ashton connected with a Bluetooth speaker he brought and blasted it super loud as we all just talked, danced and sang extremely loudly. I was over getting something to drink when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see Michael who looked extremely happy.

He was in a jean jacket with some band T-Shirt his read hair as wild as always. "Hey Mikey! Happy New Years!" I said over the loud music as I poured some Diet Coke into my cup then moved to the side. "Happy New Years Ani! You've made my 2014 a heck of a lot brighter than it would have been without you so I just wanted to say thank you" he smiled and I hugged him for a few seconds. "Your welcome, thanks for helping me out back at the hospital" "anytime that was nothing! I'm always here for you if you ever need someone to talk to or just need to rant about anything!" "Same for you" I smiled taking a sip of my drink as a slow Ed Sheeran song came on the speaker "I think someones looking for you" he winked and I turned to see Ashton waving at me and Michael just laughed nodding his head in the direction of Ashton.

I went over to Ash and we started to slow dance my head resting on his chest as we rocked back and forth slowly. "I never thought i'd ever get to go to Times Square for New Years but here I am" I said into his shirt making him laugh a little "it's pretty incredible, a little smaller than I thought though" we rocked a little bit more. "2015 is going to be an amazing year and i'm so glad that I get to take it on with such an amazing and beautiful person like you Ani" he said rubbing my back and I almost started crying he was so sweet. "I'm so lucky to have someone like you with me Ash i'm so excited to see what the New Year brings" he kissed the top of my head and the song ended. Calum went and turned down the speaker as we all stood by the TV to watch the classic ball drop. 5,4,3,2,1 it was 2015!

Ashton and I kissed and we all screamed Happy New Year. I took a minute to look at everyone. They were all smiling and laughing and in that moment I just felt extremely lucky. Lucky to have all these friends who care so much about me and lucky to have such an amazing boyfriend. All of them truly created such a special year for me and I was so excited to see what the New Year brought.

This is really short and cheesy but I just wanted to do a small chapter dedicated to New Years!
Happy New Years everyone! I honestly had such an amazing 2014 and I did so much and i'm just pumped to see what 2015 brings! Bye bye 2014 you were fun!