Keep You Close - HO

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"Happy birthday dear Kylie, happy birthday to you!" Everyone sings to me, and I blow out the candles on the cake they surprised me with. My friend group is absolutely amazing, and was only formed over the last eight months. They came into my life when I was at my lowest point, and they helped me dig myself out of that place. I owe them everything, I love them all.
"You're so old now." Alex comments, grabbing one of the candles off my cake and licking the frosting off.
"I'm only five months older than you." I roll my eyes at him.
This is my first birthday I've had in three years where a giant, overpriced, and over sized party hasn't happened. I can honestly say I much prefer this small get together with my closest friends, rather than having a whole event. The only bummer is a couple of my closest friends aren't here.. I understand though.
When breakups happen, everyone subconsciously picks a side, and then you slowly drift apart from the people who didn't pick you. Well, that's what happened with my Ex. All of my friends were his friends first, and so the breakup resulted in having to meet some new people. Though the new people I have met are absolutely amazing.
"So? Go out for drinks and find a guy for you to take home tonight?" Alice wiggles her brows at me, and I quickly shake my head no.
"Absolutely not." I laugh.
"Oh come on!" Maggie groans. "Get some action! It's your birthday!"
I don't want a hook up, but going out for birthday drinks does sound like fun. Besides, Alex is so much more fun when he has a drink or two in him.
"Alright fine, we can go to the bar." I say.
"Yay! Fun Kylie is here bitches!" Alice says.
"Fun Kylie won't be here until she gets a few shots in her." I shake my head.
Already being dressed up for the evening, we head straight out for the bar. I'm actually really, I haven't gone out to my favorite bar in a while, mostly because it holds too many memories of my old life, but I've moved past that, and I'm ready to make newer and happier memories.
"Let's find some hotties." Maggie says as she pulls me ahead of the group into the bar. I've always been her wingwoman, so now she's probably very excited to be mine.
"I need to get a drink first." I laugh, leading her up to the bartender. His heavily tattooed arm leans onto the table, and he flashes us a big smile.
"What can I get you ladies?" He asks.
"Two cosmos." I say, and he nods, starting to make the drinks.
Maggie and I turn on the barstools to face the rest of the room, scanning the groups of people.
"See anyone intriguing?" She asks.
My eyes skim across the faces, not quite seeing anyone who catches my attention. Everyone looks pretty basic, I guess I was just spoiled by my longest relationship being with a boy with the prettiest blue eyes.
"Not really." I shrug.
"Well luckily for you, its still pretty early so you'll have a bigger selection later." She says.
The sound of two drinks being set down behind us pulls my attention back towards the tender.
"Here you are." He says.
"Thank you." I smile, grabbing my drink and walking back towards our friends at the table.
Alex looks around, obviously eyeing a brunette girl across the room. We're lucky if he stays for more than an hour, cause normally he heads off with some girl for the night and tells us all about it the next day.
"Go, make your move." I say.
"No, tonight's about you. Let's find you a guy." He says.
"I don't know if I want a guy." I say honestly.
Alice groans, looking over to me.
"Come on, you haven't dated anyone since we met you, don't you want to have just a little bit of fun for once?" She asks.
"I mean.. I'm open to it I guess." I say.
I need to be open to it. It's been nine months since I broke up with the man who I thought was the love of my life, and it's time to move on to the stage of sleeping around. I'm just not that kind of girl.. I want commitment and loyalty but I'm too scared to look for it again.
"Well looks like a hot brunette is coming this way." Maggie mutters to me, and soon a man approaches our table, a beaming smile on his face.
"Hey there." He says, turning his back to me and talking to Alice.
I knew he wasn't coming over for me. I'm very basic looking, guys don't go out of their way to talk to me. I never have gotten male attention like Alice has. She's gorgeous with her brown bob cut hair and bright green eyes, guys always want to talk to her. They have a conversation, and Alex searches the room for another option.
"Yeah honestly man I'm just not interested so.. shoo." Alice says, and I practically choke on my drink as I watch the man walk away in pure confusion.
"Oh my god." I laugh.
"I'll be back, I'm going to get a drink." She says, getting up from her seat.
I sip the last bit of liquid from my glass, sitting back in my seat. I really would much rather get black out drunk tonight than have to work my ass off to find a guy to hook up with tonight.
"New guy is coming up, his eyes are on you." Alex says.
"He's hot too." Maggie says.
"Yeah whatever." I mumble, setting my glass down. I feel a presence come up behind me, and I ignore it until he speaks.
"Happy birthday, Angel." The voice says, and my entire body freezes. Only one man has called me Angel, and it is someone I absolutely can not see.
My body turns, seeing exactly who I thought it was standing behind me. The crisp and clean wine red suit making him look better than ever as he smiles slightly at me. I'm stuck, not able to move or speak. I can't even think straight right now..
"Haz.. what are you doing here?" I manage to mutter, both Alex and Maggie's eyes going wide when they hear the name. They've never seen him, but they've definitely heard of him.
"I just got here with the guys.. I saw you and couldn't resist saying hello." He says.
His blue eyes burn into mine, making a flood of emotions wash through my body. I don't even know what to say.. I haven't seen him in nine months, and if I'm honest, I really would be better off not seeing him.
"I- this is uhm-" I struggle to find the words.
"The guys would love to see you if maybe your friends could spare you for a minuet?" He asks.
"Oh absolutely." Maggie says, giving him dreamy eyes. She's definitely in a daze from his looks.
"Uh, no." Alex says, shaking his head at Maggie.
"It's fine, I'll be two seconds." I say to Alex. He's a really good friend, he knows everything about what happened with Haz and I, and I understand why he would be hesitant to let me go with him.
I stand up from my seat, and turn to Haz who is looking at Alex in a less than pleasant way. I probably shouldn't go but I do really miss Tom. Tom and I were pretty close, and I've missed him so much over this break up.
As I walk off with Haz, his hand places itself of the small of my back, his head leaning down slightly.
"It's good to see you." He says.
"Get your hand off me." I say sternly, and he removes his hand, holding them up to show he's keeping them to himself.
"See you're still feisty as ever." He comments.
I ignore him as we walk through the crowd of people towards the table where I see all my old friends. Tom spots me, a big smile growing on his face as he stands up.
"LeLe!" He says happily, using the nickname I've always hated, that I haven't had to hear since the breakup.
"Hey Thomas." I smile, hugging the brunette tightly. I forgot, he gives the very best hugs. It drove Haz nuts when I would say that.
"What are you doing here? God I haven't seen you in forever look at you! You're stunning!" He compliments. Tom has always been the kindest person I've ever known, I truly did miss him.
"Thank you!" I grin. "I'm just out with my friends for my birthday."
His face falls, and his eyes dart to Haz.
"It's already your birthday? It's been that long?" He says, now in a sad tone.
"Yeah well.. I just wanted to come by and say hi to everyone before I head back to my friends." I say.
"Dude you done hogging her now?" Harry asks, making me laugh.
"Hey Harry." I say, hugging him. "Where's Sam?"
"Out on a date with some girl from work. I'll tell him you said hi." He nods.
"Alright, I hope Haz promoted you by now?" I ask.
"Yep! You're no longer looking at an assistant." He smiles proudly.
"Good." I say.  "You deserve it. I'm glad you're doing well."
"What about you? Are you still an editor?" Tom asks.
"Well.. yes, but I also am in the middle of working with a publisher. They want to publish my novel." I say and his mouth drops.
"What? For real? That's amazing Kylie!" Haz exclaims, making me remember that he's still here. He always believed in my dream of becoming a writer, more than I ever did. I remember all the nights he'd stay up late, reading my drafts. It didn't matter how much work he had, running his own company, he always made time to read my work.
"Thanks.." I say. "I should probably get back to my friends.."
"Well it was nice seeing you again." Tom says, almost with a sigh.
"Yeah, you too. I missed you." I say, hugging him once more.
"I'll walk you back to your table." Haz offers.
"You don't need to do that, I'm fine." I say.
"I insist." He says.
Of course he insists..
"Alright." I nod, and we turn from the boys to head back to my table.

A/N: new book! How'd you guys like the first chapter?

I have finals next week, so the new posting schedule will be Monday's, Wednesday's, and Friday's. Hopefully once I get finals behind me we can get back to our every day schedule💙