When Love Arrives (H.S.)

Chapter 11

At around six o'clock the next night, our small apartment seemed even smaller, if possible, as it was packed with people for our New Year's celebration. There weren't too many people there that I knew, in all honesty, but it was still nice to see people having fun. We had Niall, of course, and Erica's older sisters serving as familiar faces, and there were also some of Niall and Erica's other friends that I had never seen before.

I liked Niall and all, particularly more lately since he got us Ed Sheeran tickets for Christmas, but I'm not a fan of his friends. They're all these rowdy, beer-drinking college guys who sport a constant aroma of pizza and Axe body spray. You know they're shitty people because neither Erica nor Niall ever bothered to even play with the idea of setting me up with any of them. These guys are that gross, but, I guess, still nice enough to me.

To avoid any gross encounters, I spent most of the night standing in our kitchen with Erica's sisters, who certainly felt too old to be a part of the beer pong and burping contests that were going on in our living room. I was playing on my phone, hoping to hear from my friend from school and my only friend-that's-not-Erica, Zayn, who was the only person I invited to the party. He doesn't really do texting, though, but he's the only person I could think of. How sad.

Erica's oldest sister, Jackie, was helping me get the appetizers ready and catching up, since I hadn't seen her since I moved in. I loved Erica's sisters, in all honesty; they always made me feel like part of the family.

"So," Jackie said as she took the mini hot dogs out of the oven, "Your brother isn't coming?"

"I didn't invite him, actually. Figured he was busy with his girlfriend."

"Aw! They're cute!" she gushed, soon-after laughing at my scowl. "Oh, stop it. Someday, you'll be nauseatingly cute like they are. Or like my sister and that lad of her's", she said gesturing towards Erica and Niall who were drunkenly kissing in the living room.

I opened my mouth, about to tell her that Gabe and his girlfriend were the scum of the Earth and nauseating for a million other reasons, when Erica's other sister interrupted us. "Someday?" Megan questioned, a signature McPartland smirk plastered on her face. "Someone told me you have a new boy toy in your life."

"Little Melly? A boyfriend?" Jackie gasped.

"Yes! They kissed for the first time, in front of Erica and Niall! In this kitchen!" You've got to be fucking kidding me.

"Melissa!" Jackie hit my arm. "You had your first kiss and nobody told me?"

"Who said it was my first kiss?" I defended myself.

They laughed at that and my cheeks flushed with anger and embarrassment. Megan then hit me with rapid fire questions, "So... What's his name? What's he like? How b-"

I held my hands up in front of me, stopping her. "His name's Harry and he's like..." They stared at me with wide eyes. "... Not my boyfriend."

"Oh," Jackie's face fell a bit. "Boo!"

I suddenly felt uncomfortable, like I was at some stuffy family party where everyone was prying into my personal life.

Answering my silent prayer, my phone went off from the living room, I could just barely hear it over the commotion from out there. I excused myself from Megan and Jessica, walking out of the kitchen and being hit with an aroma of pizza bagels and stale beer.

I picked up my phone, figuring it might be Zayn, but it was just a notification that Ed Sheeran tweeted, which, let's face it, was even more exciting.

It was a link to his Instagram actually, the caption said, "Got my NYE kiss early" with some emoji of a kissing face. My heart dropped, because Ed Sheeran is the only thing I'll allow myself to feel irrationally about. Generally, I'm not one for social media at all , but Ed is always an exception.