New Year's Eve: 31st December 2012
Aisha’s POV
“Here I am, face to face with a situation I never thought I’d ever see it’s strange, how a dress can take a mess and make her nothing less than…beautiful to me!”
As I dance around our little apartment kitchen, I had Granger Danger on full blast, smiling as I make some rice and other dishes to go with it. It was my turn to cook and this is one of Annie’s favourite dishes so I thought, why not?
When we first moved in together properly, (we were room-mates at uni) when we left university together two years ago, we got into the routine of taking it in turns to cook, meaning that she has tried all of the Indian dishes that I know how to make.
She tells me that what I’m making now is one of her favourite dishes every time I make it for her, so I thought I should as she was getting back from her parents at 11am. Which was in 10 minutes, but I knew the meal would be ready for 12.
We said that we would spend Christmas with our families and New Year together. That’s how it always has been, but this year, Darren’s invited me to go with him to spend New Year with the Starkid’s. He told me that they had a nice park that they went to every year for New Year. Not many people would be there, but they did awesome fireworks and it was really nice apparently. I asked him if Annie could come too and he said it was fine.
I can’t wait to see her reaction; it is going to be EPIC!
Speak of the devil; Annie walks in early, pulling in her small suitcase behind her.
“She is the HOTTEST girl I’ve ever seen! Now because she’s like a girl I’ve never seen, don’t know why, I’d ever be soo mean!”
I sing along to Lauren’s voice at the top of my voice, waving my hands towards Annie. She smiles and curtseys once she’s through the door, pretending she’s famous and being serenaded.
I laugh as the verse finishes and Lauren goes into the “falling in loves.” I run round and meet her at the door, hugging her tightly.
Then I let go and return to the kitchen, covering what I’m making to keep it a surprise.
“Go unpack, and you’re not allowed back in here till 12, because that’s when this will be ready.”
I shoo her away before going back to my dancing. I sing along to the last verse, switching between parts when they sing together. At the end it goes:
“I’m falling in love, falling in love, falling in love; I could be falling in love, falling in love, falling in love with…”
The only face I could see was Darren’s as I sing these words and at the end I whisper:
“Falling in love with Darren Criss,”
I stop what I’m doing as I smile at the thought.
It’s true. I’m in love with Darren.
I carry on cooking, sorting everything out as I keep on smiling a big, goofy grin.
Darren’s POV
“Hey, are you guys ready to go?”
I arrive at Aisha and Annie’s apartment to have it opened by Annie.
“Yeah, just a sec, I’ll go get Aisha. Come in!” She turns and walks over to Aisha’s door, knocks once before walking inside.
“Are you ready?” She asks.
“Yeah,” She walks out of her room in a grey winter coat and black knitted beret with black jeans and grey ankle boots.
I smile at her and she walks over to say hello. She leans up to press her lips to mine lightly before Annie coughs loudly behind Aisha, breaking us apart.
“Sorry!” Aisha says loudly, laughing as she turns to look at her.
“Shall we go?” I ask.
“Yeah, one sec!” She turns to grab her bag before telling me she’s ready.
Aisha had met the Starkid’s a few times before, but only for short amounts of time, so this will be nice.
And I have a surprise for her…
Which I need to tell Annie about, so she is in the loop.
Damn, I forgot to phone her and tell her about it.
I take my phone out as we walk down to my car and send Annie a text, explaining my plan, careful to not show Aisha what was on the screen.
Aisha’s POV
Darren’s being secretive.
I’m not sure what’s up but he’s on his phone and leaning it to one side; intentionally making sure I couldn’t see a thing. Not that I would, I mean I respect his privacy and all but he’s being very weird.
He puts his phone away as Annie’s goes off and I can’t help but think they’re texting each other.
What are they hiding though?
We reach the party and I am greeted with big hugs from all of the female Starkid’s as well as all the males that I know. One hug that I remembered in particular was from Joe (Walker, that is). He came over to me so I was like:
“Oh, hey Joe-” He didn’t let me finish but ran at me and picked me up, swinging me round about three times before almost dropping me.
“JOE! JOE! PUT ME DOWN!” I scream from over his shoulder, hitting his back lightly and swinging my legs around, laughing as I do. I could hear everyone else laughing around us until I hear Darren’s voice instead.
“Alright Joe! That’s enough, put my girlfriend down!” He laughs and I watch him come over, reaching for me. He takes me from Joe and I burst out laughing with everyone as I hug Darren tightly.
We laugh and goof around for a while, until it’s about half past eleven and Lauren’s like:
“GUYS! Shall we go down to the park, because they do awesome fireworks and it’s really cool and stuff!” She fades out near the end and is met with general agreement to her plan.
As we leave, Darren and I allow everyone else to go a few steps in front of us, including Annie, who was fitting in with the Starkid’s grandly and was laughing at a joke with Lauren and Brolden at this very moment.
As we walk, we let our entwined hands swing between us, laughing and talking about how our Christmases were. We had met up on Christmas day for about two hours, where I met Darren’s parents and he spoke to mine again. Our families met, FINALLY, and we had a lot of fun.
“You know, this is our first Christmas, and now first New Year, together,” Darren says, stopping me so that he could look at me properly and I smile before replying:
“The first of many,” I look up at him and after a moment he leans down carefully, brushing his lips gently across mine. We stay together like that for a long moment.
“GUYS! COME ON! You can make out later; we only get to see the start of 2013 once!” Dylan breaks us apart, as I hear Joey wolf whistle.
I silently thank the fact that it was dark and I had a darker skin tone, meaning it was very hard for anyone to see my blush.
Darren drags me along and we speed up to catch up with the rest of the group.
Darren’s POV
We reach the park and carry on with our messing and laughing for a while before Joey and the guys pull me off to one side, and I see the girls do the same to Aisha. I share a puzzled glance with her, before we were dragged into our own different groups.
“What is going on guys?” I ask as they let go of me.
“We just want to have the general, how are you guys conversation!” Joey indicates towards where Aisha’s stood, in the centre of the girls.
“It’s none of your business how we are, guys!” I look at all of them in turn, raising my eyebrows.
“Oh, come on Darren!” Dylan wraps his arm around my neck from behind and rubs my head and it takes me a few moments to push him off as he’s so strong.
“Come on guys, you don’t want to know all the details,”
“So there are details to give?” Joey says loudly, laughing.
“I didn’t say that, stop making things from nothing,” I say turning to him and pointing my finger at him. I give him the evils, which just makes him laugh more.
I roll my eyes and turn and grab Dylan, doing the exact same to him what he did to me. He, however, pushes me off in a matter of seconds because he is stronger than I am.
Aisha’s POV
“Alright guys, what’s going on?” I ask, looking around at all of them. “What are you doing to me…and Darren, by the looks of it?” I peer over their heads to see Darren pushing Dylan off of him.
“Oh, we just want to know what’s going on with you and Darren?” Jamie asks.
I raise my eyebrows and look at all of them.
“You looked really happy earlier, before Dylan interrupted, so we wanted to know how serious things are between you two.” Lauren says, trying to be the voice of reason.
“I don’t what to say, guys. I…I don’t know,” I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to admit the full extent of my feeling for Darren in front of these guys yet or not.
“Come on, you guys seem serious, what’s up?”
I trust these guys, a lot, what’s the harm in telling them? I look up at all of them and then directly at Annie.
She smiles at me and I speak to her as well as everyone else as I say:
“I…I love him!” I say quietly.
My words are greeted with “Aaaaws” from everyone and I roll my eyes, smiling shyly.
Suddenly, Darren comes up behind me and I am glad to think that I knew he didn’t hear me. He puts a hand on my waist and whispers: “Time for my surprise,” In my ear.
He takes my hand and pulls me off to one side of the park. He leads me towards a small stream and a bridge on top of it. I stop short about a metre away as soon as I see it.
“I can’t,” I say.
“Do you trust me?” He asks.
I look at him as if that’s the stupidest question ever, which it may as well be.
“Of course I do, Dare, but-”
“No buts, you trust me, so,” He takes my hand and I don’t protest, just close my eyes.
I had a horrible fear of water and I could not go near lakes, streams or, obviously, the sea. I feel him guide me towards the bridge.
He pulls me somewhere before turning me slightly and putting his arms around me from behind. I take his hands in mine and bring them up, so that I was breathing on the back of his hands.
I feel him shiver and smile before taking a deep breath and opening my eyes. I grip his hands tighter as I gasp at the sight. It’s beautiful.
Darren had me positioned in front of the place where the wildlife came in, curved perfectly in an arch. The trees bent together as if they were magnetically attracted, the flowers sprouted around the scene and the wildlife moved gracefully through the sight.
“That’s not all,” Darren whispers to me, his voice soft and melodic.
“I realised that we had never sang together yet, that needs to change.” He slips his phone out of his pocket and sets it to something, before placing it on the bridge edge.
I hear the start of A Thousand Years playing by Christina Perri and smile as I hear Darren’s voice, he takes a few steps away so that we were circling each other as we sang.
One step closer
I have died everyday waiting for you
Darling don't be afraid I have loved you
For a thousand years
I'll love you for a thousand more
Time stands still
Beauty in all she is
I will be brave
I will not let anything take away
What's standing in front of me
Every breath
Every hour has come to this
One step closer
[Chorus:]
I have died everyday waiting for you
Darling don't be afraid I have loved you
For a thousand years
I'll love you for a thousand more
And all along I believed I would find you
Time has brought your heart to me
I have loved you for a thousand years
I'll love you for a thousand more
One step closer
One step closer
I have died everyday waiting for you
Darling don't be afraid I have loved you
For a thousand years
I'll love you for a thousand more
And all along I believed I would find you
Time has brought your heart to me
I have loved you for a thousand years
I'll love you for a thousand more
We finish close together, my fingers wound in is hair, his arms tight around me.
“10!”
The Starkid’s and Annie start counting down to New Year and I think: This is it. Tell him.
I look up at him, directly in his eye and take a deep breath before saying:
“I love you, Dare,”
“7!”
“6!”
“5”
“I love you too,”
“2!”
“1!”
I press my lips too Darren’s as we hear the shout of “Happy New Year!” from far away.
It didn’t matter.
All that mattered was Darren and me.
All that was in the world was Darren and I.
It was the kind of kiss that set the world on fire. It was the kind of kiss that made my legs go to jelly and the only thing that kept me up right was Darren’s arms wrapped tightly around me, holding me close to him.