Cheryl's POV -
“I want to puke!” The first sentence I heard when I woke up wasn’t exactly inviting.
“Huh, Liam?” I rolled over to the side of my bed to see Liam holding his stomach looking like he really was going to be sick.
“Mate, you’re just not used to alcohol!” Louis said from next to him, patting his back. “Though I have to admit, I’m not feeling really well myself.”
“Is Liam’s kidney going to be alright?” I asked concernedly.
“Actually it is OK for me to drink now, the doctors said.” Liam replied, sitting up while wincing. “But it’s safer if I don’t drink, or only drink a little.” He looked up at me. “How much did I drink? Not too much, right?”
“You guys were so drunk yesterday I could hardly get you home!”
“We are like that, usually.” Harry, who had just woken up, said. “It’s just Liam is usually sober so he can take care of us. Not this time though.”
“Don’t remind me of it.” Liam said, rubbing his head. “I must’ve made myself look like such a fool in front of Ruby. Please tell me I didn’t.”
“You didn’t.” I replied as he wanted me to say. “You looked like an idiotic fool.”
“Oh, shut up.” He moaned, flopping back down on my pillow.
“I know. Hangovers suck, man.” Zayn said sympathetically. “My head hurts so much it’s going to burst. I just want to sleep for the rest of the day.” He crawled into my bed and immediately nodded off.
“What about the rest of you? Wanna eat something, or just sleep?”
“Sleep, I guess.” Louis yawned and went back to his own room.
“Same.” Harry left my room too.
“Since I’m awake, I might as well eat something. And I really need to apologize to Ruby.”
“I’ll make you something to eat. Just get some rest.”
“Thanks, Cher. I love you!”
“Same.” I woke Niall up on my way to the kitchen.
“Niall!” He was sleeping with his head in his pillow, not moving. For one second I thought he suffocated and died. “Niall!” I pushed him until he flipped over. Thankfully, his chest was still rising and falling with each breath. “Niall. Breakfaaast!”
“I don’t want to eat breakfast. Me sick.” He mumbled ruefully. “You nice. But Nialler is sick. Drunk yesterday.”
“OK then, come down when you feel good enough for breakfast. And you really need to work on your grammar, by the way.” I smirked, but he had already buried his head back into his pillow.
I went to the kitchen had made a few plates of bacon and eggs, then brought them up to my room.
“One for me, one for you.” I handed one plate to Liam.
“Thanks, love.”
“Now I want some too.” Harry had just changed into his sweatpants, looking ready to fall asleep but he came back into my room when he smelt food. He peered at my plate wistfully.
“Which is why I prepared a few extra plates.” I smiled, handing him a plate.
Louis heard us talking about food and he suddenly felt hungry too, so he came back over to my room to eat. Zayn couldn’t sleep with everyone eating and talking around him so I prodded him to wake up and eat too. Niall could never resist the smell of bacon, so he woke up and we all had breakfast in my room. Within five minutes, all the plates were licked clean and it looked like they were back to their usual selves.
“I really need to apologize to Ruby for acting like an idiot last night. I hope she won’t be mad at me.”
“Liam. Has she ever been mad at you?” Zayn asked.
“No. Why?”
“Do you think she’s going to be mad at you this time? Obviously. No.”
“Oh. That’s great then!”
“But why don’t you just go on, and discuss, oh I dunno, baby names, or wedding dates, or whatever…” Louis suggested.
“Great idea! I’ll go over to her house right now.” Liam’s face split into a smile. “I just need some Advil and I’m ready to go.”
“Have fun, Liam.” Zayn sat up and hugged him. “I feel so happy about you, mate.”
“We all do.” Harry grinned. “You’re going to be great dad.”
“Aww, I love you guys.” Liam looked touched and his eyes turned watery. “Group hug?” They all crowded around each other and held each other tightly.
“Best friends forever?” Liam mumbled.
“Always.” Louis replied. Not wanting to let go of the moment so easily I took a video, saving it to my phone.
“You guys are so cute!” I exclaimed. “I got it all on video.”
“You come here too.” Niall beckoned me and I joined in their group hug. We kept on hugging each other until I couldn’t breathe.
“Go on, Liam, go and find Ruby.” Louis nudged Liam, and he sprinted out of the room like he wasn’t even suffering from a hangover.
“Brilliant.” Louis nodded brightly. “I wanted him out of the house because I wanted to watch the football game between two teams he loves and I don’t want him screaming and crying next to me.”
“Very nice of you.” I said sarcastically. “One minute you say you’re best friends ever and the next you want him out of the house. You are a great friend.”
“I know, right?”
“How about you guys?” I asked the other boys.
“The two of us need to go try on outfits for next year later this afternoon.” Louis said, pointing at Harry.
“And I’m going to –” Zayn started to say, but the doorbell cut him off.
“Who would come here this early in the morning?” Louis wondered, getting up. “Hope it’s not some fans who found out where we live. I’ll go see, Cher you stay here.”
He went down and opened the door, but I heard an icy, sharp voice that I recognized very well and also hated intensely.
“Harry.” Louis shouted remarkably loudly. “Your girlfriend is here to see you.”
“I’m coming!” Harry shouted back, sighing afterwards. “Darling.” He added.
“Oh boy.” I said again worriedly.
“I’ll be fine.” Harry said with a grimace. “And you, don’t come down unless—”
“And you girl, come down as well.” Daisy's voice rang.
“Er, unless now.” Harry shrugged. “C’mon, I don’t think it’ll be that bad.”
He was wrong.
“Hello, sweetie!” Daisy exclaimed once she saw Harry, and planted a kiss on his cheek which Harry wiped away once Daisy turned away. “And hello, ugly.” She smiled at me in that sickly sweet way.
“Daisy dear,” Harry said weakly. “You know we’ve talked about this before.”
“Oh, I don’t really mind.” I waved my hands offhandedly. “Daisy's judgment of ugly seems to be different from the rest of us. I mean, she calls herself beautiful!”
“Oh no you didn’t.” Daisy glared at me.
“Oh no you didn’t.” Harry whispered, backing away a few steps.
“Oh yes I did.”
“I’m so going to get you.” Dasiy held up her hand and pointed her manicured nails at me, looking like she was going to claw my face out.
“No, Daisy!” Harry pleaded, hurrying over to my side. “You’re not only hurting her, you’re also hurting me!”
“I am still going to get her!” She ignored Harry and advanced towards me.
“GET OUT OF MY KITCHEN!” Louis suddenly came bursting into the room, “I mean, living room! Just—get out of my house!” He pointed towards the door. “Exit that way, you’re welcome.”
“Go away, Tomlinson, I’m not done here.”
“This is my house, I paid for it, so GET OUT OF MY HOUSE.” Louis glared at her, and she finally scurried away. Right before she went out of the house, she turned back to wave at Harry.
“12 in the café down town, right babe?”
“Sure. Sorry about Louis.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that. I’ll see you later then. Bye!” She blew a kiss at Harry then left. Harry pretended to catch the kiss them threw it onto the floor and stomped on it.
“And that’s how you deal with things the Tommo way.” Louis looked after Daisy's back satisfactorily, rubbing his hands together.
“You know, I was dealing with the situation perfectly fine the Styles way.” Harry said to Louis. “It was my girlfr—I mean, it was my business! I was supposed to defend Cheryl not you!”
“Well, you didn’t seem to have the guts to!”
“You never even gave me a chance, sass-master!”
“You don’t have the guts to talk back to her, and I know it, you wimp!”
I looked between the two of them like I was watching a tennis competition. They really looked like a couple arguing.
“Just stop it!” I walked between the two of them. “Stop fighting!”
“It’s called bickering. We do this every day. And I just thought of a great insult to use!” Harry protested.
I was taken aback, but smiled. “Apologize then.”
“Sorry. For nothing!” Harry said to Louis.
“Sorry for calling you a wimp.” Louis shrugged. “You have to apologize for calling me names too.”
“What? You are the sass-master.” Harry laughed, then hugged Louis. “Thanks, mate. I never would’ve said that to Daisy. She really scares the guts out of me.”
“My pleasure, and enough of this Larry love.” Louis said, jumping on the sofa. “You move so I can watch my football game, and Cheryl get someone to drive you to school.”
“No school today. Christmas holidays.” I explained.
“Perfect, then we can watch the football game together!”
“Actually, you can’t.” Harry said while typing something into his phone. “Management said we have an interview later today. With Ellen.”
“Who’s Ellen?” Niall half-yawned half-asked, walking into the living room while messing up his already tousled hair.
“You know, the most famous Ellen on earth who just so happens to have the same hairstyle as you do?”
“Oh. I like her.” Niall said randomly.
“Oh, really? We’re having so many interviews these days? Can’t people just leave us alone?” Louis grumbled.
“Management already turned down three interviews, but this Ellen one is really big, we’ve got to go. And Liam has to tell the world about him and Ruby.”
“But he just went out.”
“Tell him to come back in two hours then. And tell Zayn to get ready too."
We rudely called Liam away from his date with Ruby, and he came back home disgruntledly after an hour.
They decided to leave me at home so no one would see me, and I rang Lily to come over to watch the interview live together. Lily and I sat on my bed and we watched the interview while stuffing ourselves with crisps.
“Hello, One Direction.” Ellen said cheerfully as the boys seated themselves down on the sofa.
“Hello.” Liam said, sitting up straight like he was frozen.
“I think before you ask us anything, this handsome lad over here has something really important to say.” Zayn said, patting Liam’s hand.
“Yeah.” Liam said, but it came out more like a grunt. “Yes. I do have something to announce. Two things.”
“Do tell.” Ellen said, hanging onto his words.
“Well, first, I hope all our fans will understand and feel happy for me. I want to say that whatever happens, I still love my fans with all my heart, and I hope no one feels hurt because of what I did.”
“Just get to the point, mate.” Louis prodded him.
“Right…” He smiled at the camera, a real smile this time. “Ruby and I are engaged.”
“Wow.” Even Ellen looked awed. “That’s…really something.”
“And she’s pregnant.” He added in a very quiet voice.
“What?” Ellen looked at him. “She’s pregnant as well?”
“Yes. Please don’t get mad.” He said worriedly, probably talking to the fans who were watching the interview live. I could just imagine teens around the world jumping around and screaming because of Liam’s news.
“That is…” Ellen paused, looking at the walls as if searching for inspiration. “Unexpected and crazy! Not that you are crazy, Liam, no offence.”
“Thanks, Ellen. I am really happy right now, and I hope the fans are happy for me too. You guys will always have a place in my heart.” He blew a kiss at the camera, and I imagined girls screaming even louder.
“Do you mind if I ask for some details?” Ellen asked with interest, the questions she had planned beforehand in the back of her mind. “Would you like to share how you proposed?”
“Ooh, he didn’t even tell us!” I listened eagerly.
“Basically I asked her when we were in her backyard. We were sitting on a tree just talking when I asked her. I couldn’t get down on my knees, obviously, so I just asked her just like that. I think she was so surprised she almost fell out of the tree.”
We laughed.
“Then she threw her arms around me I almost fell out of the tree. And she said yes. That’s about everything I’m going to tell you.” He finished with his cheeks tinted red again, hiding his face in Harry’s shoulder.
“Aww, Liam that’s so sweet!” Lily cooed, looking at the screen with an adoring expression. “It’s Ruby the luckiest girl ever? I bet all the girls around the world would die to be in her place.”
And Lily, for once, was right.
The week after that, Liam’s Twitter was bursting with hate, and even the other boys were mixed into it too.
“This girl wants me to put some sense into you and see that Ruby is trash.” Louis said to Liam.
“And this tells me to make Ruby fall in love with me so she won’t get married with you.” Harry added.
“And this tells me to go die and rot in a hole.” Liam said, flinging his phone down. “We shouldn’t be reading all this hate, it’ll just make us feel depressed.”
“Like I’m not already.” Niall said, hitting his head with a cushion continuously. Hannah had gone to visit her friends this week, and Niall was missing her more than what was considered normal. He had been sulking around the house for the past few days, doing nothing but eat.
“Just stop it, Niall!” Liam said sharply. “Hannah is not going to die anytime soon, and she won’t just go off with another guy. I don’t know what you’re so sad about.”
“I miss her.” Niall moaned, laying his head into Liam’s lap.
“It’s Louis’ birthday tomorrow.” Liam said in a softer tone. “Don’t be a spoilsport and ruin it for him. Eat something, cheer up then we can prepare for the surprise party, OK?”
Once we were sure that Louis was in his room, we went to my room to put out the decorations.
“I’ve got this bag of decorations.” Liam said, holding up a bag almost overflowing with stuff. “Most of them some fans sent in. Very convenient. We don’t have to buy our own decorations.”
“Oh, look!” Harry picked up a banner from inside the bag. “Happy 22nd Birthday! Perfect.”
“And there’s this one a fan made herself saying ‘Louis, Laugh For Me!’ Good enough. We could hang that up somewhere.”
It took us an hour to get all the decorations onto the roof without anyone getting hurt. One of us had to keep rushing over to Louis’ room to check that he was still safely inside.
“Now for the clues.” Zayn said, giving me a stack of paper the size of my palm. “I’ve written them down already. Cheryl, you go stick them in different rooms. Tomorrow we’ll all be up there already and you’ll lead him through the ‘treasure hunt’, OK?”
“Got it.” I stuck the pieces of papers in different places around the house. Zayn had made the clues quite tricky, so Louis should really need to use his brains to figure them out.
Later that night, we phoned up people to come to Louis’ party. The roof was really small, so naturally we couldn’t invite many people. We got all the girlfriends, and Lily. There would only be 11 people in total, but considering the size of the roof, it would already be a tight fit. Harry grumbled about not being able to invite Ashlyn, but he still didn’t want to let the boys know he was dating her…yet.
“Party starts at ten in the morning.” We told the people who were invited. “Come early, and don’t tell anyone. It’s a secret.”
Our plan went well that night, and Louis never suspected anything. At least I don’t think he did. I was really excited about the party.
It felt so good to be doing something nice and yes, surprising for Louis, since he had done so much for me already. I went to bed feeling jittery, not wanting anything to go wrong for Louis’ birthday tomorrow. I almost forgot about my own birthday, which was a day after Louis’. But unfortunately, my birthday is on Christmas, so it is hard to forget.
I expect the boys would celebrate with me a little bit, but honestly, I really didn’t want them to make a big deal out of it. Louis’ birthday was much more important. I really hoped Louis’ would like the party we prepared for him. And my present. All in all, I hoped that tomorrow would be a great day.
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I was thinking of a sequel for this cause I'm getting more ideas. Comment if you want me too.