"Hello, is this Carlo's Pizza?"
"Yes, how can we help you?" The other person on the line answered.
"I'd like to order 15 boxes of Pepperoni Pizza and 15 boxes of that pizza with everything in it."
"The Combo Pizza, Ma'am?"
"Yes, that one."
"That's 30 boxes of Pizza, amounting to... $780."
"Okay, cool. Don't bring change. You can keep the extra money."
"Is this a prank call?" He asked. He sounded more doubtful when he spoke.
"What? No. I'm freaking serious. Is this Carlo?"
"Yes, this is Carlo."
"Oh, great! This is Ronnie. Ronnie Rockefeller. You know, Harry's friend? The girl who always crashes your store on Fridays."
"Oh, Ro--"
"Don't!" I shouted, "he can't know I called, okay? See, it's his birthday today and I was just wondering..."
"What is it?" He groaned.
"If he can deliver the pizzas and take the night off?" I asked, smiling on the other line. I was hoping Carlo would agree. He could be kind of a prude sometimes. No, he's always a prude. Nonetheless, I was hoping his prudish ways won't get in the way of my plans for Harry's 18th birthday.
"Eh, I don't know, Miss."
"Come on, it's his 18th birthday. And he's still working anyway. I mean, I did order 30 boxes of pizza. I'm not good with Math but making those pizzas and delivering them would definitely take more than his shift if he were to deliver them individually to different places," I bargained. "I'll even give an extra $1000 as tip. On top of the change."
"Okay, okay. I will let him deliver the pizzas and he can have the night off." He finally agreed.
"Yes!!!" I screamed, making Jonathan, our butler, jump. I mouthed an apology as I tried my best not to laugh at his reaction.
"Where are we delivering the pizzas?" He grumbled.
"734 Sagg Main Street, Sagaponack, New York."
"You live in Sagaponack? That's at least an hour and a half away! What about the quality of our pizzas?"
"It's fine. It's fine," I assured him. "Don't worry about it. They're still edible. Just make sure he doesn't know it's me who called and it's me who ordered, okay?"
"Okay, he'll be there in an hour or so."
"Cool, thanks, Carlo!" I hung up the phone and clasped my hands.
"Hi, everyone!" I called out, turning on my heel to face our chef, our butler, and our maids. "It's show time."
While we waited for Harry to arrive, we worked on setting everything up. I was too caught up with arranging everything and what we will be doing once he arrives that I didn't even have the time to check my phone any text messages from my parents or Rachel. My mind was preoccupied with making sure everything will turn out great when the door bell rings. I was so busy I barely even realized it when the doorbell finally rang. My head snapped towards the door. "I'll get it!" I called out as I ran, beating Jonathan by a second or so at reaching the door. I ran a hand through my hair and I took a deep breath. I grabbed the door handle and opened the door, finally coming face to face with the person I was looking forward to seeing that night.
"Ronnie?" A puzzled look was on his face when he spoke.
"Oh, no sir. I'm just a figment of your imagination," I joked.
"Did I get the wrong address? I'm pretty sure this was--" He took out a little piece of paper that had some things written on it. I'm guessing one of those was my address.
"Silly, Harry. You got the right address. I ordered the pizzas." I stated as a matter of fairly.
"Ronnie, you know I can't take the night off."
"I know. I know, which is why I'm renting you for the night." I smiled, only realizing how wrong what I said sounded a few moments later when I noticed the pink stain on his cheeks. "I didn't mean it like that. Stop getting ideas. I ordered 30 boxes of pizza. Making each one and delivering them takes about 30-45 minutes each. Since that's 30 boxes, you have about... oh whatever. I'm not a mathematician. Point is, you have enough time to spend with your good ol' buddy Ronnie. I know you hate it when people do this, but I'm still paying for the pizzas. I'm the customer here. The customer is always right." I finally opened the door wider this time, letting Harry get a good look at the inside of my house.
"Fine. Fine. Fine."
"I mean, it's your birthday! You shouldn't be working your butt off so much on your birthday!"
"Ronnie, I know. It's fine. Thank you." He smiled, "what are we doing with all this pizza though? There's only 2 of us." He looked more puzzled than he did earlier and I couldn't help but shake my head and laugh at his ignorance.
"That's the best part. Come with me." I took a step back to let him in.
"What about the pizzas?"
"Give Gary the keys. He and Jonathan will handle it." I assured him. I waited for him to give Gary, one of our drivers, the keys to the delivery van before I led him inside our house. It was amusing to see that he wasn't even the least bit fazed by our house-- or what other people would refer to as a mansion. I guess that was one of the things I didn't realize then that I liked about him. He just didn't care about how wealthy or poor a person is. He saw them for who they truly are instead of viewing them as a reflection of their bank account (or lack thereof).
"Ronnie, are you killing me?" He whispered, making me stop in my tracks.
"What the hell are you talking about?" I asked.
"Well, it's pretty dark where we are going and..."
"Stop being such a big baby, Harry. I'm just going to get something from the backyard. I think I left my phone there."
"Why would you leave your phone in the backyard?"
"Oh, are you Twitter now? Do I need to update you on everything going on in my day?," I joked. "You have way too many questions." I grabbed the handle of the sliding door and when I opened it, the lights came on.
"SURPRISE!!!!" The people outside roared, surprising Harry so much he ended up holding my hand. We didn't realize it until his aunt and his closest friend, Niall, came towards us with a smug expression on their faces. I pulled my hand almost instantly, tucking it inside the pocket of my leather jacket. The backyard had about ten round tables and four long tables for the food. The place was lit by hanging lights and there were balloons too.
"Happy birthday, Harry!" Niall greeted him, giving him a big hug.
"Thanks, Niall." He grinned.
"Thank you for organizing this, Veronica." His aunt placed a hand on my arm as she smiled at me.
"Oh, it's nothing, Ma'am." I nodded, "He's a great friend of mine and this is the least I can do for him. And please call me Ronnie."
"It's a really big thing for us. Harry doesn't have much friends in the city. He doesn't say it but I know he misses his family and his friends from back home. Thank you for making him feel more welcome." She gave me a kiss on the cheek before she walked over to Harry and Niall. She greeted him Happy Birthday and gave him a kiss on the cheek too before he pulled Niall to accompany her back to their table.
I walked over to the food table to check the food that the caterer and our chef prepared. It had all our favorite foods in it: burritos, tacos, quesadillas, and more. I took a spoon to taste one of the special salsas our chef made when someone grabbed me by the shoulder, making me turn to face them.
"Harry, wh--"
I froze as his arms engulfed me and then he kissed the top of my head. He probably realized how still I was because he pulled back a few seconds later, still with a huge smile on his face though. I was pretty sure my cheeks were flushed and as much as I wanted to play it cool, I couldn't. What just happened kept on replaying inside my head. I just stared at him as he spoke the words, "thank you."
A sincere smile crept on my lips when I poked his tummy. "I did tell you I will let you party tonight."
"Yeah, but this isn't exactly the kind or party I was expecting you'd throw for me." He looked around the place, amazed at the number of people who were there. "Where did you even get these many people?"
"My family is also financing an orphanage and a homeless shelter in Queens," I admitted as I put back the spoon I took from the table. "I knew you liked kids and well, I thought you'd like to celebrate your birthday with them instead of people from school."
"Wow, you know me too well." He laughed at my statement as he placed a hand around my shoulder, dragging me with him as he checked the other food on the table.
"Haha, I can say the same for you, mister." I nudged him on the side. He stopped walking and turned to face me. His eyes were locked on mine when I looked up at him and for the very first time, I saw something different about the way he smiled. I don't know what it was but I knew I never want that smile to go away. I would do probably anything to see that smile again. His smile was just intoxicating.
"You make me happy, Ronnie."
Why must he always do this to me? I don't know if he's aware of how awkward I am when things get too emotional and cheesy between us. See, I'm not an emotional person. When things get too "heart to heart", I flee. It's my go to response. People say I'm a heartless witch for a reason, and I guess some of them have a right to, not that that ever made me care any less. Nonetheless, when it's with Harry, I can't just leave. I don't know what it was that was making me want to stay. Maybe it's because I actually like the kind of person and friend he is to me. Like I said before, I'm not a good person. I know I don't deserve great things. I'm no angel. It will always remain a mystery to me why he even chose to be my friend through all the crap when there's nothing to gain for him.
"Um. That's-- great." I nervously spoke, slapping myself mentally for how unemotional my answer was. "You can get drunk next time. For now, I think it's great to go back to being young and party like you would when you were 10. We even got a piñata, magicians, and clowns!" I spoke with enthusiasm, hoping that will take his mind off whatever it was he was thinking that involved me.
"A piñata?!" His eyes almost popped out of their sockets before he grabbed me by the hand and pulled me towards the kids who were being entertained by the emcee. We sat in the front row by his request. I wasn't planning on joining the games, but he didn't want me to leave his side so I joined when he did. We didn't get to talk much during the program though. We were both too busy playing with the kids to talk to each other. There were times, however, when I would catch him looking at me with that huge smile on his face. I would look at him puzzled and he'd just laugh at me. Not that I mind or anything, because I don't. I was glad he seemed like he was enjoying the party, even if it was sometimes at my expense.
When it was time for everyone to eat, he dragged me by the hand to the food table. I could describe his face as that of a child on Christmas day. It didn't take him long to fill his plate about three times that night. I don't know how he managed to eat that much and not have some kind of food coma. The entire night, I was just watching him unknowingly. I guess I looked forward to his reaction to whatever came next in the program.
When they brought out the huge cake with eighteen candles, everyone had their eyes on the cake, but not me. I had my eyes on him. I wanted to take it all in. How his eyes went wide and you could see the light from the candles reflecting on them. How he couldn't hide his smile because of how big is was. How entertained he seemed to be with the candles. But mostly, I wanted to take in how he never let go of my hand the entire time he was making a wish unknown to all of us there and how holding my hand seemed like the most normal thing in the world to him. The entire time he was blowing his candles and everyone was wishing him a happy birthday, the only thing that was going through my mind was: "this must be what happiness feels like."
"Huh?" He turned to face me as I blinked rapidly, unaware of what just happened.
"What?" I asked, wondering if I just said my thoughts out loud. Oh crap.
"You said something about happiness." He inched closer to me. Everyone around us was too preoccupied by cutting the cake to notice our talk, which I'm grateful for.
"Oh, it's nothing." I shrugged off, pulling my hand from his before I flashed him a smile and walked to the infinity pool in our backyard. I wasn't expecting him to follow me, however, so I almost ended up falling into the pool when he spoke next to me.
"You're keeping something from me." He crossed his arms and frowned. Is he being serious right now? Does he honestly think he knows everything about me?
"Harry, you do know I'm a woman of many secrets and layers right?"
"Yeah, I know. But you don't need to do that with me."
"What makes you say that?" I spoke as I removed my shoes and pulled up my pants so I can dip my feet in the pool.
"Because I'm your friend."
I almost wanted to tell him I'm friends with a lot of people but none of them really knew me. But then I didn't want to ruin his night and make it miserable. This was supposed to be the best birthday party for him. It wasn't supposed to be about me. I didn't want that.
"Harry, we can talk about me next time, okay? Just enjoy your party." I patted his shoulders.
"I can't enjoy it if you're not enjoying it." He muttered, making me turn to look at him as he sat right next to me.
"What are you talking about? I'm enjoying the party."
"I heard what you said. This must be what happiness feels like."
Oh crap. Oh crap, indeed.
We were silent for about three minutes. I didn't know what to say. Before this day, we never really talked about things that were too serious. I've never really opened up to anyone about my so-called issues before. Mostly because I never really saw them as an issue. They were just normal things to me. But apparently, for other people, the things that are normal to me are huge things to them.
"Happiness is a foreign subject to me." I finally broke the silence as I looked out into the ocean. "I'm probably the only person who would never choose to be happy because happiness is a fleeting thing and I'd rather not get used to anything I can live comfortably without."
"How can you live comfortably without being happy?" He asked with a concerned tone in his voice.
"I don't really know how to answer that question. I just don't. I'm okay, Harry. I'm always okay. I never feel anything else besides okay, and I'm okay with that. I really am fine with just being okay. Life's easier when you're just okay." I admitted, finally glancing at him. He frowned and even with the lack of light in that part of the backyard that time, I could see the sadness in his eyes when I said those words. I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out. The frown turned into a small smile. His hand reached for mine and he gave it a light squeeze before he spoke the words I didn't know I'd actually hold on to for as long as I live.
"Then, I'm making it my personal mission to make you happy. Mark my words, Ronnie. This will be the last day you'll ever be just okay."
And it was.
****
Yaaaaayyy! Finally got to update this thing. How are you guys enjoying the giveaway? Please vote for this too! And please leave a comment to let me know what you think.
We are also looking for a ship name for Harry and Ronnie so if you have any ideas, please tweet us your ship name idea with the hashtag #1DMUTSS. Who knows? We might choose your idea and use it for future chapters and tweets.
The song for this chapter (and the next one because yes, there's a part 2) is Right Place, Right Time by Olly Murrs. Go listen to that. It's very nice. :)
Much love,
-Kendall