Hard to Handle (A 1D Story)

Ch. 4 - House Party

Chapter 4 - House Party

“Jen?” Zayn called from the couch, as I was putting the final touches on the PowerPoint I had to turn in later that night. I was working on my laptop in the kitchen, while the boys were watching trashy reality television in the living room.

“Hm?” I barely looked up, serif fonts on my mind.

“Can we have a celebration?”

Oh. Now I looked up. “What?” I saw the other four heads turn eagerly in my direction too. They’d probably been planning all evening to ask me that. “You mean like a fancy dinner?”

“We can do that,” he trailed off nonchalantly. “Too...”

I shot him a look. “What do you want, Zayn?”

“Just celebrating our first night in LA, that’s all. We thought we’d stay in and hang out, invite a few friends.” He smirked. “Oh. You’re invited, of course.”

“Gee, thanks,” I panned, and then smiled. “Yeah, I guess. Party it up. Our neighbors are pretty far from here anyway. Just don’t break anything; this is a model home.” I went back to my typing. After a while, I noticed that they were still whispering from the living room.

I laughed. They were so obvious. “Okay… what is it now?” I called out. “Just ask me.”

“Can you buy us alcohol?” Harry asked loudly, in one quick exhale. He added, “You can take my credit card and buy as much as you want. But you have to be 21 here instead of 18. Absolute rubbish.”

“Aren’t you 21, Louis?” I asked.

“Almost. 20, unfortunately.”

The boys seemed to be watching me with laser gazes, all of them holding their breath. Finally, I sighed good-naturedly. “Fine.”

They let out a loud, collective cheer. “All hail Jennifer!” Harry whooped over the noise, and I smiled in spite of myself. I quickly pressed send on my PowerPoint and grabbed my car keys again. “You guys want to come or can you handle staying by yourselves for a bit without damaging anything?”

“We’ll stay and take care of the inviting,” Liam replied.

“How many people do you know in LA, exactly?” I asked, worried.

Thankfully, Zayn responded, “Not many. A few guys who play background and such.”

“Okay.”

“Oh, and Jen?” Niall called out tentatively.

I turned. For some reason, I had a soft spot for the innocent Irish boy.

“Can you pick up some sandwiches, maybe, on your way back?”

My eyes rolled to the ceiling.

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“These sandwiches are brilliant!” Niall plopped down next to me where we were sitting by the pool and shouted to be heard over the music. The boys had invited a handful of friends, several of which were into DJing (well, it’s LA – everyone with a laptop fancied himself a DJ nowadays). They’d brought along all their speakers and tables and other fancy stuff and after turning on the backyard and pool lights; it turned out to be a pretty decent hangout. There were two other girls there – the DJs’ girlfriends – one of whom I turned out to have mutual friends with since she went to a high school near mine. There was also another friend who was a makeshift bartender (I’m pretty sure he was barely 17, but I let it slide), fiddling with the drinks I had brought back from the supermarket. But otherwise, I was just hanging out with the guys.