The Best Years Of Our Lives

~Part Six~

Dani’s POV.

At six o’clock everything was ready. The garden was draped in decorations and lights, Becka was just waiting for it to get darker to light up the place. The sound was working and Amy was excited to be in charge of the music for the night. I had managed to bring Niall’s cake without dropping it and it was now safely in the fridge. People had started to turn up now and I was absolutely buzzing. We’d all changed into our dresses already and I was glad I had gone for an electric blue sleeveless one as it was still hot outside. I had tied my hair up in a high ponytail to get it out of the way.

‘Dani! A little help?’ I turned round to find Tasha, Harry’s sister had turned up with bags and cardboard boxes. She cocked her head to the side as I went over to give her a hug, her lipstick perfectly matching her bright red hair.

‘Thanks for this Tasha!’ I said looking over the beer and various other bottles.

‘I’m trusting you’ll behave yourselves.’ she raised her eyebrows.

‘Of course.’ I said, not promising anything in particular. Harry had noticed us talking and jogged over.

‘Ah here’s the troublemaker.’ Tasha said, ruffling his hair. Harry ducked under her arm and looked into a bag.

‘Nice one Tasha.’ he grinned. ‘Told mum I’ll be back tomorrow morning?’

‘Yep. Just don’t get too drunk or I’m not driving you back.’ she threatened and Harry rolled his eyes.

‘Deal.’ he gave her a quick hug as she had to go and we took the alcohol over to the drinks table. The garden was getting more crowded now and Amy was blasting out ‘Moves Like Jagger’. I suddenly felt my phone ringing in my pocket and nearly dropped the box I was holding.

‘Hello?’ I pressed the phone to my ear, trying to block out the music. 

‘Hey Dani, we’re five minutes away!’ Louis answered.

‘Oh gosh, alright. See you soon.’ I hung up and rushed over to inform Amy. She turned the music down low and picked up the microphone. It made an awful screeching noise and I cringed.

‘Hey everyone! Niall will be here in a few minutes!’ her voice carried well, Francesca and Harry had done a good job with the sound after all. ’If you all stay out here, we’ll sing happy birthday as soon as he comes in, okay?’

Everyone standing around cheered; I recognised some of the people from our year at St Martin’s, but most of the faces were unfamiliar to me. Amy leaned over to whisper something in my ear: The cake.

I swore under my breath and pushed my way back inside. I chased everyone from the kitchen outside and got the cake out. It was huge chocolate one with all seventeen candles neatly lined up. I held it carefully and was about to take it out into the garden when someone nearly walked right into it.

‘Ughh can you just watch where…’ I paused as I saw the person who had been trying to slip past. ‘Georgina, are you alright?’

‘Sorry, I need to go now.’ she said roughly, looking past my shoulder at the door.

‘What? But Lou and Niall are almost here.’ I said, shocked.

‘That’s why I have to leave.’ she realised I wasn’t moving until I got an explanation and sighed. ‘Look, I guess I still feel something for Niall. And I can’t stay to watch him get with some random girl tonight without it breaking my heart again, okay?’

I blinked, still holding the cake tightly. I finally managed to speak. ’If you leave then he’ll know exactly how much you care.’

‘It doesn’t matter, he knows anyway.’ she retorted and would have probably gone then, had we not heard a key suddenly turning in the lock.

‘Quick!’ I said and pulled her out the back door, balancing the cake in one hand. She surrendered and shut it behind us, grabbing a lighter off the sideboard on the way. As she lit the candles quickly, I signalled to Amy to cut the music and everyone went silent.

We waited in anticipation and literally seconds later, Niall opened the door with an overwhelmed expression on his face. Louis put his arm around him and the other One Direction boys joined his side as we burst into a chorus of ‘happy birthday’. I marched up to Nialler with the cake and he grinned at me before blowing out all the candles in one breath. There was a lot of cheering and he kissed me on the cheek before coming over to help me cut slices.

‘Dani, you’re a star for organizing this!’ he yelled over the noise.

‘It wasn’t just me!’ I laughed as we pushed through the crowd, people congratulating him all around. We made it to the stage where the other boys were already getting ready for their performance.

‘Get up and show us what you’ve got!’ Becka winked, squeezing his shoulder. I saw Francesca, Amy, Martina, Jade, Codie and all the others standing right at the front. Georgina had joined them, but she held back with Alisha, unsure of whether to stay or go. Niall stumbled onto the stage and picked up the microphone.

‘Thank you so much for turning up guys!’ he said and Stan whistled, his arm warpped round Kira. ‘Really, this is an amazing way to start my birthday and we’re going to sing a new cover for you all.’ he cleared his throat and seemed to search the crowd. Louis handed him his guitar and the others took up their mics.

‘One more thing.’ Niall’s voice was quieter now. ‘I want to dedicate this song to someone.’

I thought I was imagining it, but all the girls were just as surprised as I was. Niall held out his hand into the crowd, his eyes focused on one girl and one girl only.

‘I know I’ve been a dick to you.’ he paused to help her up onto the stage, even though she looked like she would flee at any moment. He held onto her hand tightly and smiled.

‘Please forgive me Georgina Brown.’ he finished and right then my mouth dropped opened in astonishment and relief: he kissed her in front of everyone.

-end of pt.6-