Hard to Handle (A 1D Story)

Ch. 10 - Birthday Concert

Chapter 10 - Birthday Concert

On Tuesday, I got a text from my best friend from home, Chloe. Now, up until this point, I had either ignored all texts from the outside world or replied with, “Sorry, out of town on work!” And eventually, after a while, the texts asking to hang out ceased. But this text was different. One – because it was Chloe, my oldest and closest friend. And two – it was her 22nd birthday.

I stared at the message on my iPhone, which had beeped just as I was pulling into the Escalade into our driveway after picking the boys up from their collaborator’s studio. Harry, who was sitting shotgun, grabbed the phone from the cup holder before I could reach for it.

“Don’t even think about it; the car’s still in motion,” he smirked, unlocking my phone to read the text. “Okay. It’s from a Chloe… aw, precious; it’s her birthday and she has a surprise for you.”

I put the car in park and made a grab for my phone. “Give it to me, Harry.”

“Yeah, that’s what you said last night.”

“Gross.” I rolled my eyes and made another attempt at the phone, this time, succeeding. I stuck my tongue out and laughed before reading Chloe’s text: “Jen! got 2 free tickets to Tiesto at the Shrine for my birthday!! I know you have work, but if you’re going to be near LA tomorrow night, it’s going to be awesome! Comeee :)”

I bit my lip. Shit. I did honestly want to go because I hadn’t seen Chloe in a while (and also, who could say no to free tickets?), but if I did go, everyone would know that I’d been in town this whole time. Well, maybe I could just tell Chloe to keep that our little secret…

“Well?” Harry asked, mimicking a girly American accent I assumed was supposed to be Chloe. “Are you going to come to my birthday? Pretty please? Jennifer, come!”

I giggled at the opportunity. “Yeah, that’s what you said last night.”

For a split second, Harry looked taken aback, but he quickly recovered and slapped his knee, laughing hard.

“Oh for the love of God,” Louis complained loudly from the backseat, breaking the silence. “Just have sex already!”

“But let us out of the car first,” Liam added. “It’s getting really stuffy.”

“Okay, okay, hold on!” I started a quick text to Chloe. “Let me just tell her I can’t make it before I forget.”

“Why can’t you make it?” “What can’t you make?” “Who are you going with?”

I suppressed a smile. The guys really acted like toddlers sometimes. I turned around to face the other four in the back of the car. “My best friend Chloe’s birthday is tomorrow and she got two tickets to see Tiesto. But I don’t really feel comfortable leaving you guys alone for the whole night… NOT-” I quickly added before they could interject, “because I don’t trust you guys, but because I don’t know if that would look too good to P&W.”

“Well, we can go with you,” Zayn suggested, to a chorus of agreement.

“Chloe only has two tickets.”

“No worries, we’ll buy ours.”

Oh right, I forgot that these guys don’t exactly have issues with money. But I still wasn’t convinced. “Are you sure?”

“We want to,” insisted Louis, grinning and leaning forward in his seat. “I wouldn’t have pegged you for liking that scene, Jen.”

“I would’ve,” Harry coughed under his breath. I ignored him.