troublesome

{43}

Louis' POV:

"What'd you two write on the cake?" Liam leaned over my shoulder to read it. "Lads..." He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"What'd they do?" Harry drew his eyebrows close together in concern.

Liam gestured silently for Harry to come and read it.

Harry read it and then slowly turned to face me and Niall, a look of confusion on his face.

"It was Louis' idea!" Niall raised his hands.

"I was joking! You were the one to actually write it!"

"Don't shoot the messenger–"

"You're more than the messenger—"

"Boys, boys! He's coming—shh." Liam raised his hands to get our attention.

We all shut up, waiting until Zayn walked into the kitchen to surprise him.

"Three, two, one..." Niall whispered a countdown.

"Congrats, Z!"

"Love you, Zayn!"

"What are we saying?"

"Drugs are bad!"

We all exclaimed differing cheers at the same time.

"Wow." I glanced around to the lads.

Harry shoved my shoulder with a laugh, keeping his eyes on Zayn.

"What is this?" Zayn had a shy smile on his face as he scratched the back of his neck.

"Quick, pumpkin. Get the cake!" Niall instructed.

"You don't know what today is?" Liam beamed, as he's been doing all day.

"No?" Zayn pursed his lips to hide a smile. He definitely knew.

"You're exactly three years sober!" Niall shouted, nudging me to show him the cake.

"We're adderALL proud of you!" Was frosted in fancy cursive lettering that Niall spent at least ten minutes on.

Zayn let out a high pitched cackle I've never heard from him before.

His laugh was contagious enough to make the rest of us join in, leading to a room full of smiling idiots.

"Thanks, lads." Zayn stared at the ground. I'd never really seen all the attention on Zayn before, and it seemed to make him uncomfortable.

"You left early today, I didn't get to see you this morning." Liam commented.

"Yeah, I saw Grace." Zayn explained, taking a coin out of his pocket and tossing it to Liam.