Look at Me - H.S.

~ Chapter 15 ~

Harry's POV cont.

I hear Shaun suck in a sharp breath as soon as he notices her. It feels like hours that she just stands there and watches but in reality it's probably a only few seconds before she shakes her head slowly in disbelief and turns towards us, her cheeks bright red with embarrassment as her eyes lock on mine and she paints a smile on her face that doesn't reach her eyes.

As she walks towards the bouncy castle where all the kids are still having the time of their lives, we head over to join them and start singing Happy Birthday, everyone else noticing and joining in soon after. Elodie beams as she spots the huge cake and soaks up all the attention directed at her.

It isn't until she blows out her candles that I actually notice the design of the cake. It has two tiers, the top one bright red and the bottom one white. On top is the 1D logo in black icing and around the side are heart shapes with a photo of a much younger Me, Niall, Louis, Zayn and Liam in each of them. Written around the bottom tier in black icing is the words 'Happy 10th Birthday Elodie' with little balls of red, white and black icing placed all around the bottom.

It's pretty fucking sick to be honest!

"Who's that idiot!" Shaun laughs, pointing to the photo of me. This obviously has everyone laughing along with him, including Cassie as I shove his shoulder yelling "Hey!" and feigning deep hurt before joining in with the laughter.

I take my phone from my pocket, snapping a quick picture of the cake. I'll send that to the guys later, they'll love this!

Cassie raises a questioning eyebrow at me and I just wink and grin at her. She gives me a sweet smile in return and I immediately feel a whole lot better that her mind has been distracted from what she just witnessed, even if only for a brief moment.

She asks me to hold onto the cake while she takes some photos of me and the girls with it so she can send them to Mum and Gem, I happily oblige and give her my cheesiest grin which again, makes her smile in return. I love that smile.

Once she has finished taking approximately 2356 photos, I carry it inside for her where she follows and grabs a knife from the block on the kitchen counter and begins to slice it up for all of the guests.
Seems a shame to ruin it but hey ho.

As she stands in the kitchen with a rather large knife in her hand, I notice her take a deep breath and close her eyes. I glance over at Shaun who's eyes are already locked on her, concern etched all over his face. Suddenly Cassie stumbles slightly and drops the knife in order to grip onto the side of the worktop. Shaun is behind her in record time, holding her by the waist as I hold on to the tops of her arms from the front. Her head is hung low and her eyes are squeezed shut as she continues to take deep breaths, in through her nose and out of her mouth like this isn't the first time this has happened and she knows exactly how to get through it.

"You got her?" I ask Shaun. "Mhmm" he nods as I let go of her and rush over to the sink and fill a glass with water. I grab a chair on my way back and slide it behind her, Shaun gently lowers her down onto it. "You're alright Cass, we've got you, ok. Just try and sip some of this water for me yeah?" I say softly. With that she raises her head to look up at me, something I can't read flashes across her face but is gone again in a split second. "I'm ok," she smiles unconvincingly, trying to brush it off. "Just had a bit of a head rush, it's no big deal." She turns to smile up at Shaun and repeats, "I'm ok, I swear."

"I know you are, darling" he smiles back at her, rubbing her shoulders comfortingly, "just sit for a bit and drink some water, yeah? Just, take a second."
"Ok" she nods, giving in to his request far more easily than I expected.