Stella's POV
Present Day
I yawned one time. One singular time.
"Wow Stella, you look exhausted, better go to bed." Louis pointed out.
"Absolutely not." I replied, though truthfully I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open as I sat on the bench in the front room of the bus. It was 11:45. 15 minutes until Ava day.
"Here." Louis said, getting up. He disappeared into the bunk tunnel and came back out with his soft green blanket, placing it on me.
"It's not going to wooork." I sang. He slammed the light off even though I was reading.
"Good night." He said.
"I'm not going to sleep, asshole." I laughed.
"But you just look so snoozy. Let me put on some relaxing music."
"Shut up." I complained, shifting so I could sit up and not fall asleep. Louis and I were having an extremely heated competition to see who would be the first to wish Ava a happy birthday. He had been trying to get me to fall asleep since the second he got off stage. He even had Molly bring me some melatonin and chamomile tea.
"I am the expert at not sleeping, you're never going to get me." I warned.
"Well my fingers move at lightning speed, so I'm hitting call first." He decided.
"Have either of you considered calling her together?" Matt the Bassist asked, because he was here.
"And miss out on the chance to beat my sister at her own game? Not a chance." Louis replied. Then he let out a yawn.
"You're looking tired, big bro." I taunted. He picked up his empty red solo cup and threw it at me, and I flipped him off in response. For the next several minutes we both just lay there on our respective benches, waiting for the clock to strike midnight. Though my eyes drooped constantly, I had it down to a science. I had a clock open that showed me the seconds until midnight, so I could be ready exactly when the clock changed. I am very confident I was the first one to call Ava when it turned midnight, but it was Louis' phone call she answered.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Louis yelled, causing me to jump.
"Give me that phone!" I complained, getting up and trying to grab his phone. He laughed and rolled away from me so I couldn't grab it from him.
"Just wanted to let you know I love you more than Stella does because I was the first to tell you happy birthday." Louis taunted.
"That's not true!" I complained. I heard Ava say something to Louis and Louis turned to me.
"She said she hates you." He told me. I hit him on the arm.
"She did not say that, asshole!" I exclaimed.
"I'm gonna go take this super important phone call in my bunk, have a good night, loser." He smirked, and then got up and pushed my head a little before going back toward his bunk.
"You're not getting your blanket back!" I called after him, and his middle finger went up.
//
Ava's POV
Growing up, my Abuela always made my birthday special. She would fill my room with balloons and gave me a princess crown and together we would make a paper ring birthday sash that I got to wear to school so everyone knew that it was my day. It was the one day of the year where everything was about me. After Abuela died Stella always did her best to make my birthdays feel special, but I always felt my Abuela's absence most on my birthday. It was even worse today because when I woke up I was on Aunt May's couch, no bedroom full of balloons. But I heard someone bumping around the kitchen, and I smelled my favorite food in the entire world, waffles. Oli was asleep at the other end of the couch, but I got up and decided to go in the kitchen and see what was up. I noticed on the walls there was a bunch of happy birthday decorations, the same happy birthday banner that got hung on the banister every birthday for as long as I could remember. Abuela always threw me a little birthday party, but Stella was never allowed to attend it so I always considered the little party Aunt May threw me at Peter's my real birthday party, because it was the one all my friends got to go to. After the second birthday party Stella couldn't attend because she wasn't allowed at our apartment, Abuela switched tactics and decided to take me on Ava-Abuela dates instead. She knew how important Stella was to me, so she knew it wouldn't be a real party without my Stella. I wasn't sure how I felt about that now. Part of me didn't want Stella there at all. At midnight Stella was the first to call me and I just stared at her name on my phone until Louis' name popped up instead. I figured they were probably arguing over who got to call me first, and I wanted to make sure Louis won. I knew how happy it'd make him to beat his sister at anything, so I wanted to give that to him.
