Close As Strangers // Calum Hood

Chapter 9 - Birthday

Ivy's Point of View
-2 days later-

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Leah screamed when she opened the car door.

"Thank you!" I smiled at her when she had gotten seated, then I drove off towards school.

She hugged me and I tried my best to hug her back and not let go of the steering wheel.

"I can't believe that you're eighteen! It's so cool!" She said.

"Me neither. It feels weird." I laughed.

"You're lucky your birthday is today, on a Friday."

"Why?" I frowned.

"So we can go out and party, duh." She winked at me. "I mean now you can drink legally, so why not enjoy it right?"

I'm not really a party person but Leah was right, I might as well enjoy my eighteenth birthday.

"Sure. But you know that you're still only seventeen, right? Just because I now can drink legally, it doesn't mean that you can." I laughed.

"I knew you would say something like that, but don't worry..." Leah started but I interrupted her.

"Oh, I'm not worried. It's you who can't drink legally not me." I grinned at her.

Leah opened her mouth like she was very offended and then she hit me on my upper arm. "Hey, that's not nice!"

I laughed while she mumbled something like "Why do I have to be born in october?"

"But as I was saying, don't worry  I have a plan." She continued. "You can buy me drinks!"

I almost hit the brakes so hard that the car was on it's way to stop right on the road. "What!? Leah, that's illegal! It's very illegal."

"I know, I know, but just a few drinks won't hurt. Pleeeease, I want to celebrate with you!" Leah looked at me with sad puppy eyes and pushed out her lower lip.

I glared at Leah for a few seconds through my squinted eyes. "Okay, let's follow your plan."

Leah clapped her hands together like an excited child. "Yay! Tonight will be awesome!"

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The clock was around 7.50 pm and Leah and I walked through a couple of double doors into a club that Leah had picked out. She said it was one of the best in town. Leah liked to go to clubs just so she could find new cool music by different DJ's.

It was like walking straight into a wall when we passed the guard by the doors. A wall of heat, very loud music and people. I felt a bit uncomfortable at first but then Leah took my hand and dragged me up to the big bar which was on a big raised platform and after I had swallowed a few sips from my first drink I felt better. This was my eighteenth birthday, and it only happens once in your life. Let loose Ivy and have fun! I told myself.

We sat down by the bar to order. One of the four bartenders that worked that night came up to us. He was tall, with broad shoulders and he looked very muscular. He had quite a sharp jawline and his hair was light brown.

"What's up ladies. What can I get you?" The guy asked.

I opened my mouth to say something even though I didn't know what I wanted, but the guy interrupted me. "I need the see an ID first."

I pulled up my wallet from my handbag and proudly handed over my ID to the bartender. He studied it for a short while and then he handed it back to me and I put it back in my wallet.

"I see you turn eighteen today. Happy birthday." The bartender pulled up one corner of his mouth and smiled at me. He actually looked quite sexy.

I noticed that I blushed a bit. "Thank you."

"Then I'll make something special for your birthday." The bartender said and then he turned towards Leah. "And what can I get you?"

"I'll take a Frozen Margarita." Leah smiled big.

"Okay, I just need to see an ID." The bartender stretched out his hand towards Leah.

Leah cleared her throat. "I kind of forgot it at home."

In that moment I thought, now we're screwed... But the bartender just smiled and said. "Well, we all forget things at home sometimes, don't we?" Then he winked at us and turned around to make our drinks.

I let out a breath I barely known I'd been holding in and Leah poked me in the side with her elbow. "See, that went great!"

I turned towards Leah instead of staring at the bartender's back."I guess it did. This will be fun!"

Leah smiled big at me. "I knew you would come around. And by the way, the bartender is hot!"

I raised my eyebrows at her and started twirling a strand of hair around my index finger. "He is, isn't he."

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Calum's Point of View

"I don't know what to do guys. Should I text her happy birthday or not?" I picked up my phone from the table in front of me but almost immediately put it down again. "I'm a douche for not writing happy birthday to her, right? But it dosen't seem like she want me to write to her. I mean we haven't talked in weeks. What should I do?" I sighed loudly and sank deeper down in the couch.

Luke drank a few sips from his water bottle and then he looked seriously at me. "Do you still love and care about her?"

I nodded. "Yeah, of course. I never stopped loving or caring about her. We just stopped talking and texting each other and now it just feels awkward to try to contact her. I don't know what happened, if she thinks that the fact that I'm gone is too hard so she can't keep in touch with me or if her feelings for me have faded."

"I don't understand what happened to you two either, that girl is, or at least was totally in love with you. Anybody could see that." Michael jumped into the conversation. "But I still think you should text her happy birthday." He continued.

Ashton who sat beside me in the couch nodded. "Yeah, you need to show her that you still care about her. Maybe she has forgotten that you still do."

Michael and Luke nodded. "Yeah, and if you don't text her you're totally a douche." Luke said and ruffled through my hair with his hand.

I laughed slightly and waved away Luke's hand from my hair. "All right, all right! I'll do it."

Ashton picked up my phone and handed it to me. I took a deep breath and opened up my text messages. I wrote - Happy birthday Ivy! And then, after quite a while of thinking, I put in an emoji heart. Like the guys had said, I needed to show her how I still felt. Then it hit me, Sydney is like ten hours ahead of Vancouver, she won't get this text on her birthday, she will get it the day after her birthday. I sighed, I should have thought about this earlier. But I'm sure she will understand, I hope.

Then Michael went and opened the door to our dressing room. "We need to get to the stage now." He said.

I clicked sent and then put down my phone on the table again. We all walked out through the door and towards the stage. I really, really hoped that when I came back after tonights gig, Ivy would have texted me back. I couldn't wait to see what she would write me back.

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Author's note:

Hoho, and who is this mysterious hot bartender?? You'll find out in the next chapter ;) 

THANK YOU ALL FOR READING, YOU ARE THE BEST! Don't forget to vote or comment something nice if you like what I'm writing! xoxo