Forever and Always

Chapter 4: Birthday Surprise

*Niall’s POV*

It’s been about a week since we ran into Emily and Kat.  Emily and Harry have become a rather nauseating couple, but they’re cute together nonetheless.  Kat has been staying at the house with me and Greg and somehow she always finds her way into my clothes, even though she had the hotel send over her bags.  I always give her a hard time about it but in all honestly I liked it when she wore my clothes, there was something about it that made my heart race.  I had always had a crush on her when we were kids but I thought I had gotten over it in the five years that we had lost touch.  Seeing her now it was clear that I still had feelings for her.  It was her birthday today and I had a special day planned for her…that is if she would ever wake up.  Although to be fair I probably wouldn’t be up so early if I wasn’t so excited about my plans. 

“Morning” she mumbled as she rubbed her sleep ridden eyes.  She was wearing her own shirt for once but she threw on one of my hoodies and a pair of my sweatpants.

“MORNING BIRTHDAY GIRL!!!” I yelled as I ran over to her picking her up and spinning her around.

“It’s too early to be so loud and energetic.”

“Kat, it’s almost noon”

“Your point?”

“Just wake up and get dressed I have a surprise for you”

“Ni you know I hate surprises just tell me what you have planned.”

“Nope” I said popping the p.  “You’ll just have to wait and see.”

“Fine” she groaned as she trudged back upstairs to go get ready. “Do I have to be dressed up for this surprise” she called for the top of the stairs.

“Kat I really couldn’t care less about what you wear it’s just gonna be us” I replied, not wanting to give away too much of the surprise. 

“OK. I’m ready let’s go” she said as trotted down the stairs.  She was wearing my Oklahoma sweatshirt and a pair of my sweatpants.  She wasn’t wearing any make up and her long brown hair was in a messy bun at the very top of her head.  I think I liked her best like this, when she didn’t put any effort into how she looked and just let her natural beauty shine through.  To me she was always the most beautiful girl in the world, but she really took my breath away when she didn’t try to look a certain way. 

“Who said you could wear my clothes” I joked. 

“I did” she stated certainly, as if she never needed my permission, which she didn’t really, I had learned a long time ago that no one could tell Kat what to do.

“Well then,” I scoffed “let’s go.” We got into my car and I drove about ten minutes up the road to the old park that we had spent so many weekends and practically the whole summer when we were kids.  It was hidden now by a thick layer of vines that covered the fence, leaving it unknown to the current generation and abandoned by the others who had no use for it now.  I pulled over to the side of the street and put the car in park. “Here we are” I said smiling over to her.

“This is the surprise? You brought me to a park that we walked to almost every day when we were kids?” she asked skeptically.

“It’s only part of the surprise jeeze, you don’t have to look so disappointed.”

“OK OK sorry!”

“Come on hurry up!” I said dragging her by the hand over to the gate that you would only notice if you knew where to look for it. 

“Niall it is really not that serious of a situation. I’m sure the playground won’t disappear in the ten seconds it takes to walk from the car to the gate” she replied amused by my impatience.