The Girl Next Door

(Un) Happy Birthday

“Carter!” I heard mom calling me through the closed door, but I was too depressed and lazy to answer. “CARTER REBECCA ARCH! ANSWER ME!” now she was climbing up the stairs.

“What did I do now?!” I yelled back before she even opened my door.

“Holy crap, you look terrible.” I sheepishly smiled. What did you expect after three days of being locked up in my room? Miss Universe? “Go get dressed into something nice. We’re going for a walk.”

“I don’t do walks,” I said, throwing my head back into my pillow.

“And open the windows. It smells like someone dies here.”

I raised my hand, “That would be me!”

I stumbled out of bed, squishing Cat’s tail, to which she responded with a loud ‘MEOOOW’.

“Nice clothes? What is nice?” Since I brought pretty much all my clothes with me to London, and I only packed for a four-day trip- that lasted more than a week-, I didn’t have much of a choice. But it was pretty warm, so I put on a pair of shorts- which would be a big NO if I was in London- and a sweater. I put on my white converse and followed mom and Chris out of the door.

“Why are you going to grandma’s?” I asked once I’ve realised they were falling behind me.

“We have to go get something. Come on.” I followed them down the stairs to my grandparent’s apartment.

“Carter,” gran Barbara hugged me, “your cousins are in the garden if you want to say hi.” I smiled at her and went to the big garden in the back of our house. Instead of finding Nikki and Thena playing with Bratz dolls and listening to One Direction, I found a mass of people screaming at me.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!” Ana was the first to hug me. Then my cousins, then Ellie and Johanna, then my family and Jake, and in the end, Harry.

“Happy birthday, babe.”

“Babe?”

“Carter,” he corrected himself.

“Whose idea was this? So I can kill them.”

“Mine.”

“You’ve already given me enough reasons to do so. You didn’t need this one. Why?”

“I thought you needed something nice for a change. You’ve been through a lot lately.”

“Thank you,” I awkwardly hugged him. “Where’s my present?”

“Here,” he gave me an orange envelope. I opened it and found two tickets and backstage passes to Ed’s concert.

“I love you!” I screamed and hugged him again.

“You love me?” he sounded surprised.

“What the hell was I thinking?” I muttered, “I don’t hate you.” I quickly amended myself. Then I saw Charlie standing at the door. “What is he doing here?”

“I didn’t invite him.”

“Kiss me,” I whispered in his ear.

“What?”

“Just shut up and kiss me!” I climbed on my toes to reach his lips and we turned around so Charlie could see us. I closed my eyes and felt his lips pushing against mine.

“You keep getting better at this,” he whispered in falsetto once our lips broke off.

“I have my talents.” I looked over his shoulder and met Charlie’s eyes. He looked at me in disbelief and madness… but something else- sadness. I sheepishly smiled at him- though I don’t know why- and looked at the ground. Those blue eyes spent so much time with me looking happy. This was too much. Harry saw something was wrong, so we took my hand.