Friends: Surprise

Part 12

Devin hastily helps Sydney fix her dress, she eventually smacking his inept hands away as she finishes buttoning the front herself, unaware she’s messing up the buttons holes.

“You’re hopless,” she sighs, smoothing her dress quickly down her thighs, clearing her throat. 
Well that had been fun.
For one of them anyway.
If he’d just waited five more seconds —.
“So, uh,” Devin runs a hand through his hair, wishing he hadn’t turned the lights on so they could see; he’d liked the darkness better. “you wanna —?”
“Not interested.”
He gives her a startled look. “What?”
“You’re cool and all, and this was fun,” Sydney waves her hand as she hastily checks her makeup in the wall mirror hanging above the keyboard. “But I don’t want anything serious.”
What? 
“I wasn’t going to suggest anything serious,” Devin frowns; he didn’t do serious. “I was gonna ask if you wanted to go back to the party already.”
“Oh.” Sydney flushes as she glances at him; so much for trying the flippant, IDGAF vibe she’d been going for.
Devin hesitates as he suddenly feels his phone go off, and he takes a quick second to fumble it from his pocket, swiping the text open.
His eyes widen.
“Shit!” he gasps, realizing he got the text several minutes earlier. He almost pushes Sydney over as he barrels out of the room, sprinting down the hallway.
“They’re almost here!” he bellows as he staggers into the crowded livingroom in panic, realizing he’d fucked up by fucking your sister —.
Eh.
He’d probably need to not mention that fact.
She was good though; Chris had said you were a bomb in bed so maybe that ran in your family?
His eyes momentarily flick to your older sister.
Hmm.
“Everyone hide!” Mrs. Cerulli bursts, her eyes brightening. “This is not a drill! Hide!”
Everyone dives for furniture, quickly squatting and hiding to the best of their abilities while Mrs. Cerulli turns off the lights and darts to hide herself.
The room becomes deathly quiet, and everyone waits, only able to hear their own breathing for several seconds. After a moment, you can be heard giggling in the distance, the muffled voice of Chris telling you something.
Well this was going to be interesting.
~~~~
“I can’t believe you got away with that,” you grin, Chris arm looped around your neck as the two of you walk to your apartment. “That’s ridiculous!”
“I’m just that talented,” Chris winks, his eyes staying on the front door, barely straying from it. He had a quick pace, as if he couldn’t wait to get inside, although you can’t fathom why.
Why was he suddenly so in a rush when he’d dawdled the entire day you’d been out, lingering in the most ridiculous stores or chatting with random people? He hates chatting!
You sigh as you let him drag you, his keys already in his hand jingling.
“Hey babe?”
“Hmm?”
“Remember that I love you okay?”
“Okay?” you blink at him. “Why —?”
“Don’t worry about it.” He says, and then opens the front door.
Well okay.
Whatever.
Weirdo.
You send him a look as you step inside the dark apartment, glancing around.
“Didn’t we leave the lights —?”
“SURPRISE!”
​"EEEEEK!“​​
You jerk, your entire body going rigid as the lights suddenly come on, illuminating twenty people and a lot of furniture that wasn’t yours. You stare at all of them for several seconds, your heart thundering in your chest, already halfway up your throat and ready to make a break for it.
"What the fuck?” you manage, your eyes wide as you stare at all of them.
“Surprise!” Chris chuckles, albeit a little nervously, his hands going to squeeze your tense shoulders.
Surprise was right!
Why was everyone in your apartment!?
What the fuck!?
“Hi, honey!”
Oh for the love of —?
“Mom?” you try not to sound as traumatized as you feel as your mother rushes forward to hug you, squeezing a grimace out of you from her loving arms. 
“I’m so glad you’re finally here!” she squeals, rocking you back and forth for several seconds. “It feels like I haven’t seen you in years!”
Just one.
Although that didn’t feel long enough. 
….
Why would Chris tell you he loves you but then invite your family to be around?
You can only tolerate them in ten minute intervals scattered out among years, he’d learned that already. 
And you’d really been looking forward to a shower after the long day.
You cast a curious glance around the room as your mother releases you.
There was your sisters, all the band, two of their girlfriends you’d only met in passing before, and a few other mutual friends of yours and Chris’s.
Why were they all here?
“What’s the special occasion?” you can’t keep the wariness out of your voice as you shrug out of your coat.
“Nothing special,” Chris says quickly before anyone else can, taking your coat for you and hanging it up. “I just thought it would be fun to have a surprise party! Get everyone together that we care about!”
Then he shouldn’t have invited some of the people.
And that sounds incredibly suspicious.
You frown up at him before you feel a pair of warm hands on your hips, making you look at Devin as he steps up with a grin.
Why did he smell like perfume?
“Hello, doll!”
“Devin.” You’re not impressed.
You hate surprises. 
None excluded.
You’re not sure why Chris would even feel the need for something like this anyway, but he’d done a damn good job of keeping you in the dark over it.
Is that why he’d been so mysterious the past couple days? The phone calls, the texts, the abrupt ending of conversations when you entered the room? 
At least it made a little more sense and you weren’t just being paranoid for no reason.
“You look great!” Devin tells you, wrapping you up in a quick hug. “I like the dress!”
“I didn’t think it was your style,” you chuckle lightly as you lean away from him.
He grins at you. “All dresses are my style, (Y/N). I don’t discriminate. Besides,” he drops his voice to a whisper. “It’s whats under them that counts.”
You snort, and quickly push away from him before he gets you in trouble, unable to help the grin.
He was such an idiot.
“Hey.”
“Hey, Sabrina. Syd.” You smile at your sisters as they step up, relieved when Sabrina isn’t carrying her spawn; you really shouldn’t be that way about your niece, but you didn’t want to meet her until she was out of diapers and the probability she would spit up on you was a lot lower.
Or honestly at all would be fine with you.
Maybe when she’s a teenager….
Sabrina gives you a quick hug you half heartedly return.
“You’re looking good!” You tell her. Considering you popped out a watermelon a few months back.
“Thanks. It’s nice to get away for a little while.” Sabrina sighs, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “Be around adults.”
“I don’t know what you mean by adults, that opinion might change soon,” you chuckle, and Sydney rolls her eyes as she gives you a quick, awkward hug before stepping back.
You give her a curious look as she leans away.
Why were her and Devin wearing the same perfume?
“So what the special occasion?” you ask Chris when you finally make your way back to him, the both of you done seeing and greeting everyone. Someone had thrust a glass of wine in your hand, and you were now happily sipping from it as you gaze around the room.
Someone had done really well decorating.
“What do you mean?” Chris asks innocently, grinning down at you as he takes your hand, pressing his lips against your knuckles. “Can’t we have people over spontaneously?”
“Chris, this is so not spontaneous.” You look around at all the food and decorations, how nice everyone was dressed and how they were all sort of…. Buzzing.
In expectation?
Excitement?
You’re not sure.
But they keep glancing at you and Chris, and you weren’t being paranoid over that either. 
At least, you don’t think you are….
Okay, what was going on!?
This had been planned for some reason!
“Well?” you push when Chris doesnt answer, just gazes at you. “What are we celebrating?”
“Why do you think we’re celebrating?”
“Don’t act stupid, Chris.” You purse your lips at him, feeling his fingers tighten in yours. 
“Kids!” Mrs. Cerulli suddenly appears, and Chris sends her a relieved look; mom to the rescue!
He had no fucking idea how to wing this.
He wants you relaxed and enjoying yourself before he pops the big question, which meant probably two more glasses of wine and thirty more minutes of mingling.
And if there was one thing his mom was good at, it was getting people to drink and mingle.
So Chris basically hands you to her and makes an escape to where his band is standing, watching your irked expression out of the corner of his eye from across the room.
“So how was the day?” Ryan asks as Chris steps up, giving him a goofy grin. “One a scale of one to ten how close were you to fucking up today?”
“Seven,” Chris sighs.
“Dude,” Ricky frowns at him. “What happened?”
“Well it started off good until she asked if I was cheating on her.”
“What?” Devin gasps. “Chris!”
“It’s not my fault! She was just super suspicious over all the planning and shit!” Chris defends himself instantly, rubbing the back of his neck. “You guys know I’m not!”
“Jeez, you really are a rainbow killer.”
“Josh!”
Balz chuckles, leaning back on his heels as he pulls his girlfriend a little closer.
Thank god their relationship wasn’t as complicated as yours and Chris.
“What else?” Ricky asks, admittedly curious.
“Well, she asked if I was going to take her somewhere public to dump her,” Chris grimaces. “That was an interesting conversation.”
“So basically you almost blew the entire day to hell,” Devin concludes with a cluck, shaking his head. “Can you do nothing on your own?”
“Fuck you, Devin.”
“So what did you do to save the day?” Ryan is dying to know, if it worked for Chris maybe it would help him out later in life. “What was the magic you used to salvage your relationship?”
Chris actually blushes. “I told her I loved her.”
….
“That was it?” Balz girlfriend frowns at Chris. “And she was content with that?”
“Chris has never said the L word to her,” Balz explains quickly. “he was saving it for a special occasion.”
“You’ve been dating her two years! Why haven’t you said it?” his girlfriend huffs accusingly at Chris. “Way to be an ass!”
Chris glares at her.
“I was waiting so it would be special! I was actually gonna tell it to her, yknow, later, but it sort of came out.” he admits. “But it seemed to make everything better, so it worked out. Now I just gotta see if she says yes or if this entire party is just going to be humiliating.”
“Why would the party be humiliating?” you ask, siding up to him; you’d only caught the end of his sentence.
Admittedly, whatever the surprise party was for, you want it over and done with so you’re not so anxious about it anymore. You’d been racking your brain since you’d walked in trying to figure out what all the hubbub was about, but you couldn’t come up with anything. 
It wasn’t either of your birthdays, it wasn’t even close to your two year anniversary… Was the band gonna announce something? 
But if that was the case why wouldn’t Chris have said something to you? Why let all of it be a secret? 
You can’t figure the fucking thing out!
And it irritates you.
You hate surprises!
Chris gives you a blank look, his hazel eyes mildly panicked as he tries to figure an excuse up.
“Just talking about how some of us get when we’re having too much fun,” Devin says smoothly, coming to the rescue. “You know how we are.”
Ahuh.
You suppose you do.
But you don’t believe him.
And you want to ask him something. 
“Devin?”
“Yes, dearest?”
“Have you met my sisters yet?”
Devin twitches. “Yeah, I have. They’re nice.”
You cross your arms. “You think Sydney is nice?”
Chris lips twitch.
“Uh…. Well she’s not horrible, so I guess.” Devin suddenly looks incredibly uncomfortable. 
“So then you two didn’t hit it off or anything?”
“No? What’s with the interrogation about your sister?” he sounds so defensive. 
Oh Jesus Christ.
Your nose curls in disgust.
“Devin, gross!” 
You weren’t an idiot, you know your younger sister pretty well; even sober she wasn’t the most…. Was there even a nice way to say she had no qualms with a quickie?
“What’s gross?” he stares at you, and you see him swallow as his entire face starts to heat. His voice was a little tight, and he’s suddenly examining the liquid in his cup with intense interest.
“Ew! She’s my sister.”
“I know who she is!’
"Then why — I cannot — oh my god I need more wine.” You can’t even look at him any longer. You shudder as you turn away, making a beeline for Mrs. Cerulli where she stands, pouring herself another glass as well.
Everyone looks at Devin pointedly.
“What was that about?” Ryan is so confused.
Devin shrugs, his eyes flicking to where Sydney is standing with her mother and sister.
“Dude, did you —?” Chris looks a little sick. “You didn’t, did you? When!?”
Devin frowns, his eyes finally flicking up.
“Okay, why is it a big deal? She’s an adult, I checked!”
“She’s like my sister-in-law!”
“It wasn’t —.”
“Where?” Chris suddenly demands 
“What?”
“Where did you do it!?”
If he says the bedroom Chris will kill him.
“Oh….. The music room….”
“Wait wait wait. Did you sleep with (Y/N)’s sister?” Ricky gasps, his eyes widening. “Dude, nice!”
“Ricky!”
​​