This Is Our Year.

Chapter Eleven: Sparkle and Shine.

We walked in and the ceiling was covered in net lights, illuminating the room from top to bottom, but the closer you got to the floor it slowly faded. Mysteriously there was dry ice covering the floor, it felt like something from the movies. We were greeted by champagne and a bag that we were told we could not open.

Suddenly a waiter came up to Owen and handed him an envelope, he went to ask what it was but it had writing on the front:

Open me at 7.30pm, do as instructed, thank you.

“What the hell?” I said to him as I took a sip from my glass.

“Don’t know mate, only got to wait ten minutes, so we’ll soon find out won’t we,” he replied as he had a drink.

It was all rather peculiar, a secret mission for Faz and a secret bag for all the guys, I noticed this as I glanced around the room for Lindsay. Mystery was her was though, she loved surprises and she loved doing things in the unexpected way. But as I was thinking to myself, I noticed that she wasn’t there.

“Birthday girl isn’t here, how peculiar, she’s not at her own party,” I mentioned to Owen as I turned round to face him once more.

“This explains it,” he began.

“What?” I asked looking down at his hands. He had opened the envelope and I figured he’d put his glass down.

“She’s not here yet, she’s on her way, Lexi and Lottie have done this,” he explained.

“Well what does the letter say?” I asked him, he handed it to me.

Dear Owen,

Hey it’s Lottie and Lexi writing you this note. Linds will get here, we planned her day, in a way. Her parents got in touch a few months back and explained what they were going to do. So we planned it and went along with Lindsay and pretended we knew nothing. But we decorated for her and organised the little bags, we’ll come back to that. We took her to a spa and then took her home to get ready, and she’s most likely in the limo as you’re reading this. At 7.40pm you need to get everyone to go out onto the pitch and stand on a marked spot. Now to the little bags! You need to get everyone to open their bags and light the sparklers with the matches provided, there are places to put the rubbish as well, we took care of it all! Then by the time you’ve done that she’ll be here!

Good Luck!

“Wow, you think you can do it?” I said jokingly.

“Ben, what do you take me for?” he replied laughing.

“Sorry! So you’ve got 10 minutes to kill, huh?” I said to him.

“Well yeah looks that way, doesn’t it, time for a quick glass of champers, and then we’ll head out,” he told me.

Lindsay’s POV.

Whirlwind. That’s the only word to describe today, but it was going to get better. The girls had taken me to a spa and I was now stood in my room staring into my wardrobe attempting to pick an outfit. White, not a good idea, especially if I was drinking, which I was. Never a good idea to mix alcohol and white. Could do black but it’s be boring. Then I looked towards the back and found something I hadn’t seen before, a red dress with black lace over the skirt from the empire line. It was perfect. A note hung from the hanger which read - happy birthday, love mum and dad x-. I already had my make-up done at the spa, I mean I was out to impress tonight, knowing it would never work, but I pulled my dress on and carefully selected some diamante earrings and a bracelet anyway. Just some shoes now, just some simple low black wedges. High heels and alcohol is just one of those things that don’t go well together either. I grabbed my phone from the charger and charily slipped it down into my bra, knowing I would want to take photos. I took one last glance in the mirror and walked downstairs where I found a note.

Look outside, love you lots, see you later L&L x

I opened the front door and there was a white limousine waiting for me. I stood there gobsmacked and couldn’t believe it. Unexpectedly, Lexi and Lottie appeared from the limo.

“Happy Birthday you knob!” they both shouted. This was classic, greeting me with an insult, oh well it’s what we’ve always done.

“What is this?!” I asked as I stepped out of the door and closed it behind me.

“Your ride to your party!” Lexi practically screamed as I walked towards her. They both stepped out of the way and let me climb into the limo where there was complimentary champagne and some great dance tunes. They got into the limo also and we were away.  

It was only a short ride to Allianz but the deep orange of the sky entwined with the pink of the clouds, and the sun glowed from the horizon. The night was warm but with a gentle breeze that moved the lighter trees that surrounded the stadium. The car stopped and we all clambered out, which is easier said than done. We walked past the Olympic Bar and The Saracen and a glimmer caught my eye, it was on the pitch. It was light. Or lights to be exact, no, sparklers. That spelled out my name, what? As I walked closer I realised it was the whole team, each holding a sparkler, I scanned them all, trying to find him, but I couldn’t see him. Of course he wasn’t going to be there, he had more important things to be doing. Then I noticed a sparkler start to move closer, towards me. I figured it was going to be Ben as we were friends anyway, so I turned away and smiled at the girls. I mouthed them a “thank you so much”.

“You’re welcome!!” they shouted back, to which I couldn’t help but laugh at. The crackle of the sparklers began to die down, but then I heard it get louder, and louder and then a sudden silence overpowered the air.

“Happy Birthday Lindsay,” said a familiar voice from behind me.