Living In The Shallows (UK Crush #1)

Chapter Thirty-Seven

We heard the interconnecting door to Ronan's room open as the boys returned from ordering my birthday cake. My birthday cake, wow. What a day this was turning into.

"Hey! Where is everybody?" Ronan called.

"In here, mates," Gethin answered.

Ronan and Matty entered my room and Ronan gave the thumbs up sign. "Oh, Tinker Bell," he said in a sing-song voice, "I think you're going to love your cake! It's going to be grand! It's beautiful! It's chocolate, and it has fresh strawberries, and lots of sparkly things like girls like—" He grabbed both of my hands and pulled me off the sofa to dance me around the room. "Happy birthday, Tink!" He hugged me and lifted me off the ground, surprising me into shrieking with delight.

"So where's Theo?" asked Matty, while laughing at me and Ronan.

"He's out getting the, you know, the thing," said Gethin.

"Still?" asked Matty, surprised.

"Well, he said it might take all afternoon," Ronan said, putting me down and joining in their conversation.

"What thing?" I asked, not honestly expecting a response, but trying anyway.

"None of your beeswax," said Ronan happily.

"Can you tell that Ronan loves birthdays?" asked Matty with a smile.

"Well, Ronan and his love of birthdays notwithstanding, we'd better get our asses in gear and finish packing," I suggested. "The car's coming for us at an ungodly hour tomorrow morning, and it sounds like the party might go a bit late tonight, so shouldn't we be as packed up as we can today? Hmm?"

"Tink's right, guys," Matty said sternly, as if he weren't just as crazy as the rest of them. "Let's get as much packing finished as we can, and maybe try to get some of Theo's done for him as well, since we don't know how long he'll be gone—"

Where in the hell had he gone? What could these boys be planning for me that would necessitate him being absent for most of the afternoon on the day before we had to leave?

"Tinker Bell, it's 6:30, time for you to hop in the shower, isn't it?" Matty called from his room.

"What? Seriously?" I asked everyone in general.

Matty, Geth, and Ronan all came to my room, but Ronan spoke for all of them. "About hair, make-up, and clothes, Mel is always serious," he informed me. The other two nodded.

"Well, I can't," I said defensively. "You know me. I can't get all dressed up all by myself, I'd die of embarrassment, and you know no one else is going to be. All the crew and everyone, they're just going to show up in their regular ripped up crew clothes, right?"

"Wrong," said Gethin from the doorway. "Mel and her gang are always dressed up for these things, for one thing. And there are always people invited to these parties from the industry, executives and such, and they always bring their teenaged daughters who come dressed like they're going to meet the Queen of England. It's a super classy do, happens in one of the hottest clubs in Roppongi."

"And," continued Matty, "as if those weren't reasons enough, we knew you were going to be a complete and total baby about it, so we ourselves are going to be dressed up as well. So there."

I turned around. "Are you shitting me? You guys are dressing up for this?"

I went into his room, and hanging from a hook was a pair of black skinny jeans with a black and white collared shirt with a pattern of skulls all over it and a very skinny leather tie. Hmm.

Gethin's room had a similar, very hipster outfit hanging from a hanger, followed by Ronan's rocker outfit, complete with denim vest and boots.

The only room without an outfit hanging up was Teddy's, for the simple reason that he hadn't returned yet. I was starting to worry. I asked Gethin about it.