Rogue (Zayn Malik)

Chapter 3: Feeling Old

"Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you."

Honestly, that was the worst way I could ever wake up.

"Happy birthday to Anya. Happy birthday to you."

"Okay. Okay. I'm up. Stop humiliating me."

I pushed the covers off my sleepy self to sit up. Both, Niall and Ellie stood towards the foot of my bed greeting me with their widest smiles.

"Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you."

Will they ever stop?

"Happy birthday dear Anya. Happy birthday to you."

Niall had even carried an acoustic guitar to strum while they sang like a custom choir just for my birthday.

"Thank you, you two. Now stop."

They both looked at each other as if to say, I'm never gonna learn and took a deep breath to start all over again. There was only one way I could shut them up.

"Oh my God. That's lovely." I jumped off my bed to run into Ellie and hug her. "Thank you guys so much." Pretending to actually enjoy their voices waking me up from my sweet dreams about Zac Efron giving me my birthday kiss was my evil plan.

I also gave Niall a hug because he has always been such a softie and and I really did believe that if he weren't into the gang, he'd be a musician. He could play and he could sing. He had the killer looks with his hair dyed blonde like a rockstar. What more could he need? Besides, he was tough and he could surely get through the hard times.

"You're twenty. Welcome to the older people's club."

Ellie cheered while Niall set his instrument down and clapped for me.

"Happy birthday."

They both wished me in unison to which I couldn't hold myself from rolling my eyes at.

"Will you two stop now?"

"Okay. Okay. Niall, get the cake." Ellie asked.

"There's cake? Please tell me it's chocolate."

"That's what we have for you." Niall replied unwrapping a dark chocolate cake that looked so delicious that I could hog it down in one go.

I sat on the bed giggling with Ellie as Niall set up candles and the cake on my study table. He lit up the pink coloured wax using his lighter and called us over.

"Make a wish." Ellie chipped in.

"Alright."

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I was twenty and by now I had learnt, the hard way, that wishes never came true. But there was always a faint flicker of hope for it.

I wish that this year be special and nothing compared to how everything has always been.

But I should have been more careful wishing for a change because when it all came true, I was holding onto my past like a drowning puppy in a raging storm.

***

"This is your plan for your special day?" Ellie stood in my room rolling her eyes at me.

"If you would stop doing that and actually help me, things will work faster." I pushed my loose hair out of my eyes and taped up the box that I had just filled with my belongings. My new roommate said I could move in soon as I wanted and that explained my hurried behaviour.

"Come on, An. You're twenty. Let's go have some fun. Loosen up. We can do this tomorrow."

Calling Ellie over was totally a bad idea considering she would just lecture me about 'having fun' because clearly she and I shared different meanings of the same term. While she wanted me out dressed in skimpy clothes, heavy make up and dancing like a no tomorrow, I would really have had fun curled up in the corner reading Great Expectations for the twentieth time. The story had a different enticing charm that I always found myself locked up in but we can surely get to that later.

"Are you going to help me or do I have to kick you out?"

I stood up authoritatively in front of her by placing my hands on the broad of my hips and a frown upon my features. The whole of the attic aka my room was similar to the aftermath of a tornado. My clothes were scattered on my bed along with my books and the rest of the stuff I owned sat on the floor. And all she was doing was complain from near the door of the room.

"I repeat, it's your birthday. You have to have fun. We can do this later. Trust me. It'll be you and me and maybe Niall and we could bond over it and have fun and everything that you want. But please please let's go out tonight?"

Her plea set me into weighing my options. On one hand I could juggle packing and moving the stuff alone or I could have fun--by Ellie's definition and even have a helping hand. Any sane person would choose what I did and trust me, it was the helping hand part that got me.

"Fine. But don't you dare back out tomorrow."

"Oh my God. I would never." She faked an offended look. "But are you really up for tonight? Boy, that was easy."

Ellie sure was one of the brightest in her class but sometimes she had her dumb cheerleader moments. And to be honest, we were worlds apart when it came to choices and opinions but it never affected the friendship we shared. In fact, with her, I had the strongest bonds that I have ever had with a human. I said human because I'm missing out the love I shared with a soft teddy bear that my father gave me on my fifth birthday. He was white and furry and had cute little eyes and a smiley face, much like any other soft toy but his role in my life was important; because it was the only physical substance that linked me to my father. And right now, Mr. Mars was trapped somewhere in the huge pile that filled all the walkable areas of my room.

"Now hurry up before I change my mind."

She clapped her hands twice like an excited seal and ran to dig a dress for me to wear. I could have done that too but being the lazy arse that I have always been, I stood back to let her grab the essentials for me.

And forty minutes later, we stood at my front door waiting for Niall to pick us both up. The moment then was the kind where I was experiencing mixed feelings towards what was to come but I was equally clueless about what I should have been expecting.

It was funny.

It was rare.

But most of all, it was like fate giving me a signal for something that awaited me. Only I was too blind to see it.

***