A Different Kind of Love

Chapter 5: Surprise Surprise

The next morning I slept in until nine and was woken up to loud knocking on my door, then Thomas, Charlie, and Zach burst into my room.

"GOOD MOOOORNING SUNSHINE!" Thomas sang loudly, "Get up because we have a seriously fun day planned for you."

"Okay," I said slowly, "Can I know how you found my house first?"

"Google is a wonderful thing, now get up." Thomas responded. I got up, interested in what they all had planned for me.

"So what do you have planned for me?" I ask.

"It's a surprise." they all said in unison, making me more interested. I grab some clothes from my "weekend pile" which were shirts that didn't have any band stuff on them, it's mostly just a bunch of weeb stuff like Shingeki no Kyojin and Ouran High School Host Club so I don't look as scary to people.

"You guys are gonna have to leave so I can change." I say. They all run out of the room as my mom calls for them.

"Boys I have food prepared if you haven't eaten yet today!" Zach smiles at hearing the word boy and they all rush down the stairs to get some food. I throw on my favorite SnK shirt and some plain skinny jeans, then go into my bathroom to put in a different nose ring to match my shirt, if I didn't have the ring and shirt color match I'd be extremely upset (A/N to elaborate on this, Liz has OCD but it's never talked about, you can infer it by her actions from now and throughout the rest of the story). I also put in some plugs and earrings to match the red Converse I intended on wearing. I then grabbed all of the pills I needed to take for the day and went downstairs to eat.

"Your friends are nice Liz, and extremely polite." My mom says as she sets down a plate of waffles in front of me. I take a bite of waffle while trying to listen to what Thomas, Zach, and Charlie were saying, but they were too quiet. They turned and looked at me when they finished their private pow-wow, Thomas grinning from ear to ear.

"Are you ready for your super fun surprise?" He asked.

"I suppose I have to be whether or not I am." I respond.

"Awe don't be such a sourpuss, this is gonna be so fun!" Thomas exclaims with joy. I finish my waffle and go upstairs to quickly see a glance at my new kitten Jaspers, he's a newborn so we keep him in a little closet so he doesn't get lost. I pet him a little before going to brush my teeth, after that I'm completely ready to go. I rush downstairs and give my mom a quick hug goodbye before getting into Zach's car, it's one of those square vans, it's super old and rickety with a bunch of bumper stickers on the back of it. Once we're all in Zach pulls out and puts on some music, it's got a nice drum beat at the beginning and then the lyrics start to play,

Your tells are so obvious

Shoulders too broad for a girl

Everyone is singing along but me.

"What band is this?" I ask Zach.

"Against Me! The lead singer is a trans woman and this album is about her transition." Zach responds.

"That's awesome." I say back, I think it's awesome that he can have music that relates to how he feels. After driving for awhile Thomas orders me to cover my eyes, I do so not wanting to ruin the surprise. I feel the car park and everyone climb out, Zach unbuckles my seatbelt for me and leads me to where we're going.

"Okay, open." they say together. I open my eyes to see we're at the mall.

"So my super fun day is going to the mall?" I question, not that I'm opposed to the idea, I just don't find the mall as super fun.

"This is only part of it, Zach said you like Hot Topic and my mom is a clothing designer so I asked her to do some fun clothing stuff there." Thomas said proudly, so that's why he's always so fashionable all the time. We walk into Hot Topic and Thomas walks over to Jake, one of my friends who I made by shopping here so much. Thomas says something to him and Jake looks over to me grinning wildly and goes into the back to grab something. He comes out with a dress under a clothing cover and gives it to me.

"Try it on, cutie pie." He says and brings me over to the fitting room. I take the dress out but can't really see what it is, I put it on and it fits perfectly.

"Hey Jake can you turn the lighting up in here? I can't see what the dress looks like." I kinda shout, he does as I ask and I inhale sharply at the sight of the dress. It went down to my knees, the small outer covering half an inch smaller than the inner covering, the background coloring was black, on it was a collage of everything I liked. Attack on Titan, Ouran High School Host Club, Free! Tokyo Ghoul, everything mixed together around the dress. It was perfect.

"Oh my god, I love this dress so much! Thank you!" I said to everyone on the other side of the curtain.

"You're welcome, now are you ready for the rest of your surprise?" They all asked.

"Yes, what is it?" I ask eagerly, I'm interested in why they're all doing this for me. Maybe they're repaying me for when I stopped those bullies. I'll ask later.

"We have to get back in the car for it." Zach said. I put my clothes back on and brought out the dress. Jake gave me a hug and we left. Once we got back in the van Zach said this drive would be much longer so everyone should get comfortable. A half hour into our drive I dozed off. I woke up to Zach unbuckling me again. I catch a glimpse of the sign on the building we're walking into, "Paradym"

"I wonder what that means." I think.

We walk in and there's no one in the building, it looks kind of like a club, but we wouldn't be allowed in if it was. Zach walks into a back room and calls someone's name.

"Jane! Hey Jane are you here?" He screams, then there's a faint reply.

"I'm checking the alcohol stock, what is it?" The voice screams back.

"I want you to meet someone!" Zach screams happily, making me smile.

"I'll be right there!" The voice responds, soon a short lady with a rainbow mohawk walks out.

"Hi I'm Jane, the owner of this club and Zach's aunt." She says shaking my hand.

"I'm Liz, I'm a freshman at the high school." I respond not knowing what else to say.

"Nice to meet you Liz," Jane replies then turns to Zach, "I wasn't expecting you here tonight, you don't like to DJ at the under twenty-one events."

"I was wondering if I could just for tonight." Zach says.

"Okay, I'll just have to tell Kelsey she'll have a paid night off." Jane responds while pulling out her cell phone.

"You guys are married I don't understand why you need to pay her." Zach states.

"It's because I'm a great wife." Jane replies, then walks away to talk privately. Without realizing it Charlie walks up behind me and starts a sentence.

"This is the surprise Zach and I came up with together, we thought you'd have fun just, y'know, partying at a club."

"Aww, thank you, you guys are literally the sweetest people ever!" I say hugging him. He smells like a mix of Faygo and weed, it's strangely comforting.

"No problem, we hope you have fun." Charlie says in his slow speech.

"Kelsey says it's okay for you to DJ tonight," Jane says walking back to us, "Ready to set up?"

"Hell yeah." is Zach's only response.