You Belong With Me

Chapter 26

We walk down the steps, my  mom waiting at the bottom of the stairs, her hand on the banister. “Look at all of you!” We all smile.  No matter how many times she forgets we’ve grown up, she’s always adorable about it. “Now let me look at all of you.” We all stand next to each other in a line.  She looks over Hannah’s dress, her tight curls laying perfectly over her shoulders; Alexa’s dark sparkly dress, her loosely curled hair pulled together in a pony at the side of her neck, her make-up causing her blue eyes to be extremely bright; Molly’s perfect dress, her waves in a pony, her perfectly tanned legs and her heels; and lastly to me, her baby, my hair curled, gathered on the left side of my neck, my hair over my shoulder; the inevitable glow on our faces of a night we’re positive will be unforgettable.

“You girls are so beautiful.”

“Aw, thanks Mama C.” Each of the girls gives my mom a hug.  When she pulls me into her arms she whispers, “Be good. I trust you.” I make eye contact with her, telling her silently I will.

Louis <3: You’re late!

“Alright, alright, let’s go. We’re late!” We all step out the door and before reaching the end of the sidewalk, we’ve taken off our heels.

“This is gonna be a long night…” Alexa says.

“But it’ll be worth it.” Hannah has an extreme air of confidence, something you rarely ever see about her. I can tell the excitement of going has taken over the girls’ nerves, so we’re all giddy and energetic.

We reach the end of the sidewalk, putting our heels back on, pulling stray hairs back and putting them into place, finally reaching the door. The gates to the culdesac prevent any intruders from coming through, but there’s still one man standing outside the door. He seems to understand who we are, and lets us in, the boys standing in a circle in the center of their foyer, waiting for people to show.

“You do realize there’s nobody here, correct?” Louis turns around and the rest of the boys look up in response, their eyes raising at the sight of the four of us. None of the boys move, and Kendall walks towards me.

“You look absolutely perfect!” We hug each other and the boys finally walk forward.

“You..look..wonderful.” Louis wraps his arms around me and gives me a quick peck.

“You don’t look so bad yourself.” 

“Well, let’s get you all some drinks.” We walk to their bar, and the counter is filled with everything you could possibly imagine, and on the floor around it and lining the walls were even more boxes.

“This will be interesting.” Molly says as Louis hand me and her a drink.

“It will be fun and no one will be complaining.” Louis finishes pouring drinks for the rest of us as a steady stream of people start coming in, all saying hello to the boys and giving us quick greetings. 

Within an hour, most of the people Louis expected to come were there, and the boys separated to try and clam everyone down as he made his way to a small area on the side of the room with five microphones, a stool below one. “Uh, before everything gets completely out of hand, and we all get completely wasted, I have some business to do.”

The girls and I are standing in the middle of the crowd in the front, and Alexa nudges me in the shoulder smiling. She kept a secret. “What are they doing?”

“You’ll see,” she whispers back. All the boys are standing in front of a microphone, Niall on the stool with his guitar in his hands. 

“I don’t typically listen to country music, but someone decided to get me to try it, and I uh, I thought I’d give it a little shot, maybe twist it up a little bit.” He looks at me before Niall starts the guitar, and I bring my hand up to my mouth, resting my fingers below my nose.