Lauren's eyes flickered open at the sound of her phone beeping. She yawned and reached for her phone which was on the bedside table. She smiled as the date was shown on the screen. The eighth of march. Her birthday. When she unlocked her phone 3 new messages awaited her.
From: Meredith
Message: Happy birthday Lauren!! Hope you have a great day today, you deserve it! Love you babe ;) xx
Lauren smiled and opened the next message. It was from Darren.
From: Harrrry Potter
Message: Hey, Lauren...I have a feeling I was supposed to tell you something but I can't quite remember what...OF COURSE I CAN! HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAUREN LOPEZ AND I HOPE YOU HAVE THE MOST FANTASTIC DAY EVER!! xxx
After recieving Darren's text, Lauren began to remember their conversation from the day before.
"Hey Lauren, can I talk to you for a minute?" Darren had said taking Lauren to one side.
"Sure, what is it?"
"Well...this is going to sound really stupid, but here goes..."
Lauren looked at Darren clueless. "Go on."
Darren cringed. "Right...I don't know if you feel the same way...you probably don't but...ever since we broke up I've missed you...and I know we've stayed friends but I don't know if I can keep that up without at least telling you how I feel. So..."
"You're asking to get back together," Lauren finished. Darren nodded and blushed. "It doesn't matter..." he said. "It was a stupid idea and I-"
Darren was silenced as Lauren wrapped her arms around him. He did the same and kissed her forehead. Lauren sighed. If there was no chance with Joey then she should probably move on. She still had feelings for Darren, but... the feelings she had for Joey were different...stronger somehow...
"Sure," she said giving a weak smile. "I'll get back together with you."
Lauren closed Darren's happy birthday message and opened the final one.
From: Joey
Message: I just wanted to wish you a VERY happy birthday and I hope you have the supermegafoxyawesomehot day that you really do deserve. Love you so much, Lo xxxx
A smile plastered across Lauren's face.and her stomach filled with butterflies. Her smile was quickly replaced with a frown. "No," she muttered. "You aren't with Joey. Darren is your boyfriend and he actually loves you. Joey doesn't think of you like that..."
***
Joey looked at the time.
8:30am.
As soon as he'd woken up he had sent Lauren a happy birthday text and now lay in bed thinking. Did he love her? He certainly thought of her as more than just his friend but...she probably didn't feel the same way. No. Of course she didn't, she was with Darren now. He'd missed his chance of telling her how he really felt. He couldn't hurt Darren by telling her. Looks like it would have to stay a secret.
***
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!" everybody said in chorus.
"Thanks guys!" Lauren said as she walked into the flat Jaime and Dylan were staying in. It belonged to Jaime's old school friend, Natalie. When Natalie decided to visit her mother in England, she told Jaime that her and Dylan could stay at the flat while they were in New York.
"Come on Lauren, its present time!!" Joe shouted.
"You've already had breakfast, right?" Jaime asked closing the door Lauren had just entered through.
"Yeah," Lauren replied sitting on the mink coloured sofas with the others.
"OPEN MY PRESENT FIRST!!" Joe said handing Lauren a square shaped present with metallic purple wrapping paper.
"Thanks Joe," Lauren said starting to pull off the wrapping paper. Having removed the paper, a white box awaited her. She took the lid off and pulled out the object inside.
"What is it?" Brian asked. Lauren laughed and put the object on the table. "Its a Draco Malfoy bobblehead!" she said happily. "Thanks so much Joe!"
Joe beamed. "You're welcome, glad you like it."
"Okay, okay, me next!" Jaime said rummaging through a drawer. She finally pulled out a small present covered in cat wrapping paper. Lauren gasped as Jaime handed her the present. "OMIGOSH, I love this wrapping paper!"
"I'm soooo winning!" Jaime whispered to Joe.
"No! My present was amazing. You can't beat that."
Jaime smirked and urged Lauren to open it. Lauren tore off the wrapping paper and another box was found. She opened it and found a pair of unicorn earrings inside. "Oh my gosh, I love them!" she squealed. "Thanks Jaime."
"I know, I know," Jaime said whilst Joe scowled. "Best last minute present everrr!"
After opening a few more presents she looked over everything that she had recieved so far. A bobblehead from Joe, earrings from Jaime, a Zefron poster from Dylan, a huge photoframe filled with LOADS of starkid pictures in it from Brian and Meredith and a pair of black boots from Darren. All that was left now was to open Joey's present. Joey smiled and handed a small present to Lauren. It was wrapped in bright blue paper with the words 'Its gonna be totally awesome' on it. Once she had unwrapped it, in her hand sat a little trinket box.
"Open it," Joey said. Lauren followed his instructions and found inside the box a silver bracelet. She gently pulled it out and watched in awe as it shimmered in the light.
"You like it?" Joey asked as Lauren had not yet said anything.
" I love it, Joey," Lauren said fastening the bracelet around her wrist. "Its beautiful."
Joey smiled. "Happy Birthday Lo."
Lauren gathered all of the presents she had recieved and put them in her bag, thanking everbody again as she did this. Lauren stayed at the flat until 3pm joking around with everybody and watching a few films of her choice. During this time, they were all snuggled up on the sofa, with Meredith hugging Brian, Darren's arm around Lauren and Dylan and Joe having fallen asleep. Jaime was led across everybody's laps and Joey was on the other side of Lauren holding her hand. This was how it should be, Joey thought to himself. After the films had finished and they'd finished all the pizza they ordered, all the girls went into the kitchen to wash up the plates, Lauren being instructed not to help wash up because she was the birthday girl (but ignoring these instructions anyway). When they had finished washing up, Lauren, Jaime and Meredith stayed sat in the kitchen whilst the boys had a songpop tournament.
"So," Meredith started. "Looking forward to tonight, Lo?"
"What's tonight?" Lauren asked.
"Your birthday party, silly," Jaime replied.
"You guys organised a birthday for me?" Lauren said surprised.
"Course we did! We weren't gonna stop Lauren Lopez having a birthday party!" Jaime exclaimed.
"So you, Miss Lopez have to be ready for a partaaay at eight o'clock sharpish, understood?" Meredith said and Lauren replied with a nod. "I'll come to your cousin's flat and pick you up and then we can head to the studio," Meredith explained.
"What? The studio we've been rehearsing in?"
"Yep. But trust me Lauren, it'll be brilliant," Meredith assured her. "So, see you at eight?"
Lauren smiled. "See you at eight."
_______________________________________
Hey guys!
Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I know it wasn't really that exciting but I promise you some good stuffs coming in the next few chapters.
Hopefully you are enjoying this story and if you are, don't forget to vote and comment saying what you thought ;)
Thank you for taking the time to read this and I love you all
Ruby x
-DumblediusClaudore
