My Lucky Star (One Direction Affection: Book 2)

8: More The Merrier

♧ 8: More The Merrier ♣

"Oh, my god," I mutter, staring wide eyed at the table in front of me. 

"I know, right?" Paige says, grinning from ear to ear. 

I continue staring at the large table. I almost want to start crying because this is all just so beautiful; I can't believe this. Never had I seen anything like this before. Never in my nineteen years of living have I seen so much food. Every inch of that table is covered in some form of junk food, ranging from candy to cookies to cake to energy drinks to brownies, and of course, ice cream. 

I think I've died and gone to heaven. 

"And you went out and bought all this?" I ask, eyeing the ice cream tub, resisting the urge to go and devour it this instant. "For tonight?"

"Well, I wasn't exactly sure what you liked, so I kind of just got a bit of everything," Paige answers with a shrug. 

"A bit?" I repeat. "It looks like you ransacked the whole junk food aisle!" 

Paige laughs nervously as she ran her fingers through her short hair. "Well, I guess now I finally know what it'd look like if we ever let Niall go grocery shopping."

I've only been here for two days and already I can tell that she's right. Niall loves his food, there is no doubt about that. "Hey, I'm not complaining! I mean, I'm getting a sugar rush just looking at all of this."

"Well, go for it," Paige says gesturing towards the sugar filled table. "No one is stopping you."

"Well, if you insist," I say with a willing tone. I reach forward and grab a bag of Doritos. As I open the bag I smile, smelling the nacho cheese. "So, what's the exact plan for tonight?"

"Well, the truth is," Paige says scratching her head. "I've never really had a sleepover before. So, I'm kinda winging it."

"Wait," I say, letting the chip fall from my hand. "You've never had a sleepover? Like ever?"

"Well, I mean, I've slept over at my best friend, Dylan's, house," She explains nervously. "But I really wouldn't call it a sleepover."

"Oh, Dylan, huh?" I say nodding my head in understanding, waggling my eyebrows at her. "Yeah, that kind of sleepover is very different." 

Paige's eyes grow wide. "Oh, no! God, no! It wasn't anything like that," She says, waving her hands in distress as a wave of red sweeps her face. 

"Really?" I say. "I just assumed. You know, guy. Girl. Sleepover. You know how these things usually turn out."

"No, it was nothing like that," Paige says with a small smile. Although her blush is still present. "It's just things at home weren't exactly the best, so Dylan always offered for me to sleep over at his place."

I nod my head, now fully understanding where she is coming from. It's weird thinking about a sleepover from any other perspective than just a time with girls to talk and joke about guys. I never actually thought that someone would actually sleepover at someones house because they couldn't sleep at theirs. Well, at least until a couple days ago when Niall offered his home up to me. 

I've always had a simple home life. If I needed something, I could ask my parents for it. If I had to go somewhere, I drove my parents car to the store. It was always so easy. Which is one of the reasons why I wanted to leave. I wanted to go off, see the world from my own eyes and not through my parents wallet. I don't know what happened with Paige and her family, but clearly London helped her with her problems, hopefully London can solve mine, rather than bring more on. I don't think I can take anymore bad luck.

"Okay," I say placing the bag of chips on the table. "Then, I guess it's my job to show you the proper sleepover technique."

"Uh, well," Paige says, still slightly nervous. "I hope you don't mind, but I asked for back up."

"Back up?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

As if right on cue, the doorbell rings and Paige perks up. "That should be her right now."

"Who is it?" 

"You'll see." Paige makes her way out of the kitchen and into the living room, heading to the front door. I'm following her every step, curious as to who she invited. Before she opens the door, she gives me a large smile, flashing her straight teeth at me. 

When the door opens, the first thing I see is a petite girl with large glasses. The kind of glasses that guys hate because they can make the ugliest girls look hot. However, that isn't the case here. With the girls heart shaped face, her fair complexion and dazzling smile. I can tell that this girl is pretty.

"Hello," The girl greets in a soft voice. She scoots her large glasses to the top of her head, dragging her wavy hair back, exposing her light brown eyes. 

Yup, definitely pretty; with and without the glasses.

"Eleanor," Paige says in an excited tone. "Thank you so much for coming."

"Of course! How can I turn down a sleepover?" She asks with a bright smile. Then, her eyes fall on me and if it is possible, her smile brightens. "And you must be Maddy?"

"Yes ma'am," I say.

"Ma'am?" Eleanor repeats looking at me as if I'm crazy, which I guess for calling a girl my own age 'ma'am' I am. "Please, call me El or Eleanor. Whichever you prefer. Just not ma'am. It makes me feel like I'm an old lady."

"Sorry," I say giving her a toothy grin. 

Suddenly, from behind, the sound of running feet followed by a loud scream fills the room. Paige and I whip around and spot Louis running full speed ahead at us. With not much time to spare, Paige and I step out of the way as Louis proceeds to tackle Eleanor.

"Eleanor!" Louis shouts as he jumps on her. "I missed you."

Eleanor laughs, steadying herself. "I just saw you this morning, Lou."

"And I still missed you. What're you doing here?" Louis asks as he  drops to her side, keeping his hand on her lower back. "I thought you said you couldn't come over until we leave for the wedding!"

"Well, Paige called me," Eleanor answers nodding towards Paige. "She needed me and I just couldn't say no to her."

Louis suddenly turns to Paige, eyeing her. "Paige, trying to steal my girlfriend?"

That's it! She's Louis' girlfriend! I knew Eleanor sounded familiar. I recall Paige mentioning this when we were getting the boys suited for their tuxes. 

"Oh, you caught me, Lou," Paige says very sarcastically as she crossed her arms over her chest. "I've been planning on stealing Eleanor for a while now. I can't believe you caught us. Sorry, Eleanor, I guess our love will have to wait."

Eleanor laughs, nodding her head, forcing a fake frown. "Oh, yeah. What a shame."

"Darn," Paige says, rolling her eyes.

Louis looks between Paige and Eleanor as if deciding if they are joking or not. It's not until I start laughing that Louis gets that they weren't being serious. "You really scared me there for a minute."

Eleanor laughs, wrapping her arms around Louis' neck, giving him a small peck on the lips. "Don't worry, Louis. Paige has nothing on you. You know I love you."

"Gee, thanks," Paige says, feigning hurt.

I can't help but smile at them. I don't really know Eleanor, or Louis for that matter, but seeing any couple this happy, it's nice. It just shows me that there may still be hope for me on finding my other half. Maybe. And if that day is in the distant future.

Eleanor drops her arms from Louis' neck, and then picks up two bags from the ground. One is a duffle bag, which I assume holds her change of clothes and the other, a plastic bag. "I brought some snacks for tonight."

Without another word, Louis leans forward and takes hold of Eleanor's bags. I smile at his gesture. 

"Awesome, more snacks!" I say with a large smile as I eye the plastic bag.

"More?" Eleanor asks.

Paige smiles. "Yeah, I kinda bought out the junk food aisle for the sleepover."

"Oh? Is that what all that food's for?" Louis asks curiously. "Because I just told Niall tha-"

"Wait, Niall?" Paige says, shooting Louis a look of death.

Uh, oh. This can't be good. 

I look back at Louis as realization settles on his face. "Opps."

And just like that, everyone takes off back to the kitchen, where hopefully there will still be some food left. The moment Paige enters the room, her gasps. 

"Drop the food," She warns, holding up her hands. "Now."

Eleanor, Louis, and I follow Paige in, catching sight of what Paige is talking about. The first thing I see is Niall, who happens to have his hands full of about half the snacks from the table. His cheeks are puffed out, possibly filled with jelly beans, considering the bag is wide open on the middle of the table. Niall looks back at all of us, attempting to smile, but with all the food in his mouth, it just look like he is puckering his lips as if he just ate a handful of Warheads.

However, Niall isn't the only one getting in on the junk food action.

Next to him, Harry and Zayn are both scavenging through the table trying to find their favorite junk food. Liam, who already settled for a bowl of ice cream, is sitting on the counter, licking a fork full of the chocolate delight. I glare at him as he chows down on what's suppose to be my ice cream.

"You guys! That's for our sleepover," Eleanor complains.

"Sleepover? Who's sleeping over?" Zayn asks.

"Me," She answers as if it isn't already obvious.

"You?" Harry repeats, waggling his eyebrows. "You're always sleeping over, though."

"Yeah, but this is for Maddy, not me," Eleanor points out.

"But Maddy lives here, why do you need a sleepover?" Liam asks, hopping off the counter.

"Because," I say, stepping in before Paige even got the chance to tell the boys about my breakdown a little while ago. "Sleepovers are fun and you get to stay up all night and eat all the junk food you want and play games until dawn."

"Games?" Louis repeats.

"Junssk fooasshd?" Niall says, what I'm assuming is supposed to be junk food, but with the amount of food already stuffed in his mouth, it's difficult for him to talk.

"Yes, junk food," I say towards Niall.

"You understood what he said?" Liam asks, shocked.

"Yeah, it wasn't that hard," I say with a laugh. Liam continues staring at me as if I am speaking in a different language. 

"Wait, so what kind of games?" Zayn asks. "Like girly games?"

"Um, girly games?" Eleanor asks. "What're girly games exactly?"

"Charades," Liam comments.

"Truth or Dare," Zayn adds.

"Makeovers," Harry joins in.

"That's not a game, Harry," Paige tells him sadly as she laughs.

"Well, girls do that at sleepovers," Harry says in his defense. "And pillow fights!"

"That's only in the movies," Paige says again.

Harry shrugs. "A boy can dream, right?"

"Oh!" Louis shouts in excitement. "You know what we should play? Hide-And-Seek in the dark."

"Yeah! I'm ninja at that game," Zayn says excitedly.

"Not as good as me," Liam counters. 

"Ah," Louis says, holding his hand up. "But I can climb into sm-"

Eleanor suddenly nudges Louis in the ribs. I don't really know why, but I'm assuming from the look on her face, Louis said something he wasn't supposed to. 

"I mean," Louis quickly adds, rubbing his stomach. "Only if it's okay with Maddy that we join her sleepover thing."

All eyes shift to me with anticipation. Why did it have to be okay with me? I didn't really care if they joined or not, all I want is a fun night and I'm positive that could happen either way. 

"Of course! The more the Merrier, right?"

A chorus of cheers ring through the kitchen from all the boys except Niall, who while all this conversation is going on, was still trying to collect as much food as his arms would allow. Louis eyes suddenly land back on Niall.

"Hey, mate! Step away from the junk food! That's for later," Louis warns, placing the plastic bag on the counter as he looks at Niall. 

To anyone else, this is a simple request, but to Niall Horan, thats probably equivalent to chopping your own foot off.

Niall took this as a 'grab whatever you can and run', because that's exactly what he tries to do. Taking off towards the nearest exit, he runs as fast as he can, carrying god knows how many bags of sweets with him. 

"Niall!" Paige shouts as she takes a step forward, readying herself to chase the Irish boy.

However, the second Niall is about to run out the door, he quickly turns around and heads back into the kitchen, and if I'm not mistaken, I'd say he's running even faster this time. What is he doing? Without a sound Niall drops all contents onto the table before heading to the sink and, almost begrudgingly, spits out the jelly beans that he stored in his mouth. 

"What the heck, Niall?" Harry says as he stares at him, his mouth slightly agape.  

"Sh," Niall shoots as he casually leans against the counter as if he didn't just try to inhale half a bag of jelly beans.

Just then, the answer to everything walks inti the room. Trinity Drake steps into the kitchen, her shoes clacking against the tiled floor. She takes one look at the table and rolls her eyes dramatically before looking at each of us, her eyes resting on me a little bit longer than everyone else's.

"Hey, Trinity!" Niall greets nonchalantly. 

Trinity shockingly gives him a warm smile. "Hey, I thought you were going to use the bathroom?"

"Oh, yeah, I was," Niall says quickly. "I just got a bit side tracked."

Trinity's gaze returns to the junk food. "Do I need to remind you what all that stuff is going to do to you?"

Niall's face drops in disappointment. Something tells me that this isn't the first time he's gotten that from Trinity. "No, I remember."

"Good," She replies harshly, then turns to us. "You all should take notes. You all don't want to gain the Famous Fifteen."

"Famous Fifteen?" Liam repeats skeptically.

"You know, like gaining fifteen pounds when you first become famous," Trinity explains as if it's the most simple thing in the world and Liam is stupid for asking.

"Sounds a lot like Freshman Fifteen," Eleanor comments, crossing her arms over her chest.

Freshman Fifteen, ever college students nightmare. The first time on your own in the world, it's easy to gain weight easily, hence the name. However, Famous Fifteen is something I've never heard of.

"Sounds like a load of bull if you ask me," I add in, leaning back against the counter.

Trinity shoots me a hard look. "Yeah? Well, good thing no one asked you, huh?"

I purse my lips, ready to say something back, but Niall beats me to it. 

"Hey, come on," He says giving Trinity a stern look.

Her jaw clenches, giving me one last dirty look. And just like that her hard look fades and she forces a smile. "Sorry, it's just I don't want your career to be in jeopardy because of a bag of Doritos or a jar of Nutella."