in the crowd • luke hemmings

9. moving on

"lola!" bella cheered once the front door was open. she held aloft two huge bottles of wine and a huge grin covering her face. "i bought wine!"

"i see that." lola giggled, letting her excitable friend in. "i have a small bottle of vodka that i didn't drink at the boys from the other week, and orange juice for mixer."

"we're set then!" bella's excitement was unrelenting, and she had barely kicked her vans off before she was pouring a deadly amount of wine into two wine glasses.

"jesus bella, are you trying to get me drunk before it's even nine in the evening?" lola laughed, watching as her friend took a quick mouthful straight from the bottle as well.

"today is a celebration!" bella sang, pulling a punnet of strawberries out of the fridge and putting one each on the rim of the glasses, before presenting lola hers with a flourish.

lola took the glass with an eyebrow raised, taking a small sip before she asked, "a celebration of what?"

"a week ago today, michael clifford - the michael clifford - asked me to be his girlfriend!" bella grinned excitedly, before biting into her strawberry. lola's eyes grew about three times wider, and a cheek-ache inducing smile took over her face.

"bub that's amazing, i'm so happy for you!" she put her glass down quickly before wrapping bella in a hug and feeling herself getting squeezed back.

"i'm so happy i could cry! it was so so cute, i've been waiting to tell you about it!"

"yes, actually may i ask why you waited so long?" lola laughed, leading her friend over to her couch where they both curled up.

"michael and i wanted you guys all to know at the same time, and he wanted to tell the guys because guy time, you know? and i wanted to tell you so i could go on for ages with no one stopping me." bella's wine glass was already almost empty, and lola braced herself for a night of a very drunk, very loved-up bella.

"so spill it then!" she couldn't contain her excitement for her two friends - her two best friends - and their adorable new romance.

"okay so." bella sat up straighter and leaned forward; clearly readying herself for an official story-telling. "he'd stayed at mine the night before, and we'd obviously done the deed - or quite a few deeds actually - and oh my god lola it's so good!" she laughed as lola cringed jokingly, and continued to tell her the story.

"and we'd slept for a while, and woke up kind of late, and we just stayed in bed watching friends, and he was holding me so tight lola, it felt amazing." she sighed happily, leaning more into the couch as she remembered. "and we were in the middle of an episode when he paused it - and i rolled over to look at him and his cheeks were all pink and it was so adorable! and he asked me to be his girlfriend, and lola i swear i could've cried!" bella's cheeks were coloured bright pink, and lola leaned over to give her another excited hug.

"i'm so happy for you guys! this has been needing to happen for so long, it was so obvious that you two are basically in love." lola laughed, pulling back and finishing her glass of wine. "i bet the boys will be going mad with him right now."

"i just hope they're all happy, you know?" bella said, a hint of nervousness obvious in her voice. "i don't want them to feel like we're going to mess up the friendship dynamic or anything."

lola shook her head quickly, eager to reassure her friend. "no, bella not at all. the boys will be so happy for you guys, they love you both."

bella modded, visibly relaxing and finishing her wine, before pouring both of them another glass.