Pizza, Anyone?

Chapter Three : Surprise, Surprise

Finding the place isn't very hard, I know London like the back of my hand, having lived here my whole life. I park outside the house and climb off my bike. Picking up the still-hot pizza box gently, I make my way up to the huge iron gates and stop in awe.

This Noah Holt clearly isn’t some random frat boy. I press the little button near the gate with my elbow and it buzzes.

“Yes?” comes a staticky voice, barely intelligible.

“Pizza’s here,” I say back, feeling the heat from the bread seep into my palms. Oh, hurry up and let me in. The wind whips my hair into my face, and I scowl. Wonderful. 

“Password?”

“Excuse me?”

The voice laughs and then goes silent. I curse mentally. Just as I’m about to press the button again, the gates creak open. I shrug and walk up the driveway and to the front door to ring the bell.

I’d bet ten quid that a butler’s going to open it.

“Who is it?” yells a male voice in response. Didn’t we already go down this road?

“Your pizza! Come and get it before I eat it!” I say, turning around to observe the neighbourhood. I usually say that to get the customer to come to the door quickly; but this Holt guy makes me want to eat it anyway just to spite him. (Sorry, but he seems annoying.) 

Sure enough, I hear some scrambling and the door opens suddenly.

“Please don't eat it!” pleads a very European accent. 

 I laugh, annoyance bubbling away. He sounds genuinely distressed. Maybe it was just one of his friends messing with me.

“Don't worry, I have no intentions of eating it, mate. It's just a gimmick.”

 I turn around to hand the pizza box to him.

“Here you go. That will be –” and I freeze mid sentence.

“Your name is not Noah Holt.”  

How do I know that? Maybe because the guy I'm facing is ON MY T-SHIRT?!

“Um, I never said it was.” he says, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion. If he's noticed that HE'S ON MY SHIRT, he doesn't say so. For this, my dear friends, is Noland Hendricks, the lead guitarist of The Tyndall Effect. .

“Hey Nick, has the pizza come?” asks a chirpy voice, and suddenly I'm looking at 2/5 of The Tyndall Effect, only the hottest pop/rock band right now and the very same people my sister worships. Yep, my sister would kill to be my right now (a very, very rare thing she'd kill for).

“Lys, why did you tell them my name is Nick?” asks Noland, looking at his redheaded band-mate. Lys shrugs it off casually, with a cheeky grin.

“I thought it suited you. Besides, I didn't want your house to get mobbed!” he says, cheerfully. Noland gives him a really? look and turns back to me.

“Sorry love, I'm afraid this lunatic here ordered the pizza under a fake name. How much will that be?” And he smiles his famous smile. The 'Sunshiney Cupcake', they call his smile.

I smile back and hand him the bill while Lys stares at him in shock.

“I am not a lunatic!”

“Keep telling yourself that.” mutters Nicolas loud enough for me to hear but not Lys, luckily.

Lys looks at me and momentarily forgets - or ignores - what Noland has just said.

Instead, he smiles happily.

“Hi, Malia!”

 My eyebrows go up. Alright, they're cute, they're talented and they're nice. But psychic too? Seems too good to be true. 

“How do you know my name?” 

“Forgetful, are we? It's on your name tag, love.” he says, pointing at it.

I blush slightly. Riiiiight. 

“Oh. I knew that.”

 This time his eyebrows go up.

“Sure you did.”

But he says it in amusement, not rudely.

I blush again. Did I ever tell you that us redheads tend to blush a lot? And almost as red as our hair. Talk about embarrassing. I wonder if Lys looks like a tomato when he blushes. (I'd find out soon enough!)

 Nicolas hands me the money and gently takes the box from me.

“We'll be ordering pizza a lot more nowadays, so hopefully the next time we do, you'll be the one to bring it.” he says, smiling.

I smile back (how could you not?) and say in response, “Hopefully. Nice to meet you boys. I'll be going now. Until we meet again!”

 Lys winks at me, and I feel myself blush again. I wink back, however, and he grins, looking pleased.

“Bye, boys.”

“Bye Malia!” chirps Lys (he's so bubbly, that boy) followed by Noland.

But he's already started on the pizza so it sounds like “Bhye Mhaliahf”. I guess he really does love food.

And this ends one of the most interesting deliveries I've ever done.