"Chosen family are the people who help you create the version of yourself you always wanted to be." — Oprah Winfrey
Harry beat me home.
We didn't say that it was a race to see who could get back to the apartment complex first, but we were both speeding down the roads as if it were. It was an unspoken battle, and I lost. I even had the advantage since his car windows were still fogged up from what we did in his backseat.
I meet him in the parking lot, and he turns around when I get close to him, bending over slightly. I laugh, running over and jumping onto his back like he wants me to. He's such a little kid sometimes. He stands up, giving me a piggyback ride towards the building. My arms wrap around his neck loosely, and the tips of his curls tickle my neck.
"Thanks for the tattoo," Harry says as he carries me.
I smile, even though he can't see my face. I haven't stopped smiling since yesterday, when he brought me to that spot by the lake and made me feel like the luckiest girl in the world.
I say, "Of course."
I bring my head around the side of his and plant a kiss on the side of his cheek, wishing I could reach his lips. He just devoured me in the back of his car, but I want more of him. He smiles at me, briefly turning his head to meet my gaze.
He says lightly, "I should carry you around more often."
"Last time I jumped on your back, you threw me over your head and slammed me into the ground," I recall that time in the dungeon of the gym.
He says, "You were asking for trouble."
I reply, "You are the one that is trouble, not me."
He only hums in response.
I hop off his back when we reach the building. I get my keys out and open the door for us, stepping inside as Harry follows behind me. He's quiet as we go up the elevator, texting someone on his phone. I unlock the door to our apartment when we get there and push it open, stepping inside the place I get to call home.
I flick the light on.
"SURPRISE!"
I jump out of my skin, letting out a small scream and throwing my keys in the air as the loud mass of voices scares the absolute shit out of me. My heart is pounding in my chest as I see everyone gathered in the living room, smiling at me.
"Jesus Christ," I breathe, my hand on my chest.
"Happy birthday!" everyone cheers enthusiastically.
I look at Harry, who is smirking at me. He's so damn sneaky, stalling me first by asking for a tattoo and then taking me in his backseat. He retrieves my keys from the ground, handing them to me as I stand there, still stunned.
I look at all of my friends, a smile taking over my startled expression. There are birthday balloons and streamers hung up around the apartment, and they're all wearing pointy birthday hats on their heads.
They threw me a surprise party..?
"What? You—" I stumble over my words, too shocked to have any coherent thoughts. "I don't—this is—"
Niall, Zayn, Clove, Louis, and Pen all rush over to me, engulfing me in a lot of hugs. This is all so sweet. I feel like I could cry. My eyes sting a little, and I realize that I actually might start crying soon.
Clove says, "Since Harry hogged you on your actual birthday yesterday, we wanted to surprise you tonight."
"This is too much," I say, feeling overwhelmed with emotions as I take in what's happening. I say, "Thank you guys. This is so sweet."
And now, I was crying. A tear slides down my face as I'm overwhelmed with emotion. The fact that they all put effort into planning this for me... it means more than they know, more than I could ever express.
"We love you, Kiz," Niall says, and then he adds, "And we got pizza!"
Everyone opens the pizza boxes and takes a slice or two, eating the greasy food. I'm still stunned that anyone would go through the effort to plan something like this for me. It's surreal.
Harry approaches me, wrapping his arms around my waist. I look up at him and say, "You're sneaky."
"Mhmm," he hums with a lazy smirk as he looks down at me. He says, "But I made the stalling worth your time, didn't I?"
I say, "What if I didn't agree to get in your car?"
"We both know you can't resist me, baby," he purrs.
I roll my eyes, laughing up at him. I love this man and everything that he is. I couldn't picture a more perfect person for me. He's everything I've ever wanted in a partner packaged into the most flawless-looking body, and somehow he is all mine.
"Okay," Niall appears out of nowhere, pulling me away from Harry and saying, "Styles, you got her all of yesterday. Back off."
A laugh leaves my mouth as Niall drags me away from Harry, sitting down on the couch with me. I miss having Niall around. Living with him was really fun, at least during the times that I wasn't freaking out.
"Were you surprised?" he asks me, as if my reaction didn't already answer that question.
I nod. "I had no idea. I'm impressed you managed to keep this from me. You're all too good at lying."
"Or you were too preoccupied making up with Harry to think about anything else," he teases with a smile. In a more serious tone, he says, "I'm glad it all worked out between you two. I was rooting for you guys, but I would've supported your decision either way."
The same giddy smile that's been appearing on my face all day comes back, taking over my features. I can't help it. Even the thought of Harry makes my heart feel things. I glance over at him, finding him leaning against the island, chatting with Clove and Zayn. His eyes meet mine, and he sends me a smooth wink that makes my cheeks tint.
I turn back to Niall, saying, "I'm glad it worked out, too."
He asks, "How have you been since I left?"
It's sweet that he's checking in on me. He's been sending me texts at random times too, letting me know that he's thinking of me and that he's here for me. He's like the big brother I've always wanted.
"Oh, terrible. I've been lost without you, Niall," I joke, and he laughs, his Irish accent carrying over even into the sound of that. I say, "I've been good, every day it all starts to feel a little better, and I finally feel like I'm starting to find myself again. I still can't thank you enough—"
"Kiz," he stops me, "I would do it all over again twenty more times if you needed me to. I know you'd do it for me too."
I nod, "I would."
"It's nice to see you happy again. I missed that cute smile of yours," he says sweetly. Then he says, "You're awesome, but you're way too sober for the birthday girl right now."
Niall tugs me to my feet and pulls me into the kitchen where everyone else is, yelling, "SHOT TIME, BABY!"
I laugh, stunned once again by how quickly he can go from being a sweet teddy bear to a reckless frat boy. He pours everyone a shot of something and passes the shot glasses around.
Clove says, "To Kiz, for unexpectedly entering our lives and forever changing us, in the best fucking way!"
My heart warms. I know they've all changed my life, but I never put much thought into thinking about how I've impacted their lives.
"Hell yeah," Pen cheers, "to the most beautiful soul I've ever met."
I smile at her, and she blows me a kiss from across the island. Harry appears next to me, wrapping an arm around my shoulder. I lean into him, feeling the warmth of his body next to mine.
"Excuse me," Niall says with an attitude. "I'm the one that's supposed to be saying the cheers, not you fuckers."
Zayn says, "No one is stopping you. Go ahead. Say something."
Niall's eyebrows furrow like he is deep in thought, and then his face lights up. He says, "To Kiz, for being Kiz!"
We all laugh at his attempt at a cheers, and he flips us all off. We take the shots, and I feel the burn of the liquor as it goes down my throat. I still haven't mastered the art of taking a shot. It always makes me wince a little.
Clove yells, "Present time!"
My eyes widen. I say, "You guys didn't have to—"
"Shut up," Pen silences me. "We wanted to, and we did."
Everyone migrates to the couches, and I take a seat next to Harry, who stretches his arm out on the back of the couch behind me. I glance at him as he takes his lip ring between his teeth, smirking at me like he knows he's the hottest man to ever walk the face of the earth.
There's a pile of presents on the coffee table, and I gulp when I see them. Everyone stares at me, waiting for me to open one, and I start to feel really uncomfortable with all of the attention on me.
"Open mine first," Niall says with an excited voice as he pushes a bag towards me.
I take the bag, pulling out the tissue paper—
"Niall," I laugh as I take some of it out, "Did you use napkins from the pizza place as tissue paper?"
Everyone laughs, taking a look at the napkins I pulled out of the bag, reading 'Franks Pizza' on them. Niall shrugs, saying, "I was being resourceful."
I pull the rest of the napkins out, struggling to keep from bursting out laughing again. My hands grab something firm, and I pull the object out of the bag to reveal a sketchbook. It's brand new, and almost identical to the one that I use on a daily basis. My current one is almost full, and this is quite literally the perfect gift.
I thank him, telling him how amazing it is. I open Pen's gift next, and pull out a taser. It's a bright pink one, which is funny to me.
Pen jabs her finger at Harry and warns, "Better watch out, Harry Styles."
I thank Pen. I'm not sure if I'll ever use the taser, but I'm thankful for the thought of it. When I lived alone, I always thought having one of these would be smart. It could provide a sense of security knowing there's something around to defend myself with. Now I have a much better defense mechanism sitting right next to me.
Clove and Louis got me headphones, and my jaw drops when I open the box to see a new set of Air Pods. Louis says, "It's 2023, Kiz. Time to join the rest of the world and listen to music without wires."
I laugh, feeling exposed. I've never had an issue with the wires of my headphones, but I'm so excited about these. I thank them, and I can't wait for my next run with these things in my ears.
Zayn got me a new pair of running shoes, and he tells me that Harry told him my shoe size, which was nice of him. I was way overdue for a new pair of runners, and these are so perfect. I thank him, and he gives me a warm smile. Maybe with these, I could keep up with him.
"Thanks guys," I say as my voice cracks.
I'm shocked, really. I don't have words to express the emotions that are shooting through me. It's a feeling I've never experienced, a fullness that I've never had, a sense of family I've always longed for.
These people really pay attention to me, and they know me so well. All of their gifts involved a lot of thought and effort, and it touches my heart that they even got me anything at all, better yet planned this whole night for me.
"Sorry," I say as I wipe a tear from my face, realizing I'm crying again. I say weakly, "I've always sort of been on my own my entire life. I never really had a support system or people that cared about me the way you guys do. A year ago, I was so lonely. I never thought I'd have such an amazing group of friends in my life. I feel really lucky."
"Aww, Kiz," Clove says as she juts her bottom lip out.
Everyone moves so quickly, running over to me and bombarding me with a big group hug. The hug is more of a big pile of people on top of me, almost suffocating me, but I'm not complaining.
I hear someone yell, "We love you, Kiz." The voice is so muffled that I don't know who said it.
Eventually, they all climb off of me, and air can enter my lungs again. Since it's getting late, they start to head out for the night. I thank all of them again, giving them hugs and telling them how much this all meant to me.
When they all leave, I slump back down on the couch, feeling overwhelmed. Harry joins me, sitting down next to me. He rubs his hand on my leg.
He says, "You have one more gift."
I look over to see him holding out an envelope towards me, with a soft expression on his face. I stare at him, wondering what more he could have possibly gotten me when he's already given me everything.
I say, "Harry, you already gave me more than enough."
"Shh," he hushes me, "Let me spoil you, baby."
I smile at him, leaning over to give him a short kiss. I take the envelope, holding it in my hands, trying to think of what he could've gotten me that fits in an envelope. I open it, finding two tickets to a Mariners baseball game.
My eyes widen as I take them in, shocked to be holding them at all. A smile breaks out on my face, and I feel like a little kid on Christmas morning. I told Harry a long time ago that I've always wanted to go to one of their games, but I never thought he'd get me tickets.
"No way," I say, stunned. I look at him, his eyes shining so brightly, and there's a smile on his pretty face. I say, "This is amazing, Harry. Thank you. I'm so excited. You have no idea."
He says softly, "You're welcome, baby."
I look down at the two tickets in my hands and set them down on the coffee table. I tilt my head and tease, "Hmm, who am I going to take with me?"
Harry laughs, lunging over and tackling me, so I fall back against the couch. He pins me down and then climbs on top of me, pressing his soft lips against mine. My body ignites at the contact, craving him.
I say, "Thank you, Harry. For everything."
"I love you," he says.
I smile up at him, bringing one of my hands up to touch his face. I run my finger along his cheek, admiring him and how stunning he is.
I say, "I love you."
He kisses me again.
I think this might be the best birthday I've ever had.