
In a Heartbeat
Before Cake
"What?" I asked, trying to look at Harry's phone. He turned it away so I couldn't see it.
"Nothing," he said. I knew he was hiding something from me, but what?
"Ugh. Fine. We should probably go upstairs now before Niall eats the cake," I said, grabbing his hand and dragging him out of the studio. I glanced at the picture of Will's accident one more time before shutting off the light and closing the door.
I dragged him out of the editing room and through the music room, shutting doors and turning off lights as we went. When we got to the stairs, I dropped his hand and took the stairs two at a time until I reached the top, then ran into the kitchen.
"Found him!" I shouted. "He decided to hide in the studio."
Liam looked at me funny. "I thought you called it the music room?"
"No, not that. You know the door in the music room?" The boys all nodded their heads. "That's my studio."
"Wait... so, a studio? Like, an art studio?" Niall asked, eyeballing the cake.
"No. A legit studio. You know, like a recording studio?" I said.
Four jaws dropped to the floor.
"You have a recording studio in your house?!" Zayn said incredulously.
"Yeah. I thought you knew," I said, knowing that they hadn't.
"Well, we didnt!" Louis said.
"Can we eat cake now?" Niall complained, bouncing.
"Before supper?" I said, acting horrified. Niall stopped bouncing and gave me the stinkeye. I laughed. "Yes, we can have cake now."
"YES!" Niall shouted, jumping up and down. He uncovered the cake and cut it with a spatula, put a large slice on a paper plate, then sat down at the dining room table and practically shoved the thing in his mouth.
"Well, in our house, the birthday person gets the first bite of cake, but you can do it your way, too," I said, giggling.
"Sorry," Niall said, although it sounded more like "asdfghjkl" because his mouth was full of cake.
I laughed. "It's fine. That was the before cake, though so it's okay," I said.
"Before cake? So there's an after cake?!" Niall said, his eyes bugging out.
"Yeah. That one was just to make you antsy."
Niall glared at me.
"I'm hungry," Katrina C. said, walking into the kitchen.
"Yeah, me, too," Katrina V. said, following her.
"Where have you guys been this entire time?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Upstairs. Hiding," Katrina V. said.
"Why were you hiding?"
"Ella wanted to play hide-and-seek, but she must have forgotten, because she never came to find us," Katrina C. explained.
"She went to a friend's house...," I said, trailing off.
"I told you she left!" Katrina V. shouted.
"Well sor-ry for wanting to win!" Katrina C. shouted back.
"Hey. Guess what. I'm still here. It's still my birthday. No fighing," I said, crossing my arms.
"Sorry, Mel," they said, hanging their heads.
"You better be," I teased, hugging them. "Time to eat! Niall, put that cake away, or shove it in your mouth."
He chose to shove it in his mouth then grin at me.
"Nasty, Niall!" Liam said, throwing a dried-up mini marshmallow at him. I had apparently left one on the counter from the previous morning by accident. Niall ate that, too.
I pulled a pan out of the oven and the delicious aroma of my favorite cheesy wild rice hotdish filled the air.
"Da-yum!" I said, setting it on the stovetop.
"What is that?" Zayn asked, pointing at the hotdish.
"Cheesy wild rice and beef and some other stuff. It's my favorite, so leave some for me," I said, turning on the microwave fan. "Now we just need to let it cool off."
Notes
Grrrr....My iTunes window won't come open and iTunes WILL NOT QUIT and I can't force quit it. Apparently, nobody has ever had this problem before because it's not in any FAQs or any website like Info-Mac. I have a MacBook laptop and it's a pretty good one other than the battery sucks donkey so I can't be using it while it's unplugged for very long. I can still play my iTunes, but because it won't open, I can't check or uncheck any new songs, so I'm trying to listen to both 1D albums but only a few songs are checked, so I can't play all of the songs.
Help?
(BTW: If you want the recipe for the cheesy wild rice hotdish, I'll message it to you or something. It's REALLY good! Even when it's reheated!)
HEY. Your official-unofficial announcements sadden me. No promises or not, I really, really, really, really, really, really, REALLY hope you decide to eventually continue. I won't even be mad if you do a rewrite but dude, you gotta do something. I WILL DIE IF THIS STORY DOES NOT CONTINUE.
5/2/16