Under Summer Sky • Zarry

28. The time of my life

"Don't wanna wear this!" Harlow whined, tugging repeatedly on the end of her pink and white polka dotted dress, now fumbling with the white ribbon that was tied around her waist. 

"But it's a birthday party," Gemma urged, fixing her ribbon with nimble fingers. "You need a party dress for a party, sweetie."

"No!" she cried, stomping her feet. "I wanna be an alien!"

Gemma frowned, looking over to me as I started to chuckle. "Christ Gem, she's her own person now. She's not a baby anymore."

"But...but I got this dress on sale and it's so pretty," she went on. 

"Yeah but don't force her into a dress if she doesn't want to wear it," I said as I stood in Low's bedroom at Gemma and Jeff's house in Camden.

"God, she's so obsessed with this alien thing lately," Gemma grumbled. 

"So? She's weird, just let her be."

Gemma sighed outwardly and helped Harlow out of her dress, watching then as she ran to her closet and started pulling everything she owned out of the drawer compartments, making a mess everywhere. 

The thing about Low was that she was stubborn. When she had her heart set on something, that was it. She was spunky, unique, and a fiercely independent little girl and her favorite thing in the world was challenging Gemma every chance she got.

But I liked that about her.

We were all at Gemma's getting ready for Gemma's 25th birthday party that night and everyone was coming over that evening to celebrate with dinner, cake, presents, and dancing. Silas was already out picking up Gemma's cake from the bakery and Jeff was downstairs setting up with my mum and cousins, while Gemma and I were in charge of the difficult task of trying to get Harlow dressed.

There was a knock on the door frame to Harlow's room just then, and I caught a whiff of a Gucci scent before I turned to look, and I already knew who it was. I glanced over my shoulder to see Zayn standing there now in grey slacks, black, patent leather shoes, and a button down shirt with black and white roses on it. 

And he was holding a particular costume in his hands. "Hey Low. I got something for you," Zayn said, now kneeling down onto the carpeted floor.

Harlow stopped throwing her shirts the moment she heard Zayn's voice and turned around, an enormous grin on her face as she bounced over to him. He then held out this alien costume complete with purple leggings, a galaxy themed dress, green and fuzzy boot and wrist cuffs with a matching fuzzy green hat with had antennae and a giant, cyclops eye.

"An alien!" Low exclaimed, her eyes wide and full of cheer. "Mummy, Harry! Look, look! I'm gonna be an alien!" she added, clutching at the costume with tiny hands as she jumped up and down in complete excitement.

"Oh Zayn what have you done," Gemma muttered, laughing a little. "You've just made her whole life complete," she added as Zayn started dressing Low in the costume while Low beamed at him. 

I grew quite soft then and there upon seeing my niece light up like that from getting something that was so her; it was the most adorable sight to see and I couldn't stop smiling at how thoughtful Zayn was to have done that, and how he just knew the type of little girl that Low was. 

"You should be proud to have such a cool kid," Zayn remarked to Gemma as he adjusted her alien cyclops hat. "There we go."

"Yay!" she shouted, prancing around the room and roaring. 

Zayn got up from kneeling on the carpet then and smiled down at Low, then focusing his attention on me and Gemma. She walked over to him next and threw her arms around his torso, bringing him in for a close hug.