The Rockstar Next Door (h.s)

twenty-five

TW: mentions suicide

Elena

"Happy birthday, E."

He forms a soft smile on his face but something was pulling it back from forming a bigger one. I still feel my heart beating hard against my chest, and it's not because Bea and the band surprised me out of the blue but because of how the energy felt with Harry when we were alone.

I always feel intimidated by him when we're alone, and sometimes I'll put up an act where I pretend to be unbothered but in reality, I'm highly nervous. When we first met, I felt nervous and concern that later on progressed to feeling petty and more confident over him. Now it's just straight-up nerve-wracking to be alone with him, not knowing what his next question might be or whether or not he found out the full truth.

It's all Kevin to blame for my paranoia and recently, I've just had a bad feeling.

But there's so much I want to tell Harry, from Michael's weird encounters to Kevin's blackmailing. I wish there was a better way to show him all of me or just tell him stuff about me without patronizing Kevin in the way. With him, that thin string holding Harry and me from arguing childishly and just being somewhat good friends is threatened every second by Kevin due to not knowing when he'll spill or if he ever does end up spilling.

"Elena! Make a wish!" Bea cheers, snapping me back into reality.

I shoot her a happy smile, my gaze falling onto the candle placed in the center of the small cake. The fire continued to burn the wax quickly, close to touching the cake. Closing my eyes, I make a wish without any hesitation before pulling myself back.

I look back at Harry who didn't seem too aware of the things going on which made me assume that maybe he wasn't even in on it. Maybe this was a last-minute thing and Harry was too busy making out with Beth.

I mean, he was with Beth, who knows what they did. But then again, I couldn't care less about who he does. It's more towards the fact he just kind of left me midway through a serious conversation.

Bea hands everyone out a piece of cake but I noticed Harry barely touched him, instead, he just gave it to Niall and Liam because they were fighting over the last piece so now they both had one.

Zayn was too busy texting Austin, I have no clue what they're talking about but my eyes couldn't help themselves. Curiosity got the best of me and with one glance, I was able to read Austin's name.

"So, what did you do to your hand?" Bea asked, mouth full of cake as she points towards the bloody napkin crumbled in a fist.

"I cut myself accidentally. It was dark and my battery was running out so I just started to grab random things on the counter." I explain.

Liam tenses up, his jaw dropping with the cake piece falling out. "Oh my god, what? The knife I used earlier to scare you guys?"

I shook my head, "No! No! A different object, don't worry about it." Liam sighed in relief.

Sometimes it's good to lie. I'd rather have Liam be calm and not worry about the fact that he was the one that left the knife on the counter rather than putting it where it belongs.

"Jesus. You know, this power outage wasn't even planned. It worked perfectly for surprising you though." Bea explains.

"Yeah, we planned this out earlier the second Bea told us about your birthday," Niall explains, making Harry shift slightly in his seat. "There isn't even a generator in this building."

"Yeah, or ghosts." Zayn chuckled, earning a dirty glare by Niall.

A smile forms on my face as I replay the worried look on their faces when we went into the vacant room that's 'haunted' as Niall claims.