Devoted // l.s

Chapter 17

Louis' POV

"Is he awake?"

"He should be. It's his birthday." I heard whispers travel around the room. I wanted to just tell them I was but I wanted to see if they would say anything about a gift ...

"He's gonna be so bummed when I tell him Harry had to go back to California." I sprang up so fast. What why? Why would-

"Ha gotcha!" Lottie giggled holding Doris. Harry was leaning against the door frame with a smile across his face.

"Lou-E funny!" Doris giggled and clapped her hands.

"That was mean!" I crossed my arms. For a moment I thought he really did go

"Still funny!" Lottie started running once I threw my pillow at her. Doris giggled more.

"Happy birthday, Lou." Harry said. I got out of bed and hugged him. "I got this for you."

I grabbed the bag from him and reached in. I pulled out a notebook wrapped in leather. The cover had 'songs' engraved on it. There was also a small box that held a guitar pick. "So you can write your songs in here! No more ripped up notepad! And I noticed you had a guitar. You should take it back to school so you could serenade me." Harry grinned. "I'll be your first official fan."

I started chuckling. "Thank you."

"Oh your mum said something about a special breakfast so we should make our way down."

"Ah yeah. They do it for everyone's birthday." I informed him. I slipped on a hoodie and walked down with Harry.

My mum rushed over to me. "My little boobear!" She gave my cheeks a squeeze. "Happy birthday!"

"Happy birthday kid." Daniel said from the table.

"Thanks guys."

We all sat at the table and had our serving of blueberry pancakes. Everyone was smiling and joking around. Ah I missed this.

~~~~~~

I was upstairs in my room, wrapping up all the gifts I packed away. I was wrapping the last gift which was Phoebe's. She has been bugging us for months about a 'Pink Ladies' jacket from the Grease movie.

I walked down and placed all the gifts under the tree. Everyone watched me, trying to see whose was the biggest. I looked at them and told them they'd have to wait. Hm. Everyone was out in the living room but I didn't see Harry.

"Where did Harry go?"

"Somewhere." Lottie stated and shifted her focus on the tv.

"And where's that somewhere?"

"The bathroom ..." She groaned.

"Oh!" I sat beside her chuckled. She was watching some movie called The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I've seen this movie too many times. I got back up and started playing with Doris and Ernest. "Hey guys." Doris right away throws a block at me. "Evil little girl." I grabbed her and began tossing her into the air.

"Me!" Ernest cried holding my leg.

"Hold on."

I put Doris down and started tossing Ernest in the air. I was waiting for him to fall into my arms but he didn't ... he stayed in the air. For a split second I was confused, but Harry had held him without me realizing. "You scared me. I thought we had a floating baby on our hands."

"Maybe you still do ..." Harry went wide eyed and looked at Doris. "Who knows!" He joked.

-11:35 pm-

"So Louis what did you get me?" Lottie asked sprawling across Harry and I.

"You'll find out at 12." I've been saying this all day ...

Luckily, most of the kids were silent at the moment, except ... of course ... Lottie. We were watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas, it's our Christmas Eve tradition.

"What did you get me pleeeeeeease!" Lottie cried.

"You'll see, Lottie." I groaned. Harry covered her mouth before she could ask again.

"You're killing me smalls." He rolled his eyes. "Uh! You disgusting child!" Harry started shaking his hand around.

"What?" I questioned. Lottie was laughing so hard that she wasn't making any noise.

"She licked my hand!" Harry grimaced.

"A few more minutes!" Daisy ran into the living room, launching herself in front of the tree.

"Sh!" Doris screeched covering her mouth.

Well, in Whoville they say - that the Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that day..."

"Yay!" Doris and Ernest clapped their hands.

Lottie started passing the gifts out to everyone. "This one is for you momma." Everyone received their first gifts and were ready to rip them open. "Oh! Here Harry."

"For me? I already opened Lou's."

"This one is from all of us, silly. Here." I could see that it meant a lot to Harry.

"It's 12! It's 12! Ready guys? 1.2.3!"

We tore open our gifts. Everyone was jumping around happily and reaching for another.

Vote/Fan/Share