red hair and a blue hoodie // ed sheeran

Chapter 58 - Getting Ready for the Surprise

zσ'ѕ ρσν:
Sierra was prepping herself for her big night out with Harry, the smell of her favourite Marc Jacobs scent lingering in the air. After she helped me in to the bathroom, I led myself towards the sink and propped myself on the space next to it, my legs swinging gently in front of me.

“How long do you think you’ll be out for?”

“Well… Harry and me were talking about it and he said he booked a hotel room for the two of us near Brighton. You know how I’ve always loved it up there. Well, he booked us a place right near the sea. Is that… alright?”

“Yeah of course,” I responded. “I guess I’ll just get to listen to more of those fanfictions that Niall has got to show me.” Her laughed jingled softly in the air around me.

“Yeah… Fun times.”

“Hey babe, you ready?”

Harry’s voice radiated from a little bit in front of me, somewhere near the doorway.

“Harry, you can’t rush these things. Winged eyeliner is a bitch, okay?” Sierra spoke, her voice more strained then usual. Understandable though. Winged eyeliner was a bitch. Common knowledge.

“Well you look perfect anyway without all that make-up hiding your pretty face.”

“You’re the pretty face, love.” Sierra responded.

“Nuh-uh.”

“Yah-huh.”

“Yeah guys I’m still here just so you know,” I interrupted the two of them. With a squeal from Sierra, which she only did when Harry did something ‘cheeky’ as they called it, he left the room laughing genuinely to himself.

“When’s Niall getting here again?”

“Shouldn’t be long after we leave. I texted him a minute ago saying we were just about to leave.”

ѕιerra'ѕ pov:
I wasn’t lying either. I did text someone saying that we were about to leave. I just know for a definitive fact that it wasn’t Niall. Putting the last of my make-up away in my little purse, I glanced up at Zo on the counter, her legs gently rocking back and forth with her thick auburn-y hair hanging thick and a little frizzy over her right shoulder - it reminded me of when I first met her.

We were only teenagers that met over the Internet but when we introduced Skype into our friendship, this is what she would look like. Her hair would always be out when we chatted and she was always trying to fix it. She would go through several hairstyles in one Skype call, normally giving up and settling on the frizzy hair once again. Remembering how much her hair annoyed her, my hands drifted out to her hair with a spare hair tie wrapped around my wrist.

“Want me to plait your hair Zo?”

Her face lit out like a child and her eyes shone. Her head tilted upwards to where my voice had slipped. “I’m not five Sizzy.”

“I know. I just thought since its not quite five thirty I could plait it. If you don’t want me to that’s fine though.”

Then she laughed. “If you can tame it I will give you a gold sticker.”

“Ha-ha. I’ll try my best.”

нarry'ѕ pov:
As I sat waiting for Sierra to come out from the bathroom, my phone started letting out the tone of Marimba while it rested on the table top in the kitchen. Pushing myself up from the couch, I made my way over to the echoing noise. It was him. “Hey Ed.”

“How is she doing?”

His only concern at the moment was Zo. Ever since we came up with the plan for him to come over and surprise her tonight, knowing full well that she missed him, he has called me every few hours to make sure the plan is still up and running.

“She’s in the bathroom with Sierra at the moment. She thinks that Niall is the one coming around, not you.”

“Do you think she’s going to yell at me? What if she starts crying? What if she tells me to leave? Dude I don’t know if I could take it again. I really don’t know what I’d-”

“Ed. Lad, stop stressing out alright? You’re going to freak yourself out.” I couldn’t think of anything else to calm him down. He was eating himself alive with his own worry. I knew it was harsh of me to just tell him to stop stressing and not give any more encouraging words but he needed to be realistic here. He knew what Zo’s feelings were towards him. Sierra had told me about the phone call and how he had overheard everything so I knew that he knew this plan was most likely to succeed. The only reason it wouldn’t was if he kept worrying about it.

“You’re right. I need to chill. OK, so when are you and Sierra leaving?”

“In a few I guess.”

“Remember I’ve been in the lobby since five ok? My legs are weary and the guitar is heavy and-”

“Stop whinging Sheeran.”

“Ha-ha alright. What are they even doing right now?” His question spiked my curiosity. When I had walked in there before, Sierra had already done all her make-up and was finishing up.

“I’ll go and check. Sierra was mostly ready when I walked in to see her before. I'll text you when to come up ok?”

“Alright.” And the line went dead.

As I made my way towards the bathroom, there was no voices or sound. Were they playing hide and seek or something? My footsteps were gentle as I didn’t want to alert anyone of my presence. As I entered the bedroom that connected onto the bathroom I glanced in. They were both facing the mirror, Zo sitting on a chair in front of Sierra.

Sierra’s hands were wrapped up in Zo’s hair, twisting and turning three sections through and through each other. Sierra glanced up into the mirror and saw me in the reflection. She smiled her beautiful smile at me and in return I did the same thing but held up the phone.

“Ed?” She mouthed without making a sound, scared of alerting Zo. I only nodded.

Returning her attention down to Zo and her hair, she wrapped the remaining hair in a band, wrapping it round and round until all the hair was secure and still. She patted Zo on the shoulders and I took that as my queue.

“Ready to go now love?”

“Don’t be so impatient Styles. We were having some bonding time.” Zo spoke out.

“Yaaas girl. Hit ‘em with that sass!” Sierra cheered making me chuckle.

“I’m wounded. Now lets go. Niall just arrived in the lobby for you Zo.”

“Sweet as! Can you guys lead me out to the lounge room though? I left my cane out there.”

"Yeah sure, just let me type a text real quick."