When Darren and Blithe finally arrive back at Darren’s house with the birthday girl’s choice of movies and favorite snack foods, they pull into the driveway just as another car does synchronously. Darren almost wants to take the wheel of the car and drive off of a cliff, but she waits calmly and emotionlessly in Blithe’s car until the departure of the other car.

Emmy Lou opens the passenger door as Rhys steps out of the one of the rear doors of the car. The teens wave goodbye to the man, whom Darren cannot dare to look at for the moment any longer than she already had, in the car before they walk over to where Darren is sitting, still in the safety of her friend’s car.

The moment the car that has transported Emmy Lou and Rhys drives away, Darren finally opens her car door and clambers to her feet, pulling her crutches up with her. Immediately, she is strangled in a giant hug by tiny arms. Darren finds herself coughing to rid her mouth of blonde strands of hair that couldn’t seem to be tamed.

“Happy Birthday, Dare!” the head of hair exclaims. Darren laughs and wraps her arms around the body to which the hair belongs, telling Emmy Lou that she’s glad she could make it.

When they finally pull back, Darren greets her other sibling. “Rhys! I wasn’t expecting you to come.” She stretches her arms out and pulls him into a hug as well.

“And miss out on cake? That would be absurd!” he responds. Darren pushes him back slightly and smacks the back of his head mildly. “Ow, I was kidding. Happy Birthday, Dare.”

The group in the driveway saves the rest of their greetings for another conversation and heads inside. Darren sets the bags of stuff she got from the drug store down on the counter and crutches her way over to the living room where she nearly has a heart attack. A chorus of people shout out, “Surprise!”

“There’s the birthday girl!” one of the guys shouts, jumping up from his seat and running over to pull Darren into a hug before spinning her in circles. Darren is stiff, still in a shock, trying to process what exactly happened in these last few seconds.

When the guy – evidently turning out to be Caspar – finally pulls back, Darren sucks in a breath, almost wanting to cry in happiness, but not allowing herself to let that happen. Instead she puts her hands over her mouth in shook, almost falling out of lack of balance on her crutches. The small crowd of people, mainly friends and family, laugh at her inability to speak.

Jack finally speaks up. “I know you didn’t want to do anything special, but… I know how much you love surprises, so surprise!”

Finn scoffs. “You know she likes surprises, eh? Stop taking credit for my ideas, face stealer!”

As the two continue to argue, Darren just shakes her head and laughs before greeting some of the other people in the room. Quickly, she realizes that pretty much everyone is in their pajamas and a pile of blankets and pillows is spread out on the couches.

“We were thinking we could just expand your movie night from three people to… nine?” Zoella says, laughing at the fact that it isn’t really an option for Darren.

“It’s quite fine,” Darren assures her. Her head does a quick scan of the nine people in the room; the twins, Emmy Lou, Rhys, Caspar, Blithe, Alfie, Zoella, herself… but no James. “Is… um… James going to be here?” At the sound of his name, Zoella looks to the ground and shakes her head ‘no’. Darren just nods solemnly and catches Zoella’s sudden interest in the floor as well.

~

By about 11:30, few stragglers are still fighting sleep as the classic The Breakfast Club continues to play. Among this small group of sleep fighters are Finn, Blithe, and Darren, who is surprisingly wide-awake with no intentions of ever getting sleep.

Another half hour passes, leaving Darren to be the only person awake. The Breakfast Club comes to an end, freezing Bender with his fist held high over his head and Don’t You Forget About Me playing into the credits. Darren hobbles onto her feet, not bothering to use her crutches to get a glass of water to drink.

She leans over the counter as she sips from the glass, looking over the people in the room as they sleep like angels, peacefully and serenely. Darren stifles a giggle in her water as she continues to drink the cool liquid slowly. She sets the now empty class down noiselessly on the countertop and looks around. If her brothers see her in the kitchen, she’d be dead as a small child’s dream. The kitchen is an off-limits zone, but water can be an exception, right?

Knock-knock.

A soft knock on the front door, no louder than a small tapping noise, is enough to startle Darren, for who, in their right mind, is up at this hour? Not anyone that Darren knew – at least no one that is already asleep in this household.

Knock-knock.

The knock comes again. Darren is still. When she feels like she is going to suffocate, she remembers to take in breaths of air, ragged at first, but shallow and calmly after she regains her breath. Then, she leans forward, attempting to steal a look out the window next to the door, only to find it already shut.

Knock-knock.

The knocking becomes louder this time, echoing softly and bouncing off the front walls of the house. Darren, suddenly becoming fearless, leaves her resting place at the countertop and hurries to the front door, dragging her immobile leg behind her.

She decides against looking through the peephole due to the fact that should she be confronted by a mass murderer, she would have eight people in the other room to hear her scream, and the sounds of death don’t exactly scare her.

Knock-knock.

“Darren, open up. It’s me.”

Her hand, midway to opening the door, freezes, and rage suddenly flows through every vein in her body. Instead of leaving, however, she flings the door open to glare at the man standing in front of her. She doesn’t speak, nor does she stray away from her thoughts of killing this man. He doesn’t talk. His mouth remains shut, making him look like a fool for being up at such a late hour and showing up at her door for no apparent reason.

Infuriated at his lack of words, Darren decides to be cold, stepping out and shutting the door to keep quiet in the house before speaking. “What do you want?” He opens his mouth to speak, but there’s nothing but soundless air coming from his parted lips. “You’re such an idiot. Why are you here?”

“I… I-I don’t know… I-”

“You should leave.”

“But Dare, I-”

“Leave, James.”

~

After double-checking to make sure everything is saved first, Darren closes out of all her open course tabs. Lifting her glasses up slightly, she rubs some exhaustion from her eyes. Darren has been working hard to finish up some of her online exams this past week in hopes to finally finish her online courses and take a shot at some raw college applications.

Instead of putting her contacts in, Darren decides to leave her glasses on. She stands up and does a quick stretch – easily done because of the boot she got yesterday to replace her cast. So long as Darren doesn’t do too much wear and tear or physical activity, she can be out of the boot within two to three weeks time.

She hauls the black leg monster along with her down the stairs, hoping to find Jack and Finn, but to no avail. In lieu of her brothers’ presence, she finds a sticky note on the counter.

Darren,

Went out to the grocer; should be back before 7. Blithe wanted you to call her because apparently your phone is off. She says it’s important, but not important enough for us to know…

xoxo,
J&F

Darren crumples up the note and tosses it aimlessly onto the floor in frustration. Taking her house phone from its stand, she dials Bee’s number by memory and waits for her to pick up.

“Darren!” Blithe screeches into the phone. Even when Darren pulls the phone back from her ear to rid it of a ringing echo, she can still hear Blithe talk. “Thank God, you finally called!”

“Stop yelling. What in the name of Satan is so bloody important?” All she gets in reply is for Darren to check her messages before she hears dial tone. Huffing, Darren digs around the couch cushions, knowing she buried somewhere in there a few days ago to ignore some people – or one person at least.

Her digging brings her no luck, so she gets down on her stomach to search under the couch itself. Slowly, she slides her hand under, patting around the floor and searching by touch rather than vision. Still she only ends up finding herself screaming out of her mind when her hand brushes up against a moving fuzzy object.

Darren’s ear piercing shriek must be heard all throughout the neighborhood with how loud and shrill it is. While screaming continually, the frightened red head retracts her arm – not without getting a scratch or two from the base of the couch – and curls up into the nearest corner between two walls. When she loses her breath from her consecutive screech, Darren pants heavily, holding her knees up to her chest to the best of her ability.

Over her breathing, the small click of a lock and the opening and slamming of the front door makes their way into hearing. Jack and Finn can be seen walking in and setting grocery bags on the kitchen counter. It isn’t until all the groceries are properly put away that they notice Darren, still breathing erratically.

“Are you okay?”

Darren shakes her head, pointing a shaky finger toward the couch. “Phone… look…… fuzzy……… mo-ving…… bug…”

Finn gives his sister a look of confusion, picking up on the gist of what she’s trying to tell them. The word ‘bug’ is a dead giveaway. With her irrational fear of insects and other creepy crawlies – including the simplest ladybugs and gnats, especially in spiders though – the brothers can tell just what happened.

Jack lifts up the couch, making Darren cringe and cower – the only time she ever shows fear – and searches for some form of spider or other insect. Instead, Jack just laughs and picks up and dust bunny along with a small, thin rectangle.

“It’s just a dust bunny. No spiders here, Dare.” He sets the couch down and gives her the rectangle – her phone. He waves the ball of dead skin and hair, otherwise known as the dust bunny, in her face teasingly. Darren glares and rips the dust bunny out of his hand and shoves it down his pants before standing up and leaving the room. That sure shows him.

~

One of our favorite British boybanders, Liam Payne, has been spotted with out and about with a little lady wrapped around his fingers – literally! The two have been spotted out in central London, holding hands and looking to be having a great time together. By the looks of the two, the Payne Train is – or will soon be – off the market again. But who is his mystery girl?

“Liam!” Louis shouts as his band mate walks into the flat. The elder man waves the phone screen in Liam’s face as he is taking his shoes off. Liam shrugs off his coat and hangs it before addressing Louis.

“How did you get in my flat?”

Disregarding Liam’s question, Louis once again waves the phone in his face. “What is this? Is it true?” Niall and Zayn walk into the front area as Liam stares quizzically at the phone, also curious to know the truth.

“This is off,” Liam points out, shaking his head and walking into his living room where Harry is sitting on one of his couches, engaged in some phone conversation via text message. “How did you all get in here?”

The other three follow into the living area and take seats, pulling Liam down to sit as well. “Spare key. So is it true, or is it not?” Louis hands Liam his now unlocked phone with the short article and a few pictures of Liam in his current clothes, along with a girl that the boys all knew but are dying to know – minus Harry who couldn’t care less – if the article is true.

Liam is about to explain but Niall starts yammering instead. “How could you not tell us?! I mean – we knew you had a thing for her, but you didn’t tell us that you were together. Are you together? Or are you just friends? Answer us, Liam! We need to kn-”

“Yes.”

“Yes what?”

“Morgan and I are together, and I didn’t tell you because we’ve been caught up with work. I just asked her to be my bird today.” The three – being Louis, Niall, and Zayn – congratulate Liam, while Harry continues to be ignorant, texting away on his phone.

To Daaarrrreenn:
so tomorrow then? I have a short meeting in the morning, but after that I’ll pick you up

From Daaarrrreenn:

sounds like a plan

Notes

So I had a Darren moment… not a good one(if you didn't know, I make my characters based somewhat - mostly - off of myself). I was really in the dumps, but then I reread some of the amazing comments and was like… I need to update for you guys because you're all amazing.

Anyone love '80s movies as much as me? (If so: What is your favorite '80s movie?)
Will Jarren break up?
Seriously though: is it Darry or Harren???
Is Darry/Harren even a thing?
What does Blithe need to tell Darren that is so important?
What the heck are Darren and Harry planning together?
What should they do?
Did anyone get any good pranks out on April 1?

Lots of questions, so I hope I get lots of comments in reply. I alway enjoy reading what you all have to say, so don't be shy. And if you want to tell me it's horrible, don't be afraid to tell me. Since it is April, I will officially be posting a little more often than months at a time (I'm trying at least once a week).

comment. rate. subscribe. ~A