HARRY

I get back from the studios at 8 pm. It was a long day, but obviously I didn't spend all those hours only in the studios. I texted Ashley twice, but she was busy with Shawn, since they're going to leave London in two days. My heart accelerates a bit at that thought.

I head to the bathroom to take a warm shower. The water swirls down my body like a waterfall and as it does, my mind gets circled with numerous thoughts. Right now, my priority is to get my best friend back with his girlfriend. It's highly important.

I exit the bathroom about 15 minutes later and change into a white tee and blue shorts. It's extremely cold outside and it's also snowing a bit, but thank God I kept the heater on. I get a few texts from my mum, which is mainly reminders for coming over during Christmas. Oh. Christmas. I thought. I promised my mum I would go back to Holmes Chapel this year to celebrate it. But I am doubting whether I can.

I facetime Louis and Liam and tell them about our plan for getting Niall and Ruby together. They agreed to it without any questions, which surprises me a bit. They assure me that the plan will work out. They seem 100% confident in it.
We hang up after a few minutes of discussion.
My phone beeps again. It's from her. I unlock my phone to quickly open the chat.

A- Hey I've just told Mary about our plan and she suggested that we implement it tomorrow, at night, if you are all free

H- hey. Yup we're free the whole day tomorrow. I just told Liam and Louis and they think the plan is fabulous.

A- that's awesome 😊 we're gonna take care of Ruby and you guys take care of Niall.
I'll ask Shawn to accompany you guys too, since he's free.

H- alright, that'll be great. Anyway, do you think this will work out?
I am just a bit worried.

She doesn't see my messages for a while. Probably Shawn called her up for something. I still keep my phone in my hands, waiting for her to reply. The wait is soon over when I hear my phone beep: a message from her of course.

A- Yes me too
But I'm doing it with you and I know how serious you are, so my worries are not really massive.

H- oh but I was about to say the same thing.

A- We're matching buddies 🙌

This warms my heart a bit. The fact that we share a lot of things in common mesmerizes me sometimes. We continue  talking about other things until the point where she tells me that she'll be leaving London, on Thursday. Today is Monday. Three more days...no no no. Why is she leaving so early?

A- Yeah we are going back to Toronto, since Shawn isn't touring till next month

H- you must be missing home as well

A- yeah
I can't wait to try my mom's homemade pancakes again 😄
But wait, that means we won't see each other for a while...

I don't type anything for a few seconds, even though she's still there. Looking at the fact that she can't wait to return home, I don't want to ask her to stay back for a few days. After all, she's an 18 year old girl, who is just missing the homelike environment . I smile at my thoughts, knowing that she'll be delighted back home.

H- That doesn't matter, does it? Besides, we are gonna keep in touch

A- promise?

H- I promise.

We talk for a good 15 minutes and end the chat with good nights. I check the time shown on my clock on the night stand. It's 9:20 PM. I send a reminder text message to Louis and Liam, and a separate message to Niall asking him to meet us. He does ask me why, but I give him a really casual answer. He doesn't question any further and agrees. He's a simple kind of lad, avoiding complications at all costs. Yet again, he's going through that phase right now. Since there's nothing else to do, I lay on my bed and get under the covers. It's snowing outside, with a mild breeze gushing against my bedroom window panels. My tiredness soon dozes me off to sleep.

ASHLEY

I have slept pretty well last night, so well that I didn't see any dream. Zayn texted me at around midnight, saying that he landed safely in LA. Since I was asleep, I reply to him as soon as I woke up, letting out a sigh of relief. 

I leave the apartment after giving Shawn a quick kiss on the cheek. He doesn't ask me where I'm headed to,which surprises me a bit. I guess he's starting to give me some privilege? I don't know. 

I press on 'P' in the elevator which takes me to the parking area. I hop into one of  Shawn's fancy cars and start the ignition. This will be my first time driving in London. I got my license a few months back and only driven a few times on the streets of Toronto. I swiftly drive out of the parking and soon land on the roads of London.

-

By the time I reach Hyde Park, it was already really crowded. I don't bother myself to search for a parking. I simply stop at a place and text Mary. She replies within a few minutes.

A- Hey I've reached Hyde Park. I'm waiting beside the pavements.

M- Hi! Ruby's with me. We are coming in a few minutes.

A- that's great. Hurry up by the way 'cause the police won't let me wait here for too long

M- no worries. We are almost there

A minute passes by when the front passenger door opens, and Mary hops in. Ruby sits at the back. They both buckle up before I change the gear and drive off. It's quiet for a few minutes until Ruby breaks the silence.

'So can you tell me what you are up to?' she asks confusingly, with a frown on her face. Mary and I smirk . Little does she know what we are planning. 

'Um nothing! We're only going to shop for clothes that's all' Mary exclaims. Ruby sits back from her forwarded position, and sighs in disbelief. 

'Why do I have a feeling that it's more than that?' Ruby asks and I slightly shake my head. Tonight is going to be the best night of her life, I tell myself.

'Don't over think .' I state while looking at her for a second, before turning back my focus on driving.

-

'Why are we buying clothes?' Ruby asks us. I think this has been her 20th question over the past 30 minutes. I nudge Mary's hands privately, to signal her to think of some excuse. We've been piling up Ruby's head with our excuses, but we have no choice. Whatever it takes, we can't reveal our true intentions right now.

'Um, we're going to a party tonight, so we gotta buy new dresses for that, right?' Mary says quickly, which sounded almost like a robot speaking.

'Seriously? Why didn't you guys tell me before? Who is throwing the party?' Ruby asks out of mere interest, joyfully.She loves parties.

'LOUIS!' I blurt out and shut my eyes for a millisecond when I realize what I said. What the hell? Louis? Seriously? Out of every person I know. Mary hurriedly pulls Ruby into the store, before she could ask any further questions. I sigh in relief and follow them. We go to the Ladies' section to find a division filled with fancy clothes. Three of us need to buy one for the special occasion tonight. Mary and I have to make sure that Ruby gets the best one. We let her choose a few to try out. In the meantime, I text Harry for some updates. He replies within a few seconds.

A- Hey.  How's everything going on over there?

H- Hey. Yeah everything's going well so far. Niall's trying on a few suits

A- ah if only I could show this to Ruby....
Did you tell him what he has to do?

H- yeah and he's pretty serious about it.
After all, it's the question of winning back Ruby

A- Amazing

H- Anyway, Niall's calling me so I have to go. See you tonight

A- okay...see ya

Ruby picked up three dresses that she fancied and headed towards the trial room. By the time I come back, she's still inside. I bring a few more dresses for her to try on. In the meantime, Mary starts hunting for a dress for herself, while I remain stood outside Ruby's trial room. She bobs her head out after a few seconds, looking around. She comes out when I tell that there wasn't anyone around. She is wearing a green laced short dress, with crystalline beads embroidered on the neckline. It's pretty fashionable, but it won't suit the occasion. I give her the dresses I picked and she goes back in after our disapproval of the first one.

By now, she's tried six dresses in total, but each of them were missing something. Ruby's going to try out the last one now. If this doesn't work, we need to continue hunting for more. 

She comes out after a few seconds, and looks unbelievably gorgeous in that dress. In my opinion at least. She looks at herself and twirls, barefoot.
It's a green dress with beads and a crossed neck.

'I think I'll take this one' she says and I nod my head. Mary nudges my elbow secretly and I smirk. We got the dress, it's time for the shoes.

-

'Is this good?' Ruby asks, pointing towards a pair of silver heels. Mary shake her head and tells her that white heels would look better. Both of them walk towards another section and I follow them. Ruby has touched a few pairs, but she didn't really like any. We decide to go another store.

On our way, some people waved at us, in particular, at me and I was utterly confused. Do I know them? But it doesn't take me any longer to understand that they were fans. I silently let out an 'oh'. I could see a few phone flashes at us. Oh God I think we're getting papped, I thought.
Three of us walk quickly to escape the flashes and reach the nearest shoe store. Mary pats my back softly as I sigh out of relief. No sign of them. Not for now.

-

'These?' Ruby asks, and I shrug. She picks two pairs of heels and tries them on. She tries to walk and judges the amount of comfort and beauty.
She puts away the first one, which means that's a no. She tries on the second one and does the same thing as the first. She looks at them carefully and also thinks about the dress she's bought.

'I'm taking this one' she says, turning to us. Now we're all set. The heels look stunning.

Mary and I bought ourselves a dress and a pair of shoes as well, just do avoid Ruby's questions. We've eaten lunch and it's almost 5pm. I am thinking about tonight as we're heading to our car. I'm hoping it'll turn out as planned. Harry texted me earlier, mentioning that they are all set for tonight too. I got another text from Louis regarding the venue confirmation. All is set. We just need to get our jewel in front of him, without any hesitation.
I start the ignition and this time, Ruby hops into the passenger side. We soon drive out of the mall, and head towards Ruby's home.

-

The three of us get changed into our new outfits. Mary hired a make up artist and a hair stylist for us. They've  done our make up and hair, they're full on Ruby. We sit there, waiting.
Mary's texting someone and smiles constantly. As I walk over to the opposite side, I accidentally get a glimpse of the contact name. 'Shawn ❤'. She blushes as I softly  smirk.

'I guess you found a good lad to hook up with' I tease and wink. I get my bag ready and wear my blue heels with my blue dress. Mary's wearing a red one. Blue, green and red. I love that concept.

After what seems like 30 minutes, Ruby gets up from her bench and faces us. We thank the stylist and the make up artist before they exit the apartment. She looks beyond stunning as she spins around in her dress and sparkly high heels.Her hair has been curled up at the ends and placed at her front side.  Three of us take a selfie before getting into a group hug. Seeing that it's already 7:30pm, we quickly leave her apartment and soon drive out of the basement, to our planned location.

We haven't Ruby about our plan yet and seeing that it's almost time to reveal the truth, my heart skips a beat. I wonder how she's going to react to it.  I look at the GPS. 15 more minutes until arrival at destination. 

-

We arrive pretty quickly at our place. I park the car under a tree and slowly stop all the systems. Ruby looks slightly confused as she looks around the place. It's time for some explaining.

'A dinner hall? I thought it was Louis' place' she asks, looking over at me with curious eyes.

'Ruby, we have to tell you something' Mary spits, and I can feel my heart accelerating. I quickly gather up the words in my mouth, ready to spill my guts.

'Louis isn't throwing any party. We are here to witness a dinner date' I blurt. They come out so quickly that I doubt she even understood it. But she did. 

'Dinner date? Whose dinner date?' she questions curiously.It almost feels like an attack.I sigh deeply before revealing the real part.

'Your and Niall's'.