Chapter 10

The doctors let me go home that night provided I take it easy for a few days. They told me the last time I was in there and I didn't listen. This time I would. I had enough head injuries for one week and I wasn't taking any chances. I sat around on the couch all night. Around noon the next day Danny told me I had a visitor. I got up and walked to the door.

"Dad?" I couldn't believe he was here. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to make sure you were okay," he told me.

"How'd you even find out what happened?" I asked him.

"Well, I was at that bar the night of the fight,"

I rolled my eyes, "Why am I not surprised?"

"Dougie," he said, "Can't a father just see if his kid is okay."

"Not this father!" I told him, "Let me get this straight. You get drunk almost every night, fight with mom and make me and Jazzie sit through it and you could care less but when you find out I was asleep for three days and could have died then you decide to make sure I'm alright? Sorry, I don't think it works that way. You wait till I'm nearly dead to make sure I'm 'alright'? Well let me save you some time dad. I'll recover from this head injury just fine, but what you did to me all those years, I'm not so sure."

"Dougie," he began.

"Save it," I said, "Now get away from my house before I call the cops. Tell mom and Jazzie I'm okay if you see them."

"Dougie please just talk to me." he said.

"Talk to you? Okay, dad, I'll talk. If you were at that bar the night I was getting the shit beat out of me then why the hell didn't you do anything about it? I'll tell you why. Because you were probably too drunk to recognize I was your son! Did I get that story straight? Then I think we're done here. You have thirty seconds to get off my lawn or I swear to God I will call the cops."

"Dougie." he started.

"Danny! Get the phone!" I shouted through the house. My dad left after that.

"Whoa, you okay?" Danny asked running to the door. I nodded, "My dad was just here..."

"Why?" he asked. I shrugged, "He said he wanted to make sure I was okay but I don't buy it."

Danny shrugged, "I dunno. Hey, you know what tomorrow is?"

"My birthday!" I laughed.

"Hell yeah. We're gonna have a huge party dude." he told me.

"I don't want a huge party," I told him, "Just you me Haz, and Thomarse."

He laughed, "That's boring we see those two every day. What about Robyn?"

"Yeah, Robyn can come. And you can invite Colleen too. But I don't want anything big." I told him.

"Well what else do you want? I gotta get you a present, mate. What do you want?" he asked me.

"Nothing," I shrugged, "I don't want anything. Seriously, just leave it at that I don't want anything else." I knew Danny would do something for me anyway. He did that to Tom and I knew he'd do it to me.

The next day around 4 Colleen and Robyn came over. Both of them were carrying gifts. "Happy birthday Dougie!" they said.

"Guys!" I rolled my eyes, "I said I didn't want any presents!"

They laughed, "You have to have presents on your birthday." Robyn told me kissing my cheek. We all sat in the living room talking and listened to music. I was surprised. Danny really didn't do anything big for me. I sat on the couch next to Robyn and after about an hour Danny disappeared into the kitchen. A few minutes later he came back in holding a lopsided cake with blue frosting, "Happy Birthday, Doug!" Harry said standing next to him, "Me and Danny baked you a cake!"

"Oh God..." I laughed, "I'm afraid to eat it."

"Seriously," Tom agreed, "A cake baked by the two of you. It doesn't seem very safe."

"Ha ha," Danny fake laughed, "Very funny. We followed the recipe. It should be fine."

They cut the cake and gave us all a piece. I looked up, "Should I try it?" Everyone nodded and right as I was about to take a bite, Danny slammed it into my face. Everyone started cracking up. I got up with my plate and threw it at the back of his head. Before I knew it we were having a full on cake fight in our living room. When we ran out of cake we all laughed and sat back down looking at each other with cake all over our faces.

"Okay, time to open your presents!" Harry said running into the other room.

"Guys! You didn't have to buy me anything," I told them laughing.

"Oh, but we did." Harry said running back into the room with a small package wrapped in snowman wrapping paper.

"Uh, Harry," I began, "It isn't Christmas, dude, it's my birthday."

"I know, I know." he said, "But that's all I could find. Just open it!"

I ripped open the paper and laughed, "A porn magazine? Harry how'd you know?"

He laughed, "Just a guess, my friend."

I set the magazine down on the coffee table and Tom handed me his present. "It's small but I think you'll like it."

I opened up the card and read it out loud.

"Dougie,
I suck at writing heart-felt cards like this so I just wanted to let you know that you're an amazing bassist and one of the best friends I could ask for. I hope your head feels better soon. Your friend
Tom."

I looked up at him, "Aw, Tom!" I laughed, hugging him. He laughed too, "Okay, get off get off. Look what's in the bag.

I opened up the bag and found a Starbucks gift card. I looked up at him, "Mate, I don't drink coffee."

"Well, then look where we're going for the next week!" he said. I laughed, "I wouldn't expect anything more from you, Mr. Fletcher."

"Open Colleen's!" Danny shouted from the couch. Colleen laughed and handed me the package, "I had Robyn help me out with this one. I wasn't sure what to get you. Danny told me to buy you some toothpaste, but I decided I'd pass."

I smiled and opened the box. It was a new Hurley shirt. I held it up, "Thanks," I said hugging her. She smiled, "You're welcome. Happy birthday."

"Why didn't you get me anything that nice for my birthday?" Danny asked her.

"Because back in March we hated each other, remember?" she laughed.

"Oh yeah," Danny remembered and kissed her, "Why'd we hate each other again?"

"Excuse me," Harry cut in, "Danny, this is Doug's birthday, not your attempt at getting lucky."

Danny laughed and turned red. "Right. Sorry."

Robyn handed me the small box and smiled, "It's not much but I hope you like it."

I opened the tiny box and saw a chain with a small star on it. On the back side of the star it said, "Dougie and Robyn. Life's All a Game of Chance"

I looked up and kissed her then I put the chain around my neck, "I love it." I told her.

"Wait!" Danny came running into the room with a huge package. "Dude" I laughed, "What the hell did you get me?"

"Open it!" he said like a little kid. I looked at Tom and Harry but they just shrugged. They didn't know what it was either. I ripped off the paper and burst out laughing when I saw what it was.

"You got me a cardboard cut-out of yourself?" I laughed.

"Yep!" he smiled proudly. We all laughed and took the remainder of the cake we found laying around and pelted the cardboard Danny with it. Around 11:30 Robyn grabbed my hands and led me outside. Once we go out there she grabbed my hand and started running. "Where are we going!?" I laughed and kept running. We eventually stopped in a huge field and fell to the grass under the stars. "Dougie," Robyn turned her head towards me.

"Hmm?"

"I love you," she said.

I pressed my lips to hers under the moonlight in that huge field. Everything disappeared and I forgot my dad and the pain in my head and Mark. I looked at her illuminated in the moonlight and smiled, "I love you too."

"Dougie, I have to ask you," she said, "Why me?"

"Huh?" I asked.

"Well, I mean you're Dougie Poynter! I'm sure you could have any girl you wanted. Why'd you pick me? And more importantly why do you want to stay with me after all that's happened that seems to be my fault. I mean the whole thing with Mark and-" I kissed her again, cutting her off from what she was saying. We both lie there under the stars and I whispered, "Life's all a Game of Chance."

Okay, so this was an extremely short one. But I might do a sequel to it. Well not really a sequel but like the same story but through Danny or Tom's eyes or something. Not sure yet, but I am definitely going to make another one whether it's a sequel to this or not. Thanks for all the reviews and everything! They mean a lot. I'll be starting a new one soon (hopefully tonight. It takes forever to get some ideas though lol) -Erin