Stay With Me

Danny loved the penguins so much that he hugged them as well as me the entire time he slept; naps included. Two days later, he was well again, only with a stuffy nose and a fading cough. Unfortunately, I got sick during those two days he got better. It was sweet when he passed the penguins on to me in hopes that they would help me get better like they did for him.

I never went anywhere around the house without them with the same hope.

With me being sick, I was so thankful that there was a little over five weeks until the wedding. I had time to heal.

I didn’t realize that three and a half weeks would go by so fast though; my cold fading enough and some family and friends we flew in arriving for the last week or so of preparation.

Chaos was bound to come along with so many people coming to England… at least that’s what I thought…

Nine days before the wedding, I got what seemed to be a hundred phone calls from each family that arrived in the UK asking about where they were staying and how to get to the hotel.

I had such a headache when the last person hung up after asking me too many questions.

“Are you alright?” Harry asked me as he entered the kitchen.

“No,” I answered. “Why can’t people carry a GPS on their person at all times?”

Harry chuckled, grabbing a soda from the fridge. “You don’t carry one.”

“I have, like, five guys who take me everywhere, so I don’t need one.”

“Whatever,” Harry smiled.

“What are the others doing?” I randomly asked.

“Doug and Julie are downstairs, I think Katie and Nathan are upstairs playing in his room, and Tom, Kayla and Danny are all in the living room.” He smiled, “I think Danny is waiting for you in there.”

“Cool,” I replied and stood up, heading into the living room.

Without words, I walked over to Danny, who was sitting on the couch, and I sat down on his lap. His arms instinctively wrapped around me and pulled me closer to him so I could comfortably lean back against him.

“Hi,” he said in my ear.

“Hey,” I smiled, looking at him and kissing his lips quickly.

“Please keep the love to a minimum,” Tom complained.

Kayla smiled sweetly at us, “I think you two look adorable. I should take a picture.”

My face turned pink when Kayla got up to grab her camera and then pointed it towards us.

Danny instantly attacked my cheek with his lips, making me laugh and squirm in his arms.
I actually forgot about the camera until I heard a familiar click.

“Aw! That’s so cute!” Kayla exclaimed as she studied the photo she took.

She let us see and I grinned, as did Danny.

“I look stupid, but it’s sweet,” I blushed.

“You look fine,” both Danny and Kayla replied.

“Why don’t you get in a picture with us, Kayla,” I offered with a smile.

“Um, how?” Kayla laughed nervously.

I knew what she was thinking and I rolled my eyes. “If you’re uncomfortable getting close to Danny, there’s no need to be.”

“I don’t bite much,” Danny grinned.

Tom leaned over and put his head on Danny’s shoulder. “Join us,” he smiled, patting an unoccupied spot on Danny’s chest.

Kayla snapped a photo, but didn’t make a move to join us.

I sighed, “Just imagine it’s only you and me taking a photo with a couple pillows behind us. If you’re going to chill with these crazy boys, shyness is not a quality to have.”

Awkwardly, Kayla sat between Danny and Tom and then leaned back, putting her head on my shoulder.

“Mm… To good-looking girls on me,” Danny teased, getting a smack on the head from me.

“This is so awkward,” Kayla announced, lifting the camera in the air.

Tom put his head on her shoulder to make sure he was in the frame and then Kayla took the photo.

She quickly jumped up, careful not to hit Tom with her boney shoulder, and she looked at the photo. She began laughing and she handed me the camera.

Kayla had a nervous, but silly look on her face; I had a stupid smile on mine; Danny had a huge grin and squinty eyes; and Tom had a relatively normal smile, his single dimple showing.

“We are sexy,” I commented with a laugh, letting Tom and Danny see it.

“I have to agree,” Tom stated, sitting up and handing Kayla her camera.

“Ooh! We should go around and get pictures of the others!” I said in excitement.

“Let’s go!” Kayla agreed.

“Let’s find Harry first,” I said as I got off Danny.

In excitement, we ran to the kitchen where Harry was staring out the window, drinking his soda.

“Hiya, Harry!” I exclaimed, causing him to look at me in surprise.

Kayla got the shot.

“Oh that’s unfair!” Harry whined.

“Then do something funny,” I giggled.

He shrugged, “It doesn’t matter.”

“Okay then. Off to Nate and Katie!”

We both quietly sprinted up to Nate’s room (Dougie’s old one) and peered inside.

Katie and Nate were both lying on their stomachs, their backs toward the door, and they had a bunch of beanie babies in front of them.

I nodded at Kayla to get the shot and she willingly snapped the photo.

Thankfully neither of them heard us.

As silent as we could, we scurried down two stories to the basement where we heard laughter and keyboard music.

Kayla and I snuck over to Julie and Dougie, making sure we were hidden, and we watched them with grins on our faces. Kayla held her camera to her face, just waiting for the perfect moment between the two to capture on film.

Julie started playing something classical on the keyboard while Dougie started dancing around, making silly faces as he did so. Julie started laughing at him, but kept her fingers moving along the keys.

A few clicks rang out from Kayla’s camera, but they didn’t hear us due to the keyboard.

“Maybe we should leave them to their fun,” I suggested quietly.

Kayla nodded, “I agree.”

With silent feet, we went back upstairs and joined the rest of McFly in the living room.

As I sat on Danny’s lap again, I wondered how I could catch Tom and Kayla having a moment together.

It was going on my “To do” list.

The entire bowling alley was rented out to us; ‘us’ being the nine of us living in the McFly home plus all the family and friends we had in town.

I never really realized how many people were going to be at the wedding until we had them all in a small place and they weren’t even all the guests.

Danny and I were stuck greeting everyone for what felt like hours and then we had to introduce many of our guests to the other McFly boys and Little Nathan.

Unfortunately, Nathan was a little shook up from the paparazzi again (I had never seen Danny so eager to protect us), so he was really shy around everyone. He was excited to see his grandparents though.

Every time one of my family’s friends would come and say hello to Danny and I, they would have some sort of look on their face that showed their disappointment when they found out Nathan was our baby. It upset me that they were judging not only Danny and I, but Nathan as well.

Sure, what we did was an accident, but there was no way I’d ever consider Nathan an accident. I think most people saw him to be exactly that and it killed me.

Gratefully, my old youth minister, David, didn’t give us that look. His wife didn’t either and it made me feel so much better.

“So this is the boy you were obsessed with,” Dave said to me as he shook Danny’s hand.

I blushed, “You remember that?”

Dave laughed, “Who wouldn’t?!”

Danny grinned, “She was obsessed with me?”

“Now you’ve made him curious,” I muttered, covering my face.

Becky, Dave’s wife, smiled sympathetically at me. “It’s been a while since he’s had a chance to pick on you.”

I chuckled a bit, “Obviously.”

“How obsessed was she?” Danny pressed.

“Enough to carry around Popsicle sticks with your band’s faces on them,” David answered in amusement.

“That was only because I was bored and wanted to make one of those photo things where you can put them together to make a story,” I defended.

Danny put an arm around my shoulders and smiled down at me, “Really?”

I rolled my eyes and brought my attention to Nate who was tugging on my pant leg.

“Is that Nathan?” Becky asked me as I picked him up.

“Yep. This is our Nathan.”

“He looks so much like you,” she smiled.

“Better you than him,” Dave joked, picking on Danny.

The joke went straight over Danny’s head and he smiled happily.

I giggled, “You do realize he was calling you ugly, right?”

“Really?” Danny replied in honest surprised.

“Actually you called him ugly. I just hinted at it,” Dave corrected.

Danny shrugged, “I guess I didn’t catch it.”

“He’s not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed,” I whispered to Becky, making her chuckle.

When the party finally got into full swing, Danny spent most of his time talking with Dave and playing around with Dave’s kids. Nathan was included of course.

Something told me Danny and Dave were getting along so well that Danny was prying embarrassing stories about me from David’s memory.

I was going to be picked on for the rest of my life.