Perfectly Dysfunctional

I laughed, “You look good,” I said to Michelle and she grinned.

“Thanks, but hot damn, so do you!” It was the night of the party and Emma and Nareesha were already downstairs. Michelle and I made our way downstairs and we all commented on each others outfits. We had told Jayne about our idea and she’d loved it. She was more than happy to go out and buy the last remaining costume – we didn’t know who she had, but she’d dropped it off a few days ago. All of the boys’ costumes were hidden in Emma’s cupboard but we weren’t allowed to look at any of them. Jayne had the boys out for a celebratory dinner and so we used that time to get all the guests here. They started arriving not long after we’d taken some pictures. All their crew was here, a few people from other bands that could make it, like Lawson, old friends, family members – we had a full house. Even Jayne’s kids were here, who were dressed up as Batman and a fairy.

Nareesha came up to me when I was making them a drink. I made them ‘cocktails’ and made sure to push loads of fruit onto their straws and around their glasses and told them they were only allowed to drink juice that had fruit on the straws. Jayne had text Nareesha to say they were nearly home and we had to get the house dark and silent. We told everyone to gather in the living room as the front door opened right into there, and shut off all the lights except the Christmas lights we had hanging around and the lights on the tree. Nareesha, Michelle, Emma and I made our way to the front and we heard a car pull up to the driveway and voices.

“Seriously, just open the God damned door,” Nathan laughed and we heard a key in the door before the door slowly opened.

“SURPRISE!” Everyone yelled in unison, making Jay and Nathan jump. Siva, Max, Tom and Jayne walked in behind them all with a confused expression on their face except for Jayne who smiled and flicked the light on so she could catch everything better on the flipcam.

“Oh my God,” Tom cried, “You’re all dressed up! What the fuck?!” he had a grin on his face as he laughed. Everyone laughed and started up their own little conversations as the boys came towards us.

“What’s going on?” Max asked Michelle as he took her in his arms.

“It’s your surprise party for finally finishing work for this year,” Michelle grinned and gave Max a kiss, “I’m proud of you.”

Nathan wrapped his arms around my waist, “Seriously?” he grinned at me, “Everyone’s in fancy dress?”

I nodded, “Yup. And so are you guys. Come on, we have to give you your costumes and I’m absolutely dying to see what they’re like.”

He pecked my lips, “Thank you,” he flashed an adorable smile and I grinned when they followed Emma’s lead to her room. When we got there she had already dug out the five bags and grabbed hers, so I spied the bag that had Jay’s stuff in it and picked it up, waiting for Michelle, Nareesha and Jayne to do the same. “What is this?” Nathan laughed.

“We all picked a costume for you guys,” Nareesha explained, grinning momentarily at Jayne who still held the flipcam in her hand. “I’m going first,” she laughed then looked at Max, “I got you. But you can’t open them until we all leave.” She handed him the bag and he thanked her.

“Nath, I got you,” Emma handed over her bag.

“I got you, Jay,” I grinned, handing him the bag in my hand.

“Tom, this one’s yours,” Michelle said from my right.

“And Siva, that leaves you,” Jayne grinned and handed the bag over. “Okay, let’s go,” she ushered us all out, telling the boys to hurry up. “You’ve done a good job you guys,” she smiled at us as she turned the flipcam off, “The place looks great – and so do you!”

“Well what about you, Jayne? Go and get ready!” Emma nudged her arm and she laughed.

“Let me go and say hi to my kids first,” she laughed and disappeared. We spread out and mingled amongst everyone for a while. Ten minutes later I spied Jayne and ran towards her.

“You look great!” She was dressed as a Pink Lady from Grease. We took a couple of pictures and I got her a drink as Nareesha ran by me.

“Max needs help with his makeup,” she laughed and my jaw dropped.

“What have you bought him?” I laughed.

Another fifteen minutes later, Emma started laughing hysterically, so we all quickly turned around to see the guys. Max was dressed as the Joker from Batman complete with a lot of Nareesha’s make up, Nathan was a fly, which I high-fived Emma for, Jay was an avatar and he suited it quite well – he’d even used the body paint I’d bought him and he’d covered himself in it – Tom was the guy from Texas Chainsaw Massacre and he even sported a fake chainsaw, and Siva made a stunning vampire. Everyone laughed and commented on their favourite costumes before going back to drinking.

As the night wore on, a few drinking games were organized and played, lots of laughs were had, and even more pictures and videos were taken. When it reached about half past three, everyone left and we wound down a little before stumbling upstairs. I was in with Nathan tonight, Siva and Nareesha were in my room, Jay and Emma somehow ended up together in her room, Max and Michelle were in Jay’s room, and Tom was on the sofa, although he didn’t make it there and fell asleep across the kitchen counter with a bottle of vodka clasped in his hand. I giggled when I found him as Nathan tripped over his feet towards me. I pushed my fingers to my lips to keep him quiet and he sniggered at Tom. I reached over and pulled the vodka from his hand, clearing a little space around him. I felt Nathan’s hands on my waist and let him pull me into him. He kissed my neck and pulled me backwards from the room. I had just enough time to switch the light off before he had grabbed my hand and was leading me upstairs; “Bedtime,” he whispered then laughed when I tripped on the first stair.

I groaned, “Shut up these heels are killers,” I laughed and he tried to carry me but I refused; “You’d somehow drop us both down all the stairs. Now go,” I slapped his bum and he ran upstairs with me following. Everyone crashed in our costumes – shoes and all – as soon as we were under the covers.

I was woken up by a yell coming from my room at about half four, “Siva, I swear to God!” Nareesha cried and I cringed and tried to fall back asleep by snuggling closer to Nathan.

“I’m on it, I’m on it!” Siva yelled back, “Oh shit...” he was freaking out and I frowned into Nathan’s chest.

“Too much alcohol,” I mumbled and Nathan stirred.

“Wha-?” he mumbled then pulled me closer.

Suddenly the door was flung opened and Siva came running in, “Nareesha is having the baby, oh God, get up!” he ran out again. It took a moment to register, but as soon as it did I was hitting Nathan’s chest and pushing myself up off of the bed. Siva was waking everyone up so I went in to Nareesha.

“Has he called the ambulance yet?” she glared at me indicating ‘no’, so I found his phone on the nightstand and dialled an ambulance before talking to Nareesha, “Just keep breathing the way you were told, the ambulance is on its way.”

We managed to get her downstairs just in time for the ambulance arriving. Siva was travelling with her, and just before the doors closed we heard him talk to Nareesha in an attempt to cheer her up, “Hey, imagine what everyone is gonna think when you show up dressed like that.”

We all glanced at each other as we huddled together to keep ourselves warm as the ambulance backed out of the driveway. “Fuck,” we groaned.

“Who’s driving?” Max asked.

“No one, we’re all way over the limit; call two taxis,” I said as we made our way back in. Jay pulled out his phone and dialled, and within five minutes, two cabs were outside the door. “So that’ll be no time for us to change then,” I said as we made our way outside. Siva was lucky – he’d gotten too warm as the night continued and his makeup ran, so Nareesha wiped it off, and his outfit was pretty much a suit. We’d tried to wake Tom up but he literally couldn’t move. I shared a taxi with Nathan and Emma and we arrived at the hospital about ten minutes later.

“We’re going to look like the biggest bunch of freaks ever,” Emma laughed as we paid the driver.

“It’s all good,” Nathan said and pulled us both towards the doors. When we stepped in it’d be extremely fair to say we got a lot of looks, and we got even more when Jay, Max and Michelle walked in behind us – what with Max with his makeup still on and with Jay being blue. We asked where Nareesha was and made our way up, laughing off the looks we were getting. We found her room but were told we weren’t allowed in so knocked on the window and threw extremely dorky waves and grins in her direction, making her laugh through what I can only imagine to be excruciating pain. Siva quickly came out to talk to us – and laugh at the fact we didn’t change and to ask how we actually got here – before heading back in to be with Nareesha.

We all fell asleep in the waiting room and woke up several hours later, the majority of us with hangovers. Nareesha was still in labour. When it reached one pm however, we found out that she and Siva were now the extremely proud parents of the most beautiful baby girl I have ever seen and that she was called Rebekah.

We all took a quick turn to hold her before Nareesha seriously needed sleep. We left her and Siva in peace and made our way out of the hospital. Before we left, the midwife who helped Nareesha stopped us, “By the way, I meant to say, should I ask about the outfits?”

“Party,” we all mumbled then giggled as we left the hospital and piled into the taxis that we’d called.

“I don’t know about you guys, and I’m really proud of her and stuff, but I’m going to sleep when I get home,” Emma yawned and rested her head on my shoulder and Nathan and I laughed and agreed.