The Kids From Yesterday

September 19th

So today is my birthday. Emily and Will have taken it upon themselves to put on this fantastic party for me this evening at the House of Blues tonight. I've never been one to go all out and have extravagant parties for my birthday, I preferred to keep my modesty even if it was "my day."

Nick woke me up this morning with breakfast in bed and a wrapped present. He was so sweet, he gave me a vintage record of The Smith's The Queen is Dead. I loved it, he knew I have been searching everywhere for the record. He told me he picked it up when he and the guys went out the other night.

But like I said, I tried my best to keep myself and the day as reserved as possible. I was in the library sipping at my morning cup of tea, listening to Harry Belafonte and cleaning up a bit, re-organizing the books.

As I was stacking up a few books, my cell began ringing. I checked the caller and saw that it was my director, Harold, or "Harry" as I called him.

"Good morning Harry." I smiled.

"Good afternoon and happy birthday Miss Pemberley." He chuckled.

"Thank you."

"So how is your day so far?" He asked.

"Pretty good, my boyfriend brought me breakfast in bed and my brother and his girl got me a sweet gift. It's good."

"Well that sounds nice, but I think my gift takes the cake. I have something that will completely make your day 1000x better even if it already is." He spoke in a smooth British accent.

"What is it? Tell me!" I began getting excited.

He cleared his throat, "I have chosen the play for this upcoming season."

I gasped, "What did you choose?"

"I have chosen the great Tennessee Williams play, Cat On a Hit Tin Roof. Miss Pemberley; I have cast you as Maggie."

At that moment I screamed and dropped the phone. Nick, Will and Emily all came rushing in, asking what's wrong with panic across their faces.

I picked up the phone and held it to my chest, starting to cry tears of joy. "Harry just called me, he chose to direct Cat On a Hot Tin Roof and he cast me as Maggie!"

I got back on the phone with Harry as they began congratulating me, Nick told me that he was so happy for me. He hugged and kissed me.

"Harry, thank you so much." I grinned.

"Isla, this is for you. You're a great actress, but it's time to move on from the innocent-Broadway-musical girl and become the next great star. This is your time Isla, just imagine, your name in lights. Front and centre in Times Square. I know you can do this, so happy birthday my dear."

I gave a laugh and wiped my eyes, "Harry, I cannot thank you enough. This is the best moment out of my entire career."

"Your welcome sweetie. Now I need to send you the script, I'll send it through express mail, just give me an address to mail it to."

So I gave him my brother's home address and thanked him a million more times before we got off the phone.

"Iles, I'm so happy for you. I couldn't be any more happy and more proud of you." Nick smiled, picking me up and my legs wrapping around his waist.

"I'm so happy!" I smiled, cupping his face. "I don't know if anything can top that today."

He smiled back and lightly pecked my lips. He didn't say anything.

Later that day...at the House of Blues

The party was in full swing, Nick had invited his bandmates and a few other bands we were friends with, like a couple of the guys from The Killers, Queens of the Stone Age, Jack White, Beck and his wife, Dan and Patrick from the Black Keys, friends from My Chemical Romance, Mike Dirnt from Green Day, and many more friends.

For the first time since we've been here, I forgot that we were in California. Being surrounded by rockers who were also good friends of ours was the best way to spend my day, especially since I was still beaming from this morning's amazing news.

While Nick was going around talking with everyone, I sat at the bar drinking a lime and coke when Zack came up to me with a drink of his own.

"I heard the good news." He smiled.

"About me being cast as Maggie?" I slightly smiled.

He nodded, "Yeah, now that's one play I know about. The movie's really good too."

I smiled, "I like it too, Paul Newman is muy caliente."

He started to laugh and I joined him. "Well congratulations anyway, I'm happy for you."

I bit my lip, "Thank you."

He cleared his throat, "Do you wanna dance?"

I smiled, "Sure."

He quickly held up his hands, "Nick won't mind will he?" He asked it very quietly.

I started to laugh, "He's never been the jealous type, don't worry."

"Okay." He laughed, so we walked down onto the dance floor just as the song changed.

I started to laugh as I realized the song was "Flightless Bird, American Mouth" A.K.A the song from Twilight. (*song at top of page*)

"Seriously? They're playing a song from Twilight?" I chuckled.

Zack sheepishly smiled, "I kinda like it."

I smiled back and bit my lip, "Yeah, me too."

He slowly put his hands at my waist and I brought my arms up and wrapped them around his neck as we went into a simple slow dance.

He softly smiled, "I'm sorry I'm not better at dancing."

I lightly laughed, "Don't worry about it. I like this kind of dance, it reminds me of our first dance."

His eyes met mine and he gave a surprised look, "You remember?"

I nodded and bit my lip, "Of course I do. I came home from my first high school prom in tears because no one asked me to dance." I laughed.

"And your parents were gone on a date night, and Will made up an excuse saying he and I would be at the house, when he actually took off to go see his girlfriend, leaving me alone at the house." He laughed.

"And you saw me as I was in tears looking like a complete wreck and you went to the stereo and turned on Linger by The Cranberries, and took my hand and pulled me into a dance. That was also the first time we ever told each other we had feelings for each other."

"And it was the first time we kissed." He quietly spoke.

In silence we danced, just gazing into each other eyes. My heart was pounding and beating faster than it ever has. For the first time since I left California, I looked into Zack's eyes and saw the young man that I had first fallen in love with. Memories came flooding back; I was wearing that light and flowing mint green dress with my hair long and curled and my makeup done to near perfection, but ruined from the tears that streamed down my face.

And as I stood in the foyer wiping away my tears he came in from the living room, asking what was wrong. After I had told him, he turned on the music and approached me slowly. I still remember the feeling of butterflies in my stomach as he took my hand in his, and placed his other hand on my waist.

His green eyes reminded me of everything.

I didn't even realize that the song in the club was coming to close and that we were still staring at each other, Zack cleared his throat and blushed. "That was nice."

I smiled and nodded, taking a slight step back. "Yeah, it was." Before either of us could say anything, Nick's voice was heard over a microphone.

"Everyone, can I have your attention? Thanks. So it was obviously already announced that this party is for my girl Isla and her birthday, but I never got to make a little speech. Isla, I love you. I have always loved you and will always love you. And today you are twenty-seven years young and still as young and beautiful as you were when we first met. Before I met you, I was ready to give up on finding the one, and I'm sorry Fabrizio, I love you too, but she's more attractive." He laughed, pointing at Fab, making everyone in the room laugh. I smiled as I listened to him.

"Before I met you, I felt incomplete and more alone than I had ever felt in my life. But on October 14th, 2006 I met the love of my life. And from that moment on, I've never been more happy, more in love, more thankful and blessed, and more complete in my life." He walked off the stage with the mic still in his hand as he walked toward me.

He continued, "And I was gonna wait until our anniversary next month, but I'm tired of keeping you waiting, because you deserve this more than any other woman, because you are so patient and so loving and gentle. I thought today would be better than any other day." I watched him as he took something out of his pocket and kept his fist closed. "The last time we went to Bordeaux to visit my grandfather, which was five months ago, he gave me something and said give this to your girl and take care of her. That something is this." He held up a diamond ring and almost instantly I covered my mouth as I was grinning.

"This was my grandmother's ring, and it's time it became a part of our lives." He got down on one knee holding up the ring. "Isla Elizabeth Pemberley, I love you more than life itself. Will you marry me?"

I started to cry and nodded, "Yes. Yes, of course I will."

He grinned as he slipped the ring on my finger and then stood up to kiss me. He picked me up and kissed me over and over again as everyone in the room cheered and whistled.

After kissing him, I held his face and smiled, "This is a billion times better than Cat On a Hot Tin Roof."

He laughed, getting tears in his eyes. "You've me the happiest man alive."

I smiled and hugged him, but my expression slightly dropped as I saw Zack standing there with Gena. Gena was smiling and hugging him, but he couldn't hide his...hurt. He excused himself from Gena and left to the bar. I just looked away and back at Nick.

"I have to call my parents, and your mom, and your grandfather." I smiled.

"Let's do that right now." He grinned, "We need to make some calls, we'll be back!" He called to everyone. We called our parents first and they were ecstatic, and we called his grand-dad last, over speakerphone. My French had gotten a lot better from when I was a child, Nick really helped me out with it. His grandfather was so happy and told us to come see him soon.

After the calls we went back out and were met by congratulations from our friends. Fab ran up to me and picked me up. "Now we're gonna be bandmate-in-laws!" He yelled, making me laugh.

The girls came over too, hugging me and telling me they told me so. After being hugged and congratulated a thousand times over, the party went back into it's party-mode. Nick brought us each a glass of champagne and we slow danced to "D'yer Maker" by Led Zeppelin, happy than ever.

"Let's not have a long engagement." He said, "I've made you wait long enough."

I smiled and kissed his jaw, "Okay."