"happy birthday!" ivy and esme yelled at the top of their lungs, barging into sage's bedroom.

"aw guys," her voice was raspy, wiping the sleep from her eyes, "thanks." she grinned up at them. ivy instantly dived onto sage's bed, bringing her into a cuddle.

"you're getting old!" ivy chuckled.

"shut up." sage jokingly punched ivy's arm, "not as old as you are."

"leave it out." ivy smirked, pulling back, "come into the kitchen when you're ready." she smiled excitedly.

for some reason, ivy much preferred celebrating other people's birthdays than her own. she received so much enjoyment from surprising them, watching them open their gifts and enjoying themselves. the guys always went to ivy when a birthday was approaching as she was able to plan out the best parties.

sage trudged into the kitchen in her pyjamas, her eyes widened at the decorated flat around her. the balloon arch, the large happy birthday balloons and banners everywhere. the flat was clearly ready for a great night.

"oh my god," sage beamed, glancing around the room, "this is amazing, thanks guys."

"it was all ivy." esme laughed, "i just helped her put everything up."

"when did you do all this?" sage asked, walking towards the table with cards and gifts placed on top.

"erm, this morning," ivy giggled, "your shitty streamer sleeping pattern gave us all morning to do it."

"good point." sage smirked, picking up a card from the table, "but you didn't need to." she looked up at ivy whilst tearing open the envelope.

"but i did." ivy chuckled, "imagine, it's going to look so good in the background of photos and things too and it actually looks like a party."

the girls sat together whilst sage opened her cards and gifts, extremely grateful for what the girls had bought her including her other friends and family. surprisingly, even harry had got her a card, but it also had ethan and cal's name scribbled across it which made the girls chuckle.

they spent a majority of the day chilling out, preparing for the big night ahead. they had already bought everything for the party, including a lot of alcohol, which they were certain they would drink it all.

brushing the front of her dress down, ivy gazed at her reflection in the mirror whilst she swiped her lipgloss over her lips. she had already began drinking to calm her all consuming nerves which also meant that she had not eaten all day as a result of the butterflies fluttering around her stomach making it churn.

ivy strolled into the living room, grinning at the two girls sat on the sofa waiting for her arrival, "wow, we look so hot." ivy smirked.

"i know right." sage laughed.

ivy instantly connected to the speaker, before looking back up at the two girls, "i'm kind of nervous." she took a large gulp of her drink.

"why?" esme furrowed her eyebrows.

"i guess just seeing all the guys and simon, i don't know." she took a deep breath in, "i'm being dramatic, i'm sure i'll be fine when they're here."

"yeah, don't worry about it." sage softly smiled, "why don't we do some shots?"

"good idea." ivy laughed, making her way over to the kitchen as the three girls followed. she poured out many sambuca shots, allowing them to have a few each - they were definitely going to be tipsy before people even arrived.

"shall we take some photos?" esme suggested, "you know? before everyone gets here."

they all agreed, making their way to the balloon arch and that ivy had put up. they all took photo's of one another and whilst ivy took photo's of esme, they heard a loud knock at the door. "i'll get it." sage raced to the door.

"waheyyy!" loud voices yelled, ivy instantly spun her head round, the knock on the door alone made her heart drop to her stomach. she gazed at harry, ethan and cal barge through the door, shouting and cheering as they embraced sage.

a grin slowly formed on ivy's lips when she noticed ethan make his way over to her, "hello," he brought her in for a tight hug, "you alright?"

"yeah," she nodded, pulling back, "you?"

"yeah, not too bad, you seem a lot happier."

"do i?" she laughed awkwardly.

"yeah," he furrowed his eyebrows, "why? are you not?"

she shook her head, "no, no, i am." she sighed, "been good to have some space to think."

"good," he beamed, "i'm glad."

after greeting harry and cal, ivy was grateful for the lack of tension around cal. she was glad that they could brush whatever happened previously away and get along like they used to. sage asked for one of the guys to take a picture of her, esme and ivy and after a few pictures, ethan quickly found his way into the photo, photobombing and making ridiculous faces.

ivy posted a photo of herself to instagram stood in front of the decorations and captioned it, 'sage's birthday <3'. she couldn't help, but think to herself about what all the sidemen fans would think of all of them being in her flat for a party from instagram stories. they already had their assumptions.

many more people began to arrive and the flat began to fill with many figures and ivy was fed up of the same greetings, 'hi, how are you?', 'you alright?'. but there was two people who she was still waiting for, simon and jj, and her nerves would not calm until they got there.

her phone suddenly vibrated in her hand and she pulled it up to her face to gaze at it.

from simon i'm here

taking a deep breath in, she took a large gulp from her drink and snaked her way through people to her front door. part of ivy hoped that simon would not show up, not knowing what seeing him tonight would entail which only made her crave more alcohol. opening the front door, her eyes widened at the sight of simon and jj stood there. she went blank for a moment.

"so, you gonna let us in or?" simon smirked down at her.

ivy shook her head out of her daze, she never thought she would see the day where her ex boyfriend would be in her flat, "sorry, come in." she ushered them inside.

"hey, you okay?" jj brought her in for a hug, squeezing her tightly whilst simon placed his drinks on the side.

"yeah." she nodded, grinning at him, "how are you?"

"i'm great." he beamed, instantly distracted by everyone else around him which was very typical of jj anyways.

ivy turned her attention to simon, who stood beside her rather than greeting everyone else first, "you alright?" he asked, patting her head.

"don't do that." she frowned, swatting his hand away, "i'm alright, are you?"

"yeah." he raised his eyebrows, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck, "we did knock, but you probably didn't hear us."

"yeah, sorry." she laughed, "it's quite loud."

he nodded and chuckled in response, making his way to the kitchen and ivy followed behind him, needing to pour herself another drink anyways.

"nice decorations by the way, i'm guessing you did all of this." he smiled softly before pouring vodka into a cup.

"i did," she smirked cockily, "i'm pretty proud of it to be fair." her eyes flickered around the room before finally turning back to making a drink.

"you should be." he grinned, "it looks really good." he rested his body against the counter, taking a sip of his drink. he couldn't seem to stop his eyes from averting to ivy's body every few seconds, part of him wanted to tell her how beautiful she looked, but the other part of him didn't want to come across as desperate or weird.

"oh, hey simon." sage walked over to the two, grinning at them both.

"hey," he placed his drink down and embraced sage, "happy birthday."

"thanks." she looked up at him as she pulled away, "ivy's done such a good job with the decorations, hasn't she?"

"yeah." he nodded in agreement, "i was just telling her how good it looks." simon turned his head to ivy and they aimlessly locked eyes with one another. sage could not help, but stare at the two with a grin. she knew that they were made for one another, it was obvious and everyone knew it.

"shall we erm," ivy could not seem to turn away, "erm." she stuttered.

"erm." simon mocked, laughing at her.

reality slowly made it's way back to her, "shall we have some shots?" she let out an elongated sigh and stared at the kitchen counter.

"sure." he shrugged his shoulders, reaching for the shot glasses, "sage?" he turned to look at her.

"yeah, why not? it is my birthday." she laughed, watching simon pour out the sambuca and wiggled her eyebrows at ivy.

"fuck off." ivy nudged her with her elbow, shaking her head.

the three had their shots and made their way over to everyone else. wolfing down half of her drink, ivy instantly wrapped her arms around freya's neck and began to dance with her. "how have you been?" freya asked, having to raise her voice over the music.

"i've been fine." ivy shrugged her shoulders, removing her arms from freya and her eyes flickered between freya and gee who stood beside her, "i guess things got a bit complicated."

"what do you mean?" gee cocked her head.

ivy sighed, "it doesn't matter." she shook her head, "i'll explain another day." a small smile formed on her lips.

all of the girls at the party began to dance excitedly together, yelling lyrics at the top of their lungs and not caring about what anyone else thought. the guys stood awkwardly watching them, clearly not drunk enough to get involved. that was until tobi made his way over to the girls and began to vibe with them - their energy was enough to get him dancing with them. suddenly, ethan made his way over with hands in the air and brought out some terrible dance moves.

"fuck off!" ivy laughed, shaking her head at him, "what are you doing?"

"erm, i'm dancing." he raised his eyebrows at her whilst speaking in a mocking tone, "god ivy, get with it."

"i hate you." she rolled her eyes, cheeks aching from the laughter before turning her attention back to sage. her nerves had definitely settled, but she couldn't quite tell if it was from the alcohol or everyone else's energy. whatever it was, the atmosphere surrounding her was a lot thinner than she expected it to be.