Disclaimer: All the characters in this story are fictional (except Aiden) and story is not based on real-life happenings.

(If i owned Aiden I would not be sitting alone in my room right now.)

(FACEBOOK POST) Iris Kelly says:

Happy birthday to me!

Going out tonight with Chrissie and the girls for my 18th. It's some sleazy 90's club… but there's a good DJ and… well… Alcohol. LOL. Be on tomorrow dying with a hangover. Expect extremely embarrassing photos…

I got home from work and answered several birthday phone calls, Tweets, comments and texts. As much as I loved the internet… there was so much upkeep involved! I slouched on a chair in the empty kitchen and read some magazine mam had left on the counter top. It had something to do with the X Factor on the cover… I, however, had no interest in that crap. I made some tea and a sandwich after throwing out the magazine. I got a phone call from my best friend Chrissie telling me to start getting ready or she was leaving without me. I ate my lunch and hopped into the shower. The feeling of the work grime being washed off my body was pure bliss.

I got out and put on a towel/robe thingy that mam owned and towel-dried my hair. I heard some noises coming from the open doorway in my bedroom. I instantly recognised the stupid ring tone and girly giggle that followed at once.

"Ahem!"

I cleared my throat, stood against the doorframe and folded my arms.

"Oh shit! Jesus Iris! You frightened the shite out of me!"

"I was meant to. How'd you get in? And why are you ready so early?"

She looked really nice actually. She had a tight deep purple dress on with a floral pattern all over it, lace tights and patent leather platform heels on.

Her hair was purposely messed with lots of volume and loose waves.

"Eh it's not that hard to find the key poking out of the garden gnome's feet at the door. And you should be ready too! The taxi gets here at eight! Its half past five!"

"Oh it'll really take me two and a half hours to get ready Chrissie. And you look nice by the way. Thank God I'm not wearing a dress."

"Uh yes it will take me two hours to get you ready and thank you. I didn't know about my hair so I just whacked it all in place."

"Well I have my clothes out. You can do my hair and make-up I suppose."

"What are you wearing?"

"Skinny jeans and a tartan shirt with…"

She held her hand up to my face as she said,

"No! No way Iris. You're wearing…this!"

She held up a small black velvet dress with a scooped neckline and cropped sleeves. It was nice… but there was no way I could pull it off.

In the end she got me to put on the dress, along with weird black patterned tights and shoe-boot things with a peep toe. She added some silver earrings and a selection of bangles and I had to say… she did a great job.

Next was my hair, which she spent ages on. She blow-dried and straightened it, swept over my bangs and backcombed my roots. I thought I'd look like a drag queen the way she was fluffing it. But when she let me stand up and look it was simple yet bold, it has height but it was poker straight and it went perfectly with the style of the dress. For my makeup she did smokey black and grey eyes with nude lip-gloss.

I hated the sitting down and getting tortured part but the end result was perfect and I looked completely different.

Mam came home just before we left and had a glass of the wine Chrissie and I had been drinking. It wasn't nice; I wasn't used to it though. The taxi arrived with the four girls in it who must've gotten collected from another house. Jen, Kate, Anna and Michelle were all laughing and saying happy birthday to me as we got in. I said bye to mam and prepared for a night with the craziest bitches I knew.

We arrived outside the club in within about 20 minutes. The whole journey was spent taking pictures of each other and doing hair and makeup checks. Wow… Girly much? We queued outside in the freezing cold. The loud thumping of the dance oldies could be heard and to be honest… I was pretty excited. We were about to pay in when Jen squealed and shouted at me over the music. She pointed to a poster on the doors.

"Aiden Grimshaw is playing a gig tonight! He's going to be here!"

"You mean… the fella from the X Factor? That got kicked out? Yeah… he's alright. Pretty hot actually."

I hadn't had time to watch the X Factor because of work but I had a fairly good idea. He was really trendy and had a unique voice. That's all I knew then.

We went in and got seats and a table near to the stage (Jen's idea) and Michelle bought the first round. I started with Corona… Keeping it light because I was already tipsy and wanted to actually remember this night the morning after. We sat and laughed and pointed out good looking guys. The place was getting busy towards 9-ish… it was the gig I thought.

Some recent music started playing and we all got up to dance… but we eventually got tired and got more drinks. They all refused to let me buy any at all.

Then the DJ announced Aiden's arrival and he came out. Well, he was way hotter in person that was for sure. We were standing at the railing so we were the closest. But when he began to sing Mad World the place was singing along and shouting. Jen stared up in awe and recorded it on her camera. He winked down at her and she screamed….. SCREAMED.

I was mortified but it was no wonder the girl was spell-bound… his voice was amazing. It was original and he had this cheeky little attitude. We started drinking vodka and cokes then. After about 6 more songs everyone cheered and he left, some people left also.

The DJ returned and we got up to dance. I went out for smoke on my own this time, because I didn't want to interrupt the girls' fun. I grabbed Kate's faux fur jacket on the way out and put it around my shoulders when I got outside. I lit up the smoke and stood there, feeling all of the drinks make way into my system and just looked around the back of the club. There were some couples and some guys laughing and joking. My legs were shaking with the cold. I heard the door open and went to put out my smoke in the ashtray when he walked out. I thought he had left the place after the gig, but the place was still packed, it was Aiden, with a man I didn't recognise and a beer in his hand.

I was about to walk back in after looking away and he said something.

"Hey love. Um have you got a light?"

His accent was funny but he was so gorgeous. I just mumbled a 'yeah' and handed him mine. He said thanks and gave it back when he was done but when I tried to brush past him he called me back and said,

"Is this your bag? Were you not standing here?"

"What? Oh" Right! Bag. Err. Thanks?"

I took the bag and I left, feeling the blood rush to my cheeks as I returned to the girls swiftly.

I danced with them again and when we sat back down Kate bought a round of Yegerbombs after she purposely flashed cleavage to the gorgeous Spanish barman. We had the shots and giggled and hooted. Chrissie kept looking at me then. I think she noticed my eyes scanning the crowd looking for him. I wasn't going to try anything… seriously. She asked me a question, noticing my alertness.

"Did something happen in the smoking area Hun?"

"What? ER. No! I was grand! C'mon and dance again! I love this song!"

I changed the subject quickly to divert her attention.

We danced and danced until the DJ made and announcement.

"Ladies and gents! I'm told we have a birthday girl on the floor tonight! Come on and give her a round of applause and a sing song!"

A spotlight shone on the area where we stood. I just laughed in my drunken state as everybody sang happy birthday to you…

I looked around and said thanks to some of the people I knew from school and stuff. I looked over at the bar to see Aiden, smiling over. I smiled back and he mouthed "happy birthday". I turned away, hoping none of my friends noticed. They were too busy singing to me. Then the handsome barman came out with a huge muffin with pink icing with a candle on top. The DJ shouted,

"BLOW IT!"

Embarrassingly enough... I blew out the candle and everyone clapped. I hugged Chrissie and thanked her for the night she gave me. Everyone else got a hug too… but I really wanted one from….

I realised that I was in the middle of the floor with our little group when Lady Gaga - Bad Romance came on. It was my club favourite and I immediately started dancing and sandwiching with the girls, swaying my hips and making pout faces.

The song ended and I went to turn around to go to the toilet when some built-up guy fell back into me and I fell right on my ass. I sat there pissing myself laughing as I was picked up by noticing it was some man's arms. I thought it was the barman's or a random boy's but I turned to say thanks and I was once again, facing the one and only Aiden Grimshaw.

"Well well…" He whispered. "We have to stop running into each other like this don't we?" He raised an eyebrow as he tried to straighten me.

I stood up and blushed while pulling down the dress' skirt.

"Uh… thanks for that. Nearly got trampled on. Excuse me."

"Hey! Can I know your name?" He gently grabbed my wrist.

"Iris." I replied too quickly.

"Iris….?"

"Kelly… Iris Kelly" I smiled politely.

"Well Iris Kelly, you'd better be careful on that dance floor. You'd do damage." He winked before cheekily grinning at me.

I giggled like a moron.

"Was that an attempt at flirting Mr. Grimshaw?"

"Pfffffft, no! Did it work?"

"…Maybe." I smiled and walked away towards the bathroom and didn't even look over my shoulder.

I went in and checked my hair and makeup and to see if my tights were ripped or anything.

I was okay when I looked and went back outside. The first thing I was greeted with was Aiden, who had been waiting at the door. Confusion washed over me. What the hell was all this about?

"Right listen I know you'll probably say no because you don't really seem interested but I'm going to try and this is really hard to explain so I don't expect you to understand fully and you will be confused a lot so I need you to listen…"

I stumbled over to him trying to put my arm out to stop him from talking. I laughed on the way.

"Right ehh, first, I didn't understand a word of that and second, you wanna go out for a smoke and talk there? This bloody music is so loud."

"Right yeah. Sure. I'll grab two beers and we'll go."

Holy shit! He actually agreed! He's coming outside to talk… to ME! I'm not going to try anything; I won't be flirtatious… because he's just too good for me.