A retro-sounding ringtone caught off guard as she stirred her tea in the kitchen. She knew it wasn’t her phone or even her room mate’s so where the hell was it coming from? Picking up her rudolph mug by its handle she exited the kitchen and followed the jingle. It was coming from upstairs. For a brief second she panicked that maybe someone had broken in and this was how she would foil them – with their landline-sounding ringer – until she remembered that the ringtone belonged to her Skype account that she left logged in on her laptop in her room. Entering her room, she pushed the door as wide as it would go – not an easy feat due to the pile of clothes scattered in the corner of the room behind it. The ringing had stopped by now. She took a sip of the hot liquid almost burning her tongue as she pushed the laptop across the bed and lay down in front of it being careful not to spill any of her drink on herself or her bedsheets. No sooner had she done so than her Skype started ringing again, this time popping up with a rather unflattering but cute picture of her room mate. The caller behind it wasn’t her, though: it was her boyfriend of over a year . furrowed her brow. Why would he be calling her? Sure they were friends but they had never spoken via Skype before.
She pressed a key on her keyboard to accept the call. The screen lit up with an image of the man.
“Niall? Why are you calling me?”
“Hey, . Is there?”
“No….” she trailed off, looking around the screen at the room, “wouldn’t you be better calling her if you want to speak to her?” She was a little confused as to why he was video calling her if he wanted .
He shook his head, “I need to talk to you about .”
She furrowed her brow at him, “What’s wrong with her?”
“Nothing.”
She could’ve sworn that he was sweating.
“Then why do you need to talk about her?”
“I need your opinion on something.”
“Er… ok. Not sure I’m gonna be much help, though,” she ran her free fingers through her hair.
“What do you think of us as a couple?”
“Well, Niall. I’d hardly call you and I a couple,” she smirked back at him, stifling a giggle.
He groaned audibly, “I’m trying to be serious here, .”
The desperation in his voice made her look at him on the screen.
“I need to know what you think.”
“You really are serious, aren’t you?”
He looked her as dead in the eye as he could via webcam, “When it comes to my , I’m always serious.”
She leaned over the end of the bed and set her mug down. When she returned upright she leaned forward, resting her chin on her fist as her elbow propped her up. She took a deep breath; “You guys are perfect for each other.”
She could tell he wanted to say more.
“Niall, what’s up?”
“It’s just…” he sighed, “are you sure she’s not there?”
She nodded, “She’s out. Her parents came by to take her out for the day as a surprise for her birthday.”
“Ok,” he let out a breath.
She sensed he needed something more but wasn’t sure what.
“Seriously, Niall; what’s going on?” She was even more intrigued to find out why he seemed like a wreck.
He ran his fingers through his blonde hair which had grown longer since the last time she’d seen him.
“I’ve been thinking about my relationship with quite a lot recently and…”
She narrowed her eyes at him, “Please do not tell me that you’re going to break up with her, Horan. The girl is completely in love with you and I swear to God that if you hurt her I will…”
“,” he cut her off, “Relax. I’m not going to break up with her.”
She stopped, catching her breath, “You’re not?”
“No, ya eejit. Quite the opposite.”
She pulled a face before going off on another tangent, “Well, the next logical step for you guys would be to actually sleep with each other but seeing as she believes in no sex before marriage – which by the way, I don’t know how she does- I don’t see that happening…”
“I was thinking about asking her to move in with me.”
“Yeah, Niall. I kinda don’t see that happening with what I just said about her wanting to wait until marriage. You’d have to marry her first,” she took a long sip of her tea. All that talking had made her thirsty.
He gave her a look as if to say “duh” and nodded, hoping she’d catch on.
spat her tea back into her mug, “Wait… are you really?”
He nodded enthusiastically, “Yeah, I am.”
“That’s great!”
“It is, but obviously you can’t tell her.”
“Obviously. But why do you need me?”
“I kinda need your help…”
returned to the house just as darkness descended over the city. It was a cold winter night and she was glad to be getting into the warmth. She let herself in, struggling to carry all her bags into the hall. She dumped her keys onto the narrow white sideboard that covered the radiator, frowning as she noticed that aside from the hall light, the rest of the house was in darkness, and made her way further into the house. She stuck her head around the living room door and looked around for , flicking on the light as she did so.
Hmmm… She thought. It was unusual for not to be laying on the couch, usually on her laptop googling various things to do with the lads, or herself – or her latest conquest; . It made her laugh how much was fabricated so that some sites could claim to have the “inside scoop.” gave a puzzled look around the room. She put her bags on the black leather couch and carried on through to the kitchen. She furrowed her brow upon arrival. wasn’t in there either.
Odd… she’s either on the couch or baking…
sighed and turned, walking back the way she’d come in. She made her way back to the hallway and looked up the stairs.
She placed her hand on the bannister as she peered into the darkness, “? You home?”
jumped as she heard her best friend’s voice echoing up the stairs.
“What’s wrong?” a concerned voice came from the screen. She was still conferencing with Niall and hadn’t realised what the time was. She suddenly realised it was no longer day time and had spent most of the day in her room.
“I’m in my room,” she called through her open door.
almost whispered into the computer, “‘s home.”
“Oh,” he replied, “I best go then. Tell I’ll Face Time her in about an hour. I’ve got a meeting to go to.”
“Will do…” she flashed him a small smile as she logged out of her Skype and closed the lid on her laptop. She slid it across the bed and pushed herself up.
“Why’s the house in darkness?”
Hearing ‘s voice made jump, causing to throw a confused look at her.
“I logged on to check my emails and got a bit carried away on YouTube. I didn’t realise what the time was.”
“Hmm,” she surveyed the room, “I’m gonna order in for dinner. Fancy a Domino’s?”
“Finally!” jumped up as the doorbell rang out through the house and practically ran to the door, a tattered twenty balled up in her fist that had been collecting sweat in her palm for at least an hour.
laughed flicking through the channels on the television with the remote. She sighed; there wasn’t a damn thing on that even resembled something good. It was a choice between reruns, reality shows that gave an insight into morally challenged teenagers or programmes about shameless people with gross body abnormalities – not something anyone in their right minds would want to watch as they tucked into stuffed-crust pizza adorned with pepperoni, an under layer of tomato sauce and oozing, stringy cheese. The thought made her want to gag; she would pass on the programmes. She pressed the “YouTube” button on the remote. was taking far too long of a time to just be paying for their food. The familiar giggle of her friend echoed along the hallway and through the open door to the living room. She rolled her eyes. Of course; she was flirting with the delivery driver. She couldn’t fault a girl for trying.
“ if you don’t hurry up I’m gonna YouTube Niall and make you watch loads of videos of him laughing – on repeat!”
“I’m coming, I’m coming,” she spoke hurriedly as she breezed over the threshold, the distinct smell of pizza wafting over and tickling ’s taste buds. placed the large box and a few accompanying smaller boxes on the table and set a bottle of down next to it.
“Did you get extra sauce?”
nodded and slid her hands into the pockets of her trusty hoodie to produce at least another four pots of it; it was one of ’s guilty pleasures. She flipped the lid of the box over, taking out a slice of mouth-watering pizza. The cheese formed tight strings as she pulled it apart from the adjoining slices. Steam wisped upwards, the food still oven-hot from the ten minute journey it took from the pizza place to their home. tucked one foot under her and sank down into the couch beside .
“You’d have thought they’d have put it all in a carrier bag,” she allowed the slice to cool down enough to take a bite without burning her mouth.
muttered as she reached for her own slice, her half of the doughy feast covered with the pizza brand’s signature with extra cheese, “Bloody carrier bag tax.”
snorted, “It’s only 5p. I don’t get why they wouldn’t even ask if you wanted one considering one of their employees has to physically bring all of it to you. What did he do; juggle the boxes on his head?”
“Ha!” she looked up at the television screen, noticing the distinctive logo of the video sharing site, “You’re not serious, are you?”
screwed up her face, “Of course not. It’ll only make me miss him more and I don’t want my pizza tasting like salty tears.”
gave her a look of feigned disdain, “You disgust me.” Both girls burst out laughing.
’s phone let out a bleat notifying her that she had an incoming FaceTime call.
Seeing the name and picture come up, she immediately smiled. knew right away who it would be.
“It’s Niall. Do you mind if I take this?”
shook her head, “I’m just gonna pop to the loo.” She threw her half-eaten slice onto the cardboard lid of the pizza box, raised herself up out of seat and padded towards the door and up the stairs, satisfied that her friend would be distracted for a good while. When she reached the top, instead of going to the bathroom on her right, she turned to the left, opening the door to her own bedroom. She walked over her dresser and picked up a small, round, silver object that was perched on the lid of her jewellery box. She had purposely left a ring there earlier that evening after a session of exchanging accessories with . She had asked to borrow this ring in particular for a “works do” as she had seen wear it on a few occasions on the second most right finger on her right hand and figured that it would fit on her ring finger given that that finger was more or less of the same proportions as its counterpart on her other hand. She had even managed to make sure it still fit her finger by coyly asking her to try it on, stating she wanted to “size it up” and using the fact that she has just lathered up her hands with cuticle cream as an excuse to not try it on herself stating that she didn’t want to get it “covered in oil”. When they were leaving the room she made a point of leaving it on her dresser so that she would remember to give it to Niall at some point. She placed the ring into her hoodie pocket and zipped it up before walking back out of her room and across to the bathroom. Closing the door quietly behind her, she flushed the toilet and turned the tap on. She had to give the illusion that she had actually been in the bathroom so that her friend, if she heard anything or happened to walk up the stairs, would believe that she had been in the bathroom this whole time. When she felt like she had pretended to pee for long enough, she ran a hand under the water and shut off the sink. She wiped her hand on a towel hung over the shower – she had to make it look real – and crept towards the top of the stairs. She could still hear talking away to Niall on the phone. She could even hear his voice filtering up the staircase. Good. She walked down the stairs, careful not to draw attention to herself and picked up her handbag that she had left at the foot of the stairs after work yesterday. Making sure she couldn’t hear any footsteps on the living room floor indicating that was near the door, she quickly placed the ring inside the pocket that divided her bag into two sections and zipped it up. Placing her bag back just so, she sighed and wiped her brow; this mission impossible malarkey was mentally tiring. She resigned to leave it to fate (and Niall on this occasion), deciding to reward herself for successfully securing the ring in her bag with a glass of wine -or four. Would the rest of their mission – whatever Niall had planned next – be as successful? She could only wait and find out.
“So… what are we looking for exactly?” enquired as Niall dragged her into yet another alleyway. He had asked her to help him out with some arrangements for his big surprise for and she had managed to procure a rare day off from her marketing job to be taken away by him to do… well, she didn’t know what. All she knew was that today was the day that she was supposed to give him the ring she had secured a few days prior.
He pulled her into a nearby shop.
As she took in her surroundings, the smell hit her before her eyes could adjust from the sudden change in lighting, shook her head, “You are one soppy git.” He had taken her into a florists’.
“Don’t be jel, be reem,” he teased, quoting one of her most hated programmes as he took a rather deep interest in the flowers laid out before them.
reached out and stroked the petals of a red rose, “So, which bouquet are you going for?”
“I’m going to make up my own.”
She gave him a look; “Do you even know what you’re looking for?”
“Kind of,” He was too busy pouring over the buckets of brightly coloured plants.
“What do you mean ‘kind of’?”
“I know but I don’t – if that makes sense.”
“It does not.” This made him turn his attention to her and then an idea came to him. He looked around the shop and a long few minutes later, after which was thoroughly bored, finally pointed to a bouquet of dusty pink roses.
“Those.”
was puzzled, “What makes them different to all the other flowers you could’ve picked?”
“They are the exact same colour as her lips.” He indicated to the white roses that she had first seen on their way in, “And these remind me of how pure she is.”
He perused the rest of the shops offerings, picking out a selection of, if she had to admit it, expertly put together flowers. One of the florists followed behind him, recommending how many of each should be put into the bundle, making a note of each one as she went along so as to get enough ordered in before she got to work on assembling one of the biggest bouquets would ever witness in her life in a few days or so. They waited until the order form was completed before leaving with Niall requesting that the flowers be sent out via delivery in a week’s time. had expected that they would’ve headed to a jewellery store first but no; he had other plans including the purchasing of said flowers and some other bits and pieces that he saw and had to buy her “just because”. She decided that, whilst this was her only day off in two weeks, she would just go with the flow and go wherever the mad Irish man took her.
“Can I ask you something personal?” The chill in the air made pull her jacket tighter around her as they viewed velvet cushion after velvet cushion of rings in the window of a rather expensive jewellery store. It was now a few hours later and they were finally getting to the main reason why they were braving the biting early December air. They had been on a mission to avoid the paparazzi and – touch wood – the day had been pretty media-free. They hadn’t even come across a single fan which was rare but neither of them questioned it. Whilst it had been usually quiet on the attention front, a bodyguard still hovered just feet away in case. Given the nature of Niall’s business, he had gone into the florists’ to have them sign a confidentiality agreement. Niall just wished that he could’ve brought along to witness it.
“Well, seeing as you’ve seen me naked, I don’t think you can get any more personal than that so go ahead.”
felt her face go scarlet. She had been hoping that that unfortunate incident would never be talked about ever again – at least not whilst she was sober.
“In my defence you really should lock the bathroom door when you’re in there.”
He held his hands up to her, “So what did you want to ask?”
She stopped, wondering if she should ask him or not; “How do you know that she’s the one?” She wasn’t questioning why he had chosen her friend, more so how he knew he had found ‘the one’.
He would’ve shrugged but he knew exactly what to tell her; “I just know. I look at her and I get this amazing rush that I don’t get with anyone else. She makes me feel giddy even though we’ve known each other our whole lives.”
“Does it not get boring being with the same person all the time?”
He shook his head, “We barely see each other when I’m on tour so we always have something to talk about and we’re always discovering new things about each other – which is weird because we know each other inside and out. She’s just it.”
was somewhat shocked. She knew that they had a deep love for each other, a real connection, but she had never expected it to be so profound, so beautiful, and so eye-opening. “When I’m without her I feel like a piece of me is missing. She just makes everything better.” She nodded along with him. She could tell from his words and from his tone that he was telling her the truth. The conviction in his words told her everything.
His eyes lit up as something caught his attention, “That’s the one!” He vaguely pointed at a ring a foot or so away from her as he pressed the buzzer next to the door. A buzzing sound alerted them to the fact that the door was now open. He practically dragged inside. This was beginning to be commonplace with them today. Something would catch his eye and she’d find herself being grabbed by the arm and pulled along with him, sometimes barely even able to keep up. For someone with a dodgy knee he was rather spritely. She soon found herself standing in the middle of rows and rows of dazzling jewellery as an assistant helped Niall to design the ring that he would be giving her best friend. Although he had already spotted the perfect one in the window, he was adding a bit more to it along with an engraving. He had even talked about getting her something else, something of which he was still undecided. barely paid any attention to them, choosing instead to gawp over the fine items displayed before her. The assistant drew up the design plans and in a flash discovered that she was once again being pulled along behind Niall. He was trying to tell her something but she couldn’t quite make out what it was. He had a habit of talking too fast when he was really excited about something, making his Irish accent even thicker.
The assistant looked at her expectantly as they stopped in front of her, apparently waiting for her to say something.
gave Niall’s arm a tug, “Slow down. What did you just say to me?”
He grinned at her, figuring she must’ve been confused, “I asked if you had the ring with you.” “Oh…. Oh!” She dug around in her bag for the custom piece she had slipped in there not even a week ago. She managed to find it underneath a bruising banana. Picking some fluff of it, to which the sales assistant scoffed, she handed it over to her.
The woman raised her eyebrows unimpressed but got out the measuring chart anyway and took down the measurements. She held it cautiously as though she would catch some peasant’s disease through it. and Niall shared a look, unamused. The ring was left on top of the glass, the assistant no longer wanting anything to do with it. scooped it up and put it back in her bag, tempted to rub some hand sanitiser on it just to piss off the woman standing across from her. They left not long after; the bodyguard having had the workers in the shop sign the same confidentiality agreement that those in flower shops had had to sign. As far as any of the store workers were aware neither Niall nor had been in their presence.
After carefully picking out a few extra gifts they were finally ready to go home. Niall dropped off just outside a park around the corner from his house where she had left her car so as not to draw suspicion. As far as was aware; she had been at work all day – as had Niall. Realising she would be home far too early to have been at work, thought of what she would tell . Would she say she had felt unwell and so had decided to come home early or tell her she had been given the afternoon off? Fuck it, she decided. I’ll wing it.
“Can you believe this?” huffed as yet another call to Niall went unanswered. shook her head from the other end of the couch. She had no idea why he was ignoring his own girlfriend. It had been a week or so after had helped Niall pick out the perfect ring for (Well… she had been dragged about more than she had helped but still) and she hadn’t seen him since. She had only had the occasional “top secret” text from him by means of keeping her abreast of his plans for the perfect proposal – even hadn’t heard from him. She sent a text to him as tried to reach him again but for both there was no answer. tried a third time but was still met with the phone ringing out; “Even Harry’s not answering me.” frowned; that was unusual too. They both knew that the guys had some time off during the promotion of their latest single but for whatever reason none of them were even reading her messages.
The sound of the letterbox clattering caught them off guard. answered the door. “Delivery for .” A young man barely older than eighteen dressed in a forest green baseball cap and matching shirt was on the other side holding the biggest bouquet of flowers she had ever seen. They were so extravagant that they came with their own equally massive vase. She instantly recognised them as being the ones Niall had picked out not that long ago. She simply nodded and he handed her the form to sign. She scrawled her signature and passed the clipboard back to him, swapping it for the flowers. She thanked him and turned to go back inside, closing the door behind her.
Hearing the door click over, called out to her, “Who was it?” didn’t reply, simply choosing to take the flowers to her.
“These came for you.”
didn’t know what to think. The flowers were glorious and to her taste but she was still so mad at Niall. She tried to call him again to thank him but it still rang out. The anger fizzled out and she just sat there, numb. just stood holding onto the bouquet awkwardly. Throwing her phone across the room and onto an armchair, stood up; “I need to go for a run.”
nodded as her friend stood up. Grabbing her iPod from the arm of the couch, gave her a look before heading out the door, her shoes still on from having not long returned from her daily workout. placed the flowers onto the small table that sat in front of the window, watching after as she stretched in the middle of their garden path. A deep pit of worry gnawed away at her. had started working out a little excessively again for ’s liking and her concerns for her friend’s mental state were growing with each unanswered phone call. had the tendency to overwork herself when she couldn’t find a way to solve her problems. From working out for hours on end to staying up all night writing and coasting by on very sleep, her work load was always overflowing and she worked herself to the bone, burning the candle at both ends. Whilst it was her distraction from her troubles, it was far beyond healthy.
A couple of hours passed and there had been no sign of . She tried to call her but her phone must’ve been on silent for she did not answer. Another hour filled with endless worry went by and she was all set for tracking her down herself when her phone lit up with a text message. It was from .
Attached to the message was a single image, its intentions ringing loud and clear. It was a collection of magazines and papers at a newsstand. Upon every single one of them was a picture of Niall in a particularly compromising position with a girl who clearly wasn’t . She felt her heart break for her friend and the intense urge to punch Niall washed over her. This wasn’t in their plan. She sent her another message urging her to come home, a single “ok” pinging back.
scrolled through her contacts until she came to Niall’s name. Pressing ‘call’ she brought the phone up to her ear as she wandered through to the kitchen to refill her mug. She cradled the phone between her ear and her shoulder as she waited for the call to connect, flicking down the switch on the kettle. The dialling tone rang out as she flung a tea bag into her mug. She groaned when it went to voicemail. She tried again. This time it went straight to his answering service. Growing frustrated at his obvious attempt to ditch her calls, she tried a different tactic. On her third attempt to call him she left him a voicemail message. Her summer drama lessons were finally going to come in handy. She got herself ‘in the zone’ as she waited for his recorded message to finish.
“Niall…. call me back…Please…. Niall….Pick up! I’m so scared. she- ” She purposefully cut herself off, smirking to herself.
It wasn’t long before her phone began to ring. A smug look creeped over her face and she let it ring out a couple of times, upping the anticipation – on his end at least.
“He -”
“Oh my God, ! What’s wrong? Where’s ?” He spouted out a million questions in one breath. She waited for him to finish before she launched her tirade at him.
“What the fuck do you think you’re playing at, Horan?” She was agitated and unimpressed, leaving her no room to tolerate any of his excuses. The line went quiet -almost too quiet. She heard him sigh on the other end.
“It’s really not what it looks like.”
She wished that she could reach through the phone to throttle him.
“I don’t care what it does or doesn’t look like. It’s what it looks like to . You remember who she is, right? Around , , the woman you call your girlfriend…”
She swore she could hear him rolling his eyes at her.
“If I were you I’d be on my knees asking her to forgive me for making her believe that she’s been dumped.”
“But I haven’t – ”
She angrily sighed, causing Niall’s receiver to crackle, “You’ve been ignoring her. She’s upset. Even the others won’t answer her calls and she’s now wondering why she’s ultimately been blacklisted by your group. She’s running herself into the ground between workouts and writing because she doesn’t know what to make of all of this. And now she’s just seen your face plastered over every magazine and tabloid in a rather unforgiving pose with a woman that isn’t her.”
“Have you even looked at that picture properly?”
She could feel her blood boiling. What did it matter?
“It’s of you and some woman who isn’t your girlfriend. What’s there left to look at?”
Niall groaned, “Put me on speaker and find that picture.”
She went to protest but he stopped her.
“Just find the picture and take a good look at it.” He wasn’t messing around.
took in a deep, stabilising breath and did as he had instructed.
Anger ran over her again, “Well, for a start; her hair is a mess and just what exactly has she got on?”
“?”
“What?”
“That’s you.”
“Are you ready?” asked as she got in the driver’s side of her car. Her warm breath spilled out into the frosty air creating a cloud of condensation.
nodded, “Yep!”
turned the key in the ignition, switching on the heating and checking her mirrors before pulling out; “Thanks for coming with me, by the way.” They were heading up north somewhere to a log cabin as a last minute getaway before they went their separate ways for Christmas. It had originally been a trip for and Liam but Liam had had to cancel, citing a forgotten studio session as his reason for cancelling and insisting that go anyway, taking in his place. Or so they had believe.
“It’s no problem. I’m just gutted that Liam couldn’t go with you and, with Niall not returning my calls, I think it’s the best kind of solution. I need a break from reality.” She had yet to figure out where she was spending Christmas due to her relationship falling through. She had five days to figure it out and it was stressing her out.
“I can’t believe he won’t talk to you. What’s going on with that?” She hoped that hadn’t seen her gulp. She hated being the reason why her best friend thought she had been dumped by her boyfriend. She thanked God that hadn’t even realised that the woman Niall had been photographed with was her.
She shrugged, “I don’t even know. I’ve given him chance after chance to explain to me who she was but he won’t accept my calls. He won’t even text me back and his Skype just rings out. I’ve even tried calling the guys but they won’t tell me anything. I know they know something. They must think I’m stupid.” She was getting agitated just thinking about it.
sighed on her behalf. Of course the lads were avoiding her – at least two of them would’ve ended up telling her what was going on.
groaned, “I just want to know why Niall won’t even tell me why he did it. It’s like he just decided to let me figure it out on my own that we’re over.”
“I know,” she tried hard to concentrate on the road and not give anything away, “but men are pigs and it’s just in their nature.” She felt bad insulting them but it had to be done in order to pull the next few hours off.
looked at her, “It’s just not like Niall, though. If he’s mad at me he tells me – mainly because he can’t stay mad at me for very long and gives in from the silent treatment. It’s been a couple of weeks now and even our families are asking what’s going on. I dread to think what the tabloids have been writing about us since the Louis expose.” She had avoided all forms of the news and had even kept off of social media. She didn’t want to read the hurtful things that people had been writing about it. had been keeping up with it all, though, and was glad that her friend hadn’t caved into reading it, telling her that it was best that she had chosen to avoid it. The comments were driving her crazy and they weren’t even about her. Well, for the most part. She was the reason that the press had stated for Niall and no longer being seen together, appearing more so on social media thanks to fans wanting to track her down to either skin her alive for splitting up their favourite couple or to buy her a drink for getting rid of a “fat, ugly gold digger”. Not that her friend was any of the cruel things they were calling her. She had been tempted to out herself just to stick up for her friend who was being dragged through the press and online despite not actually having done anything wrong.
“How about some music?” she didn’t give her a chance to respond as she slid in a CD. If she didn’t fill the silence soon she was afraid that she would confess everything to her there and then.
Around 15 minutes into the drive pulled into a service station for some petrol.
“Won’t be long,” she told as she got out.
nodded, “I’ll be here.” She flipped down the visor to reveal the CDS that kept in her car. She slid each one out of its transparent sleeve one by one, perusing over the titles in search of the perfect playlist of their next car singalong session. Within a matter of minutes, she heard the driver’s side door open and felt the car dip slightly. A familiar smell filled her nostrils as the door closed over filling her with a sense of dread.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“Babe; just hear me out.”
“I’m really not in the mood for this right now. You haven’t spoken to me in a month and our friends are avoiding me so forgive me if I really don’t want to be near you right now,” she went to pull the door handle but Niall pressed down the “lock” button and used his free hand to grab hold of her wrist.
“Let me out. Right. Now,” she was furious.
“Will you just let me apologise to you?”
She pulled her arm away from him, “No. Now let me out. I’m not playing around.”
“Sorry but I have to do this to you, .” He turned the keys in the ignition and drove out of the petrol station.
“This is kidnap.” She folded her arms tightly across her chest. She refused to look at him and was planning her escape. She took out her phone and dialled ’s number, “She’d better answer.”
“Hello?” she was pretending that nothing was wrong.
“What the hell is going on?”
“Maybe you should ask Niall.”
“That would actually require wasting my breath on him.” She shot him a glare and he went back to pretending not to be listening.
sighed into the mouthpiece, “Look; just go with it. Trust me.”
“Oh, I trust you alright.”
She tried to hide her laughter, “It’s Niall. He’s not going to hurt you.”
She huffed, “I can’t make any promises myself.”
She laughed audibly this time, “Just do me a favour and hear him out. I promise everything is going to be OK.”
“Yeah, yeah,” she hung up before muttering, “I really need to get me some new friends,” to no one in particular.
Niall smirked and she shot him an evil glare. If he knows what’s best for him then he won’t talk to me.
Niall made the wise decision to keep his mouth shut.
An hour into the journey she decided to pose a question;
“Where are you taking me? We’ve been driving for ages.”
“Oh, so you’re speaking to me now, are you?”
She gave him a pointed stare, “I wouldn’t start if I were you, and anyway; I wasn’t the one who wouldn’t answer their phone for a bloody month. Just answer the damn question.”
“I can’t tell you.”
“And why not?”
“Because it’s a surprise.”
“Do you really think I want any more surprises this week?”
He sighed, “Look; I’m really sorry but I need you to trust me.”
“Who said I didn’t?”
He groaned, “You’re giving me really mixed signals right now.”
She pretended to go into shock, “Oh really? And what do you call being all lovey-dovey on the phone to me and then dropping me without warning for a month? I called the others but even they wouldn’t talk to me. You still haven’t explained to me who that girl was yet.”
“Because you won’t let me!”
She turned to face the window, “Go on, then. Explain yourself.”
He took in a deep breath, “The woman that I was with was .”
Her whole demeanour changed as it felt like the life had been sucked out of her. Even out of the corner of his eye Niall could tell that her eyes had teared up, thoughts of betrayal from her best friend swirling around in her mind. couldn’t speak.
He pressed on, “It’s nothing like you are imaging. She tripped as we were walking down the street and as I went to help her up her hair got caught in my zip. It looked worse than what it was but I promise that that is all that happened. I think there’s still some of her hair left in the teeth of the zip if you want to check and of course you can ask her. We’d never do anything to hurt you.”
A deafening silence filled the car as he drove on.
eventually found the courage to speak, running a sleeve-covered thumb under her eyes.
“So why were you meeting her in secret and why didn’t either of you tell me when the pictures came out instead of bloody sending me flowers? Do you know how bad that looks? ‘Oh I got caught so I’d better send her some flowers to make up for it but wait. I’m not going to answer her calls when she’s inevitably breaking her heart over me’.”
That hit him hard. “They had already been ordered before the zip thing even happened. Ask . I hadn’t planned for them to arrive the day the pictures were published either- I swear. It’s just how it turned out. They were just supposed to be a ‘thinking of you’ gift.”
She was quiet when she next spoke, “Why didn’t you answer my calls or text me at least? I was going crazy with heartbreak and it was like you didn’t even care.”
“I knew that as soon as I heard your voice I would let it slip what I was really up.
“And that was worse than telling me the truth?”
He was startled. He hadn’t thought of it like that.
“Did you tell the guys not to answer me either?”
“You know what they’ve like. If they had answered you then they would’ve told you and I didn’t want to risk them telling you about what was going on. I just wanted to do something nice for you. Please don’t kill when you get home; she put a lot of effort into this just so I could surprise you.”
“I’ll try. I will be having words with her though for letting you kidnap me.”
“It’s not really kidnapping.”
“It is when the person you’re taking knows nothing about it.”
He chuckled, “It’ll be worth it; I promise.”
“It had better bloody be!”
He placed his hand on her knee, thoroughly surprised when she didn’t remove it.
He gave it a squeeze, “I love you.”
She rolled her eyes, sighing; “I love you too.”
“I was kind of hoping you’d say that…”
She gave him the side eye, “Why do I get the feeling that I’m going to be questioning that after you tell me what you’re up to?”
“Just remember that you love me.”
“Cut to the chase, Horan.”
He reached into his pocket, “I need you to wear this.”
She pulled at the flimsy, silky contraption, “You want me to be blindfolded?”
“Yep.”
“Why?”
“You’ll see.”
“If you make me wear this I won’t.”
“Humour me, please?”
She rolled her eyes, “Fine.” She pulled back the elastic strap and slid the eye mask over her head, letting the elastic go and adjusting it so that it fit more comfortably. She folded her arms tightly across her chest again.
“I love you.”
“Uh huh.”
Cruising down the motorway with just the sounds of between them, Niall finally felt like ’s frosty exterior and hostility towards him was melting. He momentarily sneaked a peek at her. Her posture had relaxed and she seemed to at least be OK with unexpectedly being in his company. Was that even a small smile creeping over her face? Her agitated breathing seemed to have evened out. Come to think of it… was she even still awake? “Babe?”
He was met with silence. He gently prodded her and was still unable to provoke any reaction from her. She must’ve been inspecting the inside of her eyelids – as she often liked to say anytime she prematurely fell asleep.
When they eventually pulled up to their final destination later that afternoon after having left some six hours before, Niall shut off the ignition and gave a few minutes to wake up before he helped her to get out of the car. Unbeknownst to him she had been feigning being asleep for some time now, trying to work out for what had felt like hours where he had been taking her, the only clues the crunching of what sounded like wood as they had turned off the main road some fifty yards away. Whilst it had been warm in the car thanks to its central heating system, outside was a stark contrast. She shivered in the bitter cold.
“I’m hoping that what I have planned for us will make up for me being MIA for the last while.”
“Niall; you stopped talking to me. I thought you had dumped me.”
Niall felt his heart drop. He hadn’t intended for it to get that far;
“Never in a million years,” he stood behind her and guided her to a new location. He took off the blindfold for her, “This is why I couldn’t talk to you. I didn’t want t’ ruin the surprise.”
blinked a few times, trying to get her eyes to adjust to the light. Standing before her was a vast log cabin, and to her right, a lake just a few tens of feet away. She cast her gaze in the direction of the way they had travelled. They were in a mostly secluded area with only one way into the area. To her left in another clearing maybe about sixty metres away one other cabin stood visible amongst the trees with at least five cars parked outside. Whoever was in the secondary cabin must’ve been throwing a party – that or they had a very large family, she concluded.
“I know that you’ve always wanted to stay in a cabin on t’ lake but it took me so long to find t’ right one and I wanted to make sure everything was perfect that is was getting later and later and I knew you’d be worried and then there were those articles in t’ papers…” he rambled.
She was far too stunned to cut him off.
“… Please say something.”
She gulped. Her mouth felt like the desert. This was why he hadn’t been speaking to her?
“I…”
He gave her an almost pained look.
It took a few second but the tension seemed to lift from her face even though by now tears had begun to streak it.
Alarm bells started ringing in Niall’s head. He couldn’t tell if she was relieved or about to snap.
turned to look up at him, catching him off guard as a wide smile crept over her face. He was so confused.
She gave him a small, almost-playful shove, “Don’t ever do that to me again, OK?”
From the way her face had lit up he could tell that she was no longer mad at him. He put his hands on her arms just above her elbows and bowed his head to be eye to eye with her. He could see that she hadn’t been taking care of herself, the dark circles under her eyes evidence enough of what she had been through.
“For real, though; please promise that you won’t do that again – ever. Thinking that I had lost you was the worst time of my life – worse than seeing those pictures – and whilst now I understand what was going on; the last however long has been absolute torture. If it wasn’t for making me shower last night and bundling me into the car this morning I wouldn’t even know what day it is.” She voice was no more than whisper but it rang out loud and clear.
“I promise. No more hiding things and then not talking t’ you. I just didn’t realise how bad it would be especially taking the tabloids into consideration. T’inking clearly isn’t my strong point.”
She had to disagree even though she had been miserable thanks to him. His heart had clearly been in the right place – and how silly of her to not realise that the girl in the pictures was , the only friend she had had that had never let her down and who would never seek out to cause her any harm.
He removed his hands from her and used the pads of his thumbs to wipe away her tears. She leaned into him and he whispered into the space between them;
“I am so sorry.”
She gently shrugged, the trauma of the last month slowly ebbing away. He was here now, with her, in one of the most majestic places she had ever witnessed.
The air breezed by them. Despite it being minus 3 outside the pair stood there almost trapped in time numb to the elements.
“Are you ready to see inside?”
She nodded and he took her hand leading her to the front door. A thin, even layer of snow had settled around them giving the bark covered ground an extra crisp crunch to it as they trod over it.
He reached out and turned down the handle. panicked slightly; what kind of agency didn’t lock up their retreats? The door opened with ease, shedding some light into the darkened house. A couple of figures sprung towards her out of the shadows:
“SURPRISE!”
jumped back in shock, her hand flying up to cover her chest, her rapidly beating heart hammering against it. It took her a few seconds to focus on the small group of people taking up practically the entire main foyer. There to greet them was both of their families with Niall’s family crowded on the first few stairs of a long staircase that led to a secondary floor and ’s in the forefront. They rushed towards the couple, smothering them with hugs as stood there almost static. She was overwhelmed to say the least, letting her body take over as if on autopilot as she hugged them back.
When she had a second to breathe, her brain kicked back into gear as she scanned over their faces; “What are you doing here?”
Niall interjected, “Well, seeing as we’ve made three sets of plans for Christmas t’ accommodate spending time with all of our parents for t’ last three years, I t’ought they could come to us for a change.”
She was beyond lost for words. She had gone through a whole rollercoaster of emotions from the time she had woken up until that very moment and she found her eyes involuntarily leaking and Niall’s reassuring touch as he put his arm around her. She quickly wiped her cheeks with her sleeve-covered hands, smiling at them all. Aside from thinking she had been dumped, the whole situation was starting to feel… worth it.
The days flew by in a whirl of food and laughter with there being no real lull in the festivities. By Christmas Eve found herself wishing it would never end – that the two families would continue living happily side by side forever more – but she knew that it never would. For one thing, she and Niall lived in London with their individual families residing in Ireland and . There was also something nipping at her subconscious that she couldn’t quite put her finger on. It haunted her otherwise perfect dreams, a shadowy figure that never quite came into focus.
During a quieter period when some of the family members had either gone out or gone for a nap she found time to take Niall aside into a small room that was barely bigger than a cupboard. As they waved off those who had gone in search of more board games, food and booze she practically pulled him off his feet and into a side room so as not to disturb those left behind. He had laughed at the rush until he took a moment to process the look on her face. To him, she seemed worried.
“What’s wrong?”
She blew out some air from her nose with a little laugh, “Nothing.”
“Are you OK?”
She nodded, “I’m fine.”
“Then what is it?” The cogs in his mind appeared to be turning. His face lit up and he made a seductive face at her, “Have you just suddenly found me irresistible and pulled me in here for a quick snog whilst everyone is away?”
She made a face at him that could only translate as “well, duh” before taking on a more serious approach.
“I just thought it’d be nice to take a few minutes out together and take in everything.” He grinned down at her shorter frame.
“I’ve been having such a good time and I just don’t want it to end. I miss having times like these and seeing everyone.”
He could hear a lilt of sadness in her voice. He pulled her in close to him; he knew she found it hard being so far away from everyone for the majority of the year. In turn she wrapped her arms around his torso and squeezed him tightly.
“I know, but I promise; it won’t always be this way. If I had the skills I would build you a whole complex just for our families and we’d live in this tiny, perfect bubble forever.” He gently swayed them side to side, an action that they both took great comfort in.
She breathed in his musky scent and let it wash over her, the warmth from his embrace encapsulating her. His arms were strong and safe, keeping her grounded when she felt like her anxieties were taking hold of her. When they had first met it hadn’t been lost on her that she had never felt so at home with someone before and even now after what had felt like a lifetime together she still felt her safest when she was with him..
“How long do we have until we have to get back to reality?”
“We have until Boxing Day with the family and then we have right up until New Year’s Day to ourselves here. Then we head home.” He rested his cheek on the top of her head. “But I don’t have to work until something like the third week of January so for now we have all the time in the world to just be together and eat ridiculous amounts of food.”
She snorted but no noise came out. “I swear that you’re favourite part of the holidays.”
“Whilst that’s strictly not true because a certain someone will always come first…” He made a point of squeezing her tightly as he spoke. “I think you’re right. I’m either eating or in a food coma.”
She froze. The thing that had been nagging at her now clear as a cloudless day. “What are we going to do for food tomorrow?”
He stopped swaying, his expression as empty as the dwindling contents of the cabin’s American-style fridge.
’s face paled. Surely he hadn’t forgotten to get a turkey or the usual accompaniments that normally surrounded the main staple of a Christmas meal.
Quick as a flash, Niall’s face relaxed and he started to laugh. Had he gone mad? She was so confused.
He squeezed her tightly again. “Don’t worry; I’ve got it covered.”
“Saying ‘don’t worry’ doesn’t help.”
“I know I’ve been a prize prick over the last month but do you still trust me?”
She nodded.
“Then trust that when I say I have things taken care of that I do.”
“OK.”
He knew it would be easier said than done for her. She was a class A worrier. He decided to ease her worries. “I have a food delivery coming in a few hours.”
The tension released from her shoulders and the relief that this brought her was evident on her face. He hoped that his revelation would be enough to at least let her enjoy the next day or so without any worries. He so desperately wanted her to relax and to have this holiday go down as one of the best – if not the best – she had ever experienced. He just needed the next twenty four hours to go by smoothly and then it would be plain sailing from there.
“Now how about we finish off that before everyone else gets back and if you’re lucky I may just let you make out with me?” He had a mischievous glint in his eyes.
She shook her head, laughing and playfully hit him. “Oh, I don’t know. I may just have to have the to myself.” Before he had a chance to react she made a play for the door, pulling it open and bounding out of it towards the kitchen.
“Hey!” He chased after her as she ran off gigging, swooping around the island in the centre of the room to grab the plate that had been left out not even ten minutes earlier. She grabbed in a split second before he could and took off running again, trying to dodge him. Seeing a bottle of sauce perched on top of the work top to her left, he made a break for it. She stepped out of his way. She jogged in place as she came to a stop directly across from him. He picked it up and uncapped it, pointing the nozzle in her direction, catching her off guard.
She stopped, her free hand shooting up in the air in defeat. She was too late though as a stream of sticky, sauce shot out towards her. It splattered on her face. She wasn’t laughing anymore.
“Oh my God. Love, I am so sorry.” He put down the bottle and walked around to her.
Her brain snapped into gear and within a second she grabbed a can of whipped cream. She pushed down the nozzle sending the light, airy cream out into the air, smacking him square on the lower half of his face. The room was eerily quiet. They caught sight of each other, bursting out laughing as they made eye contact. He moved towards her, one hand on her hip as the other took hold of the can in her hand helping her to place it down. As he did so he leaned in, kissing her with as much passion as he could muster. The sauce and cream mixed together, slopping messily to the ground in a sickly sweet puddle, a worry for another time.
At just after five in the morning, and Niall crept down the wooden staircase laden with gift bags and boxes. The open-plan family room was peacefully silent, everyone else tucked up in bed completely worn out after a fun-filled Christmas Eve. They shared a look and giggled before hushing themselves so as to not wake anyone. Both were a little giddy from a mix of being tired and the excitement of sneaking around. They set about stashing presents under and around the tree in designated piles for each family member. As silently back darted up the stairs to retrieve the final bags Niall lit the fire, placing a couple of extra logs on top. Once done they surveyed their work and, satisfied with the outcome, snuggled up on the sofa together under a large blanket knowing that it wouldn’t be long before Theo, the youngest member of both clans, woke up.
Sure enough; it wasn’t long before a short boy with a mop of dirty blonde hair shot down the stairs with his two bleary-eyed parents in tow slowly making their way down the stairs clad in dressing gowns and pyjamas that matched the ones and Niall were wearing. As soon as Niall had told them of their Christmas plans their parents had created a phone tree type system and had decided between them that it would be a fun family tradition to get everyone matching night clothes to wear on Christmas Eve night. All of the men had been given red and green tartan flannel bottoms with grey t-shirts and grey dressing gown, and whilst the women’s t-shirts were the same as the men’s, the bottoms were slightly different with wider legs in shades of pink and lilac. Their dressing gowns were made of a cream silk instead of the fleecy blend the mens’ consisted of. Even Theo wore a miniature version of the men’s attire.
A whirlwind of blonde darted past them straight for the presents and they laughed.
“Merry Christmas to you too, Theo!” Niall chuckled.
“Don’t you be opening anything now!” Denise called out after him. “We have to wait for everyone else to get up.”
Theo’s bottom lip wobbled. He was so excited, raring to tear into everything and yet he was being told that he couldn’t open a single thing.
crouched down to his level. “How about you come help me make some hot chocolate for everyone?”
He thought about it, clearly unsure. He really wanted to see what was inside those presents but part of him also really wanted some hot chocolate.
“What if we go see if Santa ate the cookies you left out for him in the kitchen?” Nothing she said seemed to be working as a distraction. “I think good old Santy’s left you a little something in there.”
His eyes lit up and he grabbed her by the hand, dragging her towards the kitchen. She laughed as she let him pull her along, the sounds echoing across the room. This made Niall chuckle to himself.
“She’s going to make an excellent mother and wife one day.” Niall looked up at Denise as she sat down next to her husband and nodded confidently at her. He knew what she was hinting at. “Aye, and hopefully I’ll be lucky enough that she’ll be mine.”
Not even an hour later the entire family were sat huddled up together on the three large lounge sofas in front of the fire watching Theo play with his new toys and just revelling in the warmth and comfort.
Niall stood up and turned to face . She raised an eyebrow at him as he sat down across from her on a fabric-bound ottoman and slid one of his legs in between hers, taking her hands in his. He smiled at her as a blush crept across her cheeks. For a second in amongst the torn up wrapping paper and chaos it was as though the world around them ceased to exist.
He rubbed his thumbs across the backs of her hands. “I have one last present for you.” She tilted her head and stuck out her bottom lip a little; “We said we had a limit and you’ve already exceeded it.” She gestured towards the mountain of gifts he had already given her. He grinned, “I know but then I saw this and I just had to.”
A look of confusion swept across her face. She hadn’t noticed any stray presents. She watched as he signalled to his mum who in turn bent down to Theo and spoke to him in a voice so quiet that she couldn’t tell what she was saying. A large smile sprung onto the youngster’s face as she pulled something out of her pocket and handed it to him.
“Go give that to Uncle Niall.” She gave him a gentle push in his direction and he bounded towards them, the object securely placed between his small hands. He tried to hand it to Niall so discreetly that, in his child-like ways, was comically indiscreet. It only made the collective hearts of the adults in the room, whose eyes all seemed to be on him, swell.
“We have a question for Auntie , don’t we?” He nodded shyly.
placed a hand on his side. “What did you want to ask me, sweetheart?”
His voice was so hushed and gentle that it took her a second to work out what he had said. “Will you marry my Uncle Niall please?”
Her eyes widened and she turned to Niall to find that he had gotten down on one knee. He took hold of her left hand with his free one smiling at her with a smile that could melt even the most frozen of hearts. Tears welled up in her eyes and as she brought her other hand to her mouth in shock they started to spill out.
He stumbled over his words, the nerves and the excitement bubbling up within him. “Bear with me a second, I’m a tad nervous.” He steadied himself by looking straight into her eyes and brought her hand up to his lips pressing a light kiss on it. He cleared his throat trying to find his voice.
“From the day I met you I knew that I always wanted to have you in my life – whether it was just as friends or as something more – and I vowed to myself that I would do whatever it takes to make that happen. Fortunately for me you seemed to be on board with that and have been by my side ever since. I don’t know what I did to get so lucky in life and I can honestly swear on my heart that if I woke up tomorrow and it was all gone, as long as you were by my side I would still have everything I need and more. I didn’t think that life could get any better until the day you walked in and now I know for certain that what we have is what true happiness feels like. When I’m without you it feels like there’s a huge part of me missing and for the longest time I couldn’t figure out why but eventually I did and that whole fiasco we had over the last month or so only confirmed it. It turns out that the piece that I thought was missing was my heart. But it hadn’t gone missing. I was stolen. Stolen completely and utterly by you alone and I wish for nothing more than for you to keep it forever.” He opened up the box to reveal to her the most beautiful ring that she had ever seen.
“Will you marry me, ?”
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