𝗡𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗜𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗔𝗻𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗟𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗟𝗼𝘃𝗲: 𝗡.𝗛.

Chapter Fourteen

"Let's go on a walk this morning, Love. Clear your head." Niall says.

"Ok. That would be nice."

The streets of London are so interesting. So many different people and so much interesting architecture.

And then I see him. And he is right there. 

"Oh, sorry." He mumbles, and walks away. 

Oh. I bumped into him.

I stop. I can't move. Since when did breathing become such a hard thing to do? 

"Love? Love, breathe. It's ok. It wasn't him. You're ok." Niall whispers and wraps his arms around me as I slowly slide to my knees. He picks me up and carries me to a near by bench where he sets me down in his lap. I know what this is. It's only happened to me a few times before.

A panic attack.

"Breathe. Nothing else matters but your breathing right now. Can you just breathe for me?" And Irish accent asks me.

Those words repeat in my head and I am slowly able to take a deep, shaky, breath. 

"There you go, let's go home now. We can get more purple cookies and everything will be okay." Niall says and I agree, standing up to walk home. Niall takes my hand to guide me back to where the apartment is.

My legs are still shaky and Niall picks me up to carry me home.

"Niall. You don't have to do that. I can walk." I say. Still stubborn despite my recent panic attack. 

"No, Love. I'm carrying you home whether you need me to or not." Niall persists and I give up, laying limp in his arms. 

"Well I didn't ask you to make it hard for me! Do you know how hard it is to carry dead weight?" Niall complains.

Dead

Dead

Dead 

I hate that word. 

I start shaking again and cling my arms around Niall's neck.

"Love, what's wrong?"

I ignore him. Not wanting to speak.

"Lia. Talk to me."

Nothing. I don't have any words to say.

"Dahlia Renee Horan you will tell me what's wrong."

"I-I.. you said the word."  I choke out and Niall immediately realizes what he said. 

"I'm so sorry. Let's get you home." 

***

I feel someone stir beside me and open my eyes to see Niall sitting up checking his phone which is ringing. I'm on the couch. I must have slept here.

"Hello?" Niall asks whoever is calling him.

"What?"

"No."

"No."

"You can't do that."

"That's not fair."

"No!"

Niall hangs up and slams his phone down.

"What?" I ask, looking at his face. He's mad. I can tell.

"Child services."

Ok. Why? I mean, Niall is great. Why would child services be calling him?

"They saw you. When you had your panic attack. They think that I'm too busy with my career to be taking care of you. That's all I have been told so far but someone is coming over in an hour to talk to us." He gives me a side hug and grabs his phone to text Liam.

To: Liam: Hey, mate. Could you come over? Need to talk to someone about parenting and such.

From: Liam: Yeah, of course. I'll be there in five. See you then.

"Liam's coming over. Maybe you can try to insult him again. It's funny when you do that." Niall laughs. I am pretty good at insulting people.

***

The doorbell rings and I sprint to open it. The second it open the door, I jump on Liam, clinging to him like a monkey.

"Well hello there to you too, Princess." Liam laughs and sets me down on the couch back beside Niall.

"What's the problem?" Liam asks and Niall tells him about the child services person who is coming over soon. Liam looks at me and then at Niall with a look of sadness. I can't blame him. It's a sad thing!

"Lima bean?" I say, looking up at Liam.

"What is it, Princess."

"Are you going to stay when the child services persons comes?" I ask. He shrugs.

"Do you want me to?"

I nod. This is something that I need two fifths of One Direction to get through.

The doorbell rings again.

Ugh. They're here. I can tell already that I hate whoever is at the door. Nothing can change that. It could be Ed Sheeran but if he's here to talk about Niall not parenting me correctly, I hate him.

People say that hate is a strong word. Not strong enough in this case.

How about loathe.

Loathing is much stronger than hating.

Yes, I loathe whoever is behind that door.

***

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