Who You Are (Liam Payne)

Chapter 8

Since there was really nothing to do when I got home, I decided to read "I Was Here" by Gayle Forman with earplugs in my ear. Music was my life. It calmed me down when I was stressful. It cheered me up when I was down. Unlike what most people said, music wasn't distracting to me to whatever I was doing. If I wasn't to get married somehow (knock on the wood), music would be my partner.

Someone knocked on the front door by the time I finished the first three chapters of the book. Who was coming to my house at this time? Both my mom and dad were working night shifts, so they left a couple of hours ago. 

"What's wrong, Emma?" I stared at my friend who was sobbing at my doorstep at 9PM.

"Can I come in?" She spoke through her sobs.

"Sure."

I led her in to the couch before I went to the kitchen to fill a cup of water.

"What happened?"

"Liam," she wiped off her tears with the tissue I offered. "I- I kind of confess my feelings to him, but he didn't seem interested. Alex, what should I do?"

She started crying and I hugged her quickly. Emma was the kind of girl who might seem to be really strong sometimes from outside, but like I'd said before, she was broken inside. 

"What did he say exactly?"

"I cut him off when he was about to say something 'cuz I was pretty sure he was trying to reject me."

Like I was trying to reject Niall.

"How would you know what he was goon say if you cut him off," I tried my best to soothe her. "May be he was thinking of a better way rather than just saying yes."

"If he was gonna say yes, he shouldn't have got out of the car that fast."

"Did he leave right after you cut him off?"

She nodded. To be honest, I was speechless at the moment, not that kind of speechlessness when you were surprised but when you literally had nothing to say.

"I'm sorry, Emma." I hugged her one more time. For a while, she didn't say anything but stared at me. I tried to think of an idea to make her happy and come to life again. "Wait here."

I turned on the speaker and connected it with my phone. Then, I locked the front door before turning off every single light in my house. As the last step, I pressed the play button on my phone.

"LET'S GO!!!" I yelled when the music blasted out from the speaker. I grabbed Emma's hand and dragged her to the imaginary dance floor. We rocked out to some of my favorite songs and I let her choose the rest. After dancing for half an hour, we were both sweaty.

"We need to take a shower," Emma laughed at my obvious statement as I switched the lights back on.

"Alex," she called me and I turned around. "Thank you though, really."

"You're welcome," I smiled and hugged her.

"Is it okay if I crash here tonight?"

"More than okay."

"Thank you so much, Alex," she screamed and hugged me again. "I'm so lucky to have you in my life."

So was I, honestly.

We took turn taking shower afterward and went straight to bed. First, Emma insisted on sleeping on the floor, but I offered to share my bed. I wouldn't like to sleep on the floor if I was sleeping over at a friend's house anyway.

She fell asleep once her head was set on her pillow. I couldn't fall asleep right away, so I thought about continue reading my book before I was reminded of something else, Niall. He asked me to consider his confession earlier. I seriously didn't feel like getting into a relationship with him. I didn't have that kind of feeling toward him that I even had a little for Liam.

What was really on Liam's mind though? Was he interested in Emma? Or did I still have a chance? 

My head started to spin from all the strange thoughts, so I decided to put my book that I hadn't even opened yet away. I fell asleep about five minutes after.

---

"Alex!" Emma screamed in my ear. "Your phone!"

I lazily reached my phone that was vibrating rapidly on the table and received the call without even checking the caller I.D. because I was too lazy to open my eyes. 

"Hello?"

"Were you sleeping?" Niall's voice traveled through our phones.

"Uh yeah, kinda."

"Oh I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to wake you up."

He said it a bit too loud that even Emma overheard his voice. "You woke me up too."

I turned down the volume and shh-ed Emma with hand gesture. "It's okay. What's up?"

"Okay, I was wondering if you would wanna hang out again today, if you don't have any plans, of course."

One bad habit about me was that I was really bad at rejecting people. I always got this feeling that if I said no to someone, I would feel bad after. 

"Sure. What time?"

"Hmm...at two?"

"Okay. Do I get to know today where we're going?"

"No luck, sorry, Alex," Niall giggled.

"I hate you," I said and Emma laughed quietly even though she didn't know what Niall said, may be saying those three words was too funny for her mind. "Okay, see you at two."

"Ha-ha. See ya', babe."

Babe.

Again, who gave you the damn right?

"Were you ashamed of letting him know who you spent the night with in the SAME bed?" Emma emphasized the word.

I didn't feel like joking around at the moment, so I just swatted her in her arm and rolled my eyes.

"Okay okay, get up and pick a dress."

"For what?"

"What do you mean for what? You're going on a date!"

"How many times do I have to tell you it's not a date."

"You never told me."

"Gosh, but seriously, no, I'm not going to dress up."

"You're unbelievable."

"Who's talking now? Who ended up crying and knocking on my door at 9PM last night?"

Emma didn't reply for a second. When I looked at her, she looked like she was holding back her tears. 

"Emma, I'm sorry." You can't really blame me though. You got me started. I added in my head.

"You were right. Now I will never know what he was gonna say anymore."

"Hold up," I said and pressed the call button on my phone. 

"Alex?"

"Hey Niall, is Liam there?" Emma poked my arm and tried to stop me, but I ignored her.

"Yeah, but he's asleep. Why?"

 "Oh, uh, can you tell him to call Emma when he wakes up?"

Total word count: 7022