Half A Heart

Chapter 33

“Hi, I’m Danielle,” the beautiful girl in front of me introduces. Shoot, now I feel underdressed.

I’m wearing the same amount of clothes as her, but I still feel weird since she’s so stylish and she looks like she didn’t even try at all.

“I’m Jessica,” I smile, shaking her outstretched hand.

“So you’re Louis’ girlfriend,” she smirks, winking at me.

“So you’re Liam’s girlfriend,” I mock, making her laugh at my failed wink.

“Yeah, but enough about me,” she waves off.

We barely even spoke about her.

“Tell me about your freaking son!” She gapes, pulling me into her and Liam’s room and sitting on the edge of the bed.

“Well, he got a girl pregnant, she gave birth to Josh, she died, Josh is now under the care of Louis and me... And Josh referred to me as ‘the mother he never had’,” I try to hide my grin at the last part.

“Aw! What was his mother like?” She frowns.

“Oh, she was lovely, I’m sure of it. But she was working three jobs and trying to go to college at the same time, so she was never around,” I sigh sadly.

“Aw... Poor little thing,” she pouts, “And poor mom, too. Imagine having to leave your son everyday to go work for hours on end just to pay rent!”

“I know,” I run a hand through my hair.

“Enough depressing stuff, as interesting as it is, let’s talk about something more... Optimistic.”

“Like what?” I laugh.

“5 Seconds Of Summer,” she starts, “Thoughts?”

“Freaking amazing!”

“You speak my language,” she winks.

~*~

So it turns out Danielle is freaking amazing. We talked for an hour in their room, went to get lunch, then hung out at the mall for a few hours. I feel like I’ve known her for my whole life.

“And we replaced his shampoo with green hair dye,” I recall the pranks we did on Zayn in their last tour, before I found out about Josh.

“You didn’t!” She gasps, laughing hysterically, “Did he use it?”

“Yeah! His hair was green for a week!” I laugh along with her.

“I feel like I’ve known you my whole life,” she expresses, draping her arm over my shoulder.

“My thoughts exactly.”

~*~

“Lou!” I call out, walking into our room, “I’m going to Skype Jay.”

“I want to see my son, too,” he walks out shirtless with a toothbrush in his hand.

“You getting ready to go?” I raise my eyebrows at him, a smile playing at my lips.

“Yep,” he nods, “Are you sure you don’t want to come?”

He pouts at me and I laugh, nodding, “I’m staying here. I’ll probably hang out with Danielle and read to Josh over Skype before he goes to sleep.”

“You’d be a good mom,” Louis chuckles.

“Josh thinks so,” I blurt, smiling brightly.

“Really?”

“He called me the mother he never had,” I can’t help but melt every time I replay it in my mind.

Louis looks shocked for a while before a massive grin is plastered on his face.

“He did?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow...” His voice trails off and I click on the Skype application.

“Daddy! Jessie!” Josh cheers, bouncing on his chair.

“Hello my favorite young adults,” Jay greets us and I raise my eyebrows, laughing slightly.

“Hi Jay, hey buddy,” I address Josh and he grins, “Are you enjoying staying with your relatives?”

“Auntie Lottie made me an airplane!” He waves around a paper airplane.

“Aw, that was sweet of her! Is she there?”

“Auntie Lottie!” He calls out and I hear a faint ‘yeah’ in a baby voice before Lottie walks in.

“Mu- Jessie wants to see you!” He points at the screen and I freeze.

Mu? What was he goes to say? Was he going to say mummy or something?! Nah, that’s just my imagination... Right? Well I suppose, he never really had a mom. Louis told me that his mom almost gave him up for adoption because she said it wouldn’t make a difference...

“Hello? Jess, are you okay?” Lottie raises her eyebrows at me and I snap out of it.

“Uh, yeah, I’m f-fine,” I nod, clearing my throat.

“Hey Louis!” She spots her brother in the background and he nods, pulling a clean white shirt over his head.

“So how’s school?” I ask her and her endless rant begins.