The Way Things Change

Chapter 9

*Niall’s POV*

We were all just sitting in the living room, staring into thin air. We hadn’t spoken much since the EMT’s had left. They had told us, that there had to be someone around Kate for the next couple of weeks, just to make sure that she didn’t try to take her life one again. They also told us not to push her in to anything. If she said no it meant no. That way we would show her that we respected her and her choices. We were told to be her friends and act as normal as possible. If we started to pamper her, it might only make things worse, because she would feel weak.

I couldn’t believe that Kate actually felt so bad, that she would rather be dead. We had to do something about it and we all knew it. Nobody should feel like that. The only problem was that we didn’t know what we were supposed to do.

“We have to get her a new phone and number” I said, breaking the silence. The boys looked at me confused.

“What’s that got to do with anything” Zayn said in disbelieve. I took out Kate’s phone from my pocket. Glancing at it quickly I saw shad had received three more hateful messages. I threw it at Zayn. His eyes grew wider while he was reading some of the messages.

“This is horrible” he said, passing the phone on to Louis. “I know we get hateful messages sometimes too, but she actually thought these people were her friends.”

“Yeah. The only thing she did wrong was being with that douchebag” Louis said. He had also finished reading the messages.

“Okay” Liam said. “Should we make a list of things we have to do? Or are we just going to talk about it and remember?” Again he was being the responsible one, coming up with the solutions.

“No we’re not making a list.” Harry said. “The things we decide on are going to be common knowledge anyway.”

“I’m going to call Eleanor to see if she wants to come around. I really think Kate needs a girl friend more than anything now. Liam you should call Danielle as well.” Louis said.

“I know Dani is really busy right now, touring with Jessie J and all, but in a month she has the summer off. Then she can stay here. We already agreed on that actually. She was going to take care of the house while we were on tour in America.” Liam answered.

“So we really believe that Kate is going to stay here?” Harry said sceptically. “She doesn’t really know us and she wasn’t really that talkative when we had that ‘getting to know you’ dinner.” Why did he had to be a buss killer?

“I disagree” I said. “I think she really opened up. We already talked about this. She was absolutely terrified to tell that her boyfriend was responsible for her rape, and the fact that she told us really proves that she trusts us.”

“And where would she go Harry?” Liam continued. “She has nobody. And since when are you not willing to help a girl?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to help her!” Harry was getting annoyed. “But how can we trust her? Maybe she just made this whole thing up to get fame. For all we know she could be a gold-digger, who is using us!”

“Do you actually believe that?” Louis said. “She hasn’t even recognized us as One Direction, and she is not like any other girl we have ever met. She isn’t intimidated by us. I don’t know about you, but I really like her. I want her to be a friend. I felt like we kind of clicked at that dinner.”

“I know exactly what you mean” I said. Louis had just said exactly what I had been thinking not that long before. “She is a special girl, and actually she turned down the offer of staying here. She would rather go back to her flat and her abusing boyfriend, than stay with us. I don’t believe that is typical gold-digger behaviour.”

“Maybe you’re right and maybe you are not” Harry stated cryptically. I knew we had won him over. He always answered like that when he didn’t know what to say.

“Is there that much more we have to do for her?” Zayn asked. “I mean, what can we actually do? We can get her some female company and a new phone number so she doesn’t have to get those hateful messages. She can’t come with us to any interviews or anything. First of all the paps would be all over her and secondly she has a concussion, a broken rib and a broken arm. She really just needs rest.”

He was right. We couldn’t do much to help her. The healing process was already started, and the broken bones would be healed in 6 weeks. The concussion could be gone then too, if she stayed away from light and any technical device.

“What we really need to help her with is to feel accepted” Liam said. “I bet she hasn’t felt accepted in a long time, so her self esteem might not be the best.”

“She should have with a body like that” Zayn blurted. I glanced at him. He looked down embarrassed; he knew he shouldn’t have said that. We had agreed to keep that between us.

“What do you mean by that?” Louis asked confused. Harry had a smirk on his face and Liam looked at me with a ‘what have you done now’ look.

Zayn just kept looking down, so I started talking.

“Yesterday Zayn and I were going to wake her up remember?” They confirmed with a nod. “Well we thought she would still be sleeping, so we just walked in without knocking. She was standing there, only in her underwear and a towel wrapped around her head.”

Harrys smirk grew wider. He was really too much some times.

“And did you like what you saw?” He asked.

“Of course they did Harry, look at their faces. They are blushing” Louis laughed. The mood in the room had completely changed. That was good.

“To be honest, I think that is the fittest body I have ever seen.” Zayn said.

“Even better than Perrie’s?” Louis teased. Perrie was the girl Zayn recently had started dating. She was a member of the group Little Mix, who had won the X Factor last year. Zayn looked down again. “Yes” he admitted under his breath. We all laughed.

“Please don’t tell her though. And Perrie is really fit as well. But there is just something about Kate’s body. I don’t know what it is…”

“We promise we won’t tell.” All four of us said.

“So what was so special about it?” Harry asked. He just couldn’t let it go.

“Well I actually already saw it the night we hit her with the car.” I said. “I had been looking out the window and I saw her on the other side of the road. That’s why I yelled at Paul to stop the car; I saw what was going to happen. But like Zayn said, you can’t put it into words. She just… I don’t know. You’ll understand when you see her in a bikini or something.”

I could see my answer wasn’t enough for Harry. He was really just a hormonal boy when it came to something like this. He couldn’t be mature about it.

“Well I’m going to call Eleanor now, to see if she can come by tomorrow.” Louis changed the subject and I was grateful for that.