The Way Things Change

Chapter 15

We went into the living room. I had a big bowl of hot Irish stew with me, holding onto it as if my life depended on it. The boys were hanging around watching a movie. They didn’t notice us at first. Eleanor jumped onto Louis, putting her arms around his neck and snuggling her face into his shoulder. They looked lovely together. He put his arms around her waist, pulling her tighter. “Hello love. I didn’t see you coming there” His eyes were twinkling with happiness. The boys turned their faces away from the TV screen and looked at us. When they saw me, they were surprised. I hadn’t been out of my room in 4 weeks, so I couldn’t blame them.

“Hey Kate. How are you feeling?” Liam asked. “I’m starving” I replied “But other than that I’m fine, I guess.”

They made room for us to sit down. I sat in between Danielle and Perrie, both of them sitting with their boyfriends. I started eating, almost inhaling my food. “Wow, slow down tiger.” Zayn chuckled “You are just as bad as Niall.”

“Like I said, I’m starving. I think I’m allowed to inhale my food if I want to” I laughed back at him. The boys looked even more surprised. “Who are you, and what have you done to Kate?” Niall asked playfully. I didn’t get time to answer before Louis did “This is the real Kate, I remember that playfulness from when she was in the hospital. It’s good to have you back!” He got up to give me a hug. And I let him. Surprising them yet again.

“So how was your ‘Girls only’ day?” Liam asked. We looked at each other. Eleanor was the first to answer: “It was… interesting.” She said, watching me. I looked her in the eyes and I knew she was asking me for permission. I nodded turning to my food again. I was stuffed, and I wasn’t even halfway through my bowl. I put it down on the coffee table. “Do you mind if I finish that?” Niall asked. They all laughed, me included. Niall could always eat. “Be my guest”

“So what was the yelling and the crying all about?” he said while he was stuffing his face. “Wow. You just go right to the point, don’t you?” Perrie asked. Niall shrugged. “Sorry” he muttered.

I felt 8 sets of eyes on me. I looked down, feeling the tears well up. I really was an emotional mess right now. I felt Danielle’s hand in mine. She looked at me, asking me for permission just like Eleanor had done. The two of them looked at each other. Eleanor looked like she was going to take the lead in this.

“Well here’s the thing.” And she stared telling my life story. Danielle took over sometimes, and Perrie also filled in some with some information. I just sat quietly, listening to them tell the story. I pulled my legs up on the couch, so I could rest my head on my knees. I never let go of Danielle’s hand. I felt Perrie put her arm around my waist to comfort me. I felt a tear stream down my face, and that was soon followed by others. I didn’t have the courage to look around to see the boys’ expression.

The girls had a difficult time telling the story, the tears were streaming down their faces. I started looking at the boys’ facial expression. As the story went on I could see al kinds of emotions flush over them. Then my eyes fell on Harry’s face. He was looking at me. I couldn’t see what he was feeling, but his eyes were filled with pain. I kept eye contact, just for a second, and then I looked away. I had also been looking at Zayn, Liam and Louis, but they only had their eyes on their girlfriends, understandable, because they were crying. You could learn a lot from just looking at peoples’ faces. For all of the three boys, you could see immense love towards their girlfriends, and you could tell they hated seeing them like this. Then I looked at Niall. He was looking at me too. His eyes were red and I could see a tear making its way down his cheek. He already knew what had happened. The doctors had told him and Liam, but I guess he could still be affected by it. And again I was the one to break eye contact.

I just hoped they would treat me the same after they knew my story. I wouldn’t be able to handle them treating me like something that could break easily or something that needed to be fixed. I just needed them to be my friends. Real friends this time. Someone I got to know on my own, not just through someone else.

*Niall’s POV*

The girls, including Kate, had walked in while we were watching some stupid movie. Kate had a big bowl of Irish stew in her hands. She told us she was starving. I wasn’t surprised. She had not eaten in 4 weeks. I had no idea how she had managed that. I couldn’t go 4 hours without eating. She inhaled her food, but couldn’t even finish half of it. Irish stew was my favourite and I was getting a bit hungry, so of course I asked if I could have the rest.

Earlier when the girls were having their ‘Girls only’ day, the lads and I were playing videogames. I was curious about what they were doing, but I didn’t want to interrupt them. I just hoped that Eleanor, Danielle and Perrie could get through to Kate. Maybe she would open up to them and then she would start getting out of her room. She had been barricaded in there for four weeks now; we were all starting to get impatient. We had a few fights because of her. Harry wanted to go up and force her to start talking. He really didn’t like her. He had been against the idea of her staying here from the beginning. I really didn’t get it. A gorgeous girl was living with us, and he, of all people, wouldn’t allow it. I didn’t know what had gotten into him.

Kate had lost a lot of weight, you could see that immediately when she walked in. Her clothes were hanging loose around her body, and her cheeks were hollow. She looked like a shadow of what she was when she walked in the door the first time. But all the bruising was gone and the doctor had told us that her concussion was gone as well. He also told us that he was coming back in a week to take the plaster of her arm. So all in all, everything was getting better. Now she only needed her mind to be fixed. It seemed to be fixed a bit. Or at least she was talking again and she was even making jokes.

But you could tell that she was sad. She had been crying, her eyes were red and puffy. As a matter of fact all the girls had been crying. And earlier we had heard a heart breaking scream coming from the room. I had been up there in no time. But there was nobody in the bedroom. I had heard pounding from the bathroom, so I went to knock on the door. I wanted Kate to talk to me, but Eleanor came out, tears running down her face. She had told me in a stern voice to leave them alone. Kate was just beginning to open up, and when she was ready she was going to tell us. So I went downstairs again to the boys who were looking at me with puzzled looks. They wanted to know what was going on, but I couldn’t tell them. I wanted to know just as badly as them.

And now they were sitting here, telling us the story of her life. She wasn’t able to tell it herself. She sat there on the couch sobbing quietly into her legs. I already knew some of it, but the way they were telling it made me cry. It was absolutely horrible. And I got really angry with that Jake guy. How could he treat a girl like that? He was truly a monster. I was looking at Kate, and suddenly our eyes met. I could see the pain in her eyes. I desperately wanted to get that away, but I didn’t know how to. She was supposed to be happy. And now when she finally was opening up, we were going away. On Wednesday we were leaving for our America tour. 

Our timing was perfect, just perfect. But I guess the important thing was that she was improving. Maybe she would be ‘fixed’ when we returned. The girls had only been with her one day and see how far they had gotten. Imagine what they could do in two months. I was already looking forward to coming home.