this moment in time//h.s.

Chapter One: Phone Call

(Morgan's POV)

You all know how that worked out.

My amazing best friend became a member of the popular boyband One Direction, a band of him and four other adorkable idiots. 

THough me and Liam kept in touch in the beginning, calling and texting all the time, lately he'd just become this new person overnight. 

Actually no, that's incorrect. 

He didn't change.

He just became a superstar.

I hadn't seen him in person in over three years, due to X-Factor, his album Up All Night and the subsequent tour. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm insanely proud of him, I just miss the time when we were both normal. When we were both anonymous. 

Now here we were, seventeen and eighteen, him on the edge of greatness...

and me partway through my junior year of high school.

While the 'one and only' Liam Payne of One Direction was about to start work on another album, I was about to go back to school from fall break. 

On the last Monday of freedom I had, I was about to go to sleep when my phone started ringing-

"You're insecure, don't know what for. You're turning heads when you walk through the door. Don't need makeup to cover up. Being the way that you are is enough-"

Almost numb with surprise and shaking hands, I picked up my phone. 

"Hello?"

"Morgan?"

"Um, yeah. Li is that you?" I asked incredulously. 

"Obviously-" he laughed and I instantly felt better. "How are you?"

"Uh," Caught off-guard I replied lamely "I'm okay."

"Hey, I'm really sorry about missing your call last week, you know, I was in the middle of-"

"-interview. Yeah, don't worry about it." Though it was hard, I pushed myself to stay upbeat. For Liam's sake as much as mine. Glancing up at the ceiling, I tried to put some conviction behind my words. "Don't worry about it, Li. Still y'all are strange."

"Yup," I could almost see his broad smile, and I could hear the pride and fondness in his tone. "Yes, we're absolute idiots."

"Only you could be proud of that." I replied idily, looking around my room.

Unlike many other girls my age, my room was not plastered with posters and cardboard cutouts of the boys: one because they were creepy and two because I didn't want to buy their merch. My walls were plain white with photographs and string lights all around. My bed covers were just a plain sky blue. My room could be a blank canvas basically. 

"Hey Morgan, are you still there?" 

Liam's voice snapped me out of my reverie, drawing me back into the conversation.

"Hmm? Yeah, yeah I'm still here?"

"Is everything alright?" He sounded unusually concerned. 

"What d'you mean?"

"Your my best friend Morgan, I know when your not okay."

My brain immediately went into overdrive, trying to find a way to deny it or push it away. But even as I spun my lies, I knew it was pointless. Liam knew me and would be able to tell. The last thing I wanted to do was strain a already strained relationship. In the end, I decided to sugarcoat the truth. 

"Things have been a bit rough here lately, yeah. But I'm fine."

"Are you sure, because if somethings wrong-"

I felt bad but interrupted him anyways. "Hey Li, what time is it over there?"

There was a surprised pause and then a brief moment of muffled noises and talking, before he put his phone to his ear and answered again. 

"Uh, six am, why?"

I felt a little guilty as I answered him. "It's one am here."

"Morgan!" He exclaimed, torn between laughter and seriousness. "What are you still doing up?"

"Just thinking."

"Well go to bed," He mock ordered, before adding in a normal voice "We could talk again when you wake up maybe?"

"That sounds great," I say, agreeing quickly. "Bye Liam."

"Bye-"

I hung up, cutting him off mid-sentence.