Where Have You Been

Chapter 18

Zoë's POV

“Peanut allergy!” Taylor screamed, and we erupted again into a fit of giggles. We were recounting old inside jokes on Taylors plush white carpet. After our fight two weeks earlier, we had become much closer. I guess we were scared of losing one another again. I reached for a handful of sour patch kids, my favorite candy. They looked out of place resting in a $1,000 blue china dish. Again, Taylor’s exotic parents had an overabundance of money. My phone buzzed, and Taylor and I eyed it for a brief second, our eyes telling the same story.

The millisecond passed and we both dove for the phone, laughing as we fell on top of each other. After we untangled out arms and legs, Taylor held up my phone in triumph. I tried, in vain, to reach the phone, but she held it high over my head. She craned her neck to read the text.

“From Niall, just as I suspected” She smiled creepily at me, raising her eyebrows.

“Nooo” I moaned in fake agony, collapsing on the floor. “Don’t read it! Don’t do it!” I feigned unconsciousness dramatically as she began to read the text:

“We can’t text…” Her voice trailed off as she finished the message, her brows furrowing in confusion and despair. “Oh, it’s nothing.” She laughed awkwardly, throwing the phone back onto her bed. I was a bit worried at her reaction, surely nothing was wrong?

“Tay…?” I asked in confusion. Taylor giggled nervously, biting her lip as she always did when she was apprehensive. I slowly reached for my phone, and she squeezed her eyes shut, as if anticipating a bad reaction. I mouthed the words as I read them, and my reaction was much the same as Taylors. I had to re-read the text multiple times to make sure my wild imagination wasn’t BS-ing me. Each time my face fell a little bit more, and my eyes darkened with worry. Taylor slid over to me on her knees, placing a hand delicately around my shoulders.

“I’m sure it was nothing. Perhaps it was meant for his girlfriend?”

“Perhaps not.” I grumbled, shrugging of her arm in anger. God. Celebrities and their relationships. I should have known that ours would last no longer than a few weeks, until his girlfriend interjected. I was always just a “one night stand”, except minus the sex. Just a filler, until he started to text a new fan. I was not sad, nor dejected. I was on fire with pure hatred and anger. Why would Niall do this to me? He was supposed to be the sweetheart of the group, the quiet comedian. Leave the heartbreaking to Harry, Niall.

My eyes were alive with a fiery passion. I tried to focus all my hatred on the sour patch kids I was eating, biting each ones head off as if they were Niall himself. Taylor looked slightly scared at my eruption, slowly backing into her purple walls.

“I don’t care. REALLY.” I added, as I fiercely bit the head off of another sour patch victim. “I never liked him anyways. He’s stupid. You agree, right?” I didn’t wait for her reply, continuing fiercely with my rant. “I mean, we all knew this was going to happen.” Bye-bye to another sour patch kid. “It was just a matter of time. I was stupid for letting myself believe there was anything there, ever.” Taylor had known me long enough to know to not interject, and to let me finish my outburst. “I just can’t believe I let myself fall for him. Now I’m not getting back up. Ever.” I finally sighed in dejection, slumping slowly to the floor and finishing the last sour patch. I picked up my phone to the floor, and shot off a mean text back.

“Fine, then we should stop texting. I guess this is goodbye.” In my raging fury, I sent it without thinking.

Taylor still hadn’t said anything. She left the room for a good 5 minutes, finally returning with 2 tubs of “Phish food” Ice cream, 2 “Limonatas” (glorified sparkling lemonade), and my favorite childhood movie: The Parent Trap. I smiled at her for always knowing what I wanted. But somehow, this time, it wouldn’t be quite enough.

Niall’s POV

My date with Adrienne, as hard as I tried to remain engaged and interested, had failed. I left her without so much as a peck on the cheek. Liam was waiting for me at the door when I came back, asking about our date.

“Not too hot.” I replied honestly, flopping facedown on the black leather couch in our VIP hotel suite.

“Date didn’t go well?” He nodded knowingly, as if he had planned out this whole conversation.

“Well, it was fine. But that was it. It was just fine.”

“I understand. Don’t have the same spark as you did before?”

“Yeah. Not even that, it’s just… I feel guilty when I’m with her. Like I cheated on her with Zoe, or something.”

“Simple solution: duuump heeer” Harry burped from the doorway, holding a can of Coca Cola. I smirked at him, and buried my face in the couch cushions, again. They were not very comfortable. Modern furniture was twice the price, but half the comfort. (I may have stolen that subconsciously from some ad.). My mind was wandering again, a sign that I was avoiding a certain subject.

“But, why? I can’t just go up to her and tell her: ‘bye, sorry. I think our relationship sucks, so uh… see you never’, can I?” I would ruin my reputation if I did. Of course, this wasn’t the only thing I cared about, but it was certainly high on the list, me being a pop star and all.

“I’m sure there are a million reasons to dump this girl. You’ll think of something” Zayn added from the kitchen.

I didn’t know at the time that this statement would turn out to be completely and totally true.