Torn

Chapter 2

When I later that night laid in the hotel bed trying to fall asleep, I almost thought I had just dreamed it all. But the number on my phone was real. I had Niall Horan's phone number. 

I didn't tell my friends the next morning what had happened the night before. It just felt impossible to say that sort of thing and maybe they would get mad at me for not inviting them. We were staying one more night at the hotel and this day we were going to spend shopping! I had always loved to shop in London and always came home with lots of shopping bags after a day spent downtown.  When we sat in the cab, on our way, I saw a newspaper laying in the cab. On the front page was a huge picture taken of Niall Horan kissing a girl at a party. The girl's face was turned around and you couldn't see it. But I knew it was me, that was my dress and that was yesterday. The headline said: "Niall Horan hooking up with a girl last night, apparently our Nialler isn't that sweet and innocent after all."  I started to feel sick and pulled out my phone to see if the photo was on the internet. And it was, it was all over Twitter. The fans were so mad. Every one of them said words worse than the one before. "Who is that slut and what is she doing to Niall???" "She's so ugly. She doesn't deserve him." "Can't she see he only used her,  he was probably drunk and just wanted someone to hook up with." "I hope you die bitch!" I had a hard time breathing and my eyes started to tear up. I felt tear drops on my cheeks but quickly removed them with my hand. My friend looked over my shoulder and said: "Who is that girl with Niall? Eeew, she doesn't look pretty at all. But look, Ash, she got good taste in fashion, same dress as you."

After a long day of shopping we were finally back at the hotel. I had been  in a bad mood since I saw the paper and my friends had noticed. They only thought I was tired from last night and we decided to go to bed early.  When I had almost fallen asleep, my phone went off. It was a text message and it was from Niall:  "I saw the paper, are you okay? Do you wanna hang out and talk? I can pick you up. :)"

Twenty minutes after I had received the text message I was standing on the street waiting for Niall to pick me up. It was a really cold summer night and I had goose bumps all over my body. I hadn't had much time to get ready and didn't really like the idea of meeting Niall Horan in sweat pants. So I had changed into the first thing I found in my bag which turned out to be a pair of shorts. Which I now regretted because of the weather. 

A black car with black windows pulled up near me. A man came out and opened the door to the backseat for me. There he was,  with his blonde hair and perfect smile, Niall. He was even more gorgeous than the night before, if that was even possible. About ten minutes later we were in his apartment. And it was stunning, he actually had a great taste and the most amazing view.

"Do you want something? Tea, coffee?" Niall asked. We decided to make some tea. When I was pouring water in the cups, Niall started to tickle me and distract me. I laughed so hard that I had to put the pot down. I turned around and looked straight into his eyes.

"You're so amazing. I'm so sorry for what the paper said and what people were typing on the internet. You really don't deserve any of that" , Niall said.

Without having any kind of control over it I started to cry. Everything I had felt that day and kept to myself came up and I really couldn't hold back the tears. Niall came closer to me. He wrapped his arms around me. He looked at me, wiped away my tears and kissed my forehead.

After a while, when I was feeling a whole lot better, we decided to watch a movie. We laid there on the couch, wrapped in each other's arms, feeling our hearts beat against each other. It felt like nothing in the world could be better than this. At the sound of Niall's heart I fell asleep.