Torn

Chapter 5

After spending weeks secretly visiting me at my house Niall decided to suprise me by inviting me to One Direction's concert in New York. The prospect of this thrilled me and I really looked forward to it. I knew I couldn't be seen with Niall in public yet but I was dying to meet the rest of One Direction and I figured they must feel the same. I could just imagine how much Niall had told them about us.

Later that week when I took a flight to New York and Niall's driver picked me up at the airport I felt really nervous. What if the boys didn't like me? But I decided that if Niall liked me so would they. I mean the whole fandom knows they are so tight they're almost the same person. I got a key to Niall's hotel room and the driver said he would be back in half an hour, so I decided to go up and wait in the room. I put on some extra makeup and fixed my hair one more time. I really wanted to look pretty when I met them all. After a while I heard the door open and in came Niall with his mischievous smile and tousled hair. He smiled at me, lifted me up a little bit and kissed me passionately.    

"I'm so glad that you're here. It's going to give me a lot of great energy for the show when I can do this before I go on stage", he said and grabbed me by my waist and pushed me down on the bed.

He kissed my neck and continued down my belly. I stopped him and said: "We can do this later. Now I want to meet the boys."

Niall lifted his head and his ice blue eyes looked straight at me. He looked shocked and for a while he didn't say anything. He just looked at me with sad eyes. He sat up, took my hand and said: "I'm so sorry Ashley, but I think I wasn't clear enough when I brought you here. You can't meet the boys. You know what the management thinks."   

"Bu...u... but they're your best friends. I'm sure they would understand and wouldn't say anything." My voice was frail and I had a hard time holding my tears back.    

"I know, honey, but I just can't. I'm breaking the rules and we have to be careful so nobody finds out. Even if that means not telling the boys about you", he said.    

A while later Niall left for the show. I had gotten tickets to sit with the audience if I wanted to see the show. We had agreed we would meet up in the hotel room later and hang out for the rest of the night. I couldn't bring myself to tell Niall how much this really hurt me, but the minute he stepped out tears started dripping down my cheeks and I felt so disappointed. I didn't feel like going to the show any longer so I decided to stay in the hotel room and just wait for Niall to come back. To make time pass I went on Twitter. When the show was over, Liam added a new photo on Twitter. It was a photo of him, Danielle, Zayn and Perrie, hanging out backstage ready to go to the afterparty. My heart started to beat really fast. I threw my phone on the floor and my head was full of thoughts. This was just not fair. How could everybody but Niall be allowed to have a girlfriend? How could that be possible? Or maybe it wasn't. Maybe Niall had lied. Maybe the contract never existed and this was just Niall's way of having me right where he wanted to. A secret nobody knew about and no responsibility. Niall Horan could be single and popular to the rest of the world and still get to have all the good things in a relationship. Maybe I was just a toy to him...

I was furious and the minute Niall walked in through the door I ran to him and pushed him into the wall. I yelled at him telling him every little thing I was feeling while tears streamed down my cheeks. Every time Niall started to say something I screamed louder and he just pissed me off more. It didn't matter what he had to say. It didn't matter anymore if the contract was real or not. I couldn't stand being Niall's secret girlfriend any longer. The last words I said before rushing down the stairs were:

"I'm not going to be your secret anymore, Niall. I just can't." 

I checked into another hotel that night but didn't get much sleep. The next morning I couldn't bring myself to get out of bed. Even though I knew I had done the right thing, it was so hard to understand that I was never going to feel Niall's arms around me anymore or even hear his dumb jokes which weren't that funny at all. But at that moment I caught myself laughing and I knew what I had to do. I had to give him the chance to explain himself. He was worth that, we were worth that.

When I got back to our hotel room, Niall wasn't there. I decided to pack my things and bring them to my new room. When I was almost done, I saw something laying on the bed. It was one of the most beautiful dresses I had ever seen. White, short and with a low back. On the dress a note laid which said: "Ashley, I know I haven't treated you right. But that's all going to change if you give me a second chance. Put this dress on and let me show the world who my girl is tonight. Meet me outside the hotel at 8. / Your prince"