For Now and Always (Liam Payne)

Chapter 11

When he left, she didn't go to the airport to see him off. Liam explained that it would be a massive crowd and she didn't have a way home. It was better to say goodbye away from that drama. So, she kissed him and wished him well then went about her life as normally as she could. She went to class. The job at the library came through so she spent hours shelving books, losing herself in the work. The only hard time was at night. He was on the other side of the world and when she went to bed, he was just waking up. Eva waited to go to sleep until the phone rang each night, talking to Liam about nothing and falling asleep as he talked.

Dylan made the mistake of showing her how to use twitter. She became obsessed with seeing new pictures. She'd never seen him perform live. It was intoxicating. His voice, the way he moved on stage, all made her miss him more. The October weather was dreary and everyday there was a new picture of Liam surfing, Liam laying by the pool, Liam at a nightclub and she was lonely. Three weeks in to the separation there came a night he didn't call. She stayed up, waiting until exhaustion took over and she fell asleep on the couch. The next morning bought picture of Liam at a club, dancing with someone who wasn't her. It was reported that he was out until 5am, so of course he didn't call. He was in the hotel, asleep. When the phone did ring, she didn't answer. Then the texts started.

Liam: I'm sorry.

Liam: answer yer phone.

Liam: I meant to call. I slept in.

Eva: You went out dancing. I have twitter and I'm not stupid. And it's spelled YOUR.

Liam: It didn't mean anything. It was just dancing. Answer your phone.

The phone rang and she answered it. Before he could even speak, she said "I'm not mad because you didn't call. You don't have to call me every night. I'm mad because...

"The pictures. I know. It's just that the guys were ragging on me for not having a girlfriend and they were..." Liam began.

"What?" Eva interrupted.

"They don't know about you, okay? I haven't told anyone about us."

Eva hung up the phone and threw it at the wall. She was hurt and embarrassed. Everyone she knew thought she had a boyfriend. SHE thought she had a boyfriend. The phone rang. She ignored it.

It rang again and again she ignored it.

It rang a third time. She left it where it was and went to work.

An hour later, she heard Dylan screaming for her. "EVA! EVA! WHERE ARE YOU? The librarian at the desk scolded Dylan, asking her to be quiet! This was a library! In true Dylan fashion, she looked right at the librarian and screamed again! "EVA STUART! GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE!" Eva knew that if she didn't answer, Dylan would just keep on screaming. She sighed and walked out if the stacks, heading for the noise. Dylan saw her and made a mad dash to her location. "WHAT HAPPENED? WHAT DID YOU DO?" she screamed.

Liam must have called her or she must have answered that phone, Eva thought. She stood there, arms crossed, trying to look defiant and pissed. "For god's sake, Dylan!" she started. "Ms. Stuart, please remove your friend from this library. I am NOT happy." called the voice of the librarian. Eva sighed and grabbed Dylan by her arm and dragged her outside.

"What in the name of god is wrong with you? I need this job and you know it!"

"Eva! Eva! Shhhh..." Dylan said. "Shut up! You need to see this! What happened with Liam? What is going on?"

"See what? He told me he didn't have a girlfriend, so I hung up on him." Eva stated.

Dylan shoved her phone in her face. "THIS has been going CRAZY since you left. I finally went up to see what the hell was wrong with the bloody thing. He tweeted about you, Eva. He TWEETED about YOU to like 20 million people." Eva's phone was still going crazy. Hundreds of mentions. Tons of retweets. What had he said? She couldn't even get to twitter to check. The notifications wouldn't stop.

"What did he say! My phone! I can't..."

She grabbed Dylan's phone. Dylan had the tweet up.

"I miss you @EvaStuart and I can't wait to hold you again" the tweet said. It was followed by the kissy emoji and included her picture! She didn't even know when he took it. It was her profile, long, brown, curly hair blowing away from her face with a shy smile, her eyes down. She was stunned. He had gone from NOT having a girlfriend to publicly outing her! She has so many mentions, she couldn't keep up. They were everything from "Follow me." to "I hate you, you bitch." to "You are SOOOOOO lucky" to "You are ugly and don't deserve him." She had no idea what do to or what to think.

Dylan took over. She changed her settings so she didn't get the mentions or retweets. She added HER @DylanTheHottie to Eva's bio as her bff. Then she scrolled through the pictures and changed her profile into a picture of Eva's face instead of the egg she had been.

The librarian came to the door, clearly annoyed. "Ms. Stuart!" she said.

Eva turned and ran into the library. Let Dylan deal with it, she thought. I have got to work.

......................................

Hours later, Eva had finished working, and started to walk home. She gave herself a pep talk as she walked. "Listen, stupid, call him when you get home. He loves you. He told you he loves you. Call him."

As soon as she walked in the door, Dylan thrust the phone into her hands. "He called. Every 10 minutes. I took pity on him and answered the phone. He's going to call any second. I told him the library closes a 1am on Friday's and you always work as much as you can."

Dylan finished her speech and the phone rang. Taking a deep breath, she answered. "Hello?"

"What in the hell are you thinking? You work until 1am and then you WALK HOME? You could be mugged. You could..." Liam raged.

"STOP!" Eva yelled and he stopped. She walked up the stairs to her bedroom, thinking of what to say next. She sat on her bed, kicked off her shoes and sighed. "You don't get to be mad at me. I'm mad at you. You KNOW that I have trust issues. You know I worry all the time that I am just a joke to you. Then you tell me that you don't tell people about me? Not the four boys you call your brothers? Seriously? What did you think I would say?"

The silence on the other end of the line was deafening. She didn't even hear him breathing. She huffed and was about to hang up when he finally spoke. "You are right." He said. "I should have told the boys. I'm sorry. I was just...well, trying to keep you to myself. Everyone in the world knows everything about my life. I needed something that was just mine. That something was you. I'm sorry. I should have explained."

How could she be mad after that? She huffed again, because she was mad that she understood his reasons and that he was going to win this fight. "Ok." She said.

"Ok?"

"Yes, ok. I'm sorry. I overreacted and I should have let you explain." Eva said.

"Did I just win?" Liam asked, surprised. "Did I actually win an argument with you? You NEVER let me win."

"It won't happen again, don't worry. By the way, you broke my twitter."

Liam laughed. "Sorry, but I needed to get your attention. It worked, uh?"

Eva told him the story of Dylan and the evil librarian. He wished he could have seen Dylan screaming her head off. He thought Dylan was extremely entertaining. Scary as hell, but entertaining.

"Now, about this 1am walking home stuff. NO MORE. You got me? Take a cab. Take a bus." He implored.

"Cabs are expensive and the bus leaves a 1:15 and I always miss it. I'm fine. I swear." They talked until Eva couldn't open her eyes. She fell asleep to the sound of Liam's voice, content and happy.

At 8am the next morning, Dylan flew into her room, jumped on her bed and told her she better wake up. Liam had sent her a present. She ran down the stairs, expecting flowers. The delivery man asked for her signature and handed her a key. "Thanks ma'am. She's all yours." He said. Eva looked out the door. Liam had sent her a car.