Lights, Camera, Action [N.H]

18

a very short chapter! apologies, writing this one was hard. i hate when my girls daph + claire fight :( song of the chapter is 'satellite' by harry styles

My ears popped when the plane landed, finally relieving my headache after hours in the confines. Even money couldn't get us to escape the claustrophobia of being on a plane. I was sitting next to Niall, but by the time we'd reached the hotel I felt good enough to talk to Claire about what happened last night at the concert. It somehow felt like it had been days, but it had barely been 18 hours. When I woke up alone in my hotel room, not only was my alarm set, I had blankets resting on me, and the TV was turned off.

I wasn't sure what the best course of action was moving forward. Whether or not I should be avoiding or slowing down on the amount of time I was spending with Niall was debatable. I didn't want to upset Claire any more than she already was, but Niall also did a decent job of reassuring me that it wasn't necessary. He called it a temporary lapse of judgement, and told me she apparently did it often. I felt like that description was not only an oversimplification, and there was definitely more to it, but also he was reciting the 'mans' version of the situation. I figured he was missing key details, so I tried not to take his words at face value.

Regardless, I didn't know if I should just plant myself at Claire's doorstep and grovel. After all, I wasn't entirely sure exactly what to apologise for. Nothing had happened between us, what exactly was there to be sorry for? I slept on it, and during my nap I swore I was picturing us talking it out. Every time I tried to think of apologies, I came up blank. I hadn't hurt her, surely? All I had been doing was spending a bit more time with Niall, I hadn't said a word to her about having a crush since the last time we were in London, which was over a month ago. I tried to understand that she was worried for him, but there was also no reason for her to flip out at me, especially since she had no basis to even accuse us of being flirty.

I mean, I knew we were flirting.

But she didn't.

Well, at least that's what I'd call it. It was harmless, a bit of fun, really. He was incredibly attractive, and he was throwing his card down for everything we did. It felt nice to have a man be so nice to me and expect absolutely nothing in return. To seemingly endlessly throw gifts in my direction and gestures oozing kindness happening one after the other. Maybe this conversation with Claire was an opportunity for some answers.

I felt like I deserved them after the shit I'd been put through, despite the fact it wasn't really her fault.

But she contributed - a little.

We landed and our bags got onto the van almost as quickly as we did as a crew. The drive was silent, I heard Claire chewing gum nervously but knew that now wasn't the time. I'd wait.

The second we arrived at the hotel and I dropped my bags, I didn't even give myself a chance to unzip it, let alone unpack it, before grabbing my room card and walking to go to Claire's room. I opened my door nervously and practically ran into Claire, as I didn't expect her to be right out the front of it.

"Oh!" I blinked in startle.

"Sorry! Sorry."

"It's okay."

It went silent.

"Did you want to..." I moved to the side, gesturing for her to come in. She nodded and walked in. I didn't know how to start.

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry." She began. This would be easy.

"You're...sorry?"

"I shouldn't have taken my anger out on you, and I... I didn't mean to leave you on purpose, you know that... right?" She grabbed my hands in hers gently, looking to my eyes for sympathy. I gave it to her immediately, my gaze softening.