Letters Not Sent, Voices Not Heard {A One Direction Fan Fiction}

Chapter 23 ~ The Girl's Distractions

May 2013

Bailey’s P.O.V.

I heard a high-pitched squeal as I walked through the door. My eyes snapped to where Delilah was sitting with Marley on the floor.

“Delilah!” I gasped, dropping my bag and gently snatching Marley up. “You can’t set her down on her back and mess with her stomach! She’s still recovering from her surgery!”

I’d had Marley for 3 weeks now and I was being extra careful. I hadn’t taken her for walks except maybe to the Starbucks a few buildings down the street. I hadn’t played with her much, settling for sitting with her on my lap while I read or letting her chase after a ball a little. She’d gotten her stitches out last week but I wasn’t taking any chances.

“Bailey I’m sure she’s fine,” Delilah said as she stood up and I held Marley to my chest gently.

“Delilah, I heard her whining when I walked through the door.” I said.

“That’s just because I accidentally poked her with my nail,” she said.

“I’m not taking any chances.” I said grabbing my bag off the floor and taking Marley to my room and closing the door behind me.

I set her gently on my bed and changed out of my work clothes and into yoga pants and a tank top. I piled my hair into a sloppy bun that took at least 5 tries to get right before setting Marley on my lap and watching “How I Met Your Mother.”

Marley was a puppy, but she didn’t go wild like most puppies I’d known. She was content to sit on my bed with me and curl up on my lap.

That’s not to say she hasn’t had her moments though. The week after she got here, I got no sleep because she was running around my room and I had to keep getting up to put her back on her bed. She had been so happy that she came up with a new game for us to play.

She reminded me of Niall; able to quietly and be serious for a while, but don’t be fooled because she’ll go CRAZY! She was exactly like Niall.

Niall.

Having Marley here had definitely distracted me from missing Niall. Taking care of her plus working was keeping me busy and my mind was away from the whole situation.

There was no way he didn’t know about Marley/ I had told Liam and Liam told the lads pretty much everything. Also, he probably thought Marley was too cute not to tell them. Niall probably didn’t believe him. He’d known his whole life I didn’t like dogs. I wonder if he changed the way I had. Had something switched in him as well that changed who he was like it had me?

“Marley!” I gasped. Lost in my thoughts, I hadn’t noticed her crawling off my lap and now she was stepping on my laptop keys, making the video pause and unpause over and over. I picked her up and held her to my face. “What are you doing?”

She responded by licking my nose and making me laugh. It was amazing the effect this little puppy had on my life. I hadn’t laughed or smiled truly since before I had left Niall’s, but now I was like a lot of the time. Marley had made me begin to come out of the darkness and shadows I had been living in.

Mum was dying to meet her. She couldn’t wait until May when she and dad were flying over to see me. I hadn’t seen mum since before I left. I had stopped in Ireland for a couple of days to finish packing and to say good-bye to mum and dad.

All night, I was distracted from my “me” time by Marley. She was unusually restless tonight. Normally she could sit quietly on my bed, but tonight she was all over the place. She was on my bed, on the floor, sniffing the door, meandering over to her bed, back on my bed. She was everywhere.