The Perks of Being a Wintergirl

Like Brothers

--Check your twitter, mate.--

He cancelled out of the message and got onto twitter, nearly tripping up the front step to the door.

"Niall!" His mom scolded "Check your phone when you're inside, Come on! Your bags are heavy!!" he had totally forgotten about his luggage.

"I'm sorry," He apologized quickly turning around to grab the heavier suitcase. His mum sighed in relief once the heavy bag was no longer digging into her shoulder.

In true gentelman's fashion, he held the door for her and then followed her into the living room, setting the luggage on the floor, the retrieved his phone and pulled up twitter again and his timeline was filled with well wishes for Alison and fans showing their support for him and the lads. He started tearing up again, this last 24 hrs had proved to be an emotional disaster for him. He decided tweet his fans and thank them for being so kind.

-- A massive thank you to all the fans for showing me & my friend so much love! I love you all! You guys are AMAZING! xx--

He then called Harryto let him know how everything was going.

"Hey, man, how was the concert?" He asked.

"It was amazing!! The whole crowd was cheerin for you! We had them sing your parts, Louis told them about Alison and he told them to send you some tweets out to let you know they love you." Harry told him "And of course we missed you out there. Not the same without you, man." 

"Niall!! We missed you, mate. Can't wait for you to be back!" Louis said, taking the phone from Harry.

"Love you, bro. Hurry home so I can kick ur ass on FIFA" Zayn teased.

"Can't wait to see you, bro. No one makes breakfast like you and we are hungry!!" Liam chimed in.

"Told you." Harry said finally gettin the phone back "We love you bro!"

"I love you guys so much, it really means a lot to me that you guys have my back."

"That's what brothers do." he said "We have each other's backs no matter what."

"I couldn't do this without you guys"

Niall felt so much better after talking to the lads and after the stress of the day, he decided a nice, hot, relaxing shower was just what he needed. He was just about to put his phone on the charger when the text message popped up.

--We need to talk-- It was from his manager.

Niall decided he would also need a few beers after that.

***Niall's mum's house***

"Seriously Niall, stop beating yourself up over this, mate. It's not your fault." Zayn said over Skype chat.

"I know, I mean I wish I could have been here to stop her in the first place." He said taking a drink from the bottle of Corona that was sitting next to his laptop.

"But you weren't, you were here with us and no amount of mopping or wishing can change that, it's happened, it's in the past, mate. You gotta take it for what it really is and move on." Zayn said rubbing his eyes and taking a drink of coffee.

"I know, I know. I just can't stop feeling guilty."

"You can, though. From what I know of her in the little time I had to get to know her, I can see how you both care about eachother and I feel like she would be upset if she knew you were blaming yourself." Zayn said. When Niall didn't say anything, he continued "If you're really that worried about it, call her. I'm sure she will tell you the samething I've been telling you. But I gotta get going.. I'm supposed to meet Perrie for brunch and I still gotta take Harry his breakfast."

"Alright, mate. I'll get at you later on then." Niall replied.

"Alright. And call her! Then call or send me a text and let me know how it went, ok?" 

"Alright, man. Love you, bro."

"Love you, too, mate. Bye."

Niall disconnected the video chat. He was really missing the lads. They did just about everything either as a whole group or at least with one or two of the others, and he was doing this without any of them there and it was really getting to him. He tried to get himself together and grabbed his phone to call Alison.

"Niall." She answered and he could tell that she was smiling by the way she said his name.

"Alright." He said, "How are you feeling? Did I wake you?"

"No, I haven't been able fall asleep. They just came to check on the bandages and brought me a little snack."

"You should really try to get some rest." He spoke softly. "Can I ask you something?" The last part he asked even softer.

"You can always ask me anything, Niall." She said. This made him choke up a little, he was expecting her to feel let down by him, because that is honestly what he felt he had done, let her done.

"I've been worrying myself sick over this and I just need to know if you forgive me for not being there for you when you-" 

"Niall." She said, cutting him off. "None of this is your fault. How would you even think that it was."

"Because I should have been there when you were upset. I feel like I've let you down and I'm having a hard time forgiving myself."

"Niall, I love you. You are my best friend and you know that so stop, please. If you need to me tell you I forgive you, for you to feel better then I will say it as many times as you need to hear it, even thought you did nothing wrong. Honestly, you did more than any regular friend would, no one else I know would fly across the globe, risking getting in trouble, just to be there for me and to be honest, you know I'd have done the same." she said, hoping that this would make him feel better, she could tell by his voice that this was weighing heavy on his heart.

"I feel a lot better now." He said after a very long moment of silence from his end of the line.

"Good!" She was glad that his mood was getting better. "I should be the one to feel guilty though. If I hadn't been so foolish, you wouldn't be getting in any trouble with your managers..."She trailed off.

"Don't be. I'm just glad that I was able to come at all. You were just feeling really sad.. Next time that you feel that way, please call me. If I don't answer, call my mum or Miranda, I know that they will be more than willing to talk to you no matter what time you need them."

"Thank you." She said "I will...but I've got go now, they are coming to give me something to help me fall asleep. I love you! Let me know how it goes with your managers."

"Alright, I will, love you..bye" 

***Alison's hospital room***

Alison set her phone down next to her just as the nurse walked in to check on her.

"How are you feeling, love?" She asked sweetly. She was an older woman, maybe in her 50's, a little on the heavy side with short curly blonde hair that was starting to show a few greys. She looked at her with sad eyes, and wondered what could possibly make such a young girl want to end her life. 

"Rather foolish to be honest." Alison confessed.

"Hush now, love. I'm gonna give you something in your IV to help you sleep and then in the morning, Liza will be in to check on you, ok?"

"Thank you." Alison responded, trying to adjust her pillow. Looking over at the cot next to the window where Miranda was fast asleep. She hadn't left her side once, except to get a meal at the cafeteria and then earlier today when she had to go to dance.

"Oh, and you've received some flowers." the nurse said giving them to her.

Alison thanked her and took the flowers. The were beautiful and made her smile. They were from Harry.

--Love, Harry xx--  

Was all it said and she was pretty sure that she was really starting to fall for him.