Like Before (Niall Horan)

Chapter Eighteen: I Would Always Be Just Me

The ride to the airport was way too short for my liking. 

This whole trip was way to short for my liking. 

They were leaving too early and I wanted them to stay. 

As we walked into the airport, Niall had his arm around my waist and was carrying Tia. Harry and Steph were to the side of Niall and the other boys were close behind us.

"You'll Skype me when you get home right?" I asked Niall.

"Of course." He leaned down and kissed the top of my head. We had all come to a stop, knowing it was where we had to part ways. Tia gave Niall a big hug and then made her way around to the other boys, leaving Louis until last. She had grown very fond of the Doncaster boy now that Harry and Steph had gone public. Louis was holding her as Niall and I hugged. "I'm going to miss you." Niall said resting his nose against mine.

"Two weeks." I told him shutting my eyes. "Two weeks and you'll be back. If I think of it like that, it makes this a lot easier than it would be." I told him and I felt his breath as he let out a chuckle.

"Two weeks." He told me and his lips pressed to mine. It was a light kiss and then our noses were touching again. "I'm still going to miss you. And I'm still going to talk to you all the time." Niall told me.

"Good. I'm going to miss you too." I told him and he hugged me again and then kissed me once more before being pulled away by Zayn. I gave each of the other boys a hug and then hugged Niall one more time before taking Tia's hand. I looked over just as Steph was kissing Harry goodbye and then she came over to us as the boys boarded their plane. 

Waving goodbye once more, we had to walk out. 

We sat in my car waiting for the plane to take off then I pulled out of the airport and drove us back to my house. "Why do they keep leaving us?" Tia asked.

"Well they aren't leaving because they want to." Steph told her. "They have concerts and families back in England."

"But why don't they just stay with us."

"Tia, they can't. They have other things they have to do. But they'll be back." I told her and she pouted still. She had grown so attached to them. What was I saying? I had grown too attached to them too. 

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The first couple of days without the boys was hard. I wanted them to be around but I knew they couldn't be. My birthday was in 11 days now. Graduation was the week after that. I had applied to colleges to just see if I could get in and I had. It was nice to know I had options after Tia had grown up. But she was my first priority. She would always be my first priority.

After Mom and Sarah left, it was up to me and I had to be Tia's parent and I was fine with it. Tia needed me. She needed somebody with her because she was just a kid and she shouldn't have to grow up too fast just because her parents were unfit. I did something about it and I would never regret the decisions I've made up until this point. I would never take back the way I took care of Tia.

Sure I hadn't had much time for myself. I didn't do what most high schoolers had done. I have never been to a high school party, I've never done drugs. These aren't bad things, but they are things that could have been tried in high school, but I had to grow up. I didn't have the chance to go to the mall everyday after school since I had a job. I never got to go on school trips and beg my parents for money because I was the one being begged for money for these trips. I didn't have a ton of friends or make a ton of connections at other schools because I was too busy and only Steph and Jaesin understood this.

Do I wish that maybe things had been different? I'm sure everyone in my position would, but that didn't mean things were going to change. I wasn't going to suddenly wake up and have Mom home and Dad alive and them together in a perfect marriage. I wasn't going to be waiting for Sarah to come home from college with all these amazing stories about what she had done or how she had met Andrew. I wasn't going to introduce my boyfriend to Dad and hope he approved. Mom was never going to say that Niall was a nice boy and defend him to Dad. I was never going to be encouraged to go to college and make a life for myself. Tia would never call someone Mom or Dad until she was married, if she even did then. Maybe when she got a real best friend she would start calling their parents her own.