Like Before (Niall Horan)

Chapter Nineteen: Some Sick Reason

As soon as Steph and I had gotten to my house, I pulled up Skype on my computer, seeing Niall on, I called him.

"Hey Alix." Niall's voice was like music to my ears. He was smiling at me and I smiled back. "Hey Steph." Niall noticed Steph beside me.

"Hey. I've missed you." I told him. I had come to the conclusion that no matter how much I tried, I couldn't help but miss him all the time.

"I miss you too." Niall said and then Tia came up and sat on my lap.

"Niall!" She shrieked waving at the computer.

"Hey Tia." Niall grinned at her. "I'm with the other lads if you want to see them." Niall suggested and Tia nodded. 

A knock on the door made me turn my head to the door in time to see Sarah walk to it. No, we still hadn't spoken to each other since I yelled at her. I said some pretty mean things to her and I really should apologize but I can't bring myself to. She needed to know what happened when she left. Her face went pale as she opened the door just a little and she turned to look directly at me.

"Steph can you please take Tia up to her room." Sarah's whole body was screaming in panic. I wrinkled my eyebrows together, putting my laptop on the stand and stood up as Steph walked with Tia upstairs. 

"Who's at the…" My voice stopped and my body froze when I looked at who was standing in our doorway. I felt all the blood drain from my face.

"Alix!" Mom looked like she was going to cry and she looked almost no different than when she left us. My blood ran cold as she pushed past Sarah to hug me. "Why did you send Tia upstairs? I wanted to see her." Mom said looking toward the stairs. My mind kicked into overdrive as I thought about Mom seeing Tia. 

No. No way was that happening.

I stepped between Mom and the stairs and crossed my arms over my chest. "Why did you come back?" My voice was stronger than I expected and Sarah came and stood beside me.

"I wanted to see my kids."

"Do you really think thats a good idea?" Sarah asked. She also crossed her arms over her chest.

"What do you mean? Of course it is. I'm your mother." Mom crossed her arms over her chest. So thats what I got from Mom.

"Mother? Really? So you were our mother when you left us here with your drunken husband?" I asked.

"You know I didn't want to do that, but I couldn't handle it at the time. I'm better now though."

"Better?" I asked and Sarah put her hand on my arm.

"Why don't we go into the kitchen and talk about this?" Sarah suggested.

"I want to see Tia. I bet she's gotten so big." Mom started to come closer to the stairs.

"Like hell you are. You aren't going anywhere near Tia. No thanks to you, she's having a decent childhood." I growled at her.

"Watch your mouth young lady." Mom scolded me.

"Lets go into the kitchen and talk about this like adults." Sarah coaxed Mom into the kitchen and sat her at the table. I got each of us a glass of water.

"Sarah, I didn't know you came back. Last I knew you were off to California." Mom started.

"How did you know that?" Sarah asked. "You were gone a year before I left."

"I kept tabs on you guys. Its not like I flipped a switch and stopped caring about you."

"Oh really, thats not how I saw it when you left us." I glared at her.