Mark My Words

Chapter 13: Sunshine

I was so enthused about being with Liam that I actually decided to stay at his house for the night. No, we didn’t do anything silly. Remember, this was Liam Payne, the boy who got eleven chicken nuggets when he ordered ten so he returned one out of guilt. He was a perfect gentleman towards me. I slept in his sister’s old room since his family was away visiting friends in Northern Ireland, I learned. It was Ruth’s bedroom, I believe.

When I woke up, the house was filled with the overwhelming yet calm aroma of cinnamon. Wrapped up in a fuzzy pink robe, which probably belonged to Nicola considering there was a dark cursive “N” sewn into the front just above my chest, I walked down the stairs into the kitchen. Much to my surprise, Niall was hovering over the stove.

“Niall?” I was so confused.

Niall dropped the spatula and it hit him on the foot. “Ow!” He nearly jumped high enough to touch the ceiling out of fright. “Jordin? You right about gave me a heart attack!” He rubbed his eyes. “What are you doing here?”

I widened my eyes. “I should be asking you the same,” I answered. 

Niall laughed in his own little unique way. This boy thought everything was funny. “I’m making breakfast. But I asked you first anyway,” his attention turned back to the sizzling French toast. He looked so cute, wearing his white tank top and blue plaid lounge pants, probably belonging to Liam.

Liam! My boyfriend! I remembered the night before and smiled uncontrollably. Thinking of the way Liam sang that song reminded me of a very special day in my life. The X-Factor auditions. The day I met Zayn and he “saved” me. I grabbed my phone which was currently perched on a stack of magazines on the kitchen island and dialed Zayn. “Hold on, Niall,” I said. I walked into the other room for some privacy.

“Hello?” He answered.

“Zayn, oh my God. I don’t know how to thank you enough. You’re a real friend.” I expected a standard polite “you’re welcome” but instead I got…

“Eleanor and Louis are dating.” His voice faded out towards the end. 

“Eleanor? The one you like?” I asked, hoping for my poor best friend’s life it wasn’t true. I knew how he’d truly felt about Eleanor. He’d told me so on multiple occasions.

“Yes,” he said with pain in his voice. I could practically feel it as I remembered when Liam proposed to Danielle in the airport. I quickly forgot and attempted to console my friend. “Like, it’s going to be so awkward being around them all the time. Louis is my friend and he saw me hanging out with Eleanor. I’m pretty sure he knew how I felt about her. Plus, I already screwed her.” 

I hated the way he said that, along with the fact that he’d done it in the first place.

“Aw, Zayn, I’m so sorry. I know how you feel about her,” my voice and mind trailed off as my brain hatched a brilliant new idea. “Hey! I have a cousin who you’d like a lot. I should set you two up! Forget about Eleanor,” I suggested.

“Not your cousin Rae-Anne, right? I met her before. She was,” he paused. “Different.” 

I couldn’t help but crack up at that. Zayn had tagged along with me to one of my dad’s family parties. There he met my super crazy, obsessive, manipulative, evil, and stupid cousin Rae-Anne. I don’t feel bad at all for calling her those names. When we were younger, she would play hide and seek with me and lock me in wherever I was. Once, I was locked in her bedroom closet for three hours. Ever since then I’ve been claustrophobic. On top of that, she’s about as smart as a brick. I think she was held back in grade school twice. Also, when she was fifteen, Rae-Anne was arrested for sneaking into the Jonas Brothers’ hotel room in Dublin. You could safely say that my cousin was insane.

“Oh, God no! You’ll like this one; she’s around our age and stunningly beautiful. It’s my mom’s brother’s daughter,” I explained. I went on about my cousin Perrie who was on the X-Factor just like he was, and I almost was. “But Zayn, if things work out, please take care of her. She’s awesome.” The conversation pretty much ended there, so I called Perrie and set up the blind date. She sounded thrilled to finally meet my best friend and get to know him, no matter how things ended up. I walked back into the kitchen to see Niall still slaving away.

Liam ran into the house via the front door. “Hey beautiful,” he kissed my cheek. “I want to thank you for letting me kiss you even when I’m all sweaty and whatnot.” Liam had always done this. When we were younger, I’d see him run by my house every morning for his jog right before school. He’d always be so polite and wave at anyone who passed by. He was truly the sunshine in a lot of peoples’ lives. 

He walked over to Niall. “Sup, bro?” They did that handshake all guys do. I chuckled at them trying to be manly when in reality all five of the One Direction boys were cupcakes. They started chatting about some nonsense, so I played on my phone. I decided to check Twitter, something I really wish I hadn’t done.

When I logged onto Twitter, I did notice some strange mentions. I always had them, considering the fact that I was very close with Zayn. Clearly and luckily, they’d had no clue that I was the idiotic girl who rejected Liam Payne 22 times. I was so grateful for that. 

@jordinheil: good morning everyone :) x

I tried to be cute and act like Zayn by putting X’s after my tweets. It was amusing to me.

@lovee_zaynmalik: @jordinheil good morning jordin! Follow?x

@punkasstomlinson: @jordinheil hi where have you been girl you don’t tweet anymore

@Narryisrealll: @jordinheil well well well, look who decided to come on twitter!

It was true, I hadn’t tweeted since the boys and I had left for Mexico. Out of pure curiosity, I searched Eleanor up on Twitter. Sure enough, she had one. 

@EleanorJCalder: @Louis_Tomlinson Hi boo bear! ;)