Simon's Secret (One Direction FanFiction)

Chapter 30

Zayn's POV

  At first, Simon's preposition shocked all of us. We weren't quite sure how to react, what with everything that had been going on, so Liam had just told him we'd think about it. Simon really wasn't happy about that. He was our boss, after all.

  But asking us to jump right back into the recording studio, and then possibly even on tour, just seemed like a lot. For the past few months we hadn't done much other than a few concerts, and I seriously wasn't sure if we could handle a full on tour. Of course, the fans were getting anxious. Millions of tweets asked us when we'd be on tour again, and we really needed a straight answer to give them.

   Simon said that he would need an answer by tomorrow morning. That evening, after returning from hospital, Harry, Liam, Lou and I sat around Lou's home. Niall had gone home with Alex to "make sure she was okay."

  None of us really said anything. We were all deep in thought, staring intensely at the ground or, in my case, a pillow. What were we going to do? We had to do something. 

  Finally Liam broke the silence by stating, "Well, we can't really make a decision without Niall. Or, you know, talking." I nodded, along with Louis and Harry. Niall was a big part of this group, but did have to try and decide on something while he was away.

  "I just think..." I started, trailing off. "I just think it might be too much stress to go back on tour right away. We don't even know where we'd be going, and Si said he wants us to start next week." I bit lip anxiously, peering at the three of them.

  Harry agreed, "That's true, about the stress. But he also said that everything had already been sorted out, the locations and such." 

  We fell silent once again. Harry did have a point - our many agents and managers had already figured out everything that was to become of this sudden tour. Simon told us that it would only be of the U.K., so we didn't have to worry about world-wide traveling.

  Louis sat up and leaned back, scratching his chin in mock thoughtfulness. He pondered, "What if we asked for a delay on the tour? Nothing's final yet, so we could have it pushed back a week. And until then we could start writing and recording, like he mentioned."

  The four of us shared a look. Then, one-by-one, we all nodded. A week was too soon for us to jump right back on tour, but two weeks would have to work. Louis nodded with closure, then pulled out his phone and began madly typing away on it. Liam curiously inquired, "Uh, Lou, what are you doing?" 

  He didn't even glance up as he answered, "Checking with Niall. I want to make sure he's okay with this - and most likely interrupt and intimate activities him and Alex are having." We all stifled a laugh at that.

  Except for Harry. "Her arm is fractured, dude. And whatever happened to her foot," he mumbled. Louis made wide eyes, holding up his hands in submission.

****

Niall's POV

  My phone buzzed just as I was getting into Simon's car. I sat down in the passenger seat then pulled it out, surprised to find that it was a text from Louis. The message said something about some decision the guys had made about Simon's proposal, but even after reading it over three times, I couldn't remember what it said. 

  My mind was elsewhere. I could only think about how awful I felt for Alex and Harry. I had caused this pain for them, and they knew it just as well as I did. On the drive to her house, I'd apologized to Alex and her father many times.

  They had just brushed it off, saying that "it was nobody's fault" and to "stop blaming myself." Right now, as Simon started down the driveway, I prepared to apologize again.

  I started, "Look, Simon, I'm so sorry about this - about everything." He opened his mouth to protest, but I stopped him. "Don't tell me it's not my fault, or that it couldn't be helped. Because it could. I just want you to know... I never meant for this to happen. I'm sorry." He was quiet, stonily watching the road before him.

  Simon made a left turn, then sat in another thirty seconds of silence. I was starting to get extremely uncomfortable, when suddenly he said, "You really love her?" I blinked, taken aback by the straight-forwardness of his question.

  "Yes," I said, clearing my throat awkwardly. "Yes, I really do love her. I'm in love with her." Simon nodded.

  I watched him anxiously, trying to read his face for any sign of emotion. He did nothing. His eyes were hidden by sunglasses, so that really made things difficult. I wasn't sure if I should keep talking, so I leaned back in my seat and fized my own eyes on the road.

  "Be good to her, Niall," Simon commanded. "I know the two of you aren't dating, but I can see the way she looks at you. And she does love you. So don't hurt her." My heart skipped a beat and I nodded eagerly. Did Simon just give me permission to date Alex? Could I finally ask her out? I'd done my fair share of waiting.

  And - wait. She loves me? Alex's dad thinks she loves me? Well I difinitely had to ask her out now! Of course, I'd have to wait some more. I'd have to check with Harry, and give her time to recover from the accident.

  But I could wait. What was few days more compared to the last three months spent waiting?

****

Alex's POV

  As soon as my dad and Ni were gone, I climbed carefully out of bed and grabbed my one crutch. I tucked the crutch under my one good arm and hopped out into the hall. Where was my phone again? Somewhere out here...

  You see, my dad really just wanted me to sleep, so he took my phone away. For now, though, he was out dropping Niall off at Louis' house.  That gave me about twenty minutes to locate my phone and text Emerald.

  What had Dad said earlier? "You need some rest, so I'll be taking your phone. When you wake I'll get it out of the kitchen for you," or something like that. It definitely involved the kitchen. Unfortunately enough for me, the kitchen was downstairs. Going up the stairs on a crutch was simple enough, but going down was a completely different story.

  For my phone, I had to risk it.

  At first, I was extremely cautious. I gingerly placed my good foot on the first stair, followed by my crutch, and then the booted foot. I tried to keep off of the floor as much as I could, but sometimes it was just impossible to.

  Luckily it was only sprained, so walking without the crutch wasn't really too difficult. Combined with the boot, I was honestly just using the crutch as comfort. And on this trek down the stairs, I seriously needed comfort.

  I made it to the bottom of the staircase without too many problems. Actually, I ended up falling at the last step, but we can over look that...

  I rushed into the kitchen and glanced around to find my phone. At first I didn't see it, and my heart sunk. Had he taken it with him? Before turning to go back upstairs, my eyes scanned the room again - and then there it was... on the top of the cupboards.

  Well that posed quite a problem. How was I going to get it down? In our kitchen the cupboards lined the walls, near the ceiling. If I was going to get to my phone now, I would have climb on top of the counter. That was going to be rather difficult with only two fully functioning limbs. It was for the sake of my phone, though, so it had to be done.

  Before I really had a chance to think this through, my good hand was hoisting the rest of my body up onto the counter top. This was probably a terrible decision. I couldn't even use one hand, and one foot had a heavy boot on it. Now was definitely not the time to go climbing.

  It's for the phone, Alex. You can do this.