My old friend (One Direction fanfiction)

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Stairs

I woke up the next day with a start, and bolted up in bed, my mind swarmed by horrific nightmares and flashbacks. After calming myself down I realised that doing that had actually really hurt my ribs, and I lighlty ran my fingers over them, wincing. Remembering yesterday, I felt guilty. All the boys had been having fun, and I just had to ruin it by having a stupid life and crying, just like I always do. I sighed, and decided that today I was going to be happy, and that today was going to be the day that I didn't actually cry. If I succeeded, well, it would probably be the only day I hadn't cried since I was about twelve, so I was determined.

I reached over to the side of the bed, and after much effort, pain and pulling, I managed to get out, with no tears. My head started to spin, and I had to steady myself on the table beside the bed. I told myself that this was because I was still injured, but really I knew that I had to eat something soon. I slowly hopped to the door, but then I stopped. Was I allowed to leave the room? In my Uncle's house I wasn't allowed to leave unless I was going to school. Maybe Harry and the rest of the boys would be angry if I left. Maybe they would hit me... I tried to clear these thoughts from head as I leant against the wall. As far as I knew Harry and his band weren't like my Uncle, but you never know... No Harry wouldn't ever do that.

I decided I would leave, but only because I needed food soon, or else... I don't want to think about that... It would mean everybody finding out if they took me to hospital. I slowly opened the door, nervously peering around. The coast was clear, so I stepped out with my good foot, waiting for someone to come running out of one of the rooms, shouting at me, but it stayed quiet. I was confused as to why the house was so silent, as even after knowing the boys for about half a day, I knew that they were very loud. I hopped a for a few minutes, until I reached the stairs. How was this going to work? I looked at the clock hanging on the wall in the hallway and realised why the house was so quiet. The clock read 3.28 am. I guess sleeping practically all of yesterday caused me to be wide awake now.

Suddenly the stairs looked a lot steeper and a lot more scary than they did yesterday. I hesitated. Did I really need food? Yes, of course I did.

I cautiously moved my un-injured foot to the first step. Then, leaning on the railing, I hopped to the next one. After a long and painful two minutes I had reached the second-to-last stair. Just as I was about to step down, my right foot slipped and I landed on my back and slid down to the bottom of the stairs with a loud crash.

I begged myself not to cry and groaned as quietly as possible, knowing that I had probably woken up everyone in the house. Sure enough a few seconds later I heard rushed but somewhat cautious footsteps coming across the landing and down the stairs. There was no way I could stand, so I just turned my neck at quite a painful angle to look up at the steps.

The first person to appear, I recognised, by his mop of curly hair. Harry. He was holding a baseball bat and peering nervously around. His eyes widened when he saw me lying sprawled at the bottom of the staircase.

"Oh my god, Emma!" He exclaimed rushing down the stairs to my side.

Soon behind him came Louis, looking frantic and clutching..... a sock? Then came Niall with a golf club, Liam with what looked like a cricket bat and Zayn, looking tired, carrying a shoe. As soon as they saw me, lying on the floor, and Harry, knelt beside me, they all seemed to wake up and ran down to join Harry.

"Emma?" Harry asked frantically, "Are you okay? What happened?" He placed his hand on my back as he talked. I coughed before speaking,

"I.. um.. I fell down the stairs. I think I'm okay..." I told him but he didn't look convinced.

"Em, you're obviously not okay. You're lying at the bottom of a flight of stairs, and you're obviously in pain. Here, we'll help you up." He said sternly. He carefully started to lift me up from behind, while Louis and Liam grabbed hold of my arms and helped me stand. They led me over to the couch and I collapsed onto it and closed my eyes, exhausted from my long excursion. The boys were trying to speak to me but for a while I couldn't seem to find my voice.

"Emma, please say something you're scaring me.." Harry pleaded. Finally I managed to talk and spoke quietly, with my eyes still shut.

"Did you really think you could scare off a serial killer with a sock, Louis?" I opened my eyes to find all the boys laughing in relief and Louis looking slighlty offended.

"I panicked okay!" He tried to defend himself. Niall was in fits of laughter then, which set all of us off. When we had finished laughing, I clutched my ribs, realising how much laughing had actually hurt.

"Why were you even coming downstairs in the first place?" Niall asked me. I thought of the hunger eating away at my stomach and decided I should eat something, even though I didn't want to.

"I was hungry." I said simply, and they all beamed and Niall immediately ran into the kitchen.

"You should have woken one of us up, instead of trying to get down the stairs on your own." Harry scolded. "I'm going to buy you some crutches." He told me and I agreed. Moments later Niall came hurrying back in carrying a plate piled up with a huge array of foods. I froze. That couldn't all be for me could it? Niall gleefully handed me the plate and I took it tentatively, peering down at all the food. There was a pile of crackers and cheesse, as well as two whole sausages and a dollop of mash potato. It wouldn't seem like much to most people, but to me it was a huge amount.

I gulped as I thought of all the calories in the mash and sausages, as well as the cheese and crackers. All the boys were looking at me expectantly so I picked up a cracker and took a small bite. After I had eaten two entire crackers I felt awful and pushed the plate away, all the boys looked up, surprised.

"You're not going to eat anymore?" Harry asked, eyeing me carefully. I said the first excuse that came to mind.

"Um.. no, I just think that's all the food I can handle right now.." I muttered looking down.

"Ok, If you're sure.." Liam told me and all the boys looked at me carefully before they seemingly decided that I was telling the truth.

"Well, I'm going to bed." Zayn said yawning, and Niall and Liam followed him up the stairs.

"Are you going to go up as well, Em?" Harry asked.

"Actually Harry, do you think I could sleep on the couch for tonight? I don't think I have enough energy to move.." I asked and he agreed before beckoning Louis in the direction of the stairs.

"Goodnight Em." Harry said, smiling.

"Yeah.... 'Night Emma." Louis said quietly, but he seemed to be behaving slightly oddly. I was confused but said good night back to him before he left the room slowly after Harry, glancing back to look at me in the doorway before disappearing completely. I decided to ignore it and get some sleep. Just as I closed my eyes, I was jolted awake by a voice.

"Tell me the truth, Emma." I shot up and turned around to see who was speaking.

He was standing by the doorframe, his hands in his pockets.

Louis.

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