November // n.h

xi

               E L E V E N

And he does walk me home. Right up to my front doors just to knock on them himself and apologise to my parents for bringing me back so late. During this whole situation, all that I am trying not to do is laugh. My mum looks startled, my dad has changed skin colours and now he is bright red. Obviously, Niall has noticed it but he doesn’t mention it.

I might say that it all went smoothly and because Niall walked me home himself, he prevented from another argument. But when the doors shut, and my mum sees him walking away through the window, the questions come right at me.

Luckily, I managed to change the subject and we talked everything out. The ground, between me and my parents is stabile but fragile. Anything can change the state of it. A small earthquake can occur at any moment and that is what I am the most afraid of – the consequences.

After that eventful night, I have been talking to Niall and spending a little more time with him. Somehow, he has managed to save my relationship with my parents and somewhat I owe him a lot. After all, they’re my parents and a little present isn’t enough to give back to him.

Every time that we went out for a walk or something, he picked me up and walked me back home, so that there will be no more tension between me and my parents; which just added up to my debt each time. Everything that is good, has to come to an end, right? And that did happen, when my next door neighbour talked to one of the popular girls, who just happens to live just across me.

They probably watched me and Niall walking once and all that I new, was everyone staring at me the next day in school. Not until Jennifer – the opposite neighbour – walked past me and gave me the worst look of them all. It was almost as if she was wishing for me to die. Confusion running through my mind kept me unfocused in two classes until the realisation came to my mind – she is a fan of One Direction.

In my first class, she happens to be sitting right behind me. So when I noticed her on that day, I was afraid to sit down and not worry that she might do something to me. At the beginning it was all calm, yet it turned out to be the calm before the storm.

While Mrs. Besom was explaining what we need to do and what to write about, Jennifer leaned over and whispered something. All that I understood from it was the name of a certain blond bloke and the little fact that I have to keep away from him. After that, she said something else but I chose to ignore her stupid comments and carry on with the lesson.

With that in the back of my mind, I managed to keep away from her until the end of the classes and when I got home, I covered myself in a blanket and started watching television. My phone at mute, I never noticed a message coming. And then another one, and another one, until they all added up to ten messages and five missed calls.

Five messages and two missed phone calls, belonged to Niall. The rest of those was Nina. I haven’t spoken to her in days and I missed her so much. So instead of replying to Niall, I decide to phone her so we can have a girls night. After all, it is Thursday and there is no school the next day because our teachers decided to have a day off for training or so.

“Alright, I’ll be there in an hour, when my dad comes to change my shift.” She answers me and I smile, nodding to myself and completely forgetting about the fact that she can’t see me.

“Okay, see you.” I say and after we say our goodbye’s I hang up and place the phone on the table once more. The thought of not calling Niall back was actually bothering me. Aching my soul a little, because I do owe him so much.

So I just end up sitting there, watching my phone carefully with the thought of calling him. But what if I call him and then he will be talking to someone else on his phone? It’s not like I am the only person that he ever talks to. There are also the blokes from the band, his other friends and his family.