Call Me Ella (ft. Niall Horan)

Chapter 25 - Cheesiness

Chapter 25 - Cheesiness

It turns out I end up wearing the mask. It wasn’t actually pleasant how it happened. I was running, he caught me, we both fell. I tried running away again. He didn’t let me. He pinned me against the ground and made me surrender after tickling me until I cried for mercy. Then I had to wear the mask.

“Just like at the ball,” he says when I’m finally wearing the mask, we both still sitting on the ground. He then cups my face gently, slowly, his smile small yet so warm.

I feel my heart doing a backflip in my chest when he says that, and although we’re outside, sitting on the ground, not even on the blanket, even when there’s no music, when we’re all alone here, when I’m just wearing my uniform and he’s in his comfy shorts and tank top, it does feel like at the ball. Like it’s that night again. The way he looks at me, the way he makes me feel. But there’s a difference this time because now I know who he is and he knows who I am… and I’m not running away from him.

I lean in and press my forehead against his.

I still can’t believe that he fooled me all this time, that he knew from the beginning it was me. How naïve of me, right? Believing I had the control. I was so sure I was going to win this bet because I thought I knew things he didn’t know when actually he had had me in his pocket all this time.

But you know what? I’m relieved. I’m actually relieved and happy that he knows, that I’m not hiding anything from him. I’m happy that he’s not looking for anyone else, that every time he was talking about Mystery Girl he was actually talking about me, wanting me, seeing me. All that pain I felt before, all that disappointment, all that anger is now gone and it’s like it was never there.

I really don’t know where this is going or if we have a future or not, I don’t even want to think about that yet. It’s too soon. I still believe he’s not my prince charming, he’s not here on his white horse to rescue me from the shitty life I’m stuck in. He’s not here to save me because he can’t do that, I do that myself and I have sorted it out. I’m just waiting to be free, all I need is patience. But he’s here… not in his shiny armour, not on a white horse because Persephone has chestnut hair, but that’s not the point. The point is that he is here with me and I don’t really know what that means.

I know I have a shitty life, but I’m not that miserable. I have Liv and Charlie… and Harry, okay, I do consider him a friend now. But I also have Niall now but he’s not a friend, he’s something else. Maybe he’s here to balance my life a bit more, to add more good things that I can focus on. Maybe he’s here so when I feel I can’t do this anymore, when I want to give up and just quit I can say: ‘No, I have good things that make this bearable. I have Liv, I have Charlie, I have Harry and I have Niall. I’m blessed in other ways.’

I don’t know, I’m not sure, but that doesn’t really matter right now. He’s here, that’s all I care about at the moment.

I lean in even closer and as I close my eyelids I just wait for the moment and it’s not too long until I feel his lips against mine in a sweet and soft kiss. My hands sneak to his neck, tangling my fingers in his hair as I tilt my head to the right as he does the same, deepening the kiss.

In one moment as I retract to take a breath, I take off the mask and put it aside before I grab his face and kiss him again, more passionately this time. No mask hiding who I am, no secret this time. Just the two of us.

When I break the kiss I don’t exactly pull back, instead I hide my head in the crock of his neck and hug him, surprising him a bit, but he recovers because he hugs me back, tightly, pulling me against his body, putting me on his lap.