Act Like You're in Love {Niall Horan}

Chapter 62: Adjusting

~Mariah's P.O.V.~

I took a quick breath and smiled. "Yup, Callie." Then I hung up.

Turning my music back on, I sighed in content. I was in my home in Hollywood. Callie was probably going to move to the area too, and Nellie was going to visit me soon.

"I figured it out --"

"Nope nope nope!" I said aloud although no one but me was in my room, jumping to smack my phone.

I scrolled through the playlist, realizing I had indeed picked the wrong one. This one was my old playlist with One Direction in it. I buy their music still, but I don't listen to it. I just purchase it to support them. I'm doing pretty well now with the breakup between Niall and I, it's just I don't want to hear his voice still. I don't want to see if it still affects me or not.

It's been over two years -- time has flown with my career and all -- since he broke up with me. I'm on pretty good terms with the other boys of One Direction, but you can trust me when I say I notice a little pain in their smiles whenever I FaceTime them and Niall is somewhere around.

My parents were actually pretty upset when I finally told them that Niall and I were no longer together. They were sure that Niall was my match. Yeah, I was too.

From what I heard from Zayn, Niall's family wasn't too happy either. Denise was quick to call me, too. I think she cried, to be honest. And Theo, oh goodness. At four years old he finally started to really remember me when he saw me, and then I disappeared. Denise made me visit them but only when Niall wasn't there. I thought it would be awkward. His family, on the other hand, said they still loved me and it didn't matter that I wasn't dating their son anymore. I guess it mattered to Niall though because after I was spotted in Mullingar, Ireland without him, articles went out. Next thing you know articles went out about Niall's disgruntled faces when he was back at home.

But my life does not consist of Niall anymore. I'm pretty sure how much I think about him still is not healthy, but slowly I notice my thoughts are gradually less and less about him and my feelings are less and less heartbroken. I think it's just lasting so long because he's a celebrity, and a really famous one at that. His face is everywhere, not to mention the literal thousand tweets I get asking what happened to Mariall.

Oh, the public. They took it almost as bad as I did, I swear. About three weeks after the break up, paparazzi noticed our actions. The fans noticed our moods. We were under a microscope. Then all the theories came out, articles, tweets, everything. Next thing you know my twitter literally froze because of so many mentions. So did Niall's. By that point we had to say something, but of course Niall and I weren't going to talk about it, so I just stepped up and tweeted one day, "Yes, Niall and I are broken up. No, I'm not exactly feeling up to telling you all every detail of the flaws of my love life."

Now my life has healed quite a bit. My heart still gets occasional pokes but nothing like before. I'm honestly just worried that if I see him again, everything will unravel and all the feelings will come back. That's why I don't want to hear him sing either.

Maybe I suffered emotionally for a long time after, but to the outside world it didn't seem like it. Remember, I'm an actress. I took on more roles, won awards, lived my dreams. I just always thought I would do all that with Niall, you know?

I sauntered over to my kitchen. Above the sink was a window, giving me a nice view of the dark, crisp sky of the nighttime. Sighing, I opened the pantry door and grabbed a bag of chips and then headed to my comfy couch. I munched in silence while staring absentmindedly in front of me. There was a coffee table, a TV, a sliding curtain...