Forgotten

Chapter 35

Christmas Morning was more pleasant than the night before. We opened presents from each other and reminisced about old times. The swelling had gone down on my eye, but it still looked really bad.

      “HAPPY CHRISTMAS!” Niall screamed, almost spilling his eggnog.

      “I have neighbors, Niall.” I laughed, spooning oatmeal into my mouth. While Greg fed Theo and I cleaned up the multitude of wrapping paper, Niall drank his eggnog and supervised. The rest of the boys were flying in today to visit. All except Liam. Greg was already putting the turkey in the oven , and it was only 4:00.

      “WHO’S READY FOR FOOTBALL?” Niall screamed again.

      “NIALL. I. Have. Neighbors!”

I felt my phone buzz.

Zayn: Landed 30 min. ago! Be there in 15!

Oh shit. My apartment isn’t clean, my sink if full of dirty dishes, the new guest bedroom is made up yet! I didn’t know their flight was so early. Thank god I had a big enough apartment to fit a dining room in. (A/N Beatrice bought a larger apartment in the same building. I’m sorry I forgot to mention that!) I was in a panic.

      “FUCK!” I screeched, running into the linen closet.

      “NEIGHBORS!” Niall yelled. His sarcasm wasn’t needed.

      “INFANT!” Greg yelled louder. I forgot about Theo, oops.

Quickly I grabbed clean sheets from the closet and put them on the beds in the guest room. I don’t even know if I could fit all the boys in my still small apartment. 2 could sleep in the guest bedroom, 2 in the living room on the pull out couch, and that leaves the other 3. Looks like Niall and Greg (plus Theo) were sleeping with me. Oh boy, it was going to be packed. But that leaves the last boy for the floor.

As I rushed around trying to make it look presentable, I didn’t notice the boys come in.

      “Hello Sunshine!” Louis yelled, almost tackling me to the ground. Pillows flew everywhere. Louis was my best friend, and I was so excited to see his little face again.

      “LOU! Oh my God!!” I shouted, hugging him tighter than anything ever. I looked up and saw Zayn and Perrie.

      “PERRIE. HOLY SHIT I HAVEN’T SEEN YOU IN AGES!” I broke from Louis’ grasp and basically knocked her over.

      “Happy Christmas! Surprise!” she giggled, hugging me tighter. After giving Eleanor and Zayn their hugs, I slowly walked over to Harry. His smile fell when he saw my eye. I gave him a hug, but he put his hands on my shoulders to get a good look.

      “What the hell happened to you?” He asked sternly. I didn’t want to tell him about the row I had with Liam.

      “Well, um, It’s not a big deal. Please don’t be mad because that-“

      “Tell me.” He demanded, with worrying eyes. I bit my bottom lip and whispered it in his ear.

      “Liam”

Then he was gone, as soon as he had arrived. He ran out the door and slammed it behind him. I knew what he was going to do, but I wasn’t stopping him. Liam deserved what was coming to him, after what he did to me. At this point, I was tired of running after people. I should lay off and let them do their own thing. All through the day, people asked about my eye. They wanted the truth but I just told the same thing, that an icecicle fell on my face. It was dumb, but the best I could come up with. I told them Harry went out and bought something for me.

He didn’t come back for at least 2 hours. Everyone went out to get dinner, but I stayed behind to wait for Harry. We would go to get food when he got here, meet up with everyone else. When he did return, he walked in, completely silent, and walked right past me to my room. I scurried in after him and laughed when I saw he had face planted on my bed.

      “This is my room, Harry. Yours is through that door and to the right.” I said pointing to my bedroom door. He took a deep breath and sat up, patting the space beside him, beckoning me to sit next to him. I didn’t notice his lip was busted. I ran into the bathroom.

      “What did you do to him?” I asked, returning with a wetted washcloth. He winced when I dabbed at the bloody spot on his mouth. It was bruised as well.

      “Gave him what he deserved.” He said, staring at me intently. I smiled a little and focused on what I was doing.

      “Well now we have matching marks on our faces. We’re twins!” I laughed, switching to a clean spot on the washcloth and continuing my work. We sat in silence for a bit after I finished cleaning him up. That weird silence where you don’t want to speak because you like if you did, something would go wrong. Finally he spoke up.

      “Boys shouldn’t hit girls. They wreck their pretty faces, and their pretty hearts” He traced my blackened eye with his ringed finger. I didn’t even care about the pain, I was too wrapped up in his words.