Before She Falls

Chapter 1

I step out of the back of the taxi and shut the door. The sun is ruthless today and shade is the most wanted place to be. I dressed myself appropriately this morning in light wash denim shorts, a cropped black tee, and white Chuck Taylors. I let my hair hang down my back, but right now I'm debating on pulling it back into a ponytail because of the heat. I make my way into the Four Seasons Hotel in New York City and pull out my phone.

“Liam?” I ask as soon as I hear the other end of the call pick up.

“Where are you?” He asks me.

“I’m standing in the hotel lobby, where you told me to meet you” I look around me, trying to see if we’re both in the same room.

“I’m in the lobby too, turn around” he says and as I turn around he’s walking over to me with open tattooed arms. He’s wearing white gym shorts, a blue tank top, and running shoes. He looks a lot more muscular than the last time I saw him, which was about six months ago.

“Katrina, how are ya?” Liam wraps his arms around me and pulls me into a tight hug. He smells like good cologne and bubble gum.

“I’m good, I’m good. I miss you though” I pull away from our hug to look at him.

“I miss you too, it’s been a long time since we’ve hung out. How is everything? How’s school?” He asks me while we continue to stand in the middle of the lobby. “You’re still at school, right?” He asks worriedly.

“Yes, it’s great. I told you about my internship at Modest, right?”

“No! Are you serious?” Liam’s eyes go wide.

“Yeah, about a week ago I was selected as a paid intern!” I say excitedly.

“What the hell, that’s incredible!” Liam pulls me in for another hug. “Why did no one tell me this? That’s just amazing!” He pulls me in tighter.

“Well how’s everything on your end?” Our hug ends and I pull a strand of my long brown hair back behind my ear. Even though I consciously know that putting my hair behind my ears makes me look about twelve years old.

“Everything is great. I just got back from touring and now the boys and I are just promoting the new album as much as possible. Danielle and I are hanging out again too. Everything is well” Liam finishes smiling.

“That’s awesome. So what do we have planned for the day?” I ask him since he’s the one that wanted to spend the day with me.

Liam’s my cousin and being only a year apart in age, the two of us have always been super close. His family would visit mine in the United States, and occasionally my family would fly out to the UK to see his family. Until Liam auditioned for X-Factor the second time...since then his fame has skyrocketed and he doesn’t visit my family so often. I mean, I completely understand; he has absolutely no time. However, today we were both free of plans and in New York so Liam offered to take me out for the day.

“Well we should go out to eat for lunch first, then walk around, maybe go shopping a little bit. Sounds good, yeah?” Liam’s British accent is stronger than ever.

“That’s perfect for me” I smile and nod my head. If that isn’t a flawless day for a nineteen year old girl then I don’t know what is.

“Great. Wait a minute, when was the last time you saw the lads?” Liam asks, referring to the other One Direction boys, but I didn’t want to be wrong.

“Who are you talking about?” I cock my head to the side.

“Louis, Zayn, Harry, Nial. When was the last time you saw them?” Liam questions.

“Oh, I don’t know. Two years ago maybe three” I respond. I actually remember the last time I saw them. The four of them were at Liam’s house back in the UK for Liam’s birthday. But I feel like they were all so much younger then.

“Come with me upstairs to the rooms, I’m sure they’d love to see you again” Liam gestures for me to follow him.

“Katrina!” Louis shouts from the couch in the hotel room. His body is sprawled out and from what I can see he’s only wearing dark blue sweatpants and he’s holding a game controller. “How are you, darling?”

“I’m wonderful” I follow Liam into the hotel room, past a small kitchen and into the living room. “How are you?”

“I’m lovely” Louis says standing up from the couch and opening his arms to me. I lean into him and embrace him. “I feel like you were a lot shorter the last time I saw you” Louis says. He and I are almost at eye-level, him only having a couple of inches on me now.

“I’ve grown up a tad” I smile and sit down next to him on the couch and Liam sits across from us.

“Where are the rest of them?” Liam asks looking at Louis.

“Harry and Zayn are showering...not together” Liam laughs. “And Niall might still be sleeping.”

“Well I just wanted to bring Kat up here to see all of you again before we went out” Liam says. “Maybe we’ll stop by later too.”

“Why don’t we all hang out here tonight?” Louis suggests. “I mean what else are we going to do?”

Lima runs his fingers along the facial chair on his chin, “Yeah, we could do that. Are you okay with that?” Liam asks looking in my direction.

“Yeah, that’ll be fun” I say.

“Is that Katrina?” Zayn appears from the door on the right side of the room. He’s dressed in a grey t-shirt and dark-wash jeans. I stand up and wait for him to meet me by the couches.

“When are you ever going to cut your hair?” Zayn runs his fingers through my thick locks.

I laugh and hug him, “Never.”

“Aren’t you two supposed to be out and about?” Zayn asks, I almost want to answer in a British accent because that’s all I’ve been hearing today.

“We came upstairs so she could see you all again” Liam answered for me.

“Niall’s still sleeping though” Zayn laughs.

“Well look who it is” Louis says from the couch. Harry appears from a door on the left side of the room and his inked arms were the first thing I noticed. The last time I saw Harry he was a thin guy, no tattoos, and a mop of messy curls covered the top of his head. Today, he’s shirtless, only wearing a pair of black sweatpants. His chest is also decorated in tattoos; a large butterfly is placed over his ribcage.

“You remember Katrina, right?” Liam asks as Harry walks over to the living room.

“Of course” Harry’s voice is incredibly deep and I’m taken back by it. He stretches his arms out and I snake my arms around his bare back to hug him. “How are you, love?”

“I’m great” I answer. “How have you been?”

“Wonderful” Harry says while taking a seat next to Liam and Zayn. “When Liam said Katrina and him were meeting up today, all I could picture was the black eye that Niall gave you when we were playing football at Liam's” Harry chuckles a bit while he makes the rest of us laugh hysterically.

“You remember that?” I ask, catching my breath from laughing so hard.

“How could I forget? We all asked if you were okay, you said you were fine, and then you woke up the next day and your left eye was black and blue. It would barely open” Harry makes us all laugh again.

“We should get going, Kat. I’m so hungry” Liam finishes laughing and stands up.

“You’re already leaving?” Zayn asks.

“They’ll be back tonight to hangout” Louis answers. “I figured we should have people over here. We could invite Perrie and Elle. Maybe Danielle too?” Louis looks to Liam for an answer.

“That sounds fine. We’ll see you guys then” Liam says as I follow him to the door.

“Bye Katrina!” Zayn says and Louis and Harry wave goodbye as well.