Barred (nh au)

XXXI. Phone Calls and I Love You's

Read the A/N in the end. Got a few announcements for y'all.

HALEY'S POV:

The next couple of weeks after my date with Niall were a total blur. Our finals were done and over with, finally, which meant it was summer break before the next year of college began.

Yesterday was my birthday, I had finally turned 20, and my friends, especially Niall, made sure that I had the best birthday of my life. My parents actually called up to wish this time. To say I was surprised was an understatement.

I was even more surprised when they told me I didn't have to move to Toronto with them, and that it's completely alright if I stayed back in Manchester. I don't know what made them change their minds, but I wasn't complaining.

Niall had taken me on a few dates here and there, but that was about it. He didn't ask me to be his girlfriend and I didn't push him to ask either. He would do it if he felt the time was right, and I respected that.

I still didn't know where my feelings for Niall stood. I mean I did like him, but there was so much more to it, it was overwhelming, and I always pushed that to the back of my mind.

I spent most of my time with Alyssa these days. We went out to hangout or would stay back home and have a Netflix marathon. We did do group hangouts from time to time, and I hung out with Niall at our Hangout Spot too, at times. I worked my job at the Mason's Cafe. It was just like any normal summer break.

Speaking of Mason's Cafe, Harry and Alia had been getting along really well if their mini conversations when Harry insisted on serving her order to her table himself were anything to go by. They were all smiles and laughs. It was cute. I think Harry liked her and by the looks of it, Alia seemed to like him too.

Right now, I was in the music room, standing in front of the bookshelf filled with books I loved and adored. I couldn't decide what I wanted to read. My eyes landed on the Divergent trilogy and I almost took it off the shelf, but then it's ending came flashing into my mind and I immediately retracted my hand.

(A/N: Divergent spoiler below. I'm sorry if I'm spoiling the story for you if you haven't read it yet.)

I didn't like sad endings. At all. I mean, there's nothing wrong with them. Sad endings are beautiful in their own way, but I wasn't fond of them. The reason I read books is to escape for reality, to get lost in a whole different world where you can be happy for a while with absolutely no care about anything else.

I was all for happy endings. Reading these kind of books gave me hope. They gave me some kind of assurance that not everything is shit and there can be happy things too, even if it's just in the fiction world. Getting butterflies from the emotions flowing through the pages, crying when an emotional bit came, you don't need a movie for it, books can bring out emotions too.

Even realistic, open endings were amazing. Like you decide whether it's sad or not, whether the guy gets the girl or not, whether they meet up again or not. Like in Eleanor & Park. It has an open ending, and it is absolutely beautiful.

I avoided sad endings with all my might because they would have me crying for hours, sometimes days after I would finish reading the book. The mere thought of it was capable of bringing tears to my eyes, and then that would combine with the sad or not so good things happening in my own life and it basically becomes a call to disaster.

In short, sad endings fucked me up real bad.

I did read sad endings though. I would read them when I needed something to pull me back to reality or when I needed a harsh reminder that its not all happiness and rainbows in your life. You have to deal with the sad bits too. You can't run away from it. That is why I don't throw away those books either. They were my reality check in life.