Before She Falls

Chapter 29

"Just a torn ligament in my knee" Niall's accent sounds almost cheerful as he looks down to his left leg.

Uncle Geoff, Aunt Karen, Liam, Drew, Harry, and I are standing in the waiting room of the Wolverhampton Hospital staring at Niall as he emerges on crutches out of his room.

It's only been about two hours and the doctors have concluded that all Niall has from his four wheeling accident is a torn ligament in his knee and some bruises on his legs.

"Are you ready to go back to the house?" Aunt Karen is still concerned, I can hear it in her voice.

"Yeah, I'm fine" Niall answers and limps over to us on his blue crutches.

"How long until you're fully healed?" Harry asks with his hands folded across his chest.

"Uh, the doctor says it depends. If everything heals well, six weeks" Niall leads all of us out to Uncle Geoff's car.

Harry's head swings around to face Liam and exchange a look. Niall notices the action and interrupts their non-verbal communication.

"Yes, I'll be fine for the tour" Niall tells them.

"Are you sure? I mean, even if you aren't we can put a chair out on the stage for you to sit in while-" Liam starts to ramble.

"I'll be fine" Niall tries to convince Liam but of course it doesn't work, Liam's too wound up. Everyone is.

I could feel everyone's panicky vibes around me in the car, besides Niall. Uncle Geoff seems to develop a lead foot on the way home from the hospital, he continues to nervously tap the gas every couple of minutes. Aunt Karen's posture is near perfect and her gaze is focused solely on the windshield in front of her. Drew's rubbing his hands on his jeans and I just know that his palms are getting sweaty. Liam's slouching in his seat and slowly scratching at his facial hair while his eyes are glued to the bottom of the car. Then there's Harry, whose elbow is resting on the side of the car while his head is lying in his hand. The tension is his face is hard to ignore and his foot starts tapping against the floor of the car.

It's 9:00pm and Niall is already passed out in Liam's bed with his knee elevated on a couple of pillows. Madison, Karen, Drew, Uncle Geoff and my mom are out to a movie while the boys and I stay at the house.

"Who wants ice cream?" Zayn calls from the kitchen.

"Me!" Liam and I respond almost in sync.

"Me too!" Louis screams after us.

"Me three!" Harry calls out last.

Louis and Liam are cuddled up on the two ends of the living room couch and I'm sprawled out on the smaller one. Harry's lying on the floor with a quilt covering him. We're in the middle of watching E! News, because for some reason the boys like to watch the current stories of other celebrities.

"Justin Bieber pleads not guilty to DUI in Miami" Jason Kennedy's voice projects from the television.

"Why do you guys watch this?" I ask draping a brown blanket over my stretched out body.

"We like to be updated" Louis answers. "Sometimes we learn new things about yourselves. Usually Harry, though."

"Harry's got four girlfriends at a time, didn't ya know Lou?" Liam jokingly asks Louis.

I look to Harry on the floor and he's not laughing along with the boys, but I see a grin form across his face.

"Just last week Harry Styles was spotted at Sundance, supporting his good friend Zach Braff at his movie premiere of 'Wish I Was Here'" the E! News host says from his standing position on the screen.

The boys and I focus on attention on the rest of the story he's preparing I tell.

"The One Direction singer was also seen in New York, hanging out at Madison Square Garden with the rest of the band members, as well as girlfriends, Eleanor Calder, Danielle Peazer, and Perrie Edwards."

"Hey, that's us" Louis says as if we don't realize the picture on the television screen is the right of us.

In the Knicks Game picture, Louis and Eleanor are sitting down in their stadium seats and are in conversation with each other, while Zayn is standing up from his seat as Perrie is passing through the aisle to get to her seat. Next to them, Niall and Vanessa are sitting side by side and Vanessa lips are wrapped around the straw of her smoothie she bought that day, and Harry and I are seated right next to the two of them. Harry's leaving back in her chair as I'm turned to face him. All the way to the right of the group are Liam and Danielle, who are just getting seated in the picture.

"Although we spotted two mystery girls seated next to Harry Styles and Niall Horan, an exclusive source tells us that the brunette sitting side by side with Mr. Styles is actually Liam Payne's cousin, Katrina Gray, and the blonde seen next to Niall is her friend from home. Both of the girls are said to be spending a couple days with the boys while they were staying in New York."

Louis, Liam, and Harry all turn to me before I can even properly process that an E! News host just spoke about me.

"That's you" Liam laughs, turning his attention back to the screen.

"Although Harry has recently been linked to Kardashian Klan member, Kendall Jenner, it seems that there's a new girl in Harry Styles' life."

I nonchalantly steal a glance at Harry and his face is staring at the screen, no real emotion. I knew it was rumored that he was dating Kendall Jenner. I mean, it was all over my Twitter timeline for like two months. But I had never mentioned it and neither had he, but it's not like it's something we've had reason to discuss.

"Harry and Katrina Gray were spotted again in New York a day later at the New York Aquarium. The two shared a double date with one of her friends as well as the one and only Niall Horan" Jason Kennedy didn't even finish his sentence before a high definition picture of Niall, Vanessa, and I climbing into Harry's car pops up.

"Wow" I mumble as a second picture appears on the screen.

It's a picture of Harry standing with a smiling fan in the middle of the gift shop. The gift shop of the aquarium where he bought me my stuffed animal shark and his sister's silver dolphin charm.

"You better text Vanessa and tell her she just had her 15 seconds of fame on television" Liam tells me and I quickly pull out my phone.

To: Vanessa Cohan

Check out E! News when you can. You're famous.