How to Say Goodbye

Chapter 4

I opened my eyes and found myself in a place I had never seen before. The walls had tacky wallpaper and there were two beds in the room. A mini-fridge was resting under the nightstand between the two beds. The curtains were closed even though it was still night and the air conditioning was on. It was cold and I realized I had a blanket over me, but it was no help. I looked to the next bed and found it was occupied by someone with beautiful blonde hair and slept with a slight snore.

Something aroused him, and he slowly woke up. When he turned and saw I was awake, he jumped out of bed and turned on the lamp next to the nightstand.

"You're up!" he exclaimed and came and sat on my bed in front of me.

I straightened up and leaned against the headboard. "Where am I?"

He followed my eyes around the room. "We couldn’t wake you up after the whole fiasco, and no one thought you needed to go to the hospital. I didn't want the paparazzi to follow you home, not that I know where you’re home is, so I took you to my hotel. I'm so sorry about tonight."

I looked at him and felt the bump on my head. "It would be wonderful if you could fill me in on the details. What exactly happened?"

He cleared his throat. "Do you want to change into some of my clothes? Those don’t look very comfortable. I have some extra sweats and stuff. I’ve been in this hotel for a week, and I still can’t figure out how to change the AC."

I looked underneath the covers and saw that I was still in my date attire. No wonder I was so cold. In reply, I nodded my head and smiled.

After I had changed into a pair of sweats and a t-shirt of his, I laid back on the bed next to him, and he wrapped me up in his arms and began.

"As we left the theater, somehow you got away from me and got in the middle of everybody. I saw you panicking, but I couldn't push my way through to get to you no matter how hard I tried. Well, the boys were in the car waiting for us and when they saw me fighting my way in, they jumped out, and Liam and Harry pushed their way through everybody. Liam pulled the guy off of you and Harry pushed him into the crowd while Zayn and Louis held everyone back. I didn't know what to do, so I just stood there. But when you started to fall, I was in the right place because you fell right into my arms. We tried to revive you, but you were out cold. Everybody thought you were just worked up and needed some rest. I thought about taking you home, but like I said, I have no idea where you live.You've been asleep for the past 2 hours."

I started playing with his fingers on his other hand. "I'm sorry," I said gently.

He pulled me closer to him and shook his head. "Sage, I am the one who should be sorry. I should have known something like this would happen. It was bad timing on my part. That's the price you pay dating a celebrity." He paused, and I knew enough not to say anything. "Sage, I'll understand if you don't want to see where this goes."

I gazed up at him and saw him swallow a few times. "Niall, I've been through worse."

He looked down at me questioningly. I felt my throat dry up, but I had to tell him. If we meant anything to each other, if we were going to go anywhere, we had to be honest.

"I've only had one serious boyfriend." I held up my finger to stop him when he tried to say something. "His name was Jeremiah. We dated for four years, up until the end of my junior year in high school. He and I were literally the star couple in my school. He was friends with everybody, and through him, I was friends with everybody. Wherever you found one of us, the other wasn’t too far away. Somehow Jeremiah got it worked out that we had all of our classes together, and it was great. I guess you could say we were that one couple that got married straight after high school, not because we were pregnant, but because we were so ready to be together forever." I smiled up at Niall and gave a nervous laugh before I continued. "He was everything I ever wanted in a guy, everything I thought I'd ever need. He was kind and loyal, and he always stuck up for me when people didn’t like what I was saying. Jeremy was my rock, my person, my whatever you want to call it. We suffered from whispers from people who thought we were too young to feel such strong emotions for one another, and for a time, Jerm and I believed it. But then we realized they were wrong. About us. About love. About everything. Jeremiah and I were two pieces of a puzzle who matched perfectly. We did everything together. He held my purse when I wanted to shop even though it bored him to tears; I went with him to all the sports events even though I had no idea what was going on half the time. But none of that mattered because we were undeniably happy." My eyes started tearing up. It was the first time I had ever explained my sole relationship and the seriousness of it to anyone, and the memories started flooding back. "One night, we decided to go to a party one of his popular friends was throwing. I wouldn't have gone if I had known there was alcohol... But that's what he wanted, so I went with him."