~ It Never Should've Been ~ One Direction Fan Fiction ~

~ Chapter 24 - Carla's Back ~*

We made our way out of the building and went past Paul who was chilling in the driver's seat of the van, sleeping.

I slightly chuckled and gave him a small wave even though I knew he wouldn't wave back. I turned to Jayda, "Do you mind if we just walk back? The flat isn't too far away."

"I was thinking the same thing," she smiled and she hooked her arm with mine as we walked along the road on the sidewalk.

I watched the cars go by and people watched as we walked. It was nice just to walk like we used to and not be bombarded by people. Or like these past couple of days, having to control all the boys and not having to be limited in the hospital.

We had made it a few blocks and we about halfway back to the flat when Jayda's phone went off in her purse.

She unhooked her arm from mine and pulled it out, and bit her lip. She saw me looking and she showed me the screen which showed who was calling.

Liam Payne

"You can answer if you want," I said quietly but Jayda just chucked it back into her purse and re-hooked her arm with mine.

I smiled slightly and after a few more steps, I stopped walking.

"What?" Jayda asked, looking back at me.

"Carla," was all I said and I whipped out my phone. I pulled up her contact and put my phone on speaker phone.

After two rings, she picked up: "Hello?"

"Hi!" Jayda and I chorused.

"Hello, girls!" Carla responded, "So are you guys alright?"

"We are perfectly fine," Jayda said.

"Where are the boys?"

We looked at each other, "Um, at the mall. We left because we knew you wanted to talk," I said, half lying.

"Cool!" She said, "So where are you? Back at the flat?"

"No, actually. We are walking back from the mall and we were wondering if you could come pick us up?"

"Sure!" She said and we told her where we were. "Be there in a few!" she told us and we hung up.

Jayda and i walked a few feet to bench and sat down to wait for Carla.

"Are you gonna tell her?" Jayda asked quietly.

"Huh?" I asked, looking over at her.

"Are you gonna tell Carla what's happened?"

I looked down, "Yeah. I think so."

She took my hand and squeezed it, "You should."

I nodded and looked out into the street and a few minutes later, we saw Carla's BMW pull up.

We jumped off the bench and into the car and we got back on the road again.

"Hi guys!" Carla exclaimed, looking at us through the rear view mirror.

"Hi Carla!" Jayda and I both said back at the same time, putting on our seat belts.

"I so wanna hug you both right now, but let's go somewhere to talk," she smiled and when she looked at me, her face turned confused, "Ellie, darling, what the heck are you wearing?"

I looked down and realized I was still wearing the outfit Jayda had picked out for me. The huge blouse, the non-flattering shorts and how she had badly straightened my hair. "Ask Jayda. She put me into this."

Jayda gasped, "You don't like it?"

Before I could speak, Carla took over: "Well, honey, it's cute and all but doesn't really fit Ellie. And coming from you, I expect some style."

Jayda laughed, "I know it's bad. Truthfully the boys......oh." She stopped.

"The boys what?"

"We will tell you once we get to stop and talk, okay?" Jayda answered.

"Thanks fine. Speaking of which, where do you wanna go? Starbucks?"

"Actually, I think it would be better if we went back to the flat," I told her.

"Alright," Carla said and she drove the four minutes back to the flat in silence. Once we got back to the flat, we all hopped out and I unlocked the door to the flat and we all piled in. This was when we made our formal introductions.

We all came into a group hug and smiled, "Now this, is a hug I needed," Carla smiled and we pulled apart.

I nodded and I slipped out of the shoes, following Jayda and Carla over to the couch.

"So what did we need to talk about?"

I looked at Jayda and she gave a worried glance.

When we started explaining, we started from the day we went to Nandos - the first day she wasn't with us, and ended with the scene at the mall.

Jayda told her experience and I told mine, crying at certain parts, enticing Carla to pull me into her arms until I calmed down and could continue talking.

Once I got to telling her about Harry hitting me, her eyes flamed and five words came out of her mouth:

"That son of a bitch."