Author's Note: So here it is, what you have all been anticipating. It Is What It Is is the sequel (second part) of my fanfic. For This First Time was the original. If you are a new reader, I would suggest reading For The First Time First, and then read It Is What It Is because I might refer to something in For The First Time. The first part is about a One Direction fan who meets 1D by chance in their hotel lobby. The main character Amanda and Niall Horan fall in love. For The First Time is the adventure of their love. In the last chapter, Amanda and Niall break up. It Is What It Is is a continuation of that story, with the same characters, but it is fast forwarded five years into the future. Add me on Twitter @GottaBeOneD_ ... I try to add as many characters as I can, tweet me, and maybe you can be a character as well. Please log onto Wattpad and leave your comments, I love feedback.
Chapter 1:
It’s been five years since the last time I saw him. Sometimes I like to think back and wonder what could have happened between us if we had stayed together. Do I regret how things ended? No, because my life would have turned out very differently if I had stayed with him, and I was so happy with how my life had turned out. Do I still think about him? There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think of him. We hadn’t kept in touch, it was just too hard. We tried for the first year to be friends, but we drifted apart. He was busy on tour, and I was off living my life, doing what I wanted to do. The first year without him was the hardest. I would cry myself to sleep convincing myself that I had made a mistake. I was too proud to ever call him and tell him that though. As he was still in my favorite boy band, I liked to check in and see what he was up to. It broke my heart that I couldn’t be there for him while he was making his dreams come true. One Direction was going six years strong and there was no sign that they were going to stop making music.
I sometimes looked out my window and remembered that evening I first saw him. I had dressed up in that tiny black dress with my Steve Madden wedges, sipping on an Amaretto sour with my best friends at a hotel in New York City. I was casually waiting in the lobby, and then I saw him. He saw me and had whispered something Harry. I will never forget that moment. It was like we instantly connected. We started off as best friends, and that friendship grew into something real. It was probably the best couple of months of my life, I had fallen so madly in love with him that I remembered having a hard time breathing because he just took my breath away with everything he did and everything he said. I held onto the memories for years, but that’s all it really is. Memories.
My life couldn’t have gone any more according to the plan I had mapped out for myself way back when I was in high school. I would finish my schooling as quick as I could, and get out there in the work force. And that’s exactly what I did. I took a couple of weeks off for me time after my break up with him. I had to clear my head and make sure I was making the right choice. I worked at the Montreal Gazette for a year. I was picking up coffees and doing excel spreadsheets, not exactly what I had had in mind when I was choosing my career path, but still, I was in the environment. If I hadn’t been there, I would have never had the opportunity to write a piece for the Gazette. While I was taking people’s coffee orders and scheduling in their appointments, I wrote a few of my own articles. As the year progressed, I gained the confidence to give it to an editor to read to see if I had what I took. She gave me the article back, full of red marks, full of mistakes, but she told me, it was really great. Those four words gave me the confidence to pursue my dreams of being a writer. I kept writing articles, my co-worker at the time had kept asking to read them. So I had given her my latest article, she read it, fell in love with it. It had been an advice column about love; specifically long distance relationships. She tried to get me to give it to our editor but I refused. It was very personal, I had written it from experience if you hadn’t realized. It wasn’t something I wanted to show my boss, it made me look very vulnerable. However, she didn’t really listen to me. She snatched it from my hands and brought it to my editor. My editor looked at it and was very impressed she decided to publish it in the next days newspaper. When I picked up that newspaper the next day, it felt completely unreal. There I was published in the Montreal Gazette, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Then the most unreal thing happened, the New York Times, called me! They wanted me to go in for an interview after they read my column, they had a spot that had just opened for me, and offered me my own “love column” that I would write three times a week. I couldn’t say no to the job, so after working for a year and a bit at the Montreal Gazette, I moved to New York, with Gab, Kelly and Steph. We had been inseparable since high school, there was no way we were going to split up now. We all started off by living on our own. We all found jobs in the big city and we were all really happy.
To recap, Gab followed Michael on his tour with One Direction. Mike and the Apollo had become quite the hit. They came out with their own album and had a sold out tour and that was all thanks to One Direction. As Michael went on tour, Gab stayed in New York. The long distance thing worked for them. She wouldn’t get distracted when he was gone and she could focus on her career. Gab was now a high school teacher at John Adams High School. She has been working there for the last three years and loves it. Her and Michael finally got married six months ago and they were happier than ever. Michael had some down time for the next six months until his next tour was going to start up. It was also summer vacation, so Gab and Michael would have a nice three months to spend with each other.
Steph was working at the hospital as a nurse. She wanted a career that would help people and maybe even witness a few miracles. She was still single, she had gotten in contact with Josh here and there, but they weren’t in anything official. He would visit her here in New York depending on his touring schedule, and they would always go out on dates when he came here. She wanted to keep her options open though, she didn’t like long distance relationships, like me. She really cared about Josh, but the commitment of either her going on tour with him or him settling down in New York with her wasn’t there. She also wanted to keep her options open since she did work at a hospital where there were a ton of cute doctors. She was the one who introduced me to my boyfriend, but more on that later.
Kelly was working as a fashion designer. She started off working at Michael Kors, but then started sketching her own clothes. Now she’s put a couple of dresses and outfits together and sells them on the internet to people who like what they see. Her website has become a huge hit and it keeps her really busy. She moved in with me last year after opening the website. She needed my extra hands helping her stitch the clothing she had promised her customers but didn’t have ready. She hadn’t been expecting her website to be such a hit. Her and Harry were still dating, officially now. Everyone knew that they were dating, and everyone respected it, and if they didn’t no one really cared. So many fans supported Kelly and Harry that if one said something against them, 50 directioners would come together and tear them apart.
I tried to keep in touch with Cynthia and Eleanor but it was hard considering they lived in different countries. Eleanor had come to visit us once we moved to New York City. She stayed with us for a week, but then had to go back home to go to school. Her and Louis were still going strong. I couldn’t even tell you two peoeple more perfect for each other than those two, they were just so alike, it was so adorable. They completed each other’s sentences and agreed on everything. I don’t think they had ever had an argument. Cynthia had been my rock for the first year after my break up with Niall. We skyped all the time, and she would really help me, telling me what I needed to hear, not what I wanted to hear. She supported my relationship with Niall, but she agreed with me that even if we were perfect for each other, we weren’t perfect for each other right now. Only time would tell if anything was still there between Niall and I.
Five years was a long time to wait around for someone. I waited and waited for the timing to be right, but everything was just happening so quickly I couldn’t even see straight. First I’m working in Montreal, then I had to move to New York, then Gab gets engaged so we had to plan the wedding, then Kelly decides to design clothes so she moves in with me. It’s all very exhausting, plus writing a column about love was exhausting in the beginning. My column had been about the heartbreaks I had felt, not about the good times. I wanted to write about those good times so I went out with a couple of guys. It didn’t work out with them, except the last one I dated, Nick. How could I describe Nick. He was absolutely perfect. He was tall, brunette, green eyes, he worked out at the gym three times a weeks, with rock hard pecks, and above it all, he was a doctor. Nick was a pediatrician working at the same hospital as Steph. She had been interested in Nick’s brother who was a gynecologist working at the same hospital. Steph asked me if I wanted to join her on a double date. I hadn’t been out in a while, and I was up for anything so I agreed to go with her. We had a great time, Steph dated the gynecologist for a while, but she broke it off. It was just weird for her knowing that the guy she was seeing was a gynecologist. Nick and I have been going out for about a year, it’s been really good so far. We like the same things, dislike the same things, we get along really well. We haven’t really had any problems, or any drama whatsoever which was really refreshing considering my previous relationship there was new drama every day. Sometimes I thought about Niall and mine’s relationship and how strong we were and it always scares me how something so strong could just suddenly break. I truly did believe it was for the best. I wouldn’t have had the great life I do now if I would have stayed with him, but I did miss him, I just wondered if he ever thought about me, and did he miss me too.
