The Girl Next Door: A Niall Horan Love Story

The Girl Next Door: Brunch with the Boys...

CLARISSA'S POV       

        I woke on Sunday morning to the mouth-watering smell of breakfast and for a moment I thought I was back home, snuggled in the bed I'd left behind. As I opened my eyes I expected to see familiar blue walls and hear the voice of my mother calling for my brother and I to get up, however the sight of empty white walls jarred me from my delusional dreamy state. My heart cringed and I bit my lip to keep a distressed gasp from escaping me. "You're in London, now," I whispered to myself fighting back frustrated tears, "This is where you belong now. This is where you're wanted." I pressed the palms of my calloused hands against my eyes hard, trying to stop the tears I had been refusing to cry. After a few minutes I felt my heart slow and my composure return. No need to make Aunt Clare fret. 

        With a glance at the clock I realized it was nearly eleven o'clock. Sighing I pushed the covers off my bare legs, sending a suspicious glare at the covered window, and walked toward my door. I looked over at the mirror across my room to make sure I didn't have red, swollen eyes and found someone I almost didn't recognize. 

        She had the same wild strawberry blonde hair as me, slightly tussled from a deep sleep, and wide green eyes, but the girl in mirror looked soft, almost angelic. The light peeking through her blinds seemed to light her pale skin, making it glow healthily. Her long legs no longer had the purple and black bruises that had embarrassed her for so long, her bones no longer protuded from her skin like broken pieces, and her brother's faded green shirt had begun to cling to her again just like it had before. The girl ran her long, slender fingers through her hair and gave me a timid smile. She knew things were changing, and I decided that it was about time I accepted that. So with a nod in her direction I reached for my door handle and marched to the stairs. Feeling adventurous I sat on the banister of the stairs and glided down with a woop.

        "What are you cooking Clare," I asked as I walked into the kitchen. 

        "Well hello again, love," purred a voice that didn't belong to my aunt. My head reared up and I saw five boys sitting at my aunt's table. I looked at the speaker and recognized him immediantly as the perv from the day before. 

        "Harry," exclaimed a boy I didn't recognize. Like Harry the other boy had dark brown curls, but his brown eyes were averted from my half-clothed figure. A deep blush crawled across his cheeks and spread down to his neck. "I'm so sorry," he stuttered glaring at the perv. 

        "I'm guessing Clare forgot to tell you we'd be coming over for brunch, huh," inquired a smiling boy with dark black hair. His hazel eyes glittered with a bemused light, they flickered behind me and I turned in time to see a third boy barreling toward me. His blues eyes were the only thing I saw before I was yanked out of his path. The blue-eyed boy tumbled down in front of me and I noticed he had my bag of carrots in one of his hands. 

        "Are you alright," asked my rescuer, his breath curling into the shell of my ear. I shivered at the sudden warmth of his body and turned my head to see his familiar face. It was the other boy from the previous day. In the process of being pulled out of the wild one's course my shirt had risen and at the feeling of the boy's hand on my newly exposed flesh I finally found my words. 

        "What the hell is going on?"

        Just as the phrase left my mouth Aunt Clare entered the kitchen with a bag of groceries. She looked around the room and her eyes took in my exposed legs, the compromising position of the blond behind me, and the Carrot-stealer lying on the ground. "Oh dear," she muttered, "I forgot the bacon."

        "CLARE!" I exclaimed. 

        The boys around me laughed and I gave my aunt a wild look. She blushed lightly and I realized from the twinkle in her emerald eyes that she had planned this. God! I pushed myself out of the blond's arms and ran up the stairs I had just slid down. When I got to my room I slammed the door angerly and waited.