Blind date (n.s)

13

"So?" Louis rushed in as I let myself slide down the wall and tried to get my breath back to normal.

1-2-3-4-5

Breathe

1-2-3-4-5

Breathe

"Get away from me!" I tried to yell at him, but my voice cracked so he probably only understood the first word.

He kneeled down next to me.

"I said get away!", this time my voice was stronger and it echoed off the tiles.

Louis took a step back.

"Niall, please!", he said, holding the palms of his hands up. "I'm sorry. I was stupid making up that date stuff. A total plank. But did I get it all wrong?"

I rubbed my eyes to stop those damn tears from falling. I was still shaking, still furious and hurt.

I looked at him. It had never been Louis' skill to admit he himself was to be blamed for something and I normally didn't complain about this behaviour. But at that very moment I couldn't just swap it away. I had a probably broken nose, because of him...

I jumped up. I didn't even know I could do that with my legs that felt like they'd give in every second.

"You are a fucking arsehole, Louis William Tomlinson!" I spit at him and threw my fist right in his face.

I heard something crack, so I figured that I wasn't the only one with a broken nose anymore.

Louis stumbled backwards. A few drops of blood dripping over his mouth, down his chin.

His eyes were widened in shook, surprise and disbelief. I could tell by the look on his face that he would've expected me to do basically anything but that. I was surprised myself, but I didn't feel guilty. Louis was my friend, yes. But tonight he had been a pretty shitty friend, he had been for the last week.

Before I could freak out even more or before Louis could get his revenge, Shawn and Julia were there, making sure that Louis and I wouldn't come near each other even just by one step.

Shawn grabbed Louis arm and pulled him out of the restroom. The second they were both out my legs gave in and I fell onto the floor. My breath began to hitch once again and I was shaking like hell. I couldn't stop the waterfalls running down my cheeks. I didn't want to stop them. It felt relieving to just let it all out. Not having to hold back.

Julia sat down right next to me, leaving me a few minutes space to just be by myself, in my own world, before finally pulling me in for a hug.

I can't remember for how long we must've sit on that cold floor, arms wrapped around each other. Julia trying to comfort me and me trying to find something to hold on to.

After there were no tears to be cried anymore, I let go of Julia.

"I want to go home", I said, eyes fixed on the ground.

"You shouldn't be going home like that" Julia pointed out, ripping off some toilet paper to clean my shirt a bit. "And you should go to a doctor who can check up your nose, it looks pretty much broken"

I nodded. Alice and Janet shouldn't see me like this. They would freak and faint and search for Luke to murder him.

"Niall" Julia looked me in the eyes. "I'm sorry. For everything. We should have told you the truth, we should have been honest with you. And we should have protected you when you needed it. But we didn't do any of this. I'm sorry that it ended this way..."

I nodded again. I couldn't talk now.

"Uhm, hey" Harry walked into the restroom. An unsure smile plastered on his face. "I just wanted to know, how you're doing. You know, you just stormed off and... well, I was a little worried."

"I'm okay, I guess" I said, my words being nearly a whisper. "Thank you for helping me back there"

Harry kneeled down, shaking his head. "Not a problem"

"Niall, can you walk?" Julia asked, grabbing my hand.

"I think so"

"Okay, then let's go tho my car and get you to hospital", she said.

Harry got up again. Getting a grip of my left hand, that had started to swell a little since I hit Louis nose.

Together, Julia and Harry lead me carefully to Julia's old Toyota that was parked in the parking lot of the next supermarket that was long closed.

I let myself fall into the backseat, happy to finally lie on something soft and not the cold, hard floor anymore.

Julia and Harry talked quietly and I saw them glancing over to me, but I honestly didn't care. Soon after Julia took a seat behind the steering wheel and started the engine. It took her some time to get the car going.

As we drove off, I could see Harry looking after us. Arms wrapped around his body, a worried and concerned look plastered on his face. If he had been my date things would have never been like they had become. We would have talked about stuff, we would have laughed, he would have bought me my favourite drink and I would have come home with this crazy, funny feeling in my stomach that felt like I had eaten butterflies. I realised that I barely even knew anything about him. He knew so many things about me, but I only knew that he worked at the KIWI. What was his last name again? Tiles? Style? Mile?

———————————————————

"You are lucky", the doctor said smiling at me. "We don't have to operate it and it's only a little crack in the bone. We will put a plaster on your nose and if you're careful the next month it should be okay really soon"

I nodded. I was quite relieved because now I could tell Janet and Alice that things weren't as bad as it seemed.

Julia has already called Janet earlier, telling them everything that had happened. She told her absolutely everything, from me getting kinda raped when I was only fifteen to when Luke hit me in the face. She hadn't asked me if she was allowed to report the whole thing but I didn't care. I didn't care about anything really.

The whole drive to my flat Julia and me remained silent. My head started to hurt real bad. I hoped that I still had pills against headaches at home if not...

I could tell that Julia felt guilty. It hadn't only been Louis idea to set me up with Luke, she and Shawn had been involved.

When Janet opened the door, she embraced me immediately into a hug. Janet is a tough woman who doesn't get emotional, nervous or scared quickly but now I felt her heart beating hard and fast against her rips. She exchanged looks with Julia and pulled me inside the flat before closing the door again.

"I will stay here over night", she said.

I didn't mind so I just shrugged. Then I went to my bedroom. As I closed the door I felt a big pressure dropping off my shoulders. I fell in bed and stared at the ceiling, just letting my thoughts take over. I wouldn't sleep. My head was too stuffed with things, I couldn't shut off.