Voir Dire (N.H.)

fifteen

"Umm Kels," Becca called out from the living room. Kelsey had finally sat down to begin looking over the mountain of books that represented her prep for her LSAT. Niall had been on set for the music video the past three days, eliminating at least one distraction from her much needed study session. However, Kelsey had now been staring at a single practice question for twenty minutes, her brain seemingly shut off from absorbing any content.

"Yes?" Kelsey shouted back, not wanting to move from her perch from the kitchen table. Surely whatever Becca had to say could just be shouted from the next room. She thought she'd told Becca that she needed to focus. But clearly, her roommate had a much different idea of the definition of a distraction.

"You need to come in here and see this," Becca persisted. Kelsey groaned, turning her head around the chair to try and peer into the living room in hopes of seeing just what was so important, all she could catch was the faint glow of the corner of the TV.

"It's about Niall," Becca added, as if his name was some sort of treat that Kelsey couldn't ignore.

"Becca, I'm studying. He's filming his music video this week remember. He's already sent me a hundred pictures from the set." Becca had a bit of a TMZ obsession. Kelsey had seen pictures from the set that she could imagine would be worth quite a great deal to any number of tabloids. She liked that Niall was keeping her in the loop, showing her an aspect of his life that was so important to him.

Becca is quiet for a moment, and for a second, Kelsey thinks that her roommate may have gotten the hint. That is until Becca's unsteady voice breaks the silence again. "Was his girlfriend in any of those pictures?"

There are moments in life that completely blindside you. When it feels as though something has come out of nowhere and knocked you off a cliff. Kelsey thought she'd had enough of those moments in recent months to make her immune for the rest of her lifetime. Kelsey was wrong.

Kelsey felt her blood run cold. The pen she'd been holding between her thumb and index finger dropping with a clink onto the table. Had she misheard Becca?

She rose from her chair in a hurry, turning the corner to enter the living room and walk towards the TV.

"His what?" she replied in what felt like barely even a whisper, but as soon as she turned the corner into the living room she saw exactly what Becca is talking about. On the screen were some pap shots from the set of Niall's music video, but it's the photos of him leaving the set that throw her mind in a tailspin. There was Niall, the same beautiful brunette boy she'd woken up to only a few days before, but this time, his hand is intertwined with the hand of a tall, blonde girl. At first, Kelsey wanted to believe it was all part of the shoot, that this girl was the actress hired to play his love interest. But then the screen flashes to a photo of Niall and the same girl, posed together on the red carpet at the American Music Awards. The same night that Kelsey had first met Niall.

Kelsey felt her breath hitch, her lungs seemingly incapable of expanding. Her chest began to burn, the acid in her stomach began to tumble and suddenly she felt like she wasn't even in control of her own body anymore.

How could she have been so stupid? How could she have thought that a celebrity like Niall wouldn't be stringing her along like he probably was ten other girls?

"Kels," Becca's voice said timidly, setting a hand gently on Kelsey's shoulder. "Are you okay?" Kelsey feels like the world around her is beginning to spin. The edges of her view collapsing in until all she can see is that girl, her picture perfect smile, and her arm wrapped around Niall like it belonged there. Kelsey tried to steady her breathing, inhaling from deep in her diaphragm and filling her lungs with air. But it's to no avail, the pressure is building inside her, until suddenly it bursts.