Cigarettes and Hickies [n.h]

dix-neuf

After some time, Ocean got up from the bed and went to the living room. Her eyes landed on her flatmate who was now curled up on the couch and had a blanket over her body; empty bottles and dirty dishes along with cigarette butts were surrounding her friend, and for the first time in what felt like forever, Ocean realised just what a mess her life truly was.

She kept telling herself that she despised Niall; yet, she couldn't help but be slightly thankful for him. His persistence on getting to know her, had driven Ocean to focus on something different than her usual distractions. She knew that if he hadn't always been so stubborn and around her constantly, that she would have turned to alcohol and drugs more often. The pain in her chest from being apart from Jasper was still there, but she realised that by being with the Irishman, the pain somewhat diminished and sometimes even ceased. Being angry at him was playing as a distraction from getting high, and for that she was thankful. Who knows what would have happened if he hadn't entered her life; how different would she have dealt with her heartache.

As her eyes lingered on the mess on the coffee table, she saw the mug that Niall had bought her and a rare smile spread across her pale lips as she remembered his words, 'it suits you'. Ocean cursed him even though he wasn't there to listen, because his cheekiness didn't fail to make her smile. Walking over to it, the girl with silvery-blue hair curled her fingers around the mug before noticing that a piece of paper had been shoved inside it. Upon taking the creased paper, she read 'when you're ready' written across it along with eleven digits scribbled underneath. A laugh left her lips as she read his affirmative words of 'when' and not 'if' she was ready, before shoving the paper in her pocket and turning on her heels to go back to her even-messier bedroom.

With a long sigh, she clumsily placed the mug on top of her Aspects in Astronomy book and sat down on her chair as she turned on her laptop. A blue sticky note on her screen jolted her back to reality and reminded her that she had an essay due in that afternoon. Her blue eyes widened as she instantly became alert of the task and started to quickly search for her folder and notes. Indeed, a 2000 word essay about the understanding of planetary relationships in the horoscope was due in at two o'clock that afternoon, and as she glanced at the time she realised she only had four hours to meet the deadline. With a grunt and a curse, Ocean began drafting her essay. Astronomy was her favourite subject, and the only thing that truly intrigued her and offered her full attention; however, as the pen was gently tapping over her chin, she realised that her mind was blank. She couldn't think of how to begin the essay. With a curse towards her lecturer leaving her lips, she thought of introducing her paragraph with: First of all...Bitch. Because with the amount of words she had to do and by the time she had to hand it in, there was no way she could do it on time.

On the other side of town, meanwhile, Niall was preparing his bags to leave. The boys and their manager had both prodded him to return saying he had already taken enough time to recover from his injury and he seriously needed to get back to work. They had a stadium tour and various performances to promote their singles coming up and rehearsals were essential.

Grunting, Niall carelessly shoved his shirts and pants into his bag as his mind longingly thought about Ocean. He felt angry and frustrated that he still managed to think about her despite her doing everything to make any other guy turn away. It was all so complicated and strange and yet Niall persisted; he hoped that by offering her his number she would pluck up the courage to call him. However, knowing the girl, Niall cursed as he thought about her ignoring the paper, perhaps already throwing it away, if not actually burning it.

There were two mintues until Ocean had to submit the essay, and she still had 600 words left. The deadline passed, and an hour and a half later Ocean turned in her work. She curses and almost wanted to throw her laptop out the window but restrained when she knew she would regret that later. Instead, she turned to her infamous bottle of whiskey and drank from the it, as she thought about what a shit day her day turned out to be.