Gotta Be You [Complete]

Chapter 16

Niall’s POV

It’s been a day since I saw her and it gave me time to think about everything. I realized that I shouldn't waste my time and energy being angry with everyone and myself. I can’t change anything about the past. I should just focus on helping Isla. All I want is for her to be better. It scares me every second that she could go back into a coma and never wake up again.

I was able to sympathize with Harry and his situation. I know that I would feel the same way if I were in his position. It must be hard for him to be put into a situation where you have to basically lie to someone and feeling really guilty about it. I shouldn’t be angry with him anymore. I tried to hide it because I was worried that Harry would feel even guiltier about it and I was worried that Isla would find out.

It’s only a month; time will fly quickly. I’ll act like how me and Isla were before we went out: best friends. I can handle that. I mean, it’ll basically be the same; I’ll get to be around her but I won’t be able to hold her and kiss her and tell her how much I love her but it’s okay.

Thinking about all that we have to do to keep Isla healthy made me think about the consequences that this will have when we have to tell her the truth in a month. She’ll be pissed. She’ll feel humiliated. She’s being lied to about whom she’s actually with and everyone that she cares about is in on it.

Isla is not someone you want to piss off. I remember our first and only big fight when we were going out. It wasn’t pretty but we got through it.

~Flashback~

“Babe, you’ve been studying all day, take a break. Go to sleep, it’s late,” I whined to Isla. I was on the bed as it was 12 at night. Isla was sitting at the study table studying like a maniac since 5 in the morning. 

“I can’t, my exam’s tomorrow and I need…” Isla started to say without taking her eyes off of her book. I waited for her to finish her sentence but she didn’t.

“See, you can’t even finish your sentence, I feel like you don’t even know I’m even here right now,” I said sadly. 

Once I said that Isla spun her chair around and looked at me with an apologetic look on her face.

“Babe, you know that’s not true,” she said, “I’m just a little stressed out right now and I’m really worried about this exam.”

“You’ll do fine,” I said, “you’ve been studying like a crazy person for a week now. You can do that exam in your sleep.”

She laughed. “I wish I could,” she said. Surprisingly, she got up from her chair and climbed into the bed, crawling up to where I was.

“I guess I can sleep for a bit,” she said, “I’ll just set my alarm up for 5 again so I can study a bit more before the test.” She grabbed her phone and set up the alarm. In my mind, I was shaking my head. She didn’t need to study anymore; she knew everything.

“Good night, Ni,” she said, as she cuddled up in my arms. She leaned her head up and gave me a quick kiss.

“Night, love,” I responded. It’s been over a week since we’ve been like this. She’s studying all the time and when she’s not, she’s too tired to do anything else. I was happy.

Within seconds, I could hear quiet snores coming from Isla. She needed sleep. She needed more than 5 hours of sleep that she was planning on having. So I decided to take her phone and change her alarm to 10 am since her exam wasn’t until 12 in the afternoon. She didn’t need to study anymore. And she’ll have plenty of time to get ready for school.