Hopeless

Chapter 3

Niall's POV

She looked so beautiful when she was sleeping. Phoenix fell asleep before we got food, so I told the lads to just drive on to the bus. I could wait that long. Well, I didn't know if I could, but I would make myself wait until we got to the bus.

I really wanted to carry Phoenix onto the bus, but Harry claimed that privilege before I could. What was it with him and girls? He flirted with every single girl, even the ones I like. It wasn't fair.

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Phoenix's POV

I woke up on some sort of couch/futon thing, and I was absolutely STARVING! I tried to sit up, but that bruises on my stomach from several years of abuse cried out in protest. Not wanting to deal with the pain, I settled for rolling off the futon and landed with a THUD. I heard four pairs of footsteps running up the stairs.

"Are you alright?" a blonde-haired face with shockingly blue eyes peered at mine, followed by the faces of Zayn, Louis, and Harry. Liam must've been driving.

Right as I opened my mouth to answer them, my stomach decided to imitate the mating call of a whale. I looked up at the lads, hoping they hadn't heard it. Who was I kidding? They snickered behind their hands and helped me up.

I followed them down the stairs to peruse the small kitchenette that was on the bus. I looked through the cooler, finding mainly a bag of carrots "Louis' carrots, I think). The cabinets had bags of Doritos, a partial carton of Oreos, and a line of spoons. I remembered from a fanmade video of One Direction facts that Liam was afraid of spoons. There wasn't much food, but it would do. I settled down at the small table with the rest of the carrots (they were almost gone), the rest of the Oreos (they were almost gone too), and some Doritos on a paper plate. To drink, I decided, after looking through another cooler, on a bottle of water.

When I sat down, I saw Niall sitting on his bunk, on his phone. Because I didn't really know him and I didn't really want to get to know him, I kept my head down, not making eye contact, and finished my lunch quickly.

We arrived at the flat that the boys lived in, and I borrowed the car and made a trip to the grocery store for some food, because I was pretty sure there wasn't much in the way of food.

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Niall's POV

When I finally decided to go down to the kitchen to have lunch, I found that my partial carton of Oreos was gone. G-O-N-E, gone. Someone ate my Oreos! The carrots were also gone; Louis wouldn't be very happy about that. Phoenix was gone, too, but I had food on my mind. I was in love with her, but she already drove me up the wall.

"I'm hungry," Louis whined as he moped into the kitchen, sitting on one of the stools at the island.

"I think we all are," Zayn commented.

"Did someone mention food?" a new voice asked as I heard the door to the garage open and shut.

"Phoenix, where are my Oreos?" I demanded. I was furious that someone had eaten my Oreos.

"Oooooooh! Someone ate Niall's Oreos!" Louis jeered.

"Looks like she ate your carrots too, Boobear," Harry commented as he pulled a drink out of the cooler.

"She did WHAT?!" Louis burst out. He looked like he was about to kill someone. "No one eats my carrots and gets away with it!"

"What's in the bag, Phoenix?" Liam asked. While Harry was comforting Louis, he and Zayn were the only calm ones.

"Where are the Sharpies?" she asked. She really didn't know her way around our flat yet. I gave her one from my pocket and watched as she pulled a couple things out of the bag and giving them to Zayn to put away, worried about my Oreos. Where were they?

"Louis, heads up," she called over to the sad lad on Harry's lap. I saw eight bags of carrots go flying through the air.

"You got me carrots? YAAY!" he bounded out of Harry's lap, picked her up, and kissed her on the cheek.

"Did you get me my Oreos?" I shuffled over to her and gave her my sad puppy dog eyes, my lower lip quivering.

"Front passenger seat," was her only reply, giving me the keys.

I went out to the car and found not one, but TWO cartons of Oreos and TWO BAGS OF NANDO'S. I was so excited, I grabbed the food and ran, screaming like a little girl, back into the flat.

****

Phoenix's POV

Niall was so cute. He ran into the flat, screaming like a little girl. Dropping the food on the island, he picked me up around my bruised ribs and squeezed really hard for a hug. The pain became too much for me to handle, and I blacked out in his arms.

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Liam's POV

"Kamron?" I found the sweet 8-year-old in her room playing with Legos. "I need to see if anything's wrong with Phoenix. Can I lift up her shirt? If you want, you can come too."

The sweet girl nodded and together we went downstairs to check on Phoenix. She never said much, but lifted the shirt until all that was covered was her bra and her shoulders. What I and the other lads saw we were totally unprepared for. The bruises... I couldn't even begin to describe them; red, yellow, blue, purple. They looked very painful, and I couldn't even begin to imagine what it felt like.

"What happened?" I asked incredulously. I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. Before I or the other lads made any sort of move, Kamron, faster than a jackrabbit, pulled her sister's shirt back down, and Phoenix looked like the average sleeping teen.

While I didn't know Phoenix, I felt it was my responsibility as Daddy Direction to protect her, and I vowed to do so.

"Lads, let's carry her up to her room," I said with a weighted heart. It ached to know she was in pain. I couldn't imagine who would be cruel enough to inflict this pain on such a sweet girl. I knew from then on, it was my duty to protect Phoenix from any sort of pain-inflicting fiend.

Author's Note

Cliffhanger and some feels!!!! Will Phoenix be ok? What's going to happen next?

I am also going to hold a contest for cover art! The winner will get chapter 4 dedicated to them, so the sooner the cover art is chosen, the sooner I will add chapter 4!

Head start for the next contest: who should play Phoenix??? Winner will get a chapter dedicated to them!

Lizzy-Luci :)