eighteen ∣ one direction

chapter four

When Ophelia opened her eyes again, she was sitting on a beach, facing the waves. They crashed into the white sand in front of her as she looked around for her boys.

'That will take a little getting used to... my boys.'

It was weird to think that some of the most sought over guys on the planet were hers, and only hers. Not only that but these were the guys she had been a fan of for over a decade.

When she was younger, she always joked about the marks on her arms matching their initials, but as she grew up she decided to move on from that joke. She thought that her real-life soulmates probably wouldn't appreciate their soulmate wishing One Direction were hers.

Little did she know...

Slowly, the boys came into focus in the dream. It was weird for Ophelia to see them in their sleep clothes. Harry even had fluffy bunny slippers on. They approached her slowly, and, when it became obvious that she would not retreat, sat down in a semi-circle in front of her. 

"You sure took your time sending that tweet Harry," Ophelia muttered, hugging her knees to her chest and looking down at her feet playing in the sand. She didn't mean to sound rude, but she went through a roller coaster of emotions in the last hour because of a delayed tweet, and she would be damned if she did not know why.

"Yeah sorry. The time got away from me. Stuff's been hectic this year." Harry was fiddling with his rings and looking down, obviously feeling ashamed of making his soulmate angry. The others were just looking down awkwardly, not really knowing what to say.

'Okay, now I feel bad. Not very TPWK of you Ophelia...'

"...I forgot. I'm sorry. I was just stressed all day and everyone was asking about the dream and I didn't know what to say and.." she rushed to explain her behavior, but before her rant could get too far, Niall interrupted her.

"You're rambling, Angel," said Niall, "Take a deep breath."

"Oh my god, Niall Horan just called me angel what the actual fuck."

"Ah, so you are a fan?" Louis questioned.

'Louis Freaking Tomlinson just asked me if I'm a fan. ME!'

"Yes very much so," Ophelia squeaked.

"Well, I guess that makes our introductions easier. Now, all we have to do is find you." Liam spoke, getting them all on task. Finding her. "Well, you obviously just turned 18. And you're American. That eliminates a few billion people."

"Lucky that. We're so close already! Payno, that doesn't help. Half of our fanbases are around that age." Louis quipped, kicking sand at the other man sitting across from him. 

"I don't think finding me is that big of a problem. I have a few ideas..." Ophelia said, smiling to herself.  "We can cross that bridge when we get to it. We should get to know each other first, though."

Ophelia looked at them, trying to decide what to talk about. She wasn't that social of a person, and this past year with quarantine had made her social life completely non-existent. Despite her online presence, she had really bad social anxiety. The only people she regularly talked to were her family, her close friends, and the people she streamed with. She didn't know how to make conversation with practical strangers who she had looked up to for years. It didn't matter how much she knew about them on the surface level, they knew absolutely nothing about her. As she looked at the men that were her soulmates, she noticed Zayn twitching and looking around, as if looking for an exit. 

"Zayn, you haven't talked much. You alright?" Ophelia found herself saying, concerned for the man across from her.

"It's just weird being here. I was so used to not having a soulmate... convinced me and the lads were just glitches in the system or some shit."