My Lucky Star (One Direction Affection: Book 2)

21: Kiss for Good Luck

♧ 21: Kiss for Good Luck ♣

9/14/12


As much as hate Trinity, last night went better than I expected. 

And I expected the worst.

Well, hoped to be exact.

In all honesty, I hoped the party would be a total wreck. You know, I'm talking like a bad DJ, not enough food, and no one showing up because they thought it was the day after. Something like that. Instead, Trinity provided Niall with an amazing party.

What's even more surprising than the surprise party itself? Trinity practically begging me to speak to Niall again. It's hard trying to find an ulterior motive to that. Well, besides her wanting Niall to be happy. I don't know, Trinity is just so confusing. Like Paige told me when I first moved in here, it's hard to tell which Trinity is the real one. 

It's like everything she does nice for me goes right back to Niall. 

At the wedding, she said she wanted to tolerate me because Niall is my friend and then at his party, she wants me to talk to him because she knew that it was bothering him. Why can't Trinity go back to being selfish again? It was much easier to hate her when she told me to back off of Niall because he was hers.

I think guys were right, girls are complicated.



Suddenly, a knock comes at the door and I look up from my journal. Quickly tucking my journal under my leg, the door is pushed open and Paige is at the door with her laptop resting on her arm. She smiles shyly.

"I was hoping you'd be up," She says as she steps into the room. 

"Well, morning to you, too," I greet, sitting up in my bed. "What's up?"

She steps in, closing the door behind her. "Well, remember how I was talking to you about going to a university?"

"Yeah," I answer slowly. I did remember, I just hoped she had forgotten. 

"Well, guess who just picked up a whole bunch of brochures and applications for us," Paige says.

"Um, I'm going to take a wild guess here and say you?" I say playfully.

"How'd you know?" Paige asks, feigning shock.

I shrug. "I'm half psychic."

Paige nods in approval. "Very impressive."

I laugh as I look around to see if she brought in anything else with her, but she hadn't. Curiously, I ask, "So, these brochures and what not, are they all online?"

Paige looks down at her laptop and then back at me. "No, they're in my room."

"Oh, okay," I nod, then ask. "So, what's the laptop for?"

Again, Paige glances down at the screen and then smiles at me in a hesitant way. I narrow my gaze at her. "Well, thats the other reason I'm here. I was on the Internet this morning and stumbled upon something that I think you need to see."

"What?" I glance down at the laptop as Paige takes a seat at the edge of my bed. I reach forward but she quickly pulls back.

"Before I show you," She continues. "Just know that it's nothing to freak out about."

"Um, that makes me want to freak out," I dead pan. "Can you just show me already?"

Paige sucks in her lower lip before passing over her laptop to me. Taking it in my hands I set it on my lap and the moment my eyes fall on the screen the first thing I want to do is freak out. But I push that feeling aside for a brief moment, letting the sight sink in.

I don't know why I didn't see this coming. I mean, I went to a public party, why didn't I suspect that camera's would be there? What was I thinking?

On the screen, the first thing I saw was a split picture. The left side was a photo of Zayn holding my hand, pulling me along through the crowd. Out of context, this photo could look very bad. Zayn, who looks to be in a hurry, leading a girl who is looking over her shoulder. However, I know what was happening, but this picture sure doesn't look like Zayn is pulling me to the stage 

I look over to the right half of the picture. It's of me and Zayn onstage. I'm standing close to Zayn, shielding half of my face as I lean in to talk to Zayn. I remember this as the moment I asked him what he was doing. I was angry and yet this picture made the gesture intimate.

Especially underneath the large caption, nothing is innocent.

In big, bold lettering the title; "Zayn's Mystery Girl is revealed!"

Scrolling down, I skim through the article until I find my name. My full name, Madeline Beatrice Green is in italics along with my age. How did these people find so much information about me in so little time? They managed to get my hometown and my older sisters name. What'd they do? Stalk my Facebook page?

As I'm scrolling through the article, something catches my eye. 

Zayn Malik introduced this dark haired beauty as 'a friend' at his bandmates, Niall Horan's surprise birthday party last night. This is the same girl that a month before, Zayn was photographed dancing with at Paul Higgins wedding. Although Zayn is keeping quiet, a reliable source tells us that they are definitely more than just friends. "They are always together and joking around, it's really cute." So, tell us, Zayn! When are you going to come out in the open already? Or are you going to hide in the shadows? One way or the other, we will find out! We always do!

Reliable source? Who the hell would tell them that?

I look back up at Paige, my eyes wide in shock. "Wha- how?" I stutter. "What the hell?"

The corner of Paige's lips lift up in a I-Know-I-Feel-Bad-For-You kind of way. "I'm sorry, but I really wanted you to see it now before you get bombarded with fans on your way to work or something."

I can just picture it now. I'm on my way to Beatz and just as I'm about to step out onto the sidewalk, I get tackled to the group by all the Zayn lovers for stealing their future husband. Dear god. 

"No, I'm glad you told me," I tell her. "It just really sucks, I guess. I was really hoping no one would find out who I am."

"In all honesty," Paige starts out, shifting on the bed. "I'm surprised you weren't found out sooner. I mean, it was bound to happen."

"I just wished it happened later," I mumble. 

"Yeah, me too," Paige says, patting her hand on my covered knee. "And I know it sucks. I get it. How all of a sudden having your privacy stripped away. I totally get it, but in the end, it's all worth it."

I look at Paige and nod. I'm sure she's right. It's just, I'm now an open book for the world. Now I bet my Twitter account is going crazy and the death threats are rolling in. The thought of millions of girls all over the world not liking me makes me sick. However, maybe my privacy is worth losing. But for what? Paige has Harry. What do I get? A roof over my head. Food. New clothes. Necessities. And most of all, I gained people that I can trust. I gained new friends and maybe it will be worth it.

"I hope so," I respond, forcing a confident smile.

"I promise," Paige says to me. "I get what you're going through. It's not fun having people draw up conclusions about who you are and hating on you for no reason, but the best thing to do is think, these girls don't know me, why should I care what they think of me?"

"Yeah, but it's different with you," I point out. "You're actually dating Harry. This-" I point to the laptop. "Is just a rumor. I'm not dating Zayn."

Paige stops and thinks for a bit, then says "As long as you know the truth, who cares what anyone else thinks?"

And that made the most sense. Yeah people can say stuff and believe whatever lie the media spits out, but they don't know what's going on underneath all that. They think it's Zayn, but I know it Niall and that's all that should matter. I shouldn't care what everyone else thinks because they are nothing more than strangers. And since when did I start caring what strangers had to say about me? I just need to ignore all this. If Paige can do it everyday of her life, why can't I do it until I move out?

I look up at Paige, ready to thank her, but before I can say anything, a knock comes at the door. Without waiting for an answer, Niall opens the door, poking his head in. He looks at Paige and then at me, a small smile playing on his lips.

"Hey you two," Niall says, opening the door fully. He is still dressed in his pajamas; a white t-shirt and bottoms. 

"Hey, Niall," Paige greets, turning to look at him. 

"Morning," I smile.

Niall looks at Paige for a few seconds before turning his gaze to me. "I just came to see if you were up," He says to me, rubbing the back of his head. "I'll just come back lat-"

"Oh, no, no," Paige says as she gets up. She reaches over and takes her laptop from me, closing it. "I think Maddy and I are done talking. Right?"

I nod my head. "Yeah," I agree. "Thanks for that by the way."

"Of course," Paige beams. "So, we'll hang out later on today when the boys are at the studio so we can go through the brochures and what not."

"Sounds good, I'll see you later."

Paige nods and then turns on her heel, walking past Niall who is looking at me curiously. "Brochures?" He asks, stepping closer to my desk. "For what?"

I smile. "Yeah, don't ask," I laugh nervously. "Paige doesn't want people to know just yet but you'll find out sooner or later."

Niall raises his eyebrows at me and smiles. "Okay, I won't ask then."

"Thank you," I nod, throwing the comforter over my legs. It was starting to get warm under them. "So, did you have a nice birthday?"

"It was great, thank you," He tells me as he makes his way over to the wooden dresser, leaning his elbow on the corner nonchalantly. 

"Why are you thanking me?" I look at him in confusion. "I had nothing to do with the party."

"Well, yeah, but I'm just glad you went," He says giving me a shy smile.

So Trinity was right, he would notice of I wasn't there. 

"I'm glad I went, too," I say sincerely. And it's true. If I didn't go to the party I wouldn't be speaking to Niall right now and whether I want to admit it or not, ignoring him was killing me. The only problem now, I don't know which is going to be harder; pretending to be Niall's friend when I want to be so much more or pretending to like Trinity so I can be Niall's friend.

Either one is hard, in my opinion.

"Thanks for the present, by the way," Niall says suddenly.

"Oh," I say, remembering that Zayn had put my name on his original gift. "That was all Zayn."

Saying Zayns name made me think about the article, which made me wonder, does Niall know about all these stupid rumors?

"Yeah, I figured," Niall laughs. "I mean, it was half a bottle of his conditioner and the tag said 'To The Conditioner Killer'. It has Zayn written all over it."

I laugh, "Yeah, I guess it was really obvious that I forgot to get you something, huh?"

"Well, I wasn't expecting anything so it's not like I was disappointed," Niall tells me honestly. 

"Yeah, but I still should've gotten you something," I tell him. "I just forgot because I've been so busy with work."

"Yeah, Zayn told me," Niall says, forcing a reassuring smile, which didn't make me feel reassured in the least. "How's your job going anyways?"

"It's good, I guess," I say with a small shrug. "It's better than no job."

"Where do you work again?" He asks.

"Beatz Music Store," I say. "It's over by my old apartment. It's like ten blocks from here. It used to be like my old hangout so its pretty cool."

"That's awesome," Niall says enthusiastically. "I'm glad to hear that. I've been meaning to ask you about that sooner, but um, you know, I never got the chance."

I lick my lips out of nerves. Yeah, I do know. He didn't ask me because he knew I was actively avoiding him. He knew that if he did try to say something, I'd most likely give him a simple answer and be done with it. And god how I hate that he knew it.

Even now I can still feel that awkward tension between us. It's in the way that he smiles and the way he's keeping his distance. It's so obvious that he's still waiting for the moment that I start ignoring him again. He's waiting for me to pull back from him like I did before. 

Even I'm scared that I'll pull back. I'm scared that when I remember that Niall is with Trinity that I'll be back where I began, hating both of them; blaming Niall for dating the girl he so obviously likes. It's not right, I know that but how can I just ignore that? I need to learn to ignore that. I need to just forget Trinity. Forget that relationship and just remember how it was before they got together; before they became official. 

Which now seems so long ago. 

"Oh," Niall says suddenly, pulling me out of my thoughts. I look over to him and see that he's holding up the package of Glow in the dark stars that he bought me. 

"Wow," I say getting out of my bed and walking over to him. "I forgot I had those."

In all honesty, I did forget. The longer they stayed there, the less I thought of them. Sometimes while laying in bed, I'd see my starless ceiling and then I'd leave myself a mental note to put them up in the morning, which I obviously never gotten around to doing.

"Why haven't you put them up yet?" He asks me.

"I just forgot to, I guess," I say with guilt.

"Don't you want them?" He asks as he looks at the unopened package.

"Of course, I want them," I say defensively. "I'll put them up tonight, I promise."

Niall looks up at me and then to the space above my bed and then back at me. "Or we can just put them up now," He says with a small smirk.

"Now?"

"Well, why not?" Without saying another word he makes his way over to my bed and right as he's about to step on it, he stops as his eyes land on something. I step forward, trying to catch a glimpse of what caught his attention.

Niall leans down and picks up my old journal and my eyes widen.

No. No. No!

"Wait, don't touch that," I say, darting forward trying to get the book.

"Whoa, calm down," He laughs as he hands me the journal willingly. "I wasn't going to read your diary if that's what you're afraid of."

Even with his words, I'm still afraid that he might. How embarrassing would it be to have him read an entry about him? God, I'd die.

I look at him in annoyance. "I thought I explained this to you before, it's a journal. Not a diary."

"I don't know, the way you get all defensive about it not being a diary is usually a good sign that it is a diary," Niall tells me with a smile.

"Well, not in this case," I inform him stubbornly as I place it in my sock drawer. 

"One of these days you'll admit it's a diary. Just watch," Niall says to me as he jumps on top of my bed. He looks over his shoulder, giving me a knowing smile as he opens up the bag. "Now come on. Are you going to help me or what?"

Without having to be told twice, I step onto the bed, bouncing a little. Niall smiles as he holds out the bag, gladly I take a handful of stars into my hand and stick them into my hood pocket. One by one, Niall and I begin decorating my ceiling with dozens of stars. Peeling off the backs and then sticking them in random places all over the ceiling. 

After about ten minutes, we're pretty much done.

"Here," Niall says handing me the last star. "You should have the honors of placing the last star."

"Why thank you kind sir," I say dramatically as I take the star in my hand, peeling the back as I search for an open spot. Once I find it, I stick it up. I look back down and see that Niall has already jumped off me bed. 

"It looks great," He says, smiling up at me approvingly.

"It's gonna look even better tonight when they're actually glowing," I point out with a laugh.

"Good point," He agrees, and then holds out his hand. "Here let me help you down."

I stare at his outstretched hand before placing mime in his. Ignoring the small shock I got, I jump down from the bed with Nialls assistance. When my feet hit the ground, Niall holds onto my hand for a few more moments before letting them go. 

Quickly turning away, I lay back down on my bed, looking up at the pale stars that scattered the ceiling. I smile. "You're right, it does look great."

I feel the bed shift and before I know it, Niall is laying down next to me, staring up. I can feel the heat from his shoulder touching mine but I don't look at him. I can't. 

"I wish it were already nighttime so we could see them glow," Niall says as he rests his hands o'm his stomach.

"Stars are always prettier at night," I comment.

"Yeah, they really are," Niall agrees.

We let the silence consume us as we lay on the bed. Neither of us continue the conversation. We're saying nothing and yet I feel like we are saying everything. In this moment I'm not afraid anymore. In this moment, I know I can handle being Niall's friend. 

Because this moment is perfect.

And as if to contradict me, a star falls from the ceiling and lands right on Niall's chest. Niall and I both look at the star as he picks it up to examine it. He runs his thumb across the back side, no doubt feeling the lack of stick before flipping it over.

"Great, one faulty star." I mumble.

Niall continues looking at it, before handing it off to me. "Here, keep it."

"Keep it?" I repeat, unsure as to why I should.

"Yeah, for good luck or something," He insists.

I don't know whether to laugh or smile. So, I do both. It's cute how Niall thinks one simple star could be good luck, but I guess that must be an Irish thing, right? 

"If you think that's lucky, why don't you keep it for yourself?" I ask Niall.

"I'm Irish, I have my own luck," Niall says with a cocky grin.

"And how do you know this star is lucky?" I question playfully. I point to the ceiling. "Any one of those stars can be lucky so why this one?"

Niall purses his lips for a few moments and then looks at the star. Then, he suddenly brings the star to his lips and kisses it before handing it back to me.

"There! It's been kissed by an Irishman, it's definitely lucky," Niall says matter-o-factly

I laugh. "A kiss for good luck."

"Exactly," Niall tells me with a sly smile.

And although all of this luck talk is crazy, I like the idea of having a lucky item and it's all the better that it's a star. I've always heard the phrase 'Thank my lucky star,' but I never knew people took them literally. 

I look at Niall curiously. "Really? That's how luck works?"

"Like I said, I'm Irish," Niall tells me laughing as he lays back down on my bed. "We were born with luck."

I don't respond. Instead I just stare down at the small star in my hand. I can barely make out the star against my pale skin but I know it's there. I can feel it. Is it sad that this star has gotten more action from Niall than I have? Is it stupid of me to be slightly jealous? I mean, I want good luck! And if a kiss is all it takes, lay one on me! I don't mind.

But I know that can't happen. 

With one last glance at my so called lucky star, I stick it deep into my hood pocket and lay back down on the bed. My chest rising and falling as I breathe, which happens to be the only sound in the room.

That is until Niall speaks.

"Hey, Maddy?" Niall asks me, breaking the silence. I can feel his eyes on me.

"Hm?"

"Are we, um, okay?" He asks. "Me and you, I mean."

I don't need time to think about it. I know exactly where Niall and I stand and for right now, I'm perfectly fine with that. I'm fine with being his friend because if it's anything like how it was right now, I can live with it because this is probably the most I've smiled in a month. I'm not going back to not speaking to him.

I turn in my bed so I can look at him. His blue eyes pierce into mine and for what feels like the hundredth time in a span of fifteen minutes, I smile uncontrollably. The light from the window is hitting him square on the head, making his blonde hair shine. It's been so long since I've been this close to anyone and it feels nice.

I glance back up to Niall's eyes as I answer him.

"We're great." And I mean it, too.

Next to me, I see Niall let out a small breath as relief washes over him. A full smile spreads across his face, showing off his clear braces. 

We're good. We can finally move forward.

We're friends. He'll be there for me if I need him and I'll do the same for him. Whatever it is.

In that moment, I remember one thing Niall promised me right before we stopped talking. He promised me that if I ever needed anything, I could go to him. And right now, I think I know exactly what I need his help with.

"Hey, Niall," I say suddenly. "Um,  remember the night of Paul's wedding?"

That's a stupid question. Of course he would.

"Uh, huh," He says, "What about it?"

I scratch the back of my head. "And you told me that if I ever needed anything, I could go to you. Well, I think I might take you up on that offer if it's still available."

"Yeah! Of course," Niall says suddenly, sitting up. "What do you need? Is it money? I can go get m-"

"Whoa, whoa!" I say, sitting up too as I stick my hands out, calming him. "I don't want your money."

"Oh," Niall says, his emery levels dropping. "Okay, then what? I'll be happy to help. Whatever you need."

This makes me smile. "I'm glad to hear that, because we are going to have a lot of planning to do. And fast."

"Planning?" He asks raising an eyebrow.

"Yup," I nod my head. "Tell me, Ireland, how do you feel about putting on a free concert for charity?"

_____________________________________________________

A/N:

Hey! GUESS WHAT TODAY IS??

My Lucky Star's 21st BIRTHDAY!!!! Wooooo! I feel like an old mother haha and this story is officially over 100 pages! How awesome! :D

Okay, just a warning, when the Charity Event is close, that's when the story will be almost coming to an end! Just a warning haha :P 

No Trinity in this chapter! or the rest of the boys (minus Niall) for that matter haha bloopp

--------------> Check out the trailer I made for 1Dentity....It was very hard to make haha which explains why its not that good hahaha and I made it...which also explains why its not that good haha

So, uh I'm keeping this note short so....

Vote/Comment/Kiss a star/fix a broken friendship :D

Until chapter 22!

-Lou :)