All Your Little Things

Chapter 25- A Young Heart, A Mature Mind, and A Whole Lotta Love

Elizabeth

I would say that I mostly tried to stay away from any and all hate comments and goosip produced by the media and fans. However, in this industry, at on point or another, you will feel the burn, and I definitely felt it that day.

Niall was leaving the next day for tour, and I was already upset about that. I had been feeling pretty down on myself that morning for whatever reason, and I had ended up on Sugarscape.

They had a headline about me and Niall, because apparently a source gave them a 'tell-all.'

The source had spilled how our close friends and family thought we were getting too serious too soon, which was, of course, not true, but it got me to wondering. I realized that probably a lot of people thought we were way too serious, and I was tying myself down instead of living up my young years. I knew that they were wrong. I was just as crazy with Niall, maybe even crazier, than I was by myself. He made me feel alive.

However, it still hurt knowing people disapproved. It was so hard knowing that I was so in love and so happy with how everything in my life was going, yet there were people out there who thought it was fake and hated me and wanted to see our relationship fail.

Naturally, I ended up searching my name in Twitter. There were a lot of very sweet comments, but the hateful ones stood out the most.

It hurt that people could find so many things wrong with me, like I had never told myself that I was an awful person for those very reason. They were pointing out my flaws as if I had never seen them. They made fun of my weight, because I used to be heavier. They pointed out the yellowness of my teeth, said that I was mean, and just flat-out ugly. And that kind of hate and bullying, I would never wish on my worst enemy.

I went and sat on the balcony, in the cold, and I sat and cried. I was freezing, but it was almost numbing.

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Niall

I got to Elizabeth's flat and used my key to unlock the door and get in. I wanted to surprise her, as rehearsal had ended early.

"Hey! Lib!" I called out with no answer. "Lib! Hey, rehearsals ended early! You want to go catch a movie or something?" I threw the keys and my backpack on the kitchen table

I walked to her room, and she was not there, or Ali's room, or the den, the dance studio, family room, kitchen. The car was in the driveway. Her phone was on the counter. She had to be here. The open laptop on the counter caught my eye. I walked up to it and tapped the mouse to brighten the screen.

Right there, plainly on the screen, I could see the day and conversation that I had been dreading since we got together in July. Twitter comments were on the news feed, as she had typed in "I hate Elizabeth Maurey" in the search box, and as I refreshed, more tweets appeared; I read through some of them.  I sighed, and I heard a cough.

My head whipped toward the balcony and I saw Elizabeth's hand peak out through the door crack. I went outside, and she was sitting there curled up in a comforter, her face stained with tears. I knelt down in front of her, resting my hand on her knee. She stared down at me with her lips pursed.

I could tell she was angry, not at me though, it was a hurt angry. Her eyes were sad and dark. I had seen her mad, but this time, it was different. She was different.

"Lib? Why are you out here? It's absolutely freezing!"

"It's numbing."

"Lib..."

"They hate me Niall. They hate me, and they think you're better off without me. What if you are? Maybe we shouldn't be doing this."

I let my head drop, and then I looked back at her. "Come on, let's go back inside. I'll make you some tea and we can talk about this."