Heartbreak Weather | Niall Horan

07

Mondays have always been my least favorite day of the week. This Monday came to me as my reality check. Yesterday, I woke up and Niall somehow convinced me to make him breakfast, but he ended up discovering one of the many things I'm not good at. He went back to his apartment sometime in the early afternoon and we spent the rest of the day texting each other. I hoped that when I woke up this morning it would still be Sunday and I had only dreamt that the day had passed. But it was Monday, and I had my meeting with Cindy.

To say I was nervous would be an understatement. That woman terrified me. I had seen multiple instances where she had made grown men cry and I couldn't bear to even think about how harsh she was going to be on me.

After gaining enough courage, I made my way into the building. I lightly knocked on her office door, hoping that she had forgotten about our meeting this morning. My hopes are quickly shot down when I hear her voice.

"Come in." She calls.

I close my eyes before taking a deep breath, turning the doorknob, and pushing the door open. Her office was exactly the same as it was the last time I had been there. The only difference was that she had taken down my small movie poster and replaced it with a different one. She hates me.

"Take a seat, Béatrice." She says, gesturing towards one of the chairs in front of her desk. "I have a lot to say, so, please, let's not waste time."

Without saying anything I sit down, fidgeting with my rings and avoiding eye contact with Cindy.

She clears her throat, "Okay, so I'm not even going to bother with the whole 'It's been so long, how are you?' crap. I know you don't want to be here and I'm still beyond mad."

I don't know how to respond. I look up at her, expecting for her to be glaring at me. She wasn't, her face was calm but I knew she was angry with me.

"What happened?" She asks, a sense of calmness present in her voice.

I shake my head, "Nothing happened."

"Really?" She questions, raising an eyebrow at me. "I don't believe you. Something happened."

"Nope," I tell her.

"You're really not gonna tell me? Béa, seriously?" Cindy frowns. "You were so excited to be in Petit à Petit [Little by Little]! And then you just skipped the premiere and nobody heard from you for months."

I don't respond. I don't even move in fear that she'll be able to read my body language.

Cindy purses her lips. "Okay. Well, how about I tell you what I know about what happened? And you can let me know if it jogs your memory."

My stomach feels like it hit the floor and I feel like I could pass out in her office. There's no way she knows, right? If she knew there's no way she'd be talking about it with me right now. Cindy would've left me to the wolves if she knew.

"O-okay." I manage to say.

"Alright well, I'm not sure if you've seen but Jonathan and Melinda Knight have decided to get a divorce," Cindy says and I almost throw up at the mention of his name. She knows. "Melinda's publicist sent over an article that is set to be released once their divorce is finalized. Here."

She hands me a folder and I open it. The only thing I read was the title and I quickly shut the folder, handing it back to her.

"It's true?" She asks, calmly.

"Yeah." I nod, trying my hardest not to burst into tears.

"Béa." She sighs, "Why didn't you tell me?"

Judging by the look on her face, she wasn't angry anymore.

"I was scared." I confess, "I didn't know what to do."

"You should've come to me." She says, getting up and moving over to sit next to me. I could tell that she wanted to prove to me that, at this moment, she was trying to be a friend rather than an authority figure.

"I know," I say, letting a single tear run down my cheek. "I just didn't want to screw things up. My dad was so excited for me to get that role, I didn't want to let him down."

"You wouldn't have let him down," Cindy reassures.

We sit in silence for a few moments, neither of us knows how to approach things or what to do next.

"What do we do?" I ask, "Should I just go home and wait for the article to come out? I need to tell my mum still."

"I'll get ahold of a lawyer and see if there's a way to stop it from being published. If it gets published, we see if we can file a lawsuit against both of them." Cindy says, "In the meantime, try and stay out of the media, fly home and tell your mum, and just stay calm. We'll figure all of this out, okay?"

I nod, "I'm sorry you have to deal with all of this."

'Béatrice, I know you think I'm some evil human being, but I've always been and will always be here to support you." Cindy says.

"Thank you," I tell her.

'Next time I call, please answer." She says, "I'm here for you, okay?"

Cindy wraps up the meeting and we work out some times to meet every few weeks. She tried to send me home with a copy of the article, but I refused. I didn't want to tell Celina about it, knowing that she wouldn't understand. And I definitely didn't want to tell my mother.

Other than the few tears that had appeared in Cindy's office, I managed to make it all the way from her office to one of the benches outside. I had barely been sitting for thirty seconds before the warm tears began flowing down my cheeks.

This was going to end any potential roles I'd want to get in the future along with my image. Celina was going to freak, and not in a good way. And my mum, she was going to be disappointed in me. My life as I knew it was pretty much over, and for once I didn't mean that just to be dramatic. This is bad.

Maybe I should have told Cindy about what was going on when I happened. She probably could've helped me and I wouldn't have put both of us in this situation.

My phone buzzes in my pocket and I wait until I've calmed down a bit to see what it said. My vision was still blurry, but after blinking a few times it cleared up. I read the message that appeared on the screen.

Niall
You free for lunch? I can come pick you up.

I smile and type a response.

Sure, meet at my apartment?

The thought of having lunch with Niall was enough to turn my morning around. Even just hearing from him made a difference. I know that this is all just going to affect him in the end too. And I couldn't let myself be selfish enough to drag him into this.

First off, the movie Béa was in is obviously fake. If there is an actual movie what that title, I would just like to say that there is no correlation between that movie and this book.

Any predictions as to what happened?

I hope you enjoyed this chapter!