Niall's Girl

Chapter Fifty Two

Chapter Fifty Two

I tried to ignore the fact that people were treating me like a fragile china doll the days that passed after my panicked episode. I knew I deserved it and tried not to let it get on my nerves.

The boys weren't kidding when they said that they were going to make sure I couldn't run off. Liam, although he seemed the one least disrupted by my attempted runaway, you wouldn't think it by the way that he assigned people to watch over me. Louis even followed me to the bathroom at the arenas, it was ridiculous.

"Lou, I need to pee! Seriously, piss off!" I said, annoyed because it was the third time he had followed me into the girls' toilets.

He just shrugged and leaned against the sinks. Louis and I had grown close from the first day I arrived on tour, and he was still deeply hurt that I had tried to leave. He was angry that I had kept it to myself, that I hadn't let him help me.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Niall said, grabbing my arm when I stomped into the dressing room.

"I feel like I'm in prison!" I sighed, glaring at Louis who came to lean in the doorway like a security guard.

"They're just doing it because they love you and they don't want you to leave," Niall chuckled a little but his eyes were humourless. I knew that he was worried, too.

"Ni, I'm not going to run away again," I promised softly, reaching up to stroke his cheek.

Niall pulled me close to him, his hands on my hipbones. "I recall you saying that once before when you and Lou pranked me into thinking you were leaving. You said something like 'I'd never just leave and never without telling you first'."

I pecked his lips as an apology. "I'm sorry, Nialler."

Niall just smiled sadly and I felt another kick of pain in my chest for hurting him like I had.

"How are the fans at the moment?" Niall said, running his hands up and down my sides. I hooked my arms around his neck and leaned against him.

"Meh. I try not to really look." I said honestly.

Niall just shook his head angrily and so I changed the subject to football to try and cheer him up.

I didn't want him to think badly of the fans. It was only a small minority that were still sending me death threats and I was trying not to let it bother me.

I went next door to get some food after that (with Liam following closely behind of course) and I had just sat down with some pizza when Niall jogged into the room, looking very sheepish.

I put down the slice of Hawaiian that was halfway to my mouth and crossed my arms across my chest, looking up at the guilty boy stood in front of me.

"What have you done now, Horan?"

Niall laughed nervously before his face turned serious again. "Ems, I kind of just... I think I might have... I'm sorry, okay?"

"Wait, what? Seriously, what have you done?" I said, more panicked now because it sounded bad. Was he going to break up with me? Did he break my hairdryer again? Shit, did he eat the last piece of chocolate cake? I was going to kill that motherfu -

"Imighthavekindoftoldeveryonethatwe'reofficiallytogether." He said all in one breath.

"You wanna repeat that?" Liam took the words right out of his mouth, raising his eyebrows at his very guilty-looking friend.

"I told everyone that we're together. Officially." Niall looked down at the floor as if he expected to be told off and sent to the naughty step.

It was true that we had decided to keep our relationship on the down low for a while to try and keep the press in the dark. But let's be real - everyone had already figured it out. I mean we held hands in front of the paparazzi, I never left Niall's side and there was a very blurry but real nonetheless photo of Niall and I outside an arena one night kissing. You couldn't exactly deny we were together.

"Ni, look at me." I chuckled and the blonde boy looked up, astonished at my relaxed tone. "It's fine, really. Everyone practically knows anyway. It's not a big deal."

"Really?" Niall said, his face lighting up at the fact that I wasn't mad at him. He looked like an excited puppy he was so adorable.

"Yeah," I grinned at my boyfriend who I could never be mad at even if I wanted to. "How did you do it anyway?"

"Twitter," he admitted, shrugging in apology. "It just kind of happened."

I groaned internally. I really hated that site at the minute and I didn't want the big declaration of our relationship to mingle with all the nasty things people were saying about me.

"Give me your phone, leprechaun." I held out my hand. Niall shook his head and put the phone behind his back, pouting like a toddler.

"Niall..." I warned, thrusting my open palm toward him again. He reluctantly handed over the phone, and I entered the passcode which was '8008' because it made Niall chuckle every time he entered the numbers that looked like 'boob'. Remind me why I keep him around again?

'EVERYONE I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT I AM IN LOVE WITH EMMA CHARLESTON, YES SHE IS MY GIRLFRIEND, I FUCKING LOVE HER AND I WONT STAND FOR ANYTHING MEAN THAT IS SAID ABOUT THE FUNNIEST, KINDEST, MOST BEAUTIFUL PERSON I KNOW'

I stared in shock at his tweet. It was... more dramatic than I had expected.

"Are you mad?" Niall said, sitting down in the chair next to me.

"I - I..." I stuttered. "Did you have to use capitals? It looks like you're shouting at them!"

Niall laughed, realising that I wasn't angry and was just a bit shell-shocked. "Sorry but I thought it made my point stand out."

I moved over to sit on Niall's lap instead of my own chair. "You silly boy." I pecked his lips. "It's okay, though. It's kind of romantic in a strange kind of way I suppose."

***

The magazines had a great couple of days after Niall's outburst. I didn't mind much though; mainly because everyone kept me well out of the way of the paparazzi. Paul and the gang seemed to realise that the paps were part of the reason I cracked and made sure that they couldn't get many photos or get too close, even taking long detours round to the arenas if they had to. I really appreciated it, but I knew that I would have to face up to them sooner or later.

I called my parents in the next few days. My dad picked up and apologised for my mum's behaviour. It hurt that she had called me a slut and she hadn't been supportive when I needed it the most, but I was over it. My dad explained that they had just been caught off guard, and I totally understood that. I told them I'd get in touch when I was ready to come home. I was dreading that day.

Ben had been sending me some frantic messages; it seemed Niall had gotten hold of his number and had told him all about my depressed episode and attempted escape. And Ben was not happy about it. I skyped him one day when the boys were in soundcheck and my best friend admitted he had yelled at Niall a lot for not keeping me safe. It also seemed that Ben wanted me to come home. I wished Niall hadn't told him because I knew Benjamin would just worry about me, but it was nice to have someone who I could finally just tell everything to without feeling guilty like I did when I talked to Ni. Ben said that Sohie and Sadie and Eric and everyone felt awful and that they were worried about me since I hadn't been responding to their messages. I hadn't been ignoring them, I just hadn't really had my phone on lately.

It felt strange thinking about home and my school life and how everything was so different before the summer. I didn't want to go back home, back to sitting on my bed and waiting for Niall to find time to call. It was going to be even worse now that I was used to being with him 24/7. I didn't even want to think about leaving. But I knew that the summer was coming to an end, and one day soon I would have to go back to reality.

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I've been so busy recently, but I am still trying to update every day for you!

Thankyou for everything

And there's five chapters left, not four heheh

Love you,

-Laura xo