Lights (Niall Horan)

thirty-nine

Anna Holden

"Please, Niall. You can't tell the guys, or anyone." I whisper into my cell phone. Now that I'm back home, the rules came back into play.

No phone calls past 10.

But I'm breaking all the rules, apparently. Why not add another one?

"They feel bad for me." Niall protests, voice sounding stressed. "I need to tell them-"

"No. You can't. I don't want them to lose their breaks, or their girlfriends."

I feel tears rolling down my cheeks, but I ignore them. They're a gentle reminder of what I am leaving, for a solid month or so.

I will miss him. But the boys--they don't deserve any punishment because of me.

"Fine." He sighs stubbornly. "No one."

"Niall, if we tell anyone we're still together, they'll think we're crazy." I mutter, hearing footsteps across the hall. "I-I gotta go. Someone's coming."

And I hang up.

~

There was a report in the gossip column today, two weeks after I left them at the airport.

Something about Niall and some girl.

I take one look at him, his expression.

He's faking a smile.

~

"I understand that you are internationally famous now, Miss Holden."

"Well, I wouldn't put it like that."

"Everyone in the world knows your name, where you live, where you go to school. Girls drop by from all over the world just to see you, covering our school grounds day by day."

I stay silent.

"So, for safety reasons, this school is cracking down on the security. Our main objective is to keep you safe, Miss Holden. We can't let crazed fans of some boyband come in the way of jeopardizing that."

~

"Oh my God, it's Anna!"

"I can't believe you spent your summer with One Direction!"

Comments like these follow me around all my new classes, and I have yet to find anybody I actually trust.

I'm lost.

"Can you have them follow me on Twitter? PLEASE?"

"One Direction are idiots. You're crazy if you want to meet them."

"What happened between you and Niall?"

"You were perfect together!"

"Why'd you break up?"

~

"WE'RE SENIORS!" Sarah yells excitedly.

"Yay." I smile half-heartedly.

"C'mon, get excited! Volleyball tryouts are tonight, did you forget?"

Crap. I did.

"Arrive twenty minutes early! We get to sign contracts since we played last year." Sarah adjusts her backpack and grabs her phone. "Oh, my mom's right there. See you later!"

"Okay." I say softly, watching her leave.

~

I did terribly today at tryouts. My heart...just wasn't in the game.