Near To You (One Direction Fan Fiction)

Chapter Eleven

Near to You

11

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I’d cry for you, if you’d let me.

The One You Say Goodnight To – Kina Grannis

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            I had locked myself away in my room for the afternoon to finally finish all the homework I had neglected for what appeared to have been years, but could only really be a few days, or barely a week. I vowed I would not let myself get so far behind again.

            My hair was tied neatly for once by my neck and I had discarded my contacts for glasses. If someone were to walk in at that very moment I would look like a far more serious, studious version of myself.

            I dropped my pen as my hand began to cramp and glanced out the window of my dorm room. Because it was Sunday, the entire campus was on a standstill. Barely any students made their way out of their residences, and those who did scuffled down the otherwise empty paths to get wherever they were going as quickly as possible.

            I ignored my ringing phone at first. It would most likely be Zachary trying to tempt me outside with promises of hot chocolate and snow-filled fun, but I needed to focus on my work. I would call him back later, with an apology for neglecting him.

            It continued to buzz after the first prerequisite rings and I knew it wasn’t Zachary. He got bored easily, and unless it was extremely important would hang up after the second ring. Checking the caller ID I saw that it was my mother and I smiled. It had been weeks since we had spoken properly without me being between classes, and I would be glad to put aside my work for a few minutes.

            “Mom!” I exclaimed.

            “Michelle.” She sounded slightly subdued but it was probably because she missed me as much as I missed her.

            “What’s up? It’s been a while.”

            “Oh, yes. I guess it has been.”

            “Mum?” She sounded strange.

            “I’ve got something to tell you.” She sighed. “I wish you were here so I could tell you in person. I hate having to do this over the phone.”

            “What’s wrong?” I asked, before adding jokingly. “Are you finally going to tell me that you ran over Mr. Snuggles and he didn’t just run off like you said when I was five?”

            When she did not chuckle as she normally would have at the joke shared between us, I knew it had to have been very serious.

            “What’s wrong?” I repeated.

            “Clover’s dead.”

            I blanched. Clover was my mother’s mother. Ever since my father left when I was seven, they had been inseparable. I had never called her ‘grandma’ or ‘nana’ once. She was too vivacious and full of life.

            Since I had started university, however, she had gotten ill more frequently. Two months ago she had broken her hip and my mother had warned me it was only a matter of time before Clover passed now, but I had stubbornly held onto the idea that she would be around forever.

            I felt surprisingly numb. I guessed that it hadn’t sunk in yet. It had been months since I had seen either of them; it was hard to think in three weeks when I went back that she wouldn’t be there to greet me at the airport.