Near To You (One Direction Fan Fiction)

Chapter Sixteen

Near to You

16

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Well the sun has set on this quiet town where our heart first met. I won't say goodbye.

Missing You - Letters & Lights

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            It was good to be home. I hadn't realized just how much I had missed the place until I was back, and in my own bed, surrounded by my own things and all the people I had grown up with. No matter how far I went, this place would always be home to me.

            In the distance I could see the faint glow of the downtown city lights. Our suburb was surprisingly quiet for New Year’s Eve. Usually the place was bustling with a neighbourhood party which my mother would always drag me to because she needed to make her 'rounds' with the others, and show her face.

            This year, however, a thick blanket of snow had stopped the usual fesitivities and we were all cooped up in our own houses, celebrating with close friends and family instead. Savannah was the only one of the girls who had been able to make it. June had already promised her boyfriend Josh to go see the fireworks, and Caroline was stuck in her own home because her family had come all the way from Quebec to be there.

            In the background when she had called to cancel, all I heard was the sound of deep, throaty French, and while I felt for her, I still found it slightly amusing that over half her family lived in Montreal yet she was barely able to speak a word of French herself.

            It would only be two days, or more so a little over one day, until we were all in London, however, and I was very excited. I wished that my mother could come to the premiere, but she had recently switched jobs and wasn't able to get enough time off so soon. I would have support from my three closest friends, however, and that was all I needed.

            The past week and a half had been amazing. I had done all the things I normally would have had I still lived there, but it felt so foreign and almost as if it were a tradition I had long forgotten. I took a sip of my hot chocolate, pulling my electric blanket closer around my sock-clad feet as I glanced across to Savannah who was watching the fire pensively.

            "What are you thinking about?" I asked. Her blue eyes flashed in my direction and I smiled. I had really missed seeing her, more than anything. While we talked all the time on the phone, or online, it wasn't the same as speaking face to face. Her little nuances were something that couldn't be replicated, even on camera.

            "Just life in general," she sighed, resting her head on her long legs, her blonde hair falling out of its messy bun on the top of her head. "I have no idea where I'm going."

            "You're young." I laughed. "We both are. We don't have to figure those things out for at least another five years yet."

            "But you've already figured everything out." She rose a little, picking up her mug of tea which must have been luke warm at best. "You've got a career, a very successful one. I'm not even sure what I want to do yet."

            "I thought you wanted to study psychology?" For a few months now she had been informing me of all the great programs offered at the universities nearby and she had sounded very excited.

            "That's what my mother wants me to do." She shook her head. "I...I don't know what I want to do yet."

            "What about photography?" I pointed out. "You were the yearbook photographer in High School, and you loved that."