courage {Niall Horan}

XXVIII

Nine months have passed since I had a heartbreaking goodbye at the airport in Dublin. Today it was going to be a heartwarming hello at the airport in LA, hopefully.

My project turned into the Jacobs Foundation and now owned six facilities over Europe. I have a whole time hired underneath me for management, therapy and everything. It gets crazy sometimes but getting someone else to look over the money bussiness and everything like that was the best decision.

I turned singing in bars into my carreer besides the foundation because after an audience like the TED talk, a bar wasn't so scary anymore. So I make money out of that now and the foundation itself gets more then enough donations for all the facilities and to build even more. But we decided to quit building more in Europe and cross the waters and move to the USA.

Which meant I was free to live where I wanted to be, as long as I didn't mind long flights.

But, today I am flying to LA for the release of the single I made with Niall called Seeing Blind and also a few interviews together and I finally accepted to go on the Ellen show. I already got asked shortly after TED but I wasn't ready to be on camera like that. But now with the single she asked us together and Niall was going to go so I thought it was a great reason to see him again.

In nine months we saw eachother for exactly 10 days to record the song. I was very busy at the time and so was he with the recordings of his new album. So he flew to London because they had a way better studio then Dublin and we saw eachother there in the studio and that was it because I was busy with the opening of the London facility.

It was hell. But now I am here for two to three weeks as I got some time off and he got some weeks off too so after nine months of video chats and texting, I'm reunited with my best friend. With a delayed flight but I'm here and that's most important.

"Hey stranger." I heard him scream when I walked through the arrival site. I turned around and recognised him immediately. I took a few faster steps and so did he untill we were close enough. I dropped all my bags and almost jumped into his arms. "Never thought a hug could feel so good."

"I've missed you so much." I said as I held onto him maybe a little too thight.

"I want this to laste forever but we're going to be late to Ellen if we do." He said. I nodded and quickly took my bags. We both ran out of the airport and towards the car that was waiting for us and straight towards the recording studio.

You see, I was supposed to land yesterday and then I got stuck in France for another day due to some issues with a girl and almost had to cancel on the show but ended up being able to leave just in time to make it to the show. If we run and are lucky with traffic.

"Okay so basics, Ellen is really amazing and nice and she told me she was really looking forward to meeting you. But be warned that she's going to want to know everything that happened between us and for your sake, we don't give away anything and if she asks, lie. That night never happened." He rambled as we drove towards the studio. So much for sightseeing LA before the show. "Also, the chance of her trying to scare you in some sort of way is big. We will be there one hour before the show starts so we can go over the song again another time as that has been a long time ago. She and her team will explain you everything you need to know in that hour."

"We're skipping the How have you been's for tonight?" I asked as a joke, it was mainly to hide my nerves.

"I'm glad you are here." He said with a smile before softly kissing the side of my head, "don't be nervous, you don't have to talk for that long and the singing will go great, you got me right beside you."

"So you go on first and talk about This Town and Slow Hands, then it's the break and we sit down together after it to talk about Seeing Blind and my project. And then we sing the song which isn't actually released yet but it will air after it's release day, right?" I asked going over everything in my head.

"Yes" he said with a nod before the car stopped infront of the studio. And when I saw the pretty big place, I somehow felt calmer then I did on the way here. "Most important, no cussing." He said with a small grin before getting out of the car. "You can leave everything in the car." I nodded and we walked beside eachother, my guitarcase on my back and my best friend next to me, what could go wrong?

"Niall, Charlotte, you're just in time." Someone shouted at us. We rushed over there and were brought into the studio immediately.

"I'm so glad you both got here in time" Ellen said when she saw us walking in, I probably looked like a mess because it was a freaking long flight so this time I won't decline hair and make up. "How was your flight? Niall told me you had to move your flight a day."

"Exhausting but glad that I am in the beautiful LA. The weather is so much better here then in Ireland." I said with a smile as I looked at her. It was a little strange being here.

"I can imagine that." She said before looking around "how long are you staying?"

"2 to 3 weeks, it all depends on how everything goes at home." I said with a nod.

"Niall also told me about your stage fright so I figured for the singing we could make you look at eachother. Two bar chairs facing eachother instead of the crowd. How does that sound?" She asked as she showed what she meant.

"My stage fright is a lot less right now but I think it suits the song, so why not?" I said before looking at him.

"Sounds good to me." He answered before he looked back at me, a small smile playing on both our faces.

"Okay so Niall and Ellen you have to get ready now, you can practice the song after you are ready. In the meantime I will discuss everything with Charlotte." The producer said. They both left the stage and I was left there on my own with the producer.

He explained me everything and I was amazed by how calm I was. But I was so relieved when Niall and Ellen came back.

"Okay everyone, it is very important that nobody films or records this as the song isn't actually released yet. The song will be released in the morning before tonight's show airs. Same rules count like always." Ellen announced and everyone nodded. I took my guitar out of the case and sat down on the barstool across from Niall. They readjusted the microphones and I tuned my guitar in the meantime. I looked down at my hands and I didn't even have a slight tremble.
I looked up at Niall who nodded so I started playing the first chords.

He was supposed to be playing but then ofcourse he injured his wrist a week ago with freaking golfing. Don't even ask me how.

We sang the song together and luckily, it went just as we had hoped. We looked at eachother with a smile the whole time and it felt just the same as it did when we were writing it on my kitchen table. It felt like we were the only two in the studio, it felt like coming home.

"That was so amazing." Ellen said. I put my guitar on a guitar stand for later and looked at her with a smile. "I'm going to have it on repeat all day when it gets out I think."

"You're not the only one." One of the girls from the audio crew said.