Chapter Twenty-Four
The first thing I did when I landed back in London was collapse onto my couch and take a three hour nap. After that, I called a takeaway place and ordered myself a large dinner. Once that was demolished, I gathered up every single piece of confidence I had and grabbed my laptop out of my suitcase that was lying open on my bed. Pulling up Google, I typed in Blake Parker, London. The site that popped up was colorful, full of his original photographs. Some of them were so realistic, and others looked like an artist had spent hours painting it. Scrolling downwards, I found the 'contact' button. Once I had located his number, I quickly punched the correct numbers into my phone and pressed 'call' before I had the time to rethink everything.
"Hi, you've reached Blake Parker. Gallery hours at all stores are 9am to 5pm. If you're looking for directions to any of our three, soon to be four, galleries, check out my website BlakeParker.com. If you need to reach me, please leave a name and a number and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Have a great day."
Beep.
"Hey man, this is Zayn. Uh, Zayn Malik. I bet you know what happened between Jo and I, but I wanted to fix things and I was wondering if you would be up to helping me. Just call me back at this number if you can. Thanks, mate."
I hung up quickly after, totally unsure if I was doing the right thing. Blake might very well hate me, even though the break-up was not from my side, I knew how protective brother could get over their younger sisters. I was one of those brothers, always looking out for sister and wanting to beat up any guy that came within a mile of them. But after meeting Blake, I had a feeling he was different and that he would help me, he knew his sister better than anyone.
Next I called one of my favorite off-the-map restaurants, making a reservation for two the next night. Then, after a little more digging and calling Ed Sheeran, I found the next number and held my breath that he would pick up his phone.
"Ello?"
"Hey, Mike?" I asked with hesitance.
"Yeah, who's this?"
"It's Zayn. Zayn Malik, from One Direction." I specified, feeling like a right idiot.
"Ah, yeah! You alright, mate?"
"Great, actually. Heard you're in town doing a show tomorrow night?" My finger tapped against the table beside me in a steady drum pattern.
"Small gig at Grenade, nothing compared to the stadiums your band is playing." His voice held amusement, as he spoke.
"I was wondering if you would have a spare two tickets. Got a girl, she loves your music, and I'm trying to fix things with her. You think you can hook me up?" I chewed on my lip, practically praying he'd have some pull in the ticket area of his show.
"Of course, mate! Anything for a buddy, just tell 'em who you are at the door. They'll let you in. Just make sure you come say hi before you leave."
"Thanks, Mike. I owe you big time. See you tomorrow."
"G'night, Zayn."
Well, two out of three things I needed to get done were completed. Just as I was ready to call it a night, since I couldn't finish the plan until Blake called me back, my phone started going off. I braced myself when I answered. "Hey, Blake. Thanks for getting back to me."
"Of course, man. I'm glad you called."
"Is there any way you could meet me at the Pub on tenth in an hour or so?" I asked, continuing to drum my fingers on the table. Once Blake agreed, I pieced together my thoughts trying to decide the best way to ask him for this massive favor.
There was an inner struggle, part of me wanted to go all out and be the most romantic guy in the world. Scatter roses all around the park, have candles at dinner, and buy her a diamond necklace. But then the more rational part of me kicked in, reminding me that going overboard would only make Joelle run farther away instead of close towards me. Even so, she might still find this all too much and never want to see me again. I knew that I had to risk losing her in order to get her back.
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"Y'know, I'm kind of jealous. I'd love to go to a Passenger concert for free and eat at a fancy restaurant." Blake teased as we sat on the bar stools, each sipping at three-quarters full pints. "She's always been a bit miserable-seeming, but it's doubled since she broke up with you. She does the exact same things every day without breaking the cycle once, but she does it all with this fake smile plastered on her lips, acting as though if she let people see that she wasn't okay, they'd make fun of her. Or they would think she wasn't strong."
I sighed, "I really wish she wasn't afraid of being herself."
"You made her be herself. Never had I seen her happier, even though she pretended as though it was no big deal. Thanks for not giving up on her." Blake said.
"I didn't really have a choice. Don't hate me, but part of me just really wanted to give up. When she ended things, I wanted to leave and not look back once. There's something about her though that made that impossible. Dunno, she just cast this spell on me. It's ridiculous."
There was no denying the slight smile that Blake had, like he had been waiting to hear someone say that for years. "I will do everything to get her there. I promise that I'll at least get her to hear you out. She's been through a lot, and all she needs to know is that you won't leave her."
"I won't leave her. She means too much."
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Okay, okay, hear me out. This story has gotten very difficult to write because of a lot of things. I didn't definte the plot as much as I had wanted to, you guys were hating on Joelle for her character traits, I grew out of my One Direction phase which made it so hard to write about them, I've been busy, and I've just lost interest in writing this. Don't hate me, I'm just trying to be honest with you guys. Though many of you have been so supportive of this story, I just lost hope in it. Like I know I'm not doing it the justice it deserved and it's not the story I wanted it to be when I started on it.
I'm going to finish it, because I hate not finishing things but it just won't be the same. It might be crappy and I won't hate you if you stop reading it. I'm working on a lot of original stuff I hope to be posting soon, so maybe you'll stick with me. Maybe you won't.
Either way, once this story is over, I'm starting with a clean slate and I really hope you guys can respect that.
