𝑬𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝑺𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝑵𝒆𝒘 𝒀𝒐𝒓𝒌 {𝑯.𝑺}

Chapter Twenty Nine | Going Viral

The following morning, I was woken up to my bedroom door bursting open.

"Mia Fuller!"

It was Alice.

I frowned, squinting my eyes shut in an attempt to drift back asleep. But it was too late; my bed dipped as she sat down beside me, shaking my shoulders with far too much excitement.

"Hm?" I mumbled, too groggy to form coherent sentences.

"What the hell is this?" She squealed. "Wake up!"

I forced an eye open, wincing at the sunlight that peaked through my blinds. She was showing me a video, one that seemed vaguely familiar.

"I don't know." I sighed, closing my eyes again. "You tell me, you're the one that looked it up."

"No, I didn't." She stated, matter-of-factly. "You see, I didn't even have to search it because it's trending. Everywhere."

I could tell that she was waiting for me to fully wake up; for me to turn to her and ask her whatever the hell she was going on about.

But I was exhausted.

Never had I been more tired in my life. I hadn't come home until 2 o'clock last night, which meant that I hadn't fallen asleep until around 3. On a normal night, I was in bed by 9.

So this was a drastic change in my schedule.

"Can we talk about this in a few hours?" I asked, snuggling under my covers more. "Preferably when I'm not sleep deprived."

"How late did you stay out?"

I yawned, "2? 3? Somewhere around there."

"Mia!"

I winced, forcing my eyes open. "Can you keep it down? My family is trying to sleep."

"Oh, right. Sorry, sorry." She winced, shooting me an apologetic grin.

I huffed, figuring that I wasn't going to get any sleep with her here. Knuckling my eyes, I sat up in my bed. "What were you trying to show me?"

Just like that, her expression lit up with excitement. "This video!"

She played it, and I quickly realized that it was Harry at his concert last night. A fan seemed to be recording it, capturing the lovely speech he had dedicated to me, as well as my reaction. The longer the video played, the more that fans seemed to lose their shit-especially when he began to cry.

I blushed at the memory, rubbing my palm against my forehead as the video came to a stop. "Oh." I mumbled. "That."

Alice's jaw dropped. "That's all you have to say?"

I allowed her to lose her marbles for a few more minutes. There were too many things running through my mind. How was my dad? And Aiden? Was Harry sleeping at this moment? Why did I still have my sneakers on?

"I don't know how you're not freaking out right now." Alice grumbled. "I would die if this happened to me."

I sighed, slipping out of my bed and stretching. Quickly, I took off my sneakers before reaching for my brace and sliding it onto my leg. "At this point, I don't think I have the ability to register the stuff that happens to me." I said truthfully. "My brain is broken, Alice. We've been over this before."

She threw me a look of exasperation. "Your brain isn't broken. Stop with that."

Clearly, there was something wrong with me if I couldn't detach myself from my family; a family who didn't give two shits about me. I was a bit unhinged if I was able to take a bullet for a complete stranger without a second thought. And the fact that I had managed to get through that night and not have some sort of emotional trauma from it was questionable too. A part of me was upset that I had become desensitized to such triggering experiences.

I sighed, shoving my thoughts away.

"Anyways," Alice said, grabbing my attention. "What did you do last night? I want the details."

"All of it?"

She nodded.

A small smile grew on my lips as I sat back down on my bed.

"Well, I met a new friend. I think you'd like her. Her name's Sadie..."