Take Away My Fears

It was a crazy ride to the flat, the traffic causing it to take far longer than it should. I was exhausted when we finally arrived there, but still tried to take some of my bags. I rolled my eyes as the boys insisted they had it, all of them but Louis grabbing something and walking into the Lobby with me.

Louis had already gone upstairs before him, still carrying around his bad attitude. I didn't mind though, as with five of us and all of my bags, the elevator was too crowded to even fit Louis. "When we get in we'll show you to your room and show you where your key is." Liam explained, already taking over as the daddy Direction I'd known him to be from the fans.

"Okay." I nodded, leading them out of the elevator when the doors opened and down the hall. "It's the end of the hall, right?" I asked, remembering the brief description I'd gotten between Harry and I's few chats we'd had about the living arrangement. The boys all nodded their affirmations and I made my way to the already unlocked door, opening it for them and once again feeling bad about the fact that they were carrying all my stuff.

"Well, this one is yours." Niall said, kicking open the door and dropping my bag on the floor. The rest of the boys followed his lead and dropped my bags before making room for me to come in.

"Oh my god." I whispered as I walked into the room, which was almost twice the size of my room at home. "This is awesome!" I added, wincing at the high pitched shrill that was my voice. I launched myself on the large white comforter and spread out, sighing. "This room is awesome, how did you guys come up with the design?" I asked, and the boys all shrugged.

"Well we brought in a designer. They did all the work with the painting and picking furniture out and stuff." Zayn explained and I nodded, laughing.

"Ah, so they did all the work... in general?" I questioned, shaking my head in contradiction to all the boys nodding. My ears perked up when I heard one of them mention the closet and I looked up from my king sized bed to the only closed door in the room. "Is that... my closet?" I asked, but didn't wait for an answer before jumping at the door.

The closet was huge, about half as big as my entire room, and fully stocked. "You guys got me clothes?" I asked and Harry shook his head, grinning sheepishly. "What? A designer? A stylist?" I asked, and he nodded, scratching the nape of his neck. "Well, they look amazing. I think I might try some on now." I assured, brushing my hand against all the fabrics.

My eyes shot towards the group of boys still in my room and I cleared my throat. Liam seemed to understand first and motioned to the rest of them to leave so I could change, and I almost took off my shirt when I realized Harry was still standing in front of the door.

"Are you sure I can't stay?" He asked and I shook my head, laughing and throwing a pillow at him. "Alright, alright! I'm out of here!" He cried, holding his hands up in mock surrender. I fell over onto the bed laughing as the door shut behind him.

I stripped and took a quick shower, wrapping the towel tightly around me as I scanned the closet. I couldn't believe how nice the boys had been. Honestly I couldn't believe I was staying with the boys at all, let alone that I was pulling out a small red sweater dress their stylist had filled my closet with. I had put on some simple underwear, and was pulling on my leggings when my foot got caught in the bottom and I tripped, hitting the floor with a screech.

I covered my mouth to try and muffle the sound of the my scream as my elbow slammed into the floor, but I heard my door fly open anyways. Liam was standing there, his mouth open in shock. I watched his cheeks flush red as I scrambled to cover myself. "I will... find my way out." He muttered and I nodded, waiting for him to close the door before standing up and finishing the task of getting dressed as quickly as I could.

I walked out into the living room, rubbing my elbow and groaning at the mild pain I felt when I pressed lightly on it. "This is going to bruise." I pouted, sitting on the couch and rubbing it still. My eyes met Liam's and he looked away, blushing a little and muttering an apology and rubbing the back of his head.

"Don't worry about it, you were worried when I screamed." I said, brushing it off and looking up at them. "Do you guys happen to have any pain medicine though? I mean you guys must get headaches and such?" I questioned and Harry took a moment to think about it.

"No, I think we ran out. Do you want us to go with you to get some?"

"It's fine. I wanted to explore the town some now that I'm here so I can do that while I run to the shop." I said with a soft smile, grabbing the boots I had pulled from my bag and tugging them on. "I know you have it, but I'll leave it on the table for you, okay?"

"Azi.. you sure you don't want at least one of us to come show you around?" Liam asked and I smiled warmly at the concern on their faces.

"Seriously, I'll be fine. Half the adventure is getting to explore this city. Besides I don't think it's best that the paparazzi know about this right now. It seems like it'd be kind of hard to explain why you all have some strange American living at their flat." I pointed out and they all nodded. "Well, I'm off!"

"Be safe!" Harry called as I walked out the door, and I waved, closing it behind me. I was in the elevator when I heard a yell and found myself holding the door for a boy who looked to be about my age.

"Hello, haven't seen you here before?" He said and I nodded, shrugging. "I'm Alex, you know." He added when I didn't give him a verbal answer and I gave him a sideways glance and a sly grin in return.

"Azinilia. I'm new here." I said, holding out my hand and wincing as he shook it and my elbow throbbed. "You don't happen to know where a shop that I can find acetaminophen is?" I asked and he looked at me strangely.

"Alex. I'm on my way to the store now, I'd be happy to take you with me." He suggested and I nodded, following him out of the elevator. "How did you hurt your elbow?" He asked and I laughed.

"I fell while getting dressed." I answered sheepishly and he chuckled, shaking his head in disbelief.

"That's not that bad! That happens to lots of people!" He pointed out, trying to reassure me. I found myself laughing with him and we continued in easy conversation and a game of twenty questions as we made our way to the shop. "You know, there's a cool little cafe not too far from here if you wanted to go after shopping."

I nodded, walking into the shop with him. I scanned the aisles, deciding I'd pick up a few extra things here and missing my brand names from home as my eyes scanned the shelf. "Do you guys seriously have a section of American items?" I asked in awe, shaking my head.

"Yes, we do. It's where we get all of our excess amounts of sugar." He teased and I rolled my eyes, but went to grab a few of my favorite snacks. "Wow. Speaking of sugar, how do you stay so small and yet eat all this crap?" He asked and I shrugged.

"Evolution. After becoming the most obese country, our bodies have started to adapt our metabolism so we can process all of this better." I joked, turning and walking through the shelves to where he directed me for pain medicine. "Well, at least you guys have ibuprofen and acetaminophen." I laughed, grabbing a bottle and heading to the checkout.

"Of course we do. Do you think we're just painless monsters?" He questioned and I nodded, laughing as he rolled his eyes. "You, Azinilia, are absolutely wild." He muttered, paying for his own products and grabbing my bag from me as he lead me across the street to a small crowded cafe.

"What do you want?" He asked, and I looked up to the big chalkboard behind the counter. Lillian's was written on it and underneath was a list of everything from black coffee to elaborate hot chocolate and coffee mixes.

"Umm... the peppermint hot chocolate supreme sounds good." I said, shrugging. "Do you come here often?" I asked, wincing about how much that sounded like the lame pickup line. He laughed with me, nodding.

"Yeah, it's one of my favorite places to come. Especially now in the winter." He pointed out before looking at me curiously. "That reminds me, what are you doing moving to England in the middle of winter? Worst time to see the city."

I made a face, biting my lip. "I just needed a change of scenery. There were a lot of memories back home, and while I had my family there, not all of them were good memories. I guess I came out here to find myself." I explained, scrunching my nose as I realized how deep this had become.

"Well, that makes sense. Though you can't come out to London in the middle of winter without visiting the skating rink and seeing the shops lit up at night." He pointed out and I smirked, pretending to think about it.

"Well, I suppose I'll need someone to show me all the shops and where the skating rink is." I commented back. He departed for a moment as our names were called and collected our drinks, coming back to hand me mine and ushering me outside.

"Well, here. I'll give you my number, and when you decide you want to go, we'll make a day of it." He said, pulling my phone from my fingers. I watched as he put in his number, texting himself from my phone. He handed it back and I couldn't help but laugh at the name 'the hot friend'. We talked more, planning more of the skating day as we headed home and I blushed when he winked at me as he got off the elevator, handing me my bag.

I walked back into the apartment excited for my new life here in England.

Notes

So, I know that this chapter has changed A LOT, but one of the things I'm doing with the edits is making the story longer. This means some of the chapters are slowing down and I'm adding more into the story to give you more depth.

I hope you guys like the changes!!

-Maya