Mainstream

I dry my hands in the air dryer next to the bathroom sink and still continue to wipe them on the front my skirt, because let’s face it, air drying just isn’t enough. Then, I run my hands over my hair a couple of times to calm my curls and fix my tucked in shirt. When I’m comfortable with my appearance again, I exit the bathroom to face the café scene in front of me. Damian rushes past me, almost knocking me over. In his hands is a small dishtowel soaked entirely in coffee, and it’s dripping.

When I look around, I notice a small puddle of what looks like a cappuccino on the floor just a few feet in front of me. Standing in the damage is Harry, a very shocked, confounded looking Harry. Across from him, over the counter where we set drinks down – also covered in coffee – is Katy, a very shocked, almost heartbroken, looking Katy. I’m so lost right now.

I take careful steps towards where they stand, but obviously not careful enough because next thing I know, my back hits the ground. “Ow…” I groan in the pain and lift up my head slightly. Who knew someone could slip on spilled coffee if no one cleans it up?

“Lina!” Harry exclaims, apparently noticing me now. He holds out his hand and helps me up. “Are you all right, love?”

He puts a hand on my waist to steady me but I push it away and hiss at the pain it gives me. I can feel my shirt clinging at the back where I landed in the cappuccino. “I’m fine,” I grumble, annoyed that this happened.

Katy clears her throat and I shoot my annoyed look her way. “Lina…” she whispers. She points down at my skirt, and that’s when I feel the breeze. My eyes widen and I quickly pull my skirt back down. Wow, I really chose a good day to only wear my panties under a skirt.

“So,” I turn to Katy, faking a smile, “I see you met my date.”

“Um… yeah, about that…” Katy looks at Harry as she talks, which kind of annoys me. Something feels really weird. “Can we talk, Lina? In the kitchen?”

“Why do you-” She grabs my arm and pulls me behind the counter before I can finish speaking.

“Damian, finish cleaning up the coffee, then man the drinks!” Katy yells out. “Hold down the fort for me, Naomi!”

“What the fuck, Katy? What happened? I leave to pee for one second and I miss everything.” I’m physically hurt from falling, but I’m mad because I have no fucking clue what is happening.

“I- I freaked out, Li. He just-”

“Wait, you’re a fan? I didn’t think boy bands were your cup of tea. I mean, as your best friend I’m seriously concerned right now. I thought we told each other everything, Katy.”

“No, it’s not that. I mean, I am a fan, but it’s more than that. Harry and I… we go way back,” she drags off at the end but I still catch every word. Her head is bowed down, and she’s playing with that locket of hers. I don’t see why she even wears that stupid thing anymore. Katy thinks my breakup reaction with Zack is bad – and it is – but Katy still wears this stupid locket that her secondary school ex-boyfriend gave her. It’s one of the only stories Katy hasn’t told me fully, and it bothers me so much that she won’t tell me and that she still wears it.

Her sighing brings me back to the real world, and that’s when I notice the look on her face – the look she gets when she misses something, or someone… I reach my hand up and take the locket from her fingers. I snap the chain and hold it in my hands. She gasps at me, but I ignore her yells in protest and anger and try to open the locket.

“Oh my fucking God…” I say when I get it open. “This – it’s… you! And him! You… Fuck!”

“Lina,” she growls at me, taking the locket back from me.

“I- but you…”

“Yes, okay!” she exclaims in defeat. “He gave it to me for my fifteenth birthday, a month before he left to audition for the X Factor. He tore my heart out and took it with him when he left. He didn’t even say goodbye; he just left.”

I frown at Katy’s frown. Harry sounds like such an arsewipe now. I put a hand on Katy’s shoulder. “Oh, honey, I told you a long time ago that you should have gotten over whatever dick gave you this locket. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go yell at people, and then go home so I can get out of these clothes.”

I leave her in the kitchen and head out to the counter area where Harry is still standing, talking with Damian it seems. I know I probably shouldn’t do what I’m doing next with all these people here at rush hour and with the paparazzi standing outside, but I don’t honestly give a fuck. No one hurts my best friend.

I help myself over the counter and get to where Harry and Damian are. Harry flashes me a small smile, and I return. I’m going to be happy when I finish with him.

“Hey-” he starts. I ball my hand up into a fist and take a swing. Harry’s security guys stand up from their secret positions in the café and start to push through some of the people crowding the area. Harry rubs his jaw. “Ow, what the hell was that for?”

I smirk at him. “I’ll take a scumbag over douchebags who break my best friend’s heart anyway,” I tell him. Harry’s bodyguards step in front of me with their arms crossed.

“Should we direct Ms. Ellis away from you Harry?” one of them asks while both keep their focus on me.

I shake my head. “There will be no need for that.” I smirk at Harry one last time before walking away. I grab my purse from the table we were sitting at and leave the café without looking back. People with cameras instantly surround me when I step foot outside, and that’s when I realize I don’t have my car. Harry drove me here. This is just great. I bend my head down and block my face from the cameras as I continue to walk. Even as everyone starts to fire questions at me, I just keep on walking. At the end of the block, they finally decide to leave me alone and go back to the ‘precious popstar’ in the café. I walk the remaining 7 blocks home alone.

When I finally approach my front door, I see a figure stand and start walking towards me. Can this day get any worse? Niall, hands in his pockets and shoulder shrugged up slightly, gives me a grim smile that I don’t return.

“Niall,” I say flatly, “what are you doing here?”

“I- uh… What happened to you?” I raise my eyebrow. He blanches. “Never mind. Anyway, I came here to see you,” he tells me. He cannot be serious right now.

I shake my head. “Go home, Niall.” I step past him and unlock my door.

“You know, Lina, Liam is one of me best mates, and you’re his sister. Can’t you see that I’ve forgiven you? People are going to catch onto this weird distance you’ve put between us if you don’t at least be friendlier. You don’t have to be so damn rude about it. We can move on from it.”

I turn around to face him. His words anger me on so many levels, and I don’t think that’s quite possible because I’m already pissed off from my so called date with Harry. “What I did was wrong, Niall. I don’t understand how you would just forgive me like that. I was so mean to you…”

He takes a step forward. I take a step back. He grabs my hand, and I’m too full of regret to pull away just yet. “Look, Lina. I like you, okay? People change, and I know you were just a kid trying to deal with things by taking it out on others. And I like you, Lina. I came here because I want to ask you to go out on a date with me.”

I shake my head and pull my hand from his; resting it on the door so I can get ready to close it. “You can’t like your bully, Niall. I don’t care how many years have passed and that people change. You’re too good for me, always have been, always will be. Go home.”

~

Katy has been sobbing into my shoulder for close to half an hour, and I want her to stop. I mean, I love her, and will always be her shoulder to cry on, but she’s ruining my favorite white shirt. Sure, it’s just a t-shirt, but this one in particular is my favorite, and her tears her wrinkling it. Nevertheless, I stroke her hair and keep silent, just as she did all the days I cried over Zack. It’s the least I can do for her.

“I love him so much that I hate him, Li,” she complains, pulling away from my shoulder. She sits criss cross next to me, facing the side of me. I turn to face her and help her wipe away some of her tears.

“Oh, Katybug… what am I going to do with you?” I question, doing my best to try and smile for her. I try to recall the times when she was in my position now and I was the one crying about my ex, usually over a tub of Double Fudge Brownie or French Silk ice cream – or the Girl Scout Thin Mint ice cream when it was in the store. Katy even bought me ice cream in the winter season, and she’d even help me with a few bites of it. “Remember when I broke up with Zack and you used to buy me ice cream?”

“Yeah, that was up until, like, two weeks-”

“We don’t need to discuss when that was,” I cut her off by waving my hand to the side, kind of like how some people wave goodbye but not quite like that. It’s my way of saying, ‘let’s put it to the side and never talk about it again’. “Well, I think it’s my turn to return the favor. So you just stay here, and I’ll go get your favorite.”

Katy perks up at the sound of that. “Rocky road with maple nut?” I stand up and nod, telling her I will also get the chocolate syrup and whip cream for her weird taste buds. It’s still not enough to make her smile, but she seems slightly more enthusiastic. “You’re the best, Li,” she says, laying down on my bed and hugging a pillow.

I fight the urge to say I know and head into my closet to change into a more fitting, less tear-stained t-shirt. I’m only going to the grocery store, so surely no one will mind me in my pajama pants, which are really just extremely comfy sweats, and moccasins. There is no that way I am spending time tying up shoelaces, so I just slip on my shoes, tell Katy I’ll be back in ten, and go.

When I get to the store, it takes me two minutes to find the ice cream and toppings, and then get in line to pay. I hug the tub of ice cream close to me and hold the chocolate syrup and can of whipped cream in my other hand. I can’t help but feel as though people are staring at me though, because every time I turn my head, heads quickly turn the other way – except for those creeps that don’t. Ignoring them, I set my things on the conveyer belt and tap my fingers on the side of the things as I wait for the line to move.

My eyes roam the magazine rack. Kate Middleton is apparently pregnant with her fourth child, Theo James is fucking engaged, and an unknown girl punches Harry Styles. Wait… that’s me. I grab the magazine and flip it around so no one can see the cover. It looks weird, but I don’t want to have a conversation with the teenage girl behind me about me being the girl who punched Harry Styles. I mean, how did they even print and distribute it that fast? It was only a few hours ago! Well… it was yesterday, but the slight bruise on Harry’s face makes it totally worth the bad attention I’ll get for this.

Luckily for me, the store clerk rings up my groceries without noticing that I was the Harry Styles’ assaulter or asking any questions, and I rush out of the store as soon as I’ve paid and grabbed the bag. When I get to my car, I lightly toss the grocery bag into the passenger seat and step on the gas. I hope Katy is okay. She just seems so fragile right now, and I fear that leaving her all by herself probably isn’t a smart decision on my part. Maybe I shouldn’t have left her alone to get her ice cream. I have other friends that could’ve done it for me.

“Dumb, dumb, dumb,” I say to myself as I speed down the road.

As I turn onto my street, I see a car parked in my driveway, forcing me to park alongside the curb. Who the fuck is parking in my driveway though? I get out, taking the ice cream and toppings with me, and start walking up the driveway. As I pass the car, I take a peek inside of it. On top of the middle compartment between the front two seats is a baby picture. Shit, it’s Liam’s car. I haven’t told Katy about Liam yet. Where is Liam even? Uh-oh. I run the rest of the way to my front door.

It’s already open.

Notes

Do you think Lina reacted the right way at the coffee shop?
What will the consequences be, especially since Liam is her brother?
Will Niall keep trying with Lina?
Why is the door open?
What happens next?

Finally back! Wow, I really need to update my other stories… and shower. Comment and tell us what you think happens next! x

Next Chapter Release: September 6

~A

posted 09.01.14