Anjelica’s POV
I untangled myself from Harry and Louis as Nikki hesitantly picked up the phone. She held it up to her ear, and spoke in a quiet voice.

“Mom..” she said, blinking away unwanted tears. She remained quiet for a minute before sucking in her lip. “Why won’t you come back? I’m so worried..you know I worry too much” she said. We all watched her as she became quiet again before shakily handing the phone to me. I took it and I slowly moved the phone up to my ear, everyone now watching me. I thought drifted quickly in and out my mind, why is she calling? “Hello?” I softly spoke into the phone.

“Jeli?” my mom’s familiar voice asked, calling me by my nickname. I gulped down the lump in my throat and answered.

“Yeah mom, it’s me” I said, looking down at my free open palm.

“Oh Jeli, my baby, I miss you so much! I’m so sorry for not contacting you” she cooed, her voice full of emotion. Sorry? That’s all she could say for not talking? For not telling us what’s wrong? She didn’t even call for Nikki’s birthday. Sudden anger started building up inside me. I had so many questions I wanted to ask, I’ve been confused and conflicted for 8 long months.

“You didn’t even call for her birthday” I hissed through my teeth. I saw Nicole flinch and I looked up to meet her eyes.

“I know hon, but I will explain everything, eventually” she said, her voice cracking.

“Eventually? Eventually!? You need to tell me right now!!!” I yelled, Nikki frowning at me. I could feel Niall’s concerned stare, but I didn’t dare look at him.

“Anjelica Marie, don’t raise your voice at me. I’m trying to work things out right now. I need you to understand!” My mother said, anger edged in her voice.

“I’m an adult, I don’t have to do what you say” I snapped and I heard quiet gasps.

“Anjelica, I don’t want to argue with you right now. I just wanted to check up on you and hear your voices” she said, sighing in defeat. My anger cooled, realising that there was something else. I could hear it in her voice. I looked away from Nikki, moving my head to the side.

“There’s something more..isn’t there?” I asked quietly.

“Yes, concerning the adoption..” she said, and I could picture the tears brimming her brown eyes.

“Is that why you left? What has happened?” I asked, trying to stay calm.

“I can’t tell you all of that, but I’m sending you her adoption papers. I won’t be returning, Anjelica. Not yet. I won’t be able to be there when she turns eighteen. You have to give her the papers. I told Nikki that you will give her some difficult news, but in time. I told her that I won’t be returning and that I’m really sorry, about everything. About what she’ll find out” my mother said. I swallowed hard and licked my dry lips

“Why me..?” I asked, breaking by the negative thoughts of telling Nikki.

“Anjelica, I can’t be there. I have to go now, I just wanted to briefly talk to you and say hello to Nikki” she said in a hushed and rushed tone.

“Alrig-”

“I love you” my mom said before hanging up. I looked back at Nikki, not sure what I should tell her. She looked at me, sadness breaking her bright face.

“Are you okay love?” Niall asked, inching over to me and setting a hand on my shoulder.

“What did she say..?” Nikki gently asked, as if her words would shatter and lay in pieces on the ground. I merely shook my head, not wanting to lie to her and also not wanting to tell her about the truth. Nikki’s bottom lip started to quiver and I could see the fear and worry in her. She was scared. All she wanted was to know what was wrong and she was afraid about our mother. I furrowed my eyebrows, feeling the weight of everyone's curiosity and I really don’t want to answer everyones questions. Niall already knew about it, so he knew, but everyone else didn’t.

“I think you guys should leave..” I said, not wanting all this attention, not wanting to explain about mom to Harry and Louis, not right now.

“Anjeli-” Louis started, but I cut him off.

“Leave. Nothing to see here” I stood up and said rather rudely, but I didn’t mean it to come out that way. Louis flinched back a bit and Nikki looked defeated, knowing that the conversation on the phone wasn’t a happy one. I actually didn’t really want to be alone with Nikki, but I didn’t want the boys to see me in my worst state.

“I think we should stay” Niall said. I looked over at him, glad but also a little frustrated.

“Nia-” I weakly protested, but was cut off.

“No, we are not leaving you” he said and I heard Louis agree. He gave me a stern nod, not backing down. I stared at him, just amazed at him. He was like my prince, standing there, not wanting to leave me. He gave me a sympathetic smile when I didn’t protest against him. I couldn’t help myself when I wrapped my arms around him, seeking his comforting embrace. He didn’t waste a second wrapping me in his arms. I was just frustrated right now and all I wanted was Niall’s sweet smile and soothing words. I felt a hand on my back and I slightly pulled back and looked to my side to see Louis standing next to me, patting my back and smiling. I gave him a sad smile and pulled away from Niall to give Louis a hug.

“It’s okay” he said, giving my shoulders a tight squeeze. I pulled away and looked over at Nikki, who was buried in Harry’s arms. He rested his chin on top of her head, looking straight ahead at me. He gave me the same smile that Louis gave me.

“I’m going to go pick up Liam, Nick and Zayn. I’ll talk to Simon when I pick up Liam and I’m sure that Nick wants to come” Louis said, rushing out before I could disapprove. I sighed and looked into Harry’s emerald eyes.

“I guess it’s time you boys know” I said to Harry.

“I’m going to admit, it would be nice, but you don’t have to. We won’t push you into telling us something that you aren’t comfortable sharing” Harry thoughtfully told me.

“I guess..” I said.

Niall’s POV
We all waited in the living room, not talking at all. Well actually not everyone because Nikki was in her room taking a breather. Harry sat alone on the couch, staring at the twister lay out still on the ground and I sit next to Anjelica, soothingly rubbing her back. I don’t know what the girls and their mom talked about, but by the looks of it, it wasn’t good.

I was itching to talk to Anjelica in private and comfort her. Bring her in my arms and shower her with kisses, but that would be too forward, I haven’t even asked her out on a date. I heard the front door open and Liam rushed in.

“Where is she?” he asked, looking a little nervous and worried. Before we could answer him, Nikki walked in, looking like a scared, lost puppy. “Nikki!” he exclaimed, grabbing her and pulling her into a tight hug. She seemed a little shocked, but wrapped her arms around his waist. I saw Harry stiffen and I knew what he was feeling. Jealousy. “Are you okay?” Liam asked, rubbing her back like I was rubbing Anjelicas. Nikki nodded into his chest and Liam pulled back arms length to look into her eyes. “We’re here for you okay?” Liam said, Nick and Zayn walked in with bags in their hands.

“What happened?” Nick said, worryingly glancing at Nikki and Anjelica.

“Mom” Anjelica said and Nick tilted his head to the side, curiosity and a little fear clouding over. Anjelica shook her head and Nick sadly nodded, understanding what she meant.

“No talking anymore about that. We are here to make you feel better, not watch you worry” Louis said, walking in with toys in hand. Nikki seemed to snap out off her worried and lost phase and stared past Liam at Louis.

“Why do you have that?” Nikki asked, raising an eyebrow.

“We’re going to need it” Louis smirked and took the bags from Nick and Zayn. “This is going to lift up your spirits” Louis said and Liam lifted Nikki up.

“Literally” Liam flashed his famous smile and Nikki cracked a smile. I saw Harry stiffen again, and just when he started to relax. I inwardly sighed, trying not to worry over Harry. I looked over to Anjelica who was smiling and wasn’t so tense.

“But first, I want to finish our twister game. I have to prove just how flexible I am to Anjelica” Louis said, placing the bags and toys down on the table and Anjelica smirked, accepting his challenge.

“On the contrary, I’m the flexible one, remember?” Anjelica said, standing up and walking over to the twister lay out. I smiled at her confidence and that she was back to the girl I oh so very much liked.

“Dude, I haven’t played twister in like forever” Zayn said, excitement bubbling from him.

“Same here” Nick said, smiling at Zayn.

“Harry, come on mate, you were still in before we stopped” Louis said, beckoning Harry over to the twister layout. Harry gave Louis a fake smile and walked over to Louis and Anjelica. I tried not to frown at Harrys damper mood.

“Can I spin?” Nick asked Louis and Louis answered his question by frisbeeing the twister board to Nick. Nick caught it and moved over to sit on the couch with Zayn, the both of them smiling. Zayn reached over to flick the plastic arrow and Nick pouted up at a chuckling Zayn. Nikki moved over to the table, kneeled down in front of it and rummaged through the toys as Liam sat down next to me, watching Nikki intensely.

“Right foot blue” Nick said to no one particular, holding the twister board out to the side so Zayn couldn’t look at it.

“Ladies first” Anjelica cheekily said and Louis playfully glared at her before setting his right foot on the blue dot. Nick flicked the plastic arrow this time, eyeing Zayn.

“Left hand yellow” Nick called out, again to no one in particular.

“You can go” Harry said to Anjelica. Anjelica bent down and placed her left hand on the yellow dot, wiggling her eyebrows at Louis before looking up at me and smiling warmly at me, causing me to shiver and blush. Liam playfully nudged me and I blushed even more.

“Man, I think she likes you” Liam whispered and I gave him a hopeful smile.

“Do you think she likes me just as much as I like her? Because I really like her” I softly said, stealing a glance at her beautiful smile.

“Definitely” Liam nodded and my smile grew.

“I’m gonna ask her out on a date” I confidently told him. Liam smiled and patted my back.

“If only I was as confident at you” Liam sighed, looking over at Nikki.

“Liam, just be careful about what you're doing” I said, not sure what else to say. I already knew that Liam felt something for Nicole, but Harry’s feelings were just stronger, and he was fighting them.

“Ni, I love Harry, he’s one of my best mates, but gotta take a chance. I don’t want to hurt him, but I do like Nikki. He’s not even making a move. I might as well try if he isn’t” Liam said in hushed tones so no one could hear. Our conversation was cut short by Nicole’s curiosity.

“What does this do?” Nikki asked holding up a marshmallow gun. She was holding it wrong and I couldn't help but find her curiosity adorable, but not as adorable as Anjelica.

“That’s a marshmallow gun, love” Liam said.

“THAT’S MINE!” Louis shouted at her and the three of us giggled. Nikki rummaged through the bags on the table and fished out a bag of marshmallows. She smiled at me mischievously and opened the bag. She struggled to put the marshmallows in the gun, so she handed to me and I filled it with marshmallows.

Nicole’s POV
Niall filled the gun up with marshmallows and shot one in his mouth before handing it back to me. I giggled as he happily chewed on the marshmallow. I turned around and aimed it at Louis, who was now tangled up with Harry. I shot the marshmallow and it hit the back of louis head.

“What was that?!” he shrieked and fell over with Harry.

“I win!!” Anjelica said, jumping up and dancing. Louis sat up on Harry, cutely holding up the marshmallow and looking at it. Harry groaned that Louis was heavy, but Louis completely ignore him and shot me a fake serious face.

“I thought I told you not to touch it” Louis hissed, smushing the marshmallow between his fingers. I giggled and screamed when he launched himself at me. I fumbled with the gun and ended up shooting myself in the face with marshmallows rather than shooting Louis. Everyone laughed at this action, even Louis, but that didn’t stop him from sitting his fat butt on me.

“Oof!” I grunted as all the air rushed out of me. “Louis!” I yelled, flailing my arms around.

“No” he said, and shot another marshmallow in my face.

“Louis, get off” I said, starting to feel pain in my ribs and back.

“No” he said again, and I was really feeling uncomfortable. I didn’t want to show just how much I was struggling and how he really was hurting me, so I looked over at Nick for help and he did just that. He tackled Louis off of me and I gasped. “Nick!” Louis yelled, but giggled a little. I sat up and held my ribs.

“Sorry, team Nikki” Nick shrugged. Harry crouched down next to me, rubbing my back.

“You alright, love?” he asked, truly looking concerned. I flashed him a smile, the pain dissipating. He gave me a small smile and looked over at Louis who was going on about something.

“Oh Harry!! Don’t tell me that you’re on Nikki’s team too!!” Louis whined and Harry shook his head.

“Boobear, I could never be against you!” Harry cooed, getting up to hug Louis. I giggled at how cute they were, hugging each other, Louis pretending to cry.

“I’m hungry” Niall randomly blurted out, causing us to all chuckle.

“Alright, I’ll go get some snacks” I said, standing and walking to the kitchen. I grabbed some grapes, washed them and put them into a big bowl. I then grabbed some cups, two liters of soda, and two bags of chips. I managed to hold all of these things, and headed back to the living room, but I found it empty. “Guys?!” I called out, setting the items on the empty part of the table. I huffed and crossed my arms in front of my chest. “Louis, is this because we hid when you were cleaning the kitchen that one time?” I said, not moving from my spot.

“Come get me!” I heard several voices yell and I huffed once more.

“Fine..” I grumbled and stomped down the hall. I walked into the hallway bathroom and slowly opened the door. I heard a muffled laugh and smirked. “I know you're in here” I said, tip toeing to the closed shower curtain. I reached my hand up and swiftly pulled back the curtain to see a giggly Harry.

“You found me” he cutely smiled and shrugged.

“Now where are the others” I asked, helping him out of the shower. He smiled the most cheesiest, cutest smile and pressed his finger to his lips.

“It’s a secret” He said and I was about to make him tell me where they were when I heard the door running feet and a door closing. I looked at Harry and smirked.

“I’ll find them on my own” I said, turning and walking back into the living room. The bowl of grapes were gone and I scrunched my face in confusion. I jumped when the doorbell suddenly rang through the condo.

“I wonder who that could be” Harry said, very badly trying to stop smiling my biting his lip. Grrr, that boy is so adorable. I rushed to the door and didn’t even bother to look through the peep hole. I opened the door and squealed as grapes were thrown at me by Anjelica and Louis.

“Grape wasters!!” I yelled, retreating back to the living room and bumping into Niall. Niall held the marshmallow gun and shot marshmallows at me. I dodged the marshmallows, but didn’t dodge the water being squirted at me. Nick and Zayn were squirting water at me with water guns. “I thought that you were on my team!” I squealed at Nick and ducked behind Harry. They all laughed and I scowled at them. “Meanies!!” I said, looking at them around Harry’s side. Suddenly, arms wrapped around my waist and I was lifted up into the air. I heard a light laugh and I knew it was Liam. “Liam, set me down” I said as I was now in the open, grapes, marshmallows and water being launched at me.

“Nope” he chuckled, just holding me up. I kind of just dangled their, yelling at them. Finally, Liam tossed me onto the couch.

“I hate you guys” I pouted.

“You could never hate us” Louis said, sitting down next to me. I growled at him and smacked his bicep.

“True..” I mumbled, getting up. “I’m going to clean up” I said, glaring at them as I walked backwards to my room.

Harry’s POV
We left the marshmallows and grapes on the carpet, too lazy to pick any of it up. We sat in the living room, thinking of games to play while Nikki cleaned up. I admit, it was fun picking on Nikki, she was just so cute. I love to see that pouty lip and glaring brown eyes, they were sexy. Wait wait, stop. I shook my curly hair to rid myself of the thoughts, trying not to get caught up in her amazing traits.

“Hmm...I’m sure that there is a fun game we could think of. Think back to your childhood games” Zayn said, moving the table away with Nick, making the living room bigger than it already was. I nodded, grateful to think of something other than Nicole's beautiful smile.

“I’m back” Nikki said, walking in with her hair in a messy, curly bun. It was cute how the tiny curls framed her face and how her t-shirt was big with colorful hand prints on them.

“Finally” Louis said and she rolled her eyes.

“That’s a cool shirt” Niall complemented and Nikki returned his compliment with her sparkling smile.

“Thank you. It was spirit week at our school and we had to wear white one of the days and we decided, why not get paint involved” Nikki said, smiling down at her shirt.

“That’s cool, we had something similar, but people signed it” Liam said.

“I’ve always wanted to have people sign my shirt” Nikki said a little down, but then quickly brightened up. “You guys wanna sign my shirt?” she asked.

“Of course!” Liam cheered and Louis smiled deviously. I chuckled at Louis expression, already knowing what he was thinking.

“I’ll be right back” Nikki said, momentarily disappearing down the hall.

“I want to get my shirt signed” Niall said, looking down at his shirt.

“I have spare white shirts if you boys want” Anjelica said and Louis cheered.

“Why do you have spare white shirts?” I asked, not sure why she would.

“There left over from a concert. Me and a bunch of my friends were going to go to a Bruno Mars concert and make t-shirts, but all of the sudden, they changed their minds and just bought shirts that said ‘Bruno Mars’ on it. I already had bought the shirts, but I decided to keep them rather than return them” Anjelica shrugged, standing up and sprinting up the stairs just as Nikki walked in with multiple colored sharpies.

“What is she doing?” Nikki said, looking up the stairs.

“Getting white shirts” Nick said, talking for the first time since attacking Nikki.

“Oh” Nikki simply said.

“I want the purple one” Louis said, pointing to the purple sharpie in her hand.

“Nope” Nikki smiled and tossed the purple sharpie at Liam. “Liam gets it.”

“I want it!!” Louis whined as Nikki sat down next to Liam.

“You can have red” Nikki said, tossing the red sharpie to Louis.

“But I want the red!” Zayn whined and I chuckled.

“Just take them” Nikki said, throwing the sharpies randomly.

“Ow!” Nick said as the sharpie hit his face.

“Sorry!” Nikki gushed, not able to look at Nick since Liam was now signing her back. White t-shirts suddenly started appearing in the living room and I saw Anjelica throwing them as she walked down the steps. We threw the white shirts over the shirts we were already wearing and we all went around signing each other, t-shirts and skin. I really wanted to go over to Nikki and sign hers, but everyone would ask to sign mine or me to sign theirs. Finally, I made my way over to Nikki.

“May I?” I asked, gesturing to her colorful painted and signed shirt.

“Absolutely” she smiled and took her shoulders in my hands to turn her around. I froze when I saw Liams touching message on part of her back. I skimmed over it, cringing when he said

“You’re so pretty” and “I love you.” I clenched my jaw and slashed the sharpie over his writing.

“Harry!” Louis said, watching me.

“What?” I grumbled, still looking at Nikki’s back.

“Dude what the heck!” I heard Liam yell. Liam walked up next to me and frowned. “Why did you do that?” Liam asked.

“My hand slipped” I lied through my teeth.

“Man, I saw what you did, Louis did too. You did that on purpose” Liam said, anger slowly rising.

“I said MY. HAND. SLIPPED.” I lied again, raising my voice.

“Woah, stop” Nikki said, turning around to look at us.

“I don’t want to fight, but I saw you do it” Liam said, not backing down.

“I said stop” Nikki said more sternly, stepping in between me and Liam. “It doesn’t matter, calm down. It’s just a shirt” Nikki said, looking back and forth between us.

“Yeah” I said, going bumping Liams shoulder as I walked over to the couch.

“Um, hey, lets watch a movie!” Nick said, trying to change the tension. I frustratedly fiddled with my fingers, not looking up at anyone.

“And it doesn’t have to be scary this time” Zayn said, trying to persuade all of us.

“Aw, I like scary movies” Anjelica said.

“But I dont” Louis countered and I could tell that Anjelica was rolling her eyes.

“Movie it is” Nikki said and I felt the couch shift next to me. I looked over and saw Nikki sitting next to me. I could tell by the look in her eyes that she wanted to talk. Not to mention that we never finished our talk a while back. Nick and Zayn picked out a movie and glued themselves on the couch together. Niall and Anjelica were laying on the ground while Louis sat in one of the chairs. To my disappointment, Liam sat on the other side of Nikki. I wasn’t necessarily mad at him, I was just...just...ughh I don’t even know.

Notes

Okay, I know I know, I really need to start updating more often, but no one is really telling me that I should! I want to know what you guys think and blah blah blah. Thanks for reading and tell your friends about this wack story xD Once again, sorry if there isn't much excitement or drama, I'm getting too it. I just have to keep moving on a few chapters until things REALLY get sticky! Love you all!
I just love this gif so much xD

And this ones funny xD