Capture My Heart (BK3: Niall Horan)

-Ch 23: Sweet Revenge + Perfect Promises.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE: Sweet Revenge + Perfect Promises.

-Ashely Dawson-

“It was this one, right?” I snapped my head up away from concentrating on the intricate details implanted on the map in between my fingers. My sister blinked at me, her eye-brows raised as she made small nods at the towering building at the end of the street.

I bit my lip, thinking, cursing myself that I could not remember. I then proceeded to look around me, making note of the shadowed paths that you could only just see peeking out from behind the hedge line. I felt guilty that I couldn’t remember, of course I did. It wasn’t as if it had been that long, it was a place that was my own, and I couldn’t even remember. Regardless to the fact that they had changed some street names, and redesigned the layout of the place, my memory should have been intact, but it wasn’t.

“I’m not sure, it’s all different now.” I shrugged, creasing my brow in confusion as I tried to make links between the surroundings and the map in my hands. For a Londoner I lacked sense of direction.

“I’m sure it is this one, and if it’s not then we still have about ten other streets it could be.” She smiled, as if this did not matter. She was in a good mood today, a really good mood. It confused me because she was nothing like she used to be, she had come back in small fragments. It was as if it was some kind of lottery, of which fragment of her I would get each day.

It had been raining heavily constantly for the past few days, and today the sun had come out over London as if in the quantity of the rain we’d had. It was so lifting, and everything just seemed generally better. I wondered if this had affected her mood, it was quite partially amazing how the pure weather could lift everyone’s mood. But it didn’t bother me what lifted her mood – as long as it was something – since everything felt so much nicer when she was like this. Wholesome, linked, together.

“Okay,” I sighed, realising that she seemed to know more than me. “Lead the way,”

She smiled and we continued down the drifting pavements, there were people around, but not too many. It was a Thursday, the last real day of working before the working week ended, so most people were crammed inside offices watching the sun squeeze through their blinds as they squinted at their computer screens, longing to be outside in it. That thought made me feel kind of glad that I received Valerie’s order to take the day off without too much protest. Albeit the fact that it was because something had come up and there was nothing I could do to help and I didn’t know what that thing was. But for the sake of my sister I was pushing these thoughts away.

“I’m almost 100% it’s this road Ash, calm it. Besides, I would know anyway because the new sound tech guy told me the other day that they’ve built a new venue on the back of your studio. Like an old fashioned one though, some drama club is taking it on for Shakespearean plays, they think they’re gonna be such a hit. But they’re gonna be leasing it out to musicians too, I might be performing in it. Apparently the acoustics are great.” She glowered; she wasn’t even looking at me as she said this, aimlessly smiling at the cloudless sky above.

I found myself envying how ambitious she was, how driven and motivated. She’d barely been discharged and she was already gleaming over the fact of getting back into performing again. I wondered though, secretly, how easy it was going to be for her to really get back to where she was before. It was horrible, and I liked to think that she could snap her fingers and everything would fall into place for her. She would have her friends, her fan base, her tours and her fame, but the truth was, it wasn’t really that easy to gain something back when you’d been stripped of it for so long.