A Girl Named His [Liam Payne AU]

Serendipity [1]

6 months before

"Oh, Richard; why do I love you so?" the socialite Mini O'Hale wept as she lay sprawled on the floor, clutching onto the purple blotch that bruised her porcelain complexion.

Forcing fistfuls of popcorn into my mouth as I sat cross-legged on my futon, I found myself completely entranced by the hurt displayed in Mini's eyes. This episode of Dublin Manor, a soap opera that I had found myself guiltily addicted to since my freshman year of secondary school, was certainly a heart-jerker for me. I usually did not emphasize with Mini, for I saw her as nothing more than a ditzy heiress who partied off of her grandparent's riches and manipulated men like it was her chosen career trek. But, as her and rival family playboy Richard McGuiness started heating up their love affair, I had felt increasingly saddened for her as Richard became emotionally abusive towards her. In this episode, however; was the first time that Richard had laid hands on her.

"Because, darlin'," Richard rasped between each puff of his cigar, crouching down to Mini's level and placing the same hand that he had used to hit her on her opposite cheek lovingly.

"-you're nothing without me."

A pulse of anger surged in my throat as Mini responded to him affectionately, even after his blatant gesture of manipulation. I must've been angrier than I thought, for my cat Apollo hissed at me in agitation as I tugged on his stony fur rather than petted it.

"Sorry, mate," I cooed soothingly at him.

As a Richard and Mini snogging scene became prominent on my TV screen, I lunged for the remote and pressed the power button "off" hastily in disgust. It's actually pathetic how much a fictional TV made-to-piss-you-off show affects me every Saturday night at 9 P.M. It's been like this since my early secondary school days, where the transition between school levels fractured the relationships between my friends and me. To add, my mum had worked long nights as an ER nurse while my father had always been absent in my life. Thus, leaving me comfortably lonesome with me, myself, and I.

Being twenty years of age and living in the same Northern Ireland village I grew up in, Gracehill; I still enjoyed the same personal solace as I did while I was a teenager, probably even more so. I had bought a one hundred year old stone and log cottage on the southern-most tip of the village and worked out of my humble abode as a freelance writer for The Irish Times, explicitly alone and isolated. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy people's company and felt socially awkward because of it; it was that people seemed to not enjoy my company, and I felt socially out of place because of that. Either way, it never truly bothered me. I grew to adore the fact that the only sounds I would hear daily were Apollo's purrs and my treasured The Smiths vinyl record, and would crave it unexplainably if I was ever dragged away from it.

Reluctantly lifting myself from my relaxing spot on the futon, I started trudging my way to my even more comforting spot; the den. The den, or "the sanctuary," as I liked to call it; was easily my favorite part of the house. Not only did "the sanctuary" hold the many antiques my Gaelic ancestors had handcrafted themselves, which ranged from vases to throw rugs to apothecary tables; it also contained my laptop, which in all pathetic seriousness could be regarded as my lifeline. Like
winning a stuffed bear at a measly carnival game, my eyes gleamed with contentment as I finally sat at my study and felt the pads of my fingers graze the mouse.

The home screen displayed yet another picture of Apollo as a kitten before the click of my mouse morphed into the Internet window, which at this time was my Yahoo! homepage. Before logging into my email, I always looked at the latest updates and articles that were displayed each day. I found myself intrigued by the ones of discovery; such as the giant human skeletons recently recovered in the soil of Saudi Arabia, or the practically stumbled upon alien planet that is 650 times the distance between the Earth and sun. But, to my disappointment, I saw a totally different headline that the ones I would've liked to read on: