Bring Me To 1D (One Direction fan fiction)

Open Arms For Broken Hearts

OPEN ARMS FOR BROKEN HEARTS

ANNA

There were pieces of my broken song disc all over the recording booth floor where it had been crushed by Lizzie’s foot. I crawled around on my knees, sweeping the fragments together with my sleeve and scooping them into the bin then I shut the door behind me as I left.

As I walked along the beach front, I wondered whether my song would have been good enough to win me a go1Den ticket. I thought about what Lizzie had said; maybe I didn’t deserve to win. Maybe I really deserve to have been born at all. It wasn’t like I was enjoying the ride so far.

I needed to get home so that I could relieve the stress I’d suffered today in the only way I knew how so I took the short cut through the shopping mall.

Passing the Woolworths store, I saw a huge crowd of girls swarming around a display stand near the entrance.

‘SPECIAL EDITION COPIES OF ‘TAKE ME HOME’ – IS THE GO1DEN TICKET IN YOURS?’

I’d decided I was going to wait until the weekend to buy my copy of the album but with the amount of people I could see grabbing copies, I didn’t reckon on there being any left by then and as I’d lost my one chance to see the boys perform, I thought I may as well try and get a copy now then at least I would be able to listen to them in my room and I could try to imagine I was there at the gig.

The minute I stepped inside the store, I was pushed and jostled by crazed girls grabbing armfuls of CDs at a time. They were trying to look inside them but couldn’t as they were sealed, some were weighing them in their hands to try and work out if one felt heavier than the other. It was total mayhem.

When I got close to the stand, a fight erupted which made the panic to grab the CDs even more ferocious. There were five girls holding onto one copy and trying to bite each other’s hands to free the CD.

I could see about ten CDs left on the shelf so I reached out my hand to grab one, but as I did, I felt a knee hard in my back. I let out a yelp of pain and fell onto my knees.

“That’s mine, you ugly freak. Get back to your coffin where you belong.” I looked up to see Gemma Collins towering above me. She pushed me hard and I went sprawling across the polished floor, landing flat on my stomach.

“That’s it guys! Out of stock! All gone, off you go!” The store assistant was ushering everyone away as quickly as he could.

Within a couple of minutes, the stand had emptied and I lay there on the floor feeling like I was experiencing the aftermath of a hurricane.

“You ok?” The assistant stood over me and offered me a hand up. “Looks like you missed out on your chance of a Go1Den ticket.”

“Twice,” I mumbled, spitting out a bit of dust from the floor and sighing heavily. “I give up. Totally. On everything.”

“Nah, don’t give up, never give up.” I turned my head wearily to face the young boy who was doing his best to give me a motivational speech. “You have to keep trying, that’s what life’s all about.” And as I turned, my eye line was such that I was looking directly under the display stand.

As my eyes focussed past the dust and the crumpled tags and old sweets, my whole body froze and I got goose bumps down my arms. Was it? Oh my God, I was looking at a small, square, plastic box…. A CD!

“Push me under!” I shouted and I reached out my arm as far as I could under the counter, grabbing desperately with my fingers until the very tips of them touched the corner of the CD.

I felt pressure on my legs as I was pushed forwards slightly. I stretched my arm out as far as it would physically go but I couldn’t get a firm grip on the box, my fingers were just brushing the edges. “Further!” I yelled, dust being sucked into my mouth as I opened it in concentration.

He pushed me forward another couple of inches and my fingers finally got a slight grip on the box. Slowly and carefully, inch by inch I slid it towards me until I had it fully in my hand.

“I’VE GOT ONE!” I jumped to my feet waving the CD in the air, spitting dust out of my mouth and feeling a moment of pure happiness that I couldn’t remember feeling in years.

The sales assistant looked like he’s just won the lottery. “Oh my God! Open it! Open it!”

I turned to look for the nearest till point and he pulled me back. “Never mind that, you can pay for it after, just open it! This is fate!”

Ripping the cellophane wrapper off, barely able to contain my excitement, I took out the paper booklet, opened each page of it, shook it, took the CD out to look behind it, slid the CD out of its little cardboard pouch and wiggled my fingers around inside.

Nothing.

I shook my head. “No. Not today.” I looked up at boy who surprisingly looked more disappointed than I reckon I did. Maybe he was just not as used to the feeling as I was. “Never mind, at least I have it to listen to.”

There was no one around when I got home which I figured meant that Mum was in a bad way again and my two brothers and my sister Abbey had taken themselves off out of the way somewhere. I hardly saw my family these days.

Sure enough, when I got to the top of the stairs, Mum’s door was closed. I tiptoed past so as not to disturb her and quietly closed my bedroom door.

Once I’d put the CD on, I went over to my wardrobe and felt around under the pile of jumpers on the top shelf until I found my small penknife. Then I sat on my bed and pulled up the sleeve of my jumper.

I pressed the knife carefully into my skin, drew the blade slowly across my arm and let out a long, controlled, silent breath.

It sounds like a terrible thing to do, to cut myself like that but it wasn’t about the blood, it was about the release. It was about feeling some kind of emotion instead of the numbness I felt the rest of the time. It’s like when I did it, I was converting the emotional pain into a physical pain. Physical wounds are easier to heal.

I looked down at my arms, they were a mess. I had to wear jumpers every day in the baking Australian sunshine. I used to have a recurring dream that the boys from One Direction came over to take me to live in England. When we got there, they had bought me a whole wardrobe of jumpers to wrap me up against the cold and to hide the scars.

‘Over Again’ came on the CD player and I closed my eyes and felt the relief of letting everything out after another day of hell.

And I can lend you broken parts
That might fit like this
And I will give you all my heart
So we can start it all over again

I loved this song. I picked up the booklet to see if the lyrics were on there and found them on the back page.

That’s when I noticed the small tab at the top of the page. My heart skipped a beat. As I peeled it carefully downwards, the page came away and in the space between the two pages, shining brighter than I could ever have imagined...

A  Go1Den Ticket.

VOTE...VOTE...VOTE!!!