Home (DISCONTINUED)

Chapter 2

Niall's POV

     I was daydreaming about all of the food that I was gonna eat with the rest of my mates, I completely missed the girl getting in line in front of me. The shock of bumping into her made me drop all the food.
     "I'm SO sorry, sir! I didn't mean to! I'll pick it right up!" I could see the blush creeping onto her face as she handed her brother to her sister (at least I hope it was her brother and sister 😁) and got onto her knees to pick up the snacks strewn on the floor. At first glance judging by her frame, you would've thought she was only 11. She carried herself around though like a responsible 15 yr old. So, if you made an estimate, I'd say she's about 13. I lightly chuckled as I got onto my knees too to help her and said," That's quite alright, it was my fault. I wasn't looking where I was going."
The look on her face when she saw how different my accent was almost impossible not to laugh at. She noticed my laugh though, and her blush deepened as I said, " I think as you can tell, I'm not from around here, but you on the other hand don't exactly sound like you live here either."
She shyly answered, "Yeah. I was born in America. Ohio, I think." She unknowingly tucked a few strands of her wispy hair behind her ear, giving me a better look at her face. Oh my gosh, what's this girl doing with a black eye?!?! Recovering from shock, I answered, "Well, I'm Niall, from Mullingar Ireland. It's nice to meet you..." Crap, I didn't ask for her name.
     I extended my hand to her, hoping she would shake it and think of it as a friendly gesture. Who knows what that poor girl's been through.... Luckily, she did. "Maddy. It's nice to meet you too, Niall," she said with a nice smile. We stood up and she wiped her hands on the dress she was wearing. My goodness, did she come from the showing of "Little Orphan Annie"?! The little girl pulled on Maddy's sleeve, and she quickly took the boy out of her arms and got to the cash register to buy.. blankets?!?! The little girl said,"Sissy, can I have candy?" Maddy sighed and said,"I'm sorry, Kayla, but not today. I don't have enough money."
     Why is this girl worrying about MONEY!!! She should be worrying about which boy likes who, not if they have money to buy candy!! "Aww! Ok.." Kayla said, clearly upset. She gave the lady an old 20 and got a nickel back in change. Luckily the store knew American money. I quickly put my stuff on the belt to let the woman scan the food as I quickly reached the girl to lightly put a hand on her shoulder.
     "Hey," I started, but she jolted backwards, and I saw a look of pain cross her face that she quickly changed to a grimace. Something is definitely not right and there was no way I was going to let her out of my sight without getting an explanation or the satisfaction of helping her and her siblings. "A-are you okay? W-where are your parents?" Why am I stuttering?
     She quickly answered back, "I-I'm fine. Really! And, my parents are waiting outside. We just needed to grab a few things."
"Oh. Well, in case you need help or anything, not that it's charity, but like a friend, do you like, wanna exchange numbers?" Really? That's what I'm going with? Way to not sound like a stalker... Now she's blushing again.
"I-uh. I don't have a phone," she answered sheepishly.  I dug into my pocket and handed her my old iPhone 4s and a charger and said," Now you do! I'm already programmed in there, so you can call me whenever you want."
She was speechless. That's kinda cute, I wonder if anyone's ever given her something in her life she didn't have to work for. "T-thank you. I-I don't know what to say..." She turned it on to check the time and her eyes widened.
     "Oh my gosh, I -I gotta go, but don't worry! I'll call when I get the chance!" she said and tightly gripped her sister's hand and ran as fast as she could into the blizzard, her brother asleep on her shoulder.
     " Sir," the clerk said impatiently. "Are you going to pay for any of this??"
     "Right, sorry," I said and went back to pay for the already bagged food and headed for the car. I couldn't stop thinking about that girl. I was the only car parked in the lot, but she crossed the street, and I don't remember seeing any cars on the side of the road when I looked out the window...
     I got back to the flat I shared with Louis and quickly unlocked the door and letting myself in. "Ni- where've you been?? You said you'd be back a half hour ago!" Louis said, genuinely worried. I couldn't get her out of my head. "Sorry mate, I got distracted."
"I can tell," he snorted. "What happened, did you meet a girl?"
"Yes I did actually, and I'm worried about her," I snapped, not thinking about the harshness in my voice. I sighed,"Mate, I'm sorry. Just stressed."
He nodded in understanding. "Do you want to tell me what happened?" He said.

     "Well, when I was out at the store, I bumped into this girl in line. Her name was Madeleine. Anyway, she got all flustered and started picking up the things off the floor. So, I got on my knees to help her. She pushed a little bit of hair behind her ear and I noticed that she had a black eye! There weren't any parents in sight, her clothes her in horrible shape, and she was there with a little girl and boy. They looked about 6 and 2. And she looked like she was 13!! So I was already worried, so when I went to put a hand on her shoulder to ask her if she needed help, she stiffened up like she was afraid of me and it looked like she was hurt! And she was limping too.. So I gave her my old phone and asked her to call me. Now but here's the weird part. She said her parents were outside. So that would mean the parking lot, right? There was only two cars in the lot when I pulled in, and when I pulled out the same cars were still there. She was in the store before I got there, and no cars were in the street. She crossed the street, Lou! But where would she live to have to walk across the street??" I wondered, now more to myself.
"Well let's find out, shall we?" He said with a cheeky grin. A grin spread on my face as well as he pulled out his laptop. He pulled up Google Maps and typed in the address of the store. We clicked on the different addresses until we finally found what I was looking for. With the address it said underneath "Miss Amanda's Fostering Facility," Louis read out loud. He clicked on the link and it was a website that told us about the facility and Miss Amanda. Most of the children were enrolled in the nearest public school, and she seemed nice enough. Then we saw the search bar and Louis quickly typed in 'Madeleine.' 20 different options came up. I involuntarily yawned, and I looked at the computer's clock. It was 2:30 in the morning. Louis said to me," Well, I don't know about you, but I'm so tired I think your search for your mystery girl will have to wait until tomorrow. You should get some sleep Ni, but I promise we'll find her. Ok?"
"Alright Lou," I sighed as Louis stifled a yawn. We crawled into our beds a few minutes later, but now I just lay awake, worried about Madeleine. Where did she go? And what is she hiding from me?