Through The Dark COMPLETED

Chapter 2

Julie came into the apartment she shared with Amanda and threw her keys on the table and her bag on the floor. It had been 8 weeks since their run-in with Niall at the hospital, but she had been so busy she had barely even seen Amanda in passing; and they hadn't had time to even discuss it, except for some random texts between work and classes, and while they rushed by each other when they worked the same shift. It was driving her insane! She wanted to talk to Amanda about it and knew it was bothering Amanda not to be able to talk to her about it also.

"Panda?!" Julie called out hoping her friend was home. She thought she should be, but she barely knew what day it was anymore. Between end of semester clinicals at school and work, she was never home; and when she was, she was asleep the whole time. It was the most insane time of her life, and she wasn't sure she could take much more. Thank goodness the semester was over after her test tomorrow, and she could maybe have some sort of social life at that time. When she didn't get an answer, she sighed and sat down on the couch and pulled her books out of her bag. "I dunno what I was thinking there is no way I'm passing this crap."

Amanda came out of her room. "Shut up; you will too. Stop being so hard on yourself. I was beginning to wonder if I was ever going to see you outside of passing each other at work though."

"Yeah, sorry about that. I feel like I don't know if I'm coming or going anymore. I'm not sure I even want to be an RN anymore. I'm just so worn out. Wish I felt the way you felt about it. Or about anything for that matter." Julie leaned back against the couch. "You got time to talk now?"

"Do you?" Amanda asked raising her eyebrows at JJ.

"Not really, I should be studying, but for you my Panda I will make it." Julie sighed. "I'm pretty sure you've been dying to talk to me about our little boy band friend."

"Uh yeah," Amanda said. "Like every day for 8 weeks! Who else can I talk to about it?"

"I know. I'm sorry, ok, I'm a rotten friend; what can I say."

"Oh shut up JJ!" Amanda protested. "I still can't get over the fact he was there, and I got to work on him a lot for 12 hours; and I had to contain myself the whole time! And we were so busy, I couldn't even go crazy to you the whole night, or the next morning, or for the past 8 weeks!"

"I know, I know!" Julie looked back at her friend. "I'm all yours now though, so go crazy. He was definitely a nice guy and a lot more down to earth then I thought he would be. Tried to be normal but wasn't always easy. You know how it is for me; normal's not my thing. Plus everyone kept trying to sneak papers in for autographs!"

Amanda laughed. "Yeah, you're not normal, and I saw the nice big X's you got Niall to sign. Nice touch by the way." Amanda laughed harder at the evil smirk that came across JJ's face. "You can be quite evil ya know." She continued while JJ just shrugged. "He said some pretty interesting things when he was leaving and I've been dying to get your take on it for....."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, for the past 8 weeks." Julie finished for her. "Go ahead then"

Amanda went over the conversation in complete detail while JJ listened.

"Hmmmm," Julie said. "That is interesting."

There was a knock at the door. The girls just looked at each other. It was unusual for them to have unexpected visitors. Figures it would happen when they finally get an opportunity to talk for the first time in 8 weeks.

Amanda got up and answered the door. After a couple of minutes, she came in with a beautiful arrangement of flowers and 2 envelopes.

Julie looked at her curiously. "Ummm....something you forgot to tell me?"

"What about you? They are for both of us." Amanda countered.

"What?" Julie sat up curiously. "Well open it already."

Amanda just gave JJ a look as she opened the first envelope and read it. "This one is from the hospital. Said these were delivered there to us by a very satisfied patient, and since we were off the next couple of days, they wanted to send them directly to us. Said they were very pleased by the review, and we are going to get some bonus time off coming to us because of it."

"What?" Julie asked stunned. "Is that even a thing?"

Amanda shrugged. "Apparently it is now. Don't look a gift horse JJ."

Amanda's mouth opened in shock as she opened the next envelope and pulled out the contents. "Holy shit! OMG! NO WAY!"

Julie stared at her. "Care to share?"
Amanda started jumping up and down and held up what she pulled out the envelope. "One Direction tickets to the sold out show tonight! And backstage VIP passes! And a note from Niall!"

"Shut up Panda! Not nice!" Julie didn't believe it and took the envelope and everything from Amanda. Holy crap it was. Two tickets, two passes and a simple letter that said "Thanks so much for the best care a guy could ask for. Hope to see you at the show. Best regards. Niall Horan." Julie looked at Amanda who was still hopping up and down. This could not be happening. This does not happen. They had been trying to get tickets for ages to the show and finally gave up. And now this. "I can't." Julie said and set the contents down on the counter and walked back to the couch.

Amanda stopped and stared at her friend in disbelief. "You can't?! Have you finally completely lost your mind?!"

"Possibly." JJ stated matter-of-factly. "Take someone else. I have my final tomorrow. How can I go to this, study, and pass? As much as I'm dying to go and see the show and see backstage and see Niall again and, hello, see the rest of the hot guys in that band. It's one night. If I fail this final, it's the rest of my life. I hate adulting Panda." Julie slumped down on the couch.

"No you have to go! You are more prepared than anyone ever for this final. You have been working nonstop in a hospital and going to school and you are just going! I will help you through the final after the show JJ! You are not missing this. You deserve it!" Amanda practically shouted.

"You deserve it Panda. I wouldn't even know One Direction if it weren't for you, at least not as well as I do. As long as you go, I can live vicariously through you. It's not your fault it takes me forever to figure things out and am just doing this school crap now." Julie did know it wasn't something that came up every day and was something that would probably never happen to her again; but, this final was going to determine if she passed this semester or not. Besides she thought she would be so nervous being backstage in front of the whole band. Niall alone was hard to get her composure with; how could she with Harry , Zayn, Liam and Louis standing there too?

"I won't let you do this. You will be fine. You can't leave me do this without you! No one else will understand. And don't think I don't know what you're thinking. I will be nervous too. You can get through the nerves. JJ you can't pass this up. Not this." Amanda pleaded. It just wouldn't be the same without JJ there. Besides it was to both of them, not to Amanda to choose a guest.

JJ looked at her friend, and it broke her heart to see how much it bothered her. "Ok, alright, ok fine. For you, but if I fail....."

"You won't! I promise!" Amanda hugged her friend. "This is amazing! I can't believe it! What are we going to wear?!"

Julie couldn't help but laugh. Ah, yes wardrobe. She already knew she was going to let Amanda deal with that, because otherwise she would just have to listen to Amanda tell her what she couldn't wear anyway. If it was up to JJ, she would wear jeans and a t-shirt everywhere. Wonder if she would get away with it tonight?

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*the story is complete fan fiction