Familiar Strangers

Chapter 19 - Starting Over

Kyle snaps her eyes from Kiran to Grace and smiles a watery smile. "You better not." She says with a threatening glare which causes Grace to chuckle.

Grace looks up to find the lads standing in front of her bed. Niall has the cheekiest smile on his face, Zayn is currently texting with who I imagine is Leah probably telling her and Avril to come over, Liam is carefully watching Kiran and Harry was standing next to him but is now is making his way towards me. Harry reaches my side and puts a hand on my shoulder and squeezes reassuringly. I shoot him a tight smile and nod. Harry knows the mess of things going on in my mind. He's the only one who I've ever told of my love for Grace, not including her of course. I sigh deeply. I just told her I loved her and she hasn't even looked at me or said a word, albeit she hasn't had much time or privacy. Still it feels like somehow she's rejecting my love, even my forgiveness.

Grace shyly lowers her gaze back to her hands on her lap and plays with them. She's nervous of what the lads are going to say. She thinks they're going to be mad and reject her. She should know the lads would never hold something like this against her. She's been with them for a month and a half, that should be enough time to know they'll forgive her in a heartbeat.

"Welcome back, Malakai." Says Niall with no trace of bitterness in his voice. His blue eyes shine brightly at Grace. She flinches at her name and looks down at her hands yet again. They fidget on her lap and I just want to lay my hands on top of hers to stop the nervous movement. But Liam does it for me.

Liam places his left hand on top of hers and she sighs deeply. "Louis, and the girls told us everything." He informs her softly knowing she must be feeling guilty for lying. Kiran smiles up at Liam gratefully and he winks back at her which causes her to blush. She tries to hide it by looking at Grace again but by the look of satisfaction on Liam's face I know he saw it. Those two have been like that for the better part of these days. It's good to see Liam look at a girl like that again. After Dani, he was distant and unfocused. Whenever he smiled it wouldn't reach his eyes and his laughter was a rare thing to hear. Now with the girls, with Kiran he seems like the happy, loving Liam we used to know.

Grace takes a deep breath and looks up with watery eyes and her bottom lip quivers. "I'm sorry." She murmurs loud enough for us to hear. My chest tightens because even though I've already forgiven her I know part of her apology is for me. A war rages inside me; I don't now what I'm feeling, it's like all my emotions got tangled up in a big impossibly hard knot and I can't seem to untangle them. I know I love her and that I've forgiven her but everything else is just a big mess. I wish I knew what to do, to make it all go away. Oh God. The only person that can get me like this is her. She's been the only one. I remember feeling like this back when she left and now when she's back.

Zayn smiles reassuringly and nods. "It's alright, we just don't understand why you didn't just tell us." He adds speaking for everybody. They've been trying to figure out why Grace didn't say anything to them since they learned the truth. I guess they haven't found an answer. In all honesty I couldn't fathom why she did either. The more I thought about it the less I understood her reasons.

"Yeah, we're your friends and Louis is well he was your best friend." Niall jumps right in only hesitating at labeling our relationship. Niall knows what kind of relationship I hope to have with Grace and it sure as hell isn't a friendly one. I want to own her completely; her heart, soul and body and I want her to own me as well. Now all I've got to do is find out if she wants the same as me.

"I...I just, I felt forgotten by Louis when he didn't recognize me that first time." My chest tightens even more now. I never wanted her to feel that way and it hurts me to know that I caused her pain without even knowing it. I understand her reaction to my non recognition of her because of the promise we made to each other all those years ago. I never forgot about her but the last thing I was expecting was to see her again especially in London and as a famous youtuber. I had lost all hope of ever seeing her again and always thought that if it happened it would be at the park next to our houses in Doncaster. I should have known it was her. I have no excuse as to why I didn't recognize those enchanting blue eyes of hers. "It was stupid but I thought that since he didn't remember then I wasn't going to remind him." She keeps going and I'm sad because the old Grace never would have let that come between our friendship. Obviously we've both changed since then and we have to get to know each other again.