Second Snapshot (Picture This Sequel: Niall Horan)

-Sabotage me. [Chapter 31]

“I guess.” To be honest I was a bit pre-occupied with my researching on Ashley and I and wasn’t really up for engaging in this conversation. “She is manager or whatever though, she’s just dedicated.”

“She is…Hey she looks really hot there.”

He commented leaning forwards in his space to get a better look at a picture of us in London last year at a park or something holding hands. I shot him a look and she shrugged.

“Well she does.”

When I just continued to look at him he smirked leaning back into his space.

“Sorry, but she’s hot”

“Watch your mouth.”

I scolded scrolling through a few more pictures before shutting the lid on the laptop and resorting to sifting through some design sheets and paperwork she’d left here.

-

The further I got, the wearier I got of this place. The alley seemed to be ever growing in darkness cloaking around it like it had descended from Satan itself. There were washing lines hanging from one building to the other with just one or two cloths on them and I could have sworn I just saw a rat. It never really occurred to me that things were this bad in London. It all seems rather dapper on the outside, bright lights and tall structures, expensive shops and designer clothing, concert arenas, theatres, fashion, famous museums. But the further you go in, the worse it gets. It wasn’t completely shocking, I’ve seen worse on TV and such in other countries but it really did shock me the condition some of these people were living in. And it shocked me even further that even though distant, a member of Ashley’s family would be. Not that I cared, or it put me off her in any way at all, it just surprised me. Ashley’s family are…Well off. And because the family I know of are I kind of expected her whole family to be but clearly that’s not the case, well not here anyway. She’s a rich girl, and always has been, but she’s different from any other ‘rich girls’ I’ve met. She’s not conceded and doesn’t think of herself as higher than anyone else because she’s more intelligent, because she’s richer, prettier, because her family are famous, in fact she probably thinks of herself as lower. Which is sad, but I guess she’s kind of always been like that. Way too modest.

As I got further in I felt a strange silence fall over this place and the air all seemed to get a bit tenser and I felt extremely out of place. People had their knees hugged to their chest leaning up against the walls that lined the alley and they all turned their heads to look at me as I passed, watching me as I uncomfortably walked past them. It was almost like this wasn’t real, some kind of ghost town and they were all just ghosts watching me as I intruded on their territory, venturing in deeper. My trainers crunching against the loose dirt and gravel that every so often kicked up a cloud of dust causing me to cough earning a few more pointed and angry looks from the people I was passing by. At an ever growing pace too, the further I walked, the faster I got, keen to get out of this place as soon as possible.

I was sceptical of myself at first as to why I was doing this, let alone without Ashley knowing. Don’t ever get involved with him, he’s nothing but trouble and he’s my problem. I could hear her sweet and tainted with concern voice in my head. It was always there though; there was just something about it. How gentle, girly and kind it was, there was a certain twang within her London accent that just really stuck with you, etching it’s way into your brain and forever ringing throughout your ears. I knew it stuck with me but I didn’t doubt it stuck with other people too, I didn’t doubt she stuck with other people too. And sometimes, I couldn’t quite believe she was mine. Physically, she was probably every guy’s dream. With her piercing bright blue eyes, blonde hair reaching her waist, slim figure (naturally and non-naturally.) and plump pink lips. Rich, a fashion icon and beautiful she was probably the girl who pretty much had everything. But when you got to know her, underneath the layers of faux dazzling smiles, the make-up and in general immaculate appearance I guess on the outside the girl who has it all isn’t always what she seems to be. And inside, Ashley has a lot more problems than she lets on. I suppose she’s always been good at hiding her problems from everyone, she didn’t like the attention of other people when something was wrong. Whenever people tried to get her to open up she’d just respond with ‘it’s complicated’, but with Ashley, everything always was more complicated than it needed to be, even she knew that.