Second Snapshot (Picture This Sequel: Niall Horan)

-Detached memories. [Chapter 54]

“Twist this to change the zoom,” I told him as he fumbled with buttons a few times almost hitting the power off button before I told him. “And then that one to take it…There you go.”

I smiled and then rested my hands on his shoulder as I stood on my tiptoes watching him over his shoulder as he snapped the shutter a few times and then leant forward and snapped it a few more times. He grinned as he passed it back to me and I wrapped the strap around it and held in my right hand and then leaned up letting him press his lips against mine. I smiled as we pulled away and I spun on my heel retreating back to my bedroom which was sporting a few boxes that had been left. Everything was all boxed up by the door – ready to go, but only half was coming with me – although I knew that a lot of things kind of had to come with me from here back to London I really wanted to leave this life behind. It wasn’t who I wanted to be, I didn’t want to be Ashley Dawson the New York Fashion Icon Working For ColorfulSecrets&Co. I wanted to be Ashley, the photography obsessed, sister of Ellie Dawson, and girlfriend of Niall Horan. The facts were that I didn’t want to be someone big, someone famous, someone rich and maybe in London, now, re-building my life wasn’t the only thing I wanted to do. I wanted to create a new image too; I didn’t want to be a former New Yorker with a rich Daddy and a just as rich boyfriend. I just wanted to be a normal girl, who things turned out well for, and whom, when she broke, took her time about it but in the end, she fixed herself. That was who I wanted to be. But time would tell at whether I would achieve that or not.

“So are you almost ready?”

Niall inquired and I felt him squat down onto the plush carpet beside me as he slid his arms over my shoulders. He gently clasped his fingers around my hair moving it to my other shoulder and pressed his lips against my neck. I smiled as he did so the feel of his lips against my skin warm and almost intimate. I folded the two cardboard flaps over each other but the urge got the better of me and I abandoned the box open on the floor behind me as I carefully spun around and he instantly transferred his lips from my neck onto mine pulling me further onto his lap.

“No,” I whispered against his mouth his lips still grazing over mine in small and light motions. “Not anymore.”

He grinned obviously happy with my response and led back on the floor situating my body on top of his I slipped my fingers in between his. And then I leant down replacing my lips onto his lightly at first but he encircled an arm around my back and pulled me down closer to him so now my body was flat against his and there was no space between us. I smiled into the kiss as the sound of rain suddenly smashing against the windowpane punctured the silence we were enduring. Naturally in response to me I felt Niall smile too but we carried on, blind to our surroundings.

-

“No, pass me that one. I’m not a body builder Horan, I can’t carry everything.”

He gave me a sarcastic smile and passed me the lighter box out of the two that were left. We had trucked the boxes out in the pouring rain for the past half an hour and only now, two boxes left, had it stopped and the sun came out. Figures. We should have just carried on with our previous activity, but we would have missed our flight then, nothing is ever simple.

“Sorry Dawson.”

He mimicked, I just rolled my eyes bumping him with my elbow as we fumbled the boxes into the lift and left them in the lobby by the door with the rest of them for the delivery company to pick up.

I frowned as I let my eyes roam the apartment that probably wasn’t even mine anymore. In fact it wasn’t mine anymore, considering I was moving out. Suddenly I had a flash of Mark and how overly friendly he was the day I moved in here, I was feeling out of my depth and nervous and he really calmed my nerves. We weren’t exactly all that close at all, it was just a kind of civil thing since we were neighbours and all. But I do remember him saying to me that one day if things didn’t work out in England for him then he was going to move back to New York, and he was going to move back into the apartment across from mine that he had apparently lived in a while. And suddenly I pictured him – white band tee, prominent stubble always present on his chin and upper lip, jeans and flip flops – he was older than me, I remember, twenty three? Twenty two? Either way, he was a really nice guy. And I wondered what he would do, what he would think if he was to open those doors, come up this lift expecting to find me in my usual place; but only when he got there he found it abandoned, empty. Nobody home. I thought about how contrasting it would be, to leave somewhere and come back a considerable amount of time later expecting to find things exactly the way you left them, but then to get there and find out that they weren’t. That not only things had changed; the new assortment of plastic potted plants outside his door, the new jingle for the elevator, or the new door on his empty apartment, but people had changed too. Not only changed, but moved on, I wasn’t the person I introduced myself as to him the first time anymore, in fact, if he saw me now he probably wouldn’t recognise me. It wasn’t so much that my face had changed, it hadn’t really, but it isn’t just your facial features that define you. It’s everything, the way you talk, laugh, and your general demeanour. But if you know someone well, then that’s the inside that defines who you are too. Anyone can put on a mask and act like something they’re not, but their insides will always show their true colours. Deep down, somewhere, hidden away, under dense lock and key, I always was that girl that I was when I first met and fell in love with Niall, and maybe, it just took a bit of time, patience, realization and encouragement to be that girl on both the outside and inside again, and right now, I feel extremely happy that I am.