Adore

Chapter 44

I shifted under the covers of the half empty bed. The room was practically completely dark. I’ve been here for about a week and sleeping still wasn’t the easiest thing to cope with. It was roughly seven in the morning and all I could see lighting up the room was the screen from my phone on the bedside table. I sat up in my bed to look at it. Sara was calling.

“Hello?” I grumbled into the phone.

“Hey, Niall,” her voice came off as flirty over the line.

“Sara,” I nodded to myself. “How are you?”

“I’m good, just wanted to call and wish you a Happy New Year’s eve.”

“Same to you.”

“And say that I miss you,” her voice innocently trailed.

“Yeah,” I smoothed my hand over my hair, squeezing my eyes shut. “Look, Sara, I don’t know why you keep calling me like we’ve suddenly become some kind of thing.”

“But-“ She started before I cut her off.

“I know what happened. I was there,” I whisper. “It was a mistake and we both need to move on.”

“I know you feel the same way I do.”

“No. No, I don’t. And things will never be the same, you know that. You’ve known that since I left the first time and you ignored me for months. You’re back in Ireland and I live in California. Plus, I’m not just going to drop Audrey for you.”

“Right,” she hesitated. “You have Audrey, and you really, really like her.”

“I do.”

“Right,” she repeated.

“Do you have anything else to say or are we just going to sit on the line awkwardly?”

“Are you going to tell her?” She rushed her question.

“I don’t plan on it. Maybe when the time is right but she doesn’t need to know.”

“Do you… Do you regret it?”

“Of course I do. What kind of question is that?”

“I just,” she paused. “Never mind. I’ll let you go, now. You’re probably exhausted and want to sleep and rest is important,” she softened her voice, sounding hurt, which tugged on my heart a bit but I couldn’t show it.

“Okay,” I responded. “I’ll see you around.”

“Yeah, maybe,” she whispered.

“Alright, well, have a good day and a good new year, Sara, best of luck with everything.”

“Yeah. Yeah, you too. Love you, Niall,” she lastly said before hanging up the phone.

I collapsed back down onto the pillow face first. I let myself relax from the awkward tension I managed to create but it wasn’t long until I felt as if the walls were slowly closing in on me. In one movement, I threw the bed covers off of me and pulled myself out of bed.

I grabbed a pair of gray sweatpants from my suitcase, pulling them on before exiting the room in pursuit for Audrey. I stepped out of the door looking down the hall seeing Audrey had just walked by. She was wearing one of my plaid shirts with a black lace bralette and black pajama shorts.  I quickly caught up to her, grabbing her hand and spinning her around.

Her hair was gathered at the top of her head in a bun with raccoon eyes from her mascara she forgot to take off from the night prior. She quickly brought her hands to her face in an attempt to cover up and hide it from me. I brought my hand up to hers, gently removing it. “Good morning, beautiful,” I smiled before kissing her cheek.