-Harry-
••July 25, 2010••
The phone rang loudly, echoing in the small hotel room. Zayn, Louis, and I jumped up in surprise from our game of Go Fish, looking up at the phone (which I didn’t know existed till now) that was making the huge racket. Louis dramatically threw his hand of cards in the air and made a loud screeching noise, making Zayn and me both cover our ears in pain.
“Bloody hell, Louis,” Zayn said, sitting down again and rolling his eyes at the childlike behavior from the oldest boy in our newly formed band.
“Is anyone going to pick up the phone?” I asked, staring persuasively at Zayn as the stupid thing rang again, nearly shattering my eardrums.
He chuckled, whipping his phone out of his back pocket. “Answer the phone, Haz. You have two legs that aren’t broken.” Zayn intensely gazed down at his phone, typing like a maniac.
I let out a frustrated groan as I set down my hand of cards and shuffled my way towards the phone that sat on the desk in the corner of our hotel room. I answered the call, clicking the answer button and shoving the phone between my ear and shoulder so I could pick my hand of cards back up.
“Helloooo?” I asked, glaring at Zayn.
“Ahh. Niall’s co-singer person, eh? This is Elizabeth, darling," a female voice said in a weird accent. I didn’t even know where it was from; it sounded like a bit of French, Irish and British, all mixed together.
"Wanna talk to Niall?" I asked, looking down at the cards in my hand and plotting a way to win. Louis usually was the winner whenever we played Go Fish, but I was determined not to let him beat me this time…
"No!" she squealed before returning to her regular tone. "What is your name, honey?"
"Harry." I said, sticking out my tongue at Louis. I hoped this weird call from this Elizabeth lady would end soon so I could get back to my card game. How did she even find our hotel room phone number, anyway?
"I need to talk to you, but is Niall there?" Elizabeth asked, her voice like a whisper.
"You got a five, Harreh'?" Louis asked loudly, in a completely opposite tone from Elizabeth's. I put my finger to my lips, indicating for him to be quiet.
"No- he's not here." I said into the phone, then checked my hand of cards and mouthed to Louis, 'Go Fish'.
"Good." Elizabeth replied, pausing for a few seconds before continuing, "Harry, darling, I'm Faith's mother."
My eyes immediately widened as I set down all my cards. Louis opened his mouth, but I shushed him again.
"I didn't realise. Hi. I've heard many great things about your daughter," I said as politely as I could. Hearing Niall's constant crying, rants and talks about Faith everyday, I better know thingsabout the girl Niall had loved and lost.
"Ah. I see," the woman said, without any sign of emotion.
I was silent, waiting for her to proceed. Louis was looking at me intently, but Zayn was still on his phone.
"Promise me, for Niall's well-being, you won't tell him that Faith is still alive," Elizabeth said, her tone not changing.
"Holy shit!" I exclaimed, making Zayn immediately look up from his phone, furrowing his eyebrows at me for my poor word selection.
"Zayn!" I choked out. "Faith. She's alive!"
"What the hell?!" He set his cell phone down and speed walked over to me, clicking the speakerphone button on the phone. Louis walked over as well; from the look on his face, he was lost for words.
"You're on speaker," I said as calmly as I could.
"My daughter, Faith. She's still alive. She had to sacrifice her memory to keep living, but yeah, she's well." Elizabeth sighed, the sound tinny and far too loud for the hotel room.
But how the hell could she be alive when Niall was so certain she was dead? Didn't she die like three years ago?
"We need to tell Niall!" Louis finally spoke, his eyes as wide as mine probably were.
"No!" Elizabeth's voice yelled through the receiver, making me jump.
"I mean–it will put Niall through too much, emotionally. He has already adjusted to her death, and to learn that she actually never died, but can never remember him, would just kill him." Was it just me, or did her voice linger on the word 'kill'? "For both of their wellbeing, let us make sure that Niall never meets Faith, okay? I know what's best for him."
"How is this better?" Zayn asked, rubbing his chin with a worried expression on his face.
"Trust me. I know Niall and I know what's best for him." Elizabeth repeated in that weird tone that scared me, even though I didn't know this lady.
"I suppose..." I replied, pursing my lips. This Elizabeth woman did not seem like someone who we should say no to. "But hold on." I clicked the hold button on the phone and turned to Zayn and Louis.
"How do we know she's not lying? This whole thing could be a huge prank." I said, rolling my eyes and chuckling over the tension in the air. Now that I thought about it, it probably was a sick prank. Yes, that's what it is. How could Faith possibly be alive? I chuckled again.
"Harry's right." Zayn agreed, nodding. I could see how uneasy he was, though. "Let's just say okay and carry on with life. We all know for a fact that she is definitely dead."
I turned the phone off of hold and before Elizabeth could speak, I said, "Okay. It's a deal."
I just wanted to get off of the phone with this weirdo already. What kind of joke did she think this was? Pretending a dead girl was alive, especially when the girl in question meant the world to Niall. That was definitely not cool.
"Good." Her strange accent filled the air. "It's settled, then. No telling Niall."
"Yeah. Okay. You do know him better than us, I guess," Louis also agreed, rolling his eyes at me.
"Okay, fine, but are you sure this is best?" Zayn asked. I wasn't sure that he actually believed that this was a prank, which was silly. What else could it be - real?
"Do you have a family?" The lady asked in a monotone.
"Well, yeah..." Zayn replied.
"Would you do the best for your family, if you had the option?" Elizabeth asked silkily.
"Of course?" Zayn replied.
"Then do what I said." She replied in a fake-sweet voice.
"Okay, then..." Zayn trailed off.
"Thanks, boys!" Elizabeth crooned. "If you ever, and I mean ever break that agreement that we just created, bad things will happen." There was a click and the phone went silent.
Zayn, Louis and I all exchanged looks.
"That was some weird prank," Louis commented before picking up his cards and proceeding with the game as if nothing happened.
I forgot about that call for so long. The day that Faith met us in the 1D meet-and-greet was when I realized it was all true. Elizabeth wasn't some sicko prank caller. It wasn't a lie. She was alive. And ever since then we've all been pretending...
-Harry-
••December 26, 2012••
I ran my hand through my curly hair, anxiously waiting for Liam to wake up.
I've been sitting here since the break of dawn, watching the sun rise behind a snowy mountain range, and I couldn't stop thinking about the call that Niall had gotten from Faith a couple of days ago. I was in Ireland with Niall and his family and I definitely wished I wasn't here. The stress level was so high. And it seemed like I was the only one that cared.
Niall was supposed to visit Faith's old house yesterday but he was so occupied with the phone call he seemed to have not noticed the day pass.
I sighed. I might as well eat some breakfast; I had been worrying for long enough. I got up and walked into the kitchen, opening every little drawer, looking for a bowl and a spoon.
When I managed to find those things, I poured the cereal that was on the counter into the bowl. I then placed the bowl in front of my chair and started munching on the dry cereal, while looking out into to the distance at the icy, cold mountains.
"You're really worried about him aren't you?" A familiar voice spoke, startling me.
I craned my neck upward to see Zayn standing behind my chair, with his hair still un-gelled and messy.
"You don't understand, Zayn." I sighed, turning my gaze back out to the window. "Niall. He's become so close to us and I don't think it was the right thing to keep this from him all these years." I shook my head in frustration, "He- he- Did you see how happy, excited and shocked he was when he received the call? I can't bear it anymore, Zayn. We have to tell him." I shut my eyes and took in a deep breath.
I was waiting for a disapproving speech from Zayn, but surprisingly, all that I received was silence. I looked up at Zayn, who was now standing with both his elbows on the counter table, resting his head in his hands.
"Zayn..." I asked, concerned. "I'm sorry, mate. I didn't mean to hurt you." What had I said? His eyes were shut and his facial expression was unreadable.
"It's okay." He whispered, so quietly I could hardly hear him.
I turned my gaze back to the window looking out at the cold trees rustling with the wind, making the white snow fall. It was so peaceful and gorgeous - almost beautiful enough to soothe my worrying. Almost.
Zayn's voice spoke up, louder and stronger now.
"You're right," he said, making me immediately look up at him. I could feel the shock spreading across my face. Zayn had always been the one to convince us to not tell Niall, to protect him with our secrets. Now he was finally agreeing that we needed to tell him?
"I… I can't take it, either," Zayn continued, his voice tortured. "Let's tell him as soon as he gets up. It's Niall. He would understand why we couldn't tell him until now. It's all been just so messed up." Zayn sighed.
I let out a sigh of relief, as if a heavy weight was lifted off of my shoulders. I nodded firmly, getting up and putting my empty bowl into the sink. I was done with secrets and lies.
##
We were on the leather couch in silence. Zayn was eyeing me to start, but the tension and nervousness that was slowly building up inside me kept drying my words up in my throat.
Zayn mouthed 'Go', pointing to Niall's back. Poor Niall was reading a manual about how to try to get a voice message back from his phone.
I cleared my throat nervously, the sound awkward in the silence. "Niall, mate… Zayn and I need to talk to you."
Niall looked up from the manual with gloomy eyes. I'd never seen our Irish lad so sad.
I sighed, shaking my head. It's for the best, Harry, I repeated over and over in my head, trying to reassure myself.
"We have to tell you something about Faith." It was Zayn, who looked just as nervous as I felt.
Niall's eyes widened as he bobbed his head up and down, indicating for us to continue.
"When we first met you, you spoke about Faith a lot but we didn't know much about her, or about you," I said, fidgeting with the string of my white hoody. "One day, just a couple of days after the band was formed, Faith's mother, Elizabeth calle--" I stopped, hearing a rustling at the door and a huge bang.
"What the…?" Niall cried, looking from me to Zayn in confusion.
Before we could say anything else, however, the front door swung open, revealing the one person I least wanted to see right now.
But of course she had to show up right now. To ruin everything. Right when I was finally going to be totally honest to Niall.
"Hello, dahlings."