May 2013, Rue Cler
The morning came too slow for Julianna; she didn’t have the weakness to actually fall back to sleep. She found herself thinking about Niall again. She thought about what he was doing at this exact same moment. She wondered where he was in the world right now, as she didn’t have any access to internet. She missed him, she even missed the other lads.
She kept checking her watch every few minutes and felt that it almost wasn’t moving. She tried tossing and turning earlier, but gave up when she realized that tonight was going to be another sleepless night.
After a few moments, she checked her watch again and felt relieved that it said 6AM, she stood up and peeked outside the curtain of the bedroom balcony and found that the sky was beginning to brighten on the horizon and a little of daybreak had already strained through the clouds. She went back inside into the kitchen and warmed up some coffee. Beside the coffee machine was a refrigerator where a calendar was taped to. It was a Wednesday, she’s been in Paris for a month now.
A nineteen-year-old girl who was fifteen weeks pregnant and living alone in a town with a language she didn’t understand. As menacing as it sounds, Julianna was excited. It was not a walk in the park, but she loved every bit of it. After breaking up with Niall, she didn’t know how she could keep the fact that she was carrying his baby. Because she was publicly his girlfriend for a while, people around London, and probably the world knew who she was. She needed to leave, and what better place to go to than Paris?
Despite the enchanting feeling her newfound independent freedom entailed, she felt like a hypocrite living off of her parents’ wealth. Back in the UK, her parents were known as the dynamic duo that was on the top in the fashion industry.
They were the reason she met Niall, but they were also part of the reason why her relationship with him was a mess. They didn’t like him for her; they think the Irish popstar who didn’t get to finish school was going to be overrated too soon. Niall knew how much she hated being the “daughter of Steven and Victoria Garth: owner of Garth Clothing Co.” She would always roll her eyes at the shallowness of her parents. Despite Niall’s fame, fortune and his talent, they still looked down at him, but all he ever gave them back were his cheeky smiles and his good manners. He never judged them, like they did with him.
Julianna has always wanted to leave her parents home and be on tour with Niall. She wanted to be away from the craziness that her parents’ name would bring. She wanted to thrive on her own talent and perseverance, not because she was the heir to Garth Clothing Co. She wanted to be involved in the music-making industry and tour the world with her boyfriend, but Niall had to break up with her, and she was left with disapproval from her parents and their constant “I told you so.”
Victoria wanted her grandchild aborted. She couldn’t bear embarrassing the “Garth” name with an irresponsible pregnant teenage daughter, but Julianna managed to convince her that she would hide out somewhere far and have the baby there. They told the media that Julianna has gone to Asia to fashion school and promised to take over their company after a few years.
“I’m sorry babe, that was the deal I made to keep you alive.” She sighed as she talked to her bump again. She had no idea if her child was going to be a girl or a boy, all she knew was, after a few years, she will come back to London with this child as her “orphaned cousin.”
Her apartment in Rue Cler was beyond perfect. Getting there had a nice view of the cobblestoned path and a beautiful oak doorway. Her place was on the sixth floor, and the sunlight shone through three sets of French doors onto a wide balcony. She had a wonderful view of the city and the Eiffel tower, and inside, she had elegant and expensive furniture. The only thing she hated about it was the fact that her parents were paying for it, and she knew that on her own she could never afford such a place.
Her apartment was on the 7th arrondissement of Paris, which means a lot of tourists travel around here. As much as she wanted to go around, she had to hide because this place was packed with people who may know her as Steven and Victoria Garth’s daughter, or Niall Horan’s ex-girlfriend, another label she had to get used to.
Her thoughts were halted when her home phone rang. She didn’t have a cellphone anymore because she didn’t want to be contacted easily. She knew who were the only people who had access to her home phone number.
“Hello?” she said tentatively.
“Bloody bollocks I tell you!” she heard her mother mumble into the other line with her thick posh accent.
“I don’t understand, what happened?”
“The magazines have been saying that you exiled yourself in Asia to cure your broken-heart from that worthless Irish bloke!”
“Mum-”
“The nineteen-year-old heiress couldn’t handle splitting up with the Live While Were Young singer so she-”
“Mum!” she cut off her mother from rambling on about the magazine article. She felt a little comfort knowing that her mother at least wanted to defend her from the lies the media was creating.
“I really don’t want to hear about that mum.”
“How do you think this will make me look Julianna?”
She sighed in defeat. This was not about defending her; this was about her mother’s image, again.
“When people think that my daughter is some desperate lovesick child that was obsessed with a lowly member of a boyband?”
She gritted her teeth.
“I don’t care what they think mum. None of it is true.” If only they knew what the truth actually was.
“Julianna...” her mother sighed through the phone. She could imagine her mother pinching the bridge of her nose trying to calm herself down.
“Do you understand the lengths I have to go through to fix your mistake? I told you from the very beginning he was not the one for you.”
Then her mother ended the call.
She couldn’t help but cry. Her own mother looked at her as a failure. It was all a mistake: her relationship, her decisions, everything. But she still loved him, and it still hurt to know that her biggest mistake was falling in love with a guy who can’t seem to feel the same way for her.
“When all this is over, you and I are going to run away together, love.” She whispered to her unborn child.
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Snobbish and elitist moms are disappointing. Thankfully Julianna is not gonna be like her mom. Chapter dedicated to @messedupbun because I seriously cried when I finished reading "It Started With a Tweet."
I promise to continue writing Dark Alley when I get my other laptop back, in the meantime, I hope you liked this continuation.
xx G