>Declan's POV<
"Hey! Delilah, what happened last night? You weren't home all night or this morning and all of a sudden you're here." I thought they had kicked her off for some unknown reason. I know for a fact she did not get a ride from the vans to the X Factor building like the rest of the contestants. Her eyes flickered to the left.
"I have to go! I'm so behind, I haven't even picked a song yet. Can we please talk later."
"Yeah." I watched her walk away. Damn, her butt looks good in those shorts.. I hadn't agreed to talking with her later because I could wait but because I could see the red in her eyes and the dark circles underneath. She didn't deserve someone to make her anymore miserable than she clearly already was.
>Delilah's POV<
"Okay, you're behind. So we need to figure things out. The first live show is Thursday. Today's Tuesday. You understand that right?" There was an enormous elephant in the room as Louis spoke to me in a rehearsal room, one-on-one. Well, one-on-one besides the recording crew, vocal coach, and pianist. He was treating me like a child, I understood the severity of the situation I was in.
"Yeah, I do. Yesterday was a set back, but I swear to you I will work my ass off today to make up for lost time." Louis looked up from his papers and stared at me for a minute.
"Determination. I like that, a lot." He told me, smiling. It didn't quite fit right after our conversation yesterday.
"Have you thought of any songs you might like to sing, because if not, I've come up with a few that will work really well with your voice-"
"I've got the perfect song." I told him, with a smile and a person in my mind already.
--------------------
I collapsed on the seat in the van and let out the breath I had been holding. Today had been one of the most tiring days of my entire life. My vocal chords hurt and Louis had advised me to take a break and try not to talk much for the rest of the day. I put in my earphones and waited in the empty van for the rest of the girls to pile in. It was hot and I could feel the irritation with in me. I prayed that no one would piss me off.
When everyone was loaded up, we headed back to the house. For some reason though, we took a detour.
"Isn't this the wrong way?" I spoke up to the driver, who acted like everything was normal.
"Well yes, but I got a call earlier saying that one of the roads is blocked off." I watched out the back window as the two other cars went the usual way. "Oh." I said, still watching the other cars.
Megan eyed me in this confused state.
"Oh! We forgot to tell you. We're all going to go grab some frozen yogurt." She said with a smile.
"Oh, cool!" I breathed a sigh of relief. "I think frozen yogurt's good for my throat." Megan looked around at the other girls who all looked taken aback.
"You don't understand." Megan told me. What was there to not understand about frozen yogurt. "We all are going to go get some frozen yogurt, you're going back to the house. We don't want you feeling the urge to talk." She gestured a lot with her hands, a sign saying she was nervous. I shook my head in disbelief.
"What's the real reason I can't come with?" I asked her.
"We don't want you to." No pause or stutter, it was just said flat out. She didn't even look at me when she said it. She looked around like I wasn't even worthy enough for her to look me in the eyes. I just stared at them all, praying someone would tell me they were joking. But then we pulled up to the yogurt place and they all got out, one by one looking over their shoulders at me. The last person out was Megan, she shrugged and left. How did she do that so easily? And what had I done to make this happen?
As the driver started to pull away he turned back and said to me, "Hey, I know this is hard and I'm really sorry."
A tear fell from my eyes and my tear duct stung from the crying I'd done yesterday, like it was telling me that it needed a break. Before this week, I would have never considered myself weak. My mom was weak when she was thrown into this life, and now I was becoming the same. Maybe I couldn't handle this life like I imagined I'd be able to. I didn't bother putting my headphones back in. It didn't really feel right. I wanted to go home and find another contestant I could stay with for the time being. Then I wanted to make tea, curl up in a ball, and sleep the day away.
When we pulled up to the large mansion a little bit later, the sun was setting behind the house. I thanked the driver and quickly left. Dragging my feet up and into the house, I thought of Roman and how if he were here, he'd find a way to make this day better. Somehow he would.
I was greeted in the front entrance to a quiet house. Something extremely unusual for a place that houses 12. Sitting on the floor was a white notecard:
There's a surprise at the top of the stairs, just for you. <3
I looked to my left into the empty living room. I looked to the right to the dining room. No one. In the fifteen years I had been alive, I had never really been surprised. With anything. I had never gotten Christmas presents, birthday presents, a get well card; absolutely nothing. Apparently that's what it's like being Liam Payne's daughter. I took another look at the card in my hand, sweeping the the end ringlet of my hair that fell over it, out of the way.
After shoving the white card into the back pocket of my dark wash jean shorts, I took a leap of faith and went up the stairs. On my door, at the top of the stairs was another index card:
Open me. I promise you won't be disappointed.
I smirked. Well, if I won't be disappointed, I thought to myself as I obliged by opening the door and putting this second card in my back pocket as well. Our room was completely the same as how we had left it before, except for the 12 pink, hellium-filled balloons floating on the ceiling above the bed. The third card, which was illuminated by the setting sun from the open window, sat on the bed next to a needle.
Alrighty shortie, now pop those balloons.
I picked up the needle and sighed. This better be one amazing surprise, I thought as I hopped up on the bed and grabbed the first balloon. I found myself smiling anyways as the first loud pop rang my eardrums. One after another was popped until only four remained. Grabbing hold of the 8th balloon, I stuck the needle threw and it popped just as the last ones had, except this time another card fell out.
Turn around, beautiful.
Quickly I turned to see a dress sitting on the floor in the open doorway with a note; surprise, surprise. The dress was a dress to die for, it was strapless and mostly white except for the bodice that was gold and shimmery and a large strip on the bottom that was gold and shimmery, as well. (A/N the dress: http://wanelo.com/p/4881787/sequin-trim-dress) When I lifted it up, the light caught it sending an explosion of gold specks all around the room.
"Wow.." I mumbled to myself. What came in store next after all of this, almost frightened me, but I eagerly picked up the note anyways.
Go get dressed... Can't wait to see you. Don't worry, you won't have to stress about anything tonight. Hurry up, darling. I'll be waiting downstairs.
My head filled with thoughts of Roman and our night ahead as I closed the door. A few minutes later, I emerged with white, lace ballet flats and a gold headband sitting a top my head, a few of my curls from earlier falling out next to my face. I raced downstairs, beyond excited for a chance to apologize but stopped at the bottom of the stairs.
He was dressed in a black suit with a white shirt underneath. His brilliantly white smile seemed like it was more blinding than my dress, and his familiar eyes shown as he took his hands out of his pockets and held them outward. But they weren't the eyes I was expecting.
"Surprised?" Declan asked. I couldn't answer, I just shook my head, completely blown away.
"Yeah.. I uh.. Wasn't expecting you." I told him, grabbing for his extended arm. "How did you do this?"
"I pulled a few strings." He shrugged a little and laughed. Even just his laugh made me smile.
"So am I allowed to ask where we're going?" The van I'm usually driven around in was sitting in the front of the house. Declan made a face like he was thinking about it, causing more laughter from me.
"Mmmm, nope. You look beautiful by the way." I thought of the notes and the balloons. I'm actually going on a date with Declan. The thought struck me. Followed by the thought that all of this was done by him, for me, just so I wouldn't get too stressed out. He's perfect, I found myself thinking as he opened the car door for me and I got in. A blush spread through my cheeks the second I thought it. As his figure outside the car walked around to his side, the sun lit his hair, making it look more coppery than usually and he bit his bottom lip while opening the door. What am I getting myself into?
-----------------------
We pulled up to a building in downtown L.A. It was pretty big, defanietly not the tallest, but big enough. Once Declan helped me out we headed inside. There was a huge platinum desk in front of us with a secretary typing away on her keyboard. There was a huge hallway one way and another huge hallway in the other direction. There were constantly people going in and out and right in the corner there was a beautiful looking waiting area, which a couple people were sitting in on there phones. Everyone here looked busy, I wonder what Declan planned for us?
"Hi, I'm Declan Franta. Liam Payne sent me." At Liam's name, I stood a little straighter and my eyes got a little wider. The lady, in her mid-40's, smiled at Liam's name and handed Declan a key.
"Have fun!" She said, waving us off so she could handle the person behind us.
"Thanks, ma'am." Declan laughed as we headed down the large hallway to the right. It was extremely wide but not as long as I imagined. At the end, there was an elevator, our destination I guessed.
"Declan? Will you please tell me where we are?" I asked him, a little nervous.
"Have you enjoyed yourself so far?"
"Yeah, but you can't answer a question with a question." His laugh was muffled by the ding of the elevator as it opened for us. We both got in and Declan pressed the button that said 14. It was the highest number on the board.
"Just enjoy yourself, you're going to love it." I nodded my head, still not relaxing.
"You know I'm on vocal rest technically right?" The elevator went up and up and stopped before he answered.
"Yup," He smirked, "And rules were made to be broken."
"Not when it's my chances in this competition." My stomach churned at the possibilities faced before me, we got out of the elevator.
"Aren't top floors of buildings supposed to be exciting?" I asked, observing my surroundings. It was just a hallway with doors, that lead off into another hallway at the end. Everything, including the walls and floors were all shades of dark brown and grey and the lighting was dim. At this point, I was a little creeped out.
"Delilah, you worry too much." He reached for my hand and laced his fingers in mine. The static, making me jump. "Relax.." He whispered soothingly to me.
"Are we the only ones up here?" We had now turned the corner into the second hallway, which looked the exact same as the first. This floor was eerily quiet compared to the busy atmosphere on the bottom floor. The darkness was a little relaxing though, and walking hand in hand with Declan down the hallway was a little calming.
"Here we are!" Declan smiled at me as we reached a door. Slowly, to build anticipation, he slid the key in and pretended he was having difficulties unlocking it, but he was grinning the whole time.
"Declan!" I yelled, making him drop the keys.
"You see what you do?" I laughed at his remark. Swiftly, he picked up the keys and unlocked the door.
"Ready?" He asked me, his hand on the door knob.
"The anticipation is killing me." I told him, my tone dry and sarcastic.
"Wow, tough crowd." With that, he finally opened the door.
I took a few steps into the room, hesitantly.
"Declan, you didn't.." I shook my head in disbelief as I looked around.
It felt like my heart had been ripped to pieces in front of me and shoved back down my throat. Escaping tears wasn't even an option. There wasn't even a point in trying to shove this feeling down because it wasn't going to go anywhere. Seeing this was a million times harder than looking at my father for the first time while I sang on that stage.
"Are you crying?" He stepped in front of me, blocking my view of the room that I hated and loved at the same time. "What's wrong? We can go somewhere else."
"I have to tell you something, but you can't tell anyone." I said, not even certain of what I was doing. "I'm not supposed to tell and I never planned on it but.." I still could barely breath.
We sat down on the floor on the other side of the recording studio. The recording studio that was filled with twinkling lights.
>Flashback<
I giggled as the princess kissed the prince.
"Mommy, is kissing bad?" I asked as I watched as the credits from the movie started rolling. My mom laughed at my 4 year old mind.
"No, sweetie!" I rolled into my mother's side .
"Did you and daddy ever kiss?" Curiosity taking over my brain.
"Of course! And your daddy is a very good kisser." She mumbled into my ear.
"EWWW!" I yelled, laying my head on her stomach. She began to play with my hair, it felt nice. "Do you think I'll ever find a prince someday to marry?"
"Delilah, you don't need a prince to make you happy. I don't have a prince."
"Silly, mommy, you've never had a prince!" Her soothing laugh echoed around the room.
"Honey, your dad was a prince to me." She smiled but not at me, at the wall. Which I thought was kind of funny.
"I'm confused. I thought you needed to have a castle to be a prince?"
"Nope, a man doesn't need a huge castle, he needs to treat you right and have a perfect heart."
"What do you mean by treat you right?" Sometimes she forgets that I'm four.
"Like, for example, your daddy one time, knew I was having a bad day, so do you know what he did?"
"WHAT?" I sat up and stared into my moms beautiful eyes.
"He took me to a place where people make music and the room was really dark except there were twinkling lights everywhere you looked."
"Everywhere?!" A picture formed in my head of a dark room with pretty lights. Where a prince kissed his princess without a care.
"EVERYWHERE! That's when I knew, your daddy was my prince."
"Mommy?" I felt my eyes getting tired as my head rested again on her soft belly.
"What, baby?"
"I want to find a prince one day just like daddy."
>End of Flashback<
Since that night, my mom had told me more about it, when I was older and could understand. But some of the words said that night will never leave my brain.
'Your daddy was my prince.' Those were the words repeating over and over in my head as I tried to find the words to tell Declan. He just watched me, patiently. He put an arm around my shoulder, his touch burning into my arm in the soft light of the twinkling lights that I uses to dream about.
"I used to fantasize about recording studios with sparkling lights." I felt myself starting to break again. Not just my voice, my very being as well. Giving it all up isn't easy, especially to someone I barely knew. My mind kept going back to the innocent little four year old me. She'd think this was right, probably even perfect.
"Delilah, you don't have to tell me anything if it will get you in trouble or if you don't want to." I tried to shut my eyes away from the lights that were bringing up feelings that I tried so hard to keep down all the time. Declan's shoulder was wet from my tears but he said nothing, did nothing. I appreciated that.
"I have to tell you." I mumbled, breathless, "I'm tired of keeping it in and I trust you." These statements were both true. I didn't know why I trusted him more than Roman or even if I did. But something always told me that Roman wouldn't keep it to himself. Declan, I hope, would. If not, then after tonight I'm screwed. I sat up and looked him in his perfect blue eyes. His expression was pained, I hope he doesn't think I'm just ungrateful for what he'd done for me tonight, it was amazing of him.
"Declan, I really love all of this. I have no words to describe how incredible this was of you, but... Did Liam tell you to do this?"
This was a start to the conversation I believed needed to take place.
"Well obviously I want to take the credit but he might have said something about Christmas lights in a recording studio." He laughed for a second but then saw more tears piling up on my waterline.
"Do you know why he suggested this." Declan nodded his head.
"Uhh, you know who Audrey is, right?"
"She's my moms." I kind of just blurted. I didn't expect the words to actually come out of my mouth until they were right there in front of us. There was no taking it back.
"What?" He just kind of sat there. I didn't know what to expect and I had no clue what was going through his head.
"Audrey Kane. The Audrey Kane is my mom. Believe me or don't believe me but.."
Declan looked around taking it in maybe, or thinking of a way to escape from a crazy girl.
"Delilah... I don't know what to say."
"Do you believe me?"
"Of course, why wouldn't I?"
Why wouldn't I. He didn't even question what I had said. I've known this guy for only a couple of days and he already trusts me. Silently, I thanked the gods for giving me someone I could trust with this.
"So she just moved on from Liam and met your dad." It wasn't clicking in his head.
"Declan.. Liam is my dad." His eyes grew wide and he just stared at me and nodded his head. I never thought of how crazy that sounded until I said it out loud."That's it? You just believe me.." We sat there for a few moments both of us looking at each other but neither one of us saying anything.
"You look a lot like him, especially when you sing." My mom had said this to me a lot in the past. "So, Audrey left Liam, and then had you."
"She got pregnant the night before she left."
"After he gave her the ring." It was weird that people new such personal things about my mom and dad, but that was the one time One Direction didn't hide anything. They wanted the fans to know what they had done. "And then you grew up without a dad and Liam gave that ring to Danielle."
"When Danielle drove my mom to the airport, she told her she was never getting back with Liam but my mom left the ring anyways." That was something never said in the news.
"When I first heard about that whole thing, I thought it was completely fucked up but now knowing that Audrey had a kid with Liam.. That's bullshit! You should have gotten the other Delilah's life! Not having to fight for what you want just getting it because you deserve it." His eyebrows were scrunched up like this really bothered him.
"I like fighting for what I want." I simply said. "Declan, you can't tell anyone. Louis and Eleanor are the only ones that know." He nodded his head and even though I had no reason to believe him, I did anyways.
We spent the rest of the night talking about Audrey, Liam, and me. I told him everything, something I had never been able to do ever in my life. All of my memories and the stories my mom had told me spilled out of me, after having to keep them hidden for so long. I told him how it felt to see my dad the first time, about what had happened the other day with Eleanor and Louis. I shocked myself by how much I told Declan and how easy it was for me to do it. I was shocked by how much I already trusted him.
----------Author's Note----------
So sorry for the late update, I planned on uploading this Thursday but I wanted to make sure it was perfect and then I was at Kiani's all weekend. Now... You guys are probably going to hate me for this but umm... I won't be able to update until either Friday or Saturday... This week I have finals and auditions (for those of you who don't know, I act and sing) The auditions are for High School Musical (don't judge lol) I'll tell you guys how that goes in my next author's note.
I really hope you guys like this chapter... So do you still think Roman's perfect for her or maybe someone else is... Hmm.. I hope you guys liked that flashback to and the recording stuido with the lights (NTS REFRENCE!)
Also I know you guys are getting really antsy for more Audrey and you all want Audrey and Liam back together.. This is all I'm saying: They will meet again. Soon enough. I PROMISE!
Lemme know what you think in the comments and don't forget to vote and fan :) I love you guys!
xx, Ashley.
p.s. Yes, Declan's last name is Franta.. I was trying to think of a last name for him and I was reading one of Connor Franta's tweets so it just kind of happened. lol