Avery-Rose
One month.
That's all I have until my court date with Liam.
The last couple of weeks have been filled with me going back and forth between the lawyers office and home. I've also managed to avoid every call, text and random house visit that Liam made.
Whenever he would text me saying he was coming by, I would send Ellie over to her new found friend, Logan's house. Or I would take her out for ice cream or something.
It's been easier because I'm not working right now so keeping Ellie entertained wasn't hard at all. Getting her out of the house though, that's a different story.
Those damn paparazzi are always sitting outside my house, screaming, taking photos, being obnoxious, you know normal stuff.
"Ave?" I hear the familiar Irish accent call from the back door. Having all these paps outside my house has taught me one thing! park your car on the road behind your house and sneak out the back door.
"I'm in my room!" I responded. Niall had been stopping by a lot lately, in the short time, we've become amazing friends.
"Where's El?" He asks, appearing behind me.
"Taking a nap, she was up early this morning." I fill him in on out early morning adventure to the grocery store and how we managed to go undetected all morning. "So have you talked to Liam lately?" I ask.
"Nope" he says, popping the 'p'. "His time is either spent with the Lawyer, Ash or trying to get ahold of you." He tells me. "He still doesn't know that I've been chillin with you. Or maybe he does, I don't even know I've been avoiding him and he's in London again."
"Why does he keep going back to London? Aren't you guys here for him?" I ask, I mean I already hated Liam before he was in town, now I just despise that man.
No not man, boy. A man can fess up to his mistakes and not be a little baby.
"Ashlyn had a 'photo shoot'" he mocks in a British accent. I giggle at how spot on he actually was.
"Speaking of photo shoots though, one of the companies Ellie is signed with wants her down in LA for the summer collection photo shoot this weekend. My brother wants to know of you'll come down with us? So he's not the only guy." I ask. I had gotten the call a few days ago from Khloé and how she 'absolutely needed Ellie this weekend'. She sent us four, two way tickets to LA and back. Not to mention accommodations for the entire weekend.
"That'd be great actually! I wouldn't mind gettin' outta the UK for a weekend, plus I'm pretty sure Harry is down there." He chuckles.
"He just casually left to LA?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.
"Yah, half the time I don't understand him, so don't you try." He laughs again. He has such a cute laugh, I could listen to it all day.
Before one Direction came to town, I literally knew nothing about them other then one of there members is a complete ass hole. But as I've been hanging out with Niall, he's been talking to me about the boys and what its like to be on tour.
"What are you starring at?" Niall asks, looking at me. Apparently, I was starring at him.
"You and you're beautiful features, I mean you are Niall Horan!" I joke, pretending to be a Fan girl.
"I know, I'm beautiful." He laughs walking into Ellie's room.
"Niall don't you dare wake her! I have plans tonight and I don't want to deal with a grumpy Ellie!" I half whisper, half yell at Niall pulling him by his collar out of the room. He jokingly puts his hands up in defence.
"Fine then, is it rude to eat without here? Cause I'm starving!" He says.
"No, she'll eat when she wakes up, what do you want?" I ask.
"Let's order a pizza!" He cheers.
~
"So, when's Ben coming back?" Niall asks, while scarfing down his fifth piece of pizza. Originally I was only going to by one box but Niall Told me to order two larges, and now I'm glad I did.
"End of the month." I say putting a piece of pizza on Ellie's plate. "What do you say Ellie?"
"Thank you!" She yells.
"You're very welcome" I respond.
"Man he's been away a while hasn't he?" Niall asks.
"Yea, I guess." I shrug. Sure he's been away for a while, but I'm used to people not being near me. I'm used to being alone.
"Well how bout tomorrow I take you and Ellie out again?" He asks "no where special, but I know a few people who want to meet the little one." He nods his head towards Ellie.
"Out where?" I ask him between bites of my pizza.
"There's this indoor water park just out side town, I saw and ad for it and I thought Ellie would love it." He says sending me a sincere smile. I used to go to that water park when I was little, with my sister, brother and Liam's family.
Great, another childhood memory with Liam that's going to haunt me.
"Momma! I wanna go! I wanna go! I wanna go!" Ellie repeats over and over again.
"Well-" I start.
"C'mon Ave! You guys haven't left the house at all!" He whines. "Ellie can even bring that little friend of hers along!" He says with a lot of excitement.
"Fine." I agree and both Niall and Ellie cheer in excitement. I laugh at their faces. After a while of silence I ask Niall a question that's silently haunting me.
"Liam isn't going to be there, right?"
"Avery-Rose, do you honestly think I would do that to you?" He asks.
"Well-"
"I wouldn't! It will just be me, you, Ellie, Zayn, Louis, Their girl friends and Ellies friend." He fills in. God, Niall has a bad habit of cutting people off.
"His name is Logan!" Ellie pipes in.
"Lellie.... Elogan.... Ellian" Niall silently mutters to himself.
"Niall what on earth are you doing?" I ask him, snapping him out of his train of thought.
"I'm thinking of a ship name for Ellie and Logan!" He says as-a-mater-of-factly. I just laugh as a result.
"You do that." I laugh.
After we finished our pizzas, Ellie and I said our goodbyes to Niall, and set a time for the water park tomorrow.
As soon as Niall had snuck out the back, Ellie and I had to do the same. There was a couple people I wanted Ellie to meet, and it might as well be today.
The drive to the house was not long at all. It wasn't the house that I practically grew up in, but their new house that their superstar son bought them.
I park in the drive way, and make my way up the porch. I knock three times, and Ellie hides behind me. I'm not sure why she's being shy, she's never shy like this.
After I knock the third time, Karen opens the door.
"Hello- Avery?" She ask, obliviously shocked to see me of all people.
"Hey, Karen." I smile awkwardly.
"What are you doing here?" She asks, annoyance in her voice. I mean I would be annoyed too if I had just found out about my granddaughter.
"I think there's someone you should meet." I smile weakly. And with that I step to the side and Ellie come a out of hiding.
"Hi, I'm Ellie!" She smiles. That's my girl. Karen looks taken back, but recovers quickly. She lowers herself to Ellie's height and begins to speak to her.
"Hello Ellie," she smiles. Karen looks up to me, and I know why.
"Ellie, this is your other grandmother. Nana Karen." I smile down to her.
Ellie takes in the information slowly, but then gives Karen a huge hug. I would have given anything to see the look on both of their faces again.
It was just pure
Happiness.
~
"You know dear, I never expected for you to come here with here." Karen says quietly. Geoff and Ellie were currently sitting in the kitchen eating an ice cream. As soon as we got here, the two of them just bonded.
"I figured you had every right to meet her, why should the fact that Liam and I aren't talking take that away from you." I tell her sincerely. I've been think about this a lot lately, telling the Paynes. I mean just because Liam's an asshole, doesn't mean I need to stay away from his family.
"Roo told me she talked to you a few weeks ago, I just never heard from you. Avery, I've known you since you were little, why did you never tell me? I wouldn't have any judgment." Karen tells me.
Our history with the Paynes goes back to when Liam and I were about 8. Adam was 12, Alice 10. Our families roomed together all the time. My mum, Karen, Alice, Nicola and Ruth stayed in one room while all the boys stayed in the other.
I never had any difficultly talking to the Paynes, they were all sweet and so easy to talk to. That's why Ruth and I are so close.
Liam on the other hand was so difficult to talk to. He was so shy, like he wouldn't talk to any one but his parents, sisters or Adam.
It wasn't until I started making an effort to talk to him that he opened up and talked to me. I was always the youngest on these track trips and as much as I loved hanging out with the older kids, they didn't want to hang out with a kid.
"Avery-Rose! Just leave, the big kids need to talk!" My sister yells.
"Alice you're only two years older then me! You can't kick me out!" I yell back.
"Avery, just go talk to Liam in the other room." Roo says to me.
"Do you know how many times I try to talk to him and he just doesn't talk to me! He's so anti social, what would you like me to do?" I've been sitting in the room with my sister, brother and Roo for about an hour and Liam has yet to show up.
"He just needs a push Blue, here I'll come with you." Adam says sliding off the couch, he grabs my arm and practically drags me off the bed that I was laying on. I finally decide to cooperate and walk with my brother.
"This is why I like Adam more then you Alice!" I jokingly yell before my brother pulls me out of our room.
"Now the parents are in this room right now to, probably playing some dumb board game. So get Liam out and go to the lobby or something. He's a boy so he'll probably go for the arcade." He tells me before going to open the door.
"Are you not going to give me money for cette arcade." I joke.
"Hell nah, you're the one with the big shot modelling job." He chuckles back.
"True, true." When we walk in the room, Liam is on his phone sitting on the couch while the parents were playing monopoly.
"Yo, Liam!" My brother calls. He looks up from his phone and over to where Adam was standing, I was leaning against the half open door, half behind Adam.
"What?" He asks.
"Grab your things let's go." Adam demands.
"Excuse me?" He says, clearly playing along.
"You're about to make friends." Liam stands off the couch and walks over to Us. Adam pushes me out the door, and Liam walks out behind us.
"I already know Avery-Rose." He says as Adam walks us down to the elevator.
"Obviously not because she hates to be called that." Adam chuckles
"Oh" Liam blushes. Before I could say anything, the lift arrived and Adam pushed us in.
"See ya later dash." He winks before the door closes and we were left alone.
"You hate Avery-Rose?" He asks me.
"It sounds like a strippers name." I joke. He just chuckles and the awkwardly turns the other way.
"You can call me Avery, or blue. People call me that." I smile.
"Alright." He simply says. God I'm getting no where with this.
"You know, there's no reason to be scared of me, I promise I don't bite." I tell him, putting my hand on his shoulder.
"I'm not scared, I'm just not very good with people. Especially extremely pretty girls, who happen to be models. A little over whelming don't you think?" I think this is the most Liam's ever said to me.
"Liam, I've stayed across the hall from you for like a year, not to mention all the barbies our families have had together." I joke. "If our siblings won't let us hang out with them, then we have to have are own fun don't you think?" I retort with the same question he asked me.
"I guess your right. Shall we go to the arcade? Do girls even go to arcades?" He silently asks himself. I laugh at his awkwardness. It's like a pre-pubescent boy... Oh wait, he is one.
That's what I get for working with older guys all the time.
When we got off the elevator, things were awkward at first. Liam didn't want to play with me and he ended up going to the other side of the arcade. After leaving him for about five minutes, I ended up going to find him and finally convinced him to play me in a round of car racing(which I won). I don't even remember how much time we spent in the arcade that day. But I remember Liam starting to make jokes, and opening up to me. We spent that entire afternoon talking about literally everything.
When we got back to the rooms that night, Karen and Geoff looked shocked on how Liam and I were talking.
Despite everything he put me through, I'm glad Adam made me talk to him that day. Liam was one of my best friends. And I hate that I lost him.
"I know Karen. It's just, I wanted to be the one to tell Lee, he just didn't want to listen. It wouldn't be fair of me to make you keep such a big secret." I explain to her.
"I could have gotten a hold of him for you." I don't know how a women could be so sweet about all this.
"Remember that letter I gave to you about two and a half years ago? I told you to give it to him?" She nods remembering the letter. "That was my way of telling him. Only apparently that letter never got opened either." I sigh.
"Either?" She questions. I forgot not everybody knows about all the letters I've sent.
"It's a long story, I'll explain soon. But i have to get going. I need to take Ellie one more place before bed time." Karen stands up along with me and fixes her dress.
"Ellie dear?" She calls and Ellie and Geoff come into the living room. "Your momma wants to leave." She smiles.
"Momma I don't wanna leave!" She whines.
"Oh Ellie, you can come whenever you want! I have momma's number now and I'll call you okay?" Karen says to he three year old.
"Okay!" Ellie says hugging both of them goodbye.
"Thank you for having us." I smile heading towards the door. "And Karen, just know after this whole custody battle thing, I won't think of your family any differently no matter the out come. You will always be a second mother to me" Karen pulls me into a hug.
When she let's go she says "I hope this court battle doesn't end to terribly. You and Liam were a cute couple. Plus I'd hate to see a family split up."
"Wait you knew?"
"Darling, Liam wouldn't shut up about you. Of course I knew." She says with the same goofy smile Liam has, which my default Ellie has too. "Now go, I wouldn't want to keep your next visit waiting"
And with that I drove to the one place I didn't think I would go to for another while.
My father.
A/N: so basically in the flashback Liam and Avery are like 9/10 and Avery is already a model with spending cash but like she's really mature for her age and Liam wouldn't talk to her for like a year because he was all shy and quite okay good bye