“Aria! Wait!” I heard Niall’s voice say. “Aria”. I turned around. He had caught up to me and was now right beside me. “I’m sorry-“
“Just save it Niall! I TOLD YOU this would happen! What were you thinking? Now you’re entire life is essentially screwed up”.
“No Aria, it’s not. Look Simon has a plan-“
“A plan to what? Explain very kindly to everyone that it was a fake date?”
“No,” he said before smiling, “You and I are going to be in a relationship”.
I stopped walking. Did that boy say what I think he just said. “We WHAT?”
“Simon said that if for about six months or so we act like we’re in a relationship for press related purposes, it will keep my image”.
“And what about my life? I’m supposed to just not go to bars or clubs for six months? I can’t flirt with guys or date anyone because I need to be your fake girlfriend?”
“Aria please. I’m begging you. I’ll pay you if that’s what you want”.
Oh no. Oh dear god no. Please tell me that boy didn’t just say that. “Do I look like a call girl to you?”
“No. What’s that have to do with it? Just please Aria, I’m begging you”. His clear blue eyes filled with tears. In that moment he looked so vulnerable, so helpless, so weak. Almost childlike really.
I sighed. “Fine. I’ll be your fake girlfriend. What does this include?”
“Fake dates, fake romantic gestures, fake public displays of affection, etc. Is that alright?”
“It’s about as alright as it’ll ever be,” I grumbled. He whooped loudly and lifted me off the ground, squeezing me tightly and spinning me around.
“Niall, gerroff,” I said, my voice muffled in his shoulder.
He grinned at me. “You my love, are a true friend”.
“We’re not friend’s..” I said awkwardly, looking away.
He cocked his head a bit to the side, a look of utter confusion upon his face. “We aren’t? But last night? I thought we were”.
“We were until I found out that six months of both our lives are being put on hold because of something stupid we did”.
“Aria it’s not that bad”.
“Yes it is! For all I know you could be madly in love with some London girl and I’ve just taken that away from you. And I had planned to go to bars and go clubbing and now that’s been taken away from me”.
He hung his head sadly and bit his lip. “You’re mad at me now”
“No I’m not necessarily-“
“Yes you are. You’re mad at me now. And it’s all my bloody fault. I shouldn’t have kissed you. I should have just run away from those girls. I always get nervous around girls and I’m always screwed because of it. I’m so, so, so sorry Aria. I can’t tell you enough how sorry I am for causing you all this”. He looked so sad. I couldn’t stay mad.
I wrapped my arms around his waist and allowed him to bury his face in my hair. “I forgive you,” I whispered into his ear.
“It’s early in the morning and I need my food. Will you come back to my apartment with me?” he asked.
I sighed and allowed him to take me by the hand and walk me back to the apartment. When he opened the door, I saw the four One Direction boys from the other night along with a man I hadn’t met yet. I gasped. This was Simon Cowell, judge of the popular show The X-Factor, and the founder of One Direction.
Simon sat there, scowling at me. Had I done something wrong? Then it hit me. The Niall fake date thing. He probably hated me already, the American idiot who had screwed up his star’s brilliant life.
“Aria!” Harry yelled, attacking me in an embrace.
I laughed. At least he wasn’t being sour towards me. “Hey Harry”.
“You remember Lou, Liam, and Zayn from the other night right? And of course, you could never forget our Little Leprachaun,” he said, clapping Niall’s shoulder.
Niall scowled at me. “Shut up Hazza”.
I laughed. “Oh and this is our founder and manager, Simon,” Harry said, gesturing towards Simon.
Simon held out his hand and I shook it. “Niall told me everything,” I muttered, hoping to lighten his seemingly dark feelings towards me.
“Listen, Aria is it?” I nodded before he continued “no hard feelings. Are you up to it?” I nodded again. He smiled at me. “Welcome to the One Direction family”.
Zayn, Louis, Harry, and Niall all ran over and hugged me, nearly trampling me in the process. Liam stood a bit awkwardly to the side, looking at me. When the boys broke apart from the embrace, Niall yelled “FOOD TIME!” before racing into the kitchen with them.
“Well I best be going now. It was a pleasure meeting you Aria,” Simon said before yelling “Bye boys!”
“Bye Uncle Simon!” they yelled from the kitchen.
I smiled tentively at him. “The pleasure was all mine,” I said, as I let him out. Liam walked out of the kitchen with a bag of potato chips in his hand and sat down on the sofa. He patted the sofa cushion beside him and I sat down.
“What’s going on with Niall?”
“Erm nothing as far as I’m concerned. Why?”
“Because. He’s a nice boy. He’s basically the baby of One Direction. And I know he was upset about you guys fighting. I know this is hard on you, but please try with all you might to avoid getting mad at him about all this. He thinks it’s all his fault”.
I nodded my head and bit my lip. That had explained why Niall was felt so strongly about us being friends. And why he was nearly in tears when he asked me to do this. He felt truly and bad about this all. And he must think that by what happened, he’d screwed our friendship up for us.
“He seems like a nice guy. And it was my stupid idea. I just was a bit shocked when he kissed me and even more shocked when it got in a magazine. But I’ll do what it takes to salvage his career. He’s doing great now and I don’t want to be the cause of it ending”.
Liam smiled at me. “You seem like a nice girl. I’m sorry I’m being so protective. It’s just Niall’s silly little Niall”.
I nodded my head and said “I understand”.
Niall poked his head out of the kitchen. “Aria, can you come here,” he said.
I walked over. “What’s up?”
“Erm, I have unfortunate news. E news wants to interview us later tonight. Is that alright with you?”
“Ya, I guess that’s fine”.
“Good. Time to get our acting skills out, eh lover?” he said, elbowing my rib cage playfully and winking at me.
I giggled. “Sure”.
“Do you need help with hair and make-up? Liam’s girl’s really good at it”.
I smiled. As if I ever needed any help with anything involving beauty. “Thanks but I think I’ve got it covered”.
“Good. The interview starts at five o’clock sharp. Remember to act all cute and cuddly,” he said with a wink.
I rolled my eyes and smirked. “Whatever Niall. I’ll meet you here at 4:30”.
“Great”.
“How should I dress for it?”
“Nice but not super nice. Don’t wear sweats or something. But don’t show up in a ball gown”.
“I could have figured that out for myself”.
“I’ll give you my phone number so when it’s time for you to get dressed you can just text me. I’ll show you what I’m wearing so you can pick something and I’ll approve it”.
“Alright. See you in about four hours”.
He pulled me into a hug and smiling. “I’m sorry I got you into this”.
I put my finger to his lips. “It’s fine. Still friends?”
He grinned. Of course”.
I went back to my apartment and decided that a shower wouldn’t kill me. I had over four hours to spare, I might as well start fresh.
After I got out of my shower I decided how to style my hair. Straight hair or curly hair? Up or down? Way to many options. May as well just start on my outfit.
I pulled out the piece of paper Niall had given me with his phone number, saved it to my contacts list, and texted him a simple ‘hey, it’s Aria’.
Hey Aria. What’s up?
Trying to decide what to wear. What are you gonna wear?
I opened the picture message he sent me. It was an outfit laid out on a sky blue bedspread consisting of a short-sleeved red polo, beige jeans, and white high top sneakers. I sighed and opened my closet door. I threw outfit after outfit on the bed, shaking my head.
My red cut out button up with a pair of blue capris? Nope.
Maybe my blue and white strapless sundress with a white cardigan? Not even close.
My high waisted leopard print shorts. My high necked white blouse with the cute zipper at the back, tucked into the shorts. And my colorful striped sling back wedges with the wedge made out of a material that was hard but looked like cork.
Curls or straight hair? Up or down hair? I texted to Niall.
Urmm. I don’t know. Whatever makes you feel beautiful? I snorted. Figures any guy would answer that way, not knowing anything about hair.
I blow dried my naturally curly hair straight with a round brush and ran a flat iron over it to be sure everything was nice and straight before beginning my make-up.
My foundation was applied with a stifling brush and blending sponge. Followed by concealer on any imperfections and over my under-eye circles. I decided to settle for simple, neutral eyes and a red lip. That way, nobody on television could say Niall Horan’s girlfriend was a Barbie. And red lips always gave me more confidence. Which is what I need quite a bit of right about now.
Black eyeliner went on my upper lash line to give me the appearance of fuller lashes. Green eyeliner with bits of sparkle was applied to my lower lash line to bring out my hazel eyes and make them pop. I applied different shades of eye shadow to my eyelid, crease, brow bone, the outer v shape of my eyes, and the inner v shape of my eyes. I curled my eyelashes to perfection and applied a bit of volumizing mascara. I finished off with a bit of blush and bright red lipstick before beginning my hair.
I decided to settle on big, loose, soft curls for my hair.
When everything was finished I looked straight into the mirror and said to myself “I’m Aria Beliza and I’m gorgeous”, before sashaying out of my apartment and off to Niall’s. If Niall was going to have a fake girlfriend, she at least needed to look hot.
It’s show time.
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Ok sooo chapter 9's finally finished :p I hope everyone likes it. Please, please, please go check out my other story, Ali's turn. I'll be working on chapter 3 for that along with chapter 10 for the Only Direction. Comments, criticism, feedback. It'd be much appreciated.
-xoxo Alexia