Abbie's POV
The taxi driver seemed to get stuck at all the red lights on purpose. I kept fiddling with the rectangular box in my pocket impatiently. I didn't want to start crying here, and I wasn't sure if I could hold the tears in much longer.
What was in this bloody box? Why couldn't I open the box at the airport?! It's killing me not knowing what's inside.
When the driver finally pulled into the driveway, I threw a twenty dollar bill over the seat, not caring about the change. I shot out of the car and walked quickly to the front door, shakily opening it. The first thing that greeted me was a frustrated Rose.
"Abbie what took you so long! We tried putting the twins to sleep like you told us, but they won't stop crying and yelling! They wanted Zayn" she panicked.
I sighed. I guess I'll only be able to open the box later.
"Yeah they're going to miss Zayn" I took a deep breath as I ran my hand through my hair. "Where's Heather?"
"She's still trying to put them to sleep"
"Alright I'll go" I sighed, kicking off my shoes and quickly jogging upstairs to the twins' room.
I walked inside to see Heather sitting on the bed, trying to calm down Jordyn who was jumping on the bed. Jonathan was just crying.
"Abbie! I can't take this anymore!" Heather spoke over Jordyn's screaming and Jonathan's crying.
With that, she got up and jogged out of the room, making me laugh. "See what you did guys? You made your babysitter run away!"
Jordyn stopped jumping. "Like in Nanny McPhee?!" she squealed excitedly.
I burst out laughing, momentarily forgetting about my sadness. "Yes, Jordyn. Just like in Nanny McPhee"
She calmed a bit and sat down next to me. Jonathan had stopped crying. "Where's everyone, Abbie?" she asked.
I sighed. They won't understand.
"Well you knew that Zayn, Niall, Harry, Louis and Liam were singers, right?" I asked, trying to make this as simple as I could.
They both nodded. "Well when some people can sing really well, they get asked to sing in other countries far away, and they make money out of it."
"So it's their job?" Jonathan asked quietly.
"Yes, exactly. So that's where they went. They're leaving far away for a long time."
"When are they coming back?" Jordyn asked.
"In three months." I answered hesitantly.
"How many days is that?" she asked.
I calculated in my head quickly. "About 90. But it'll pass by quicker if you sleep now." I suggested, pulling up the blankets over them.
They both nodded sleepily, and I quietly tip toed to the door. "Goodnight Jonathan! Goodnight Jordyn!" I whispered.
"Goodnight Abbie!" they whispered back as I closed the door behind me.
"How'd you do that?!"
I nearly jumped out of my skin. I whirled around to see Heather, looking at me with an awed expression on her face.
"Do what? Gosh you scared me"
"Sorry" she apologized. "But how did you get them to sleep so quickly?! I couldn't even get them to shut up!" she explained as we walked down the stairs.
"I basically raised them to listen to me." I shrugged. "I've never had trouble putting them to sleep, but nearly everyone else has."
"Okay well I'm not going to try again." she shuddered.
We walked into the living room, where Rose was channel flicking. We sat down with her, looking at the TV. I suddenly remembered the box, and pulled it out of my pocket, curiously looking at it.
"What's that?" Rose asked.
I snapped my head up, startled. "I don't know, Niall gave it to me and told me to open it when I get home"
"Well what are you waiting for? Open it!" she squealed, sitting up straighter. Heather followed, her eyes wide.
I bit my lip, and slowly started tearing off the yellow and orange wrapping paper. "You know, you look like a duck with your bright yellow shirt and orange pants... Quite a match" I remembered him saying, the night I moved in.
Once the paper was out of the way, my eyes widened and my breath caught in my throat. He did not just do that...
Rose and Heather both gasped. "He bought you an iPhone 4S!?" Rose yelled.
I turned the box over to the side, reading the side. 'iPhone 4S' it read.
"The little motherfucker..." I cussed, opening the box. A folded piece of paper fell on my lap. I opened it shakily and read the note.
Dear Ducky,
Remember back at the campground, in the lake, when I told you I would figure out a way for us to keep in touch while we were gone? Well, this is it. I know you'll be mad at me for buying you a phone, but I don't care. You deserve it. You've worked so hard for us, and we've never repayed you fully. So this is me and the boys' gift to you. We also wanted to be able to keep in touch with you while we're in America. I've already activated the phone, and there's my number, Zayn's, Harry's, Louis' and Liam's numbers in it. Paul even added his. You can ask Rose and Heather to help you figure it out, they'll know how. It also has unlimited international calling and texting, and unlimited wifi. I downloaded the Skype app and made you an account, and added all of the boys' Skypes on it. You can ask the girls to help you figure it out as well.
Text me when you open it.
Love, Squishy.
Seeing my shocked expression, Heather grabbed the note from my hand and reading it out loud for Rose to hear. They both squealed and grabbed the box from my lap, opening it and taking out the phone, which was covered by a a case already. The case was blue with little ducks on it.
"Oh my gosh! Look Abbie!! Niall is so romantic!" Rose squealed.
I half-smiled, reaching for my new phone. "Give it to me!"
I grabbed it back, looking around for the power button. I pressed all the buttons on the side, trying to get it to turn on.
"It's the one on top" Heather laughed, pointing at the right button, making me blush. "I knew that" I huffed, clicking the button.
The phone turned on, and I slid to unlock the screen. I once took Niall's phone to play around with, so I sort of knew how it worked. I clicked the contacts and saw the boys' names. I clicked on Niall's - who was programmed in as Squishy - and typed in a quick message. "You're right, I am mad, but thanks for the thought :)"
Once it was sent, Heather and Rose took my phone again, and started talking a mile a minute.
"You should download the Twitter app, and we could make you an account! Here I'll program my number! Wait Rosie let's download some games from the App Store so she won't be bored, what good ones should we put on it?"
"Heather!" I interrupted her, making her shut up. "I can figure it out myself" I laughed, reaching for my phone.
She huffed, handing it back to me reluctantly. "Fine"
I texted each of the boys, thanking them for the gift. I knew they couldn't answer now, but they'll get it once they land in America.
I then downloaded the Twitter app, and Rose and Heather helped me make an account. I followed them, and then followed each of the boys, and Paul.
I toyed around with my phone for a bit, looking through the apps Rose and Heather told me to download while they watched a movie on the TV. I settled on Angry Birds and started killing some green pigs.
••••••
"Abbie!" Jonathan ran to me, screaming. I dropped my phone next to my thigh on the sofa just in time to catch a crying 3 year old in my arms.
"What's wrong Johnny?" I whispered, hugging him as he cuddled in my arms. "I had a bad dream" he sobbed.
"Aw, it's okay sweetie, it wasn't real! What was the dream about? Want to talk about it?" I asked softly as I rubbed his back.
"I dreamt that Zayn and Liam and Harry and Niall and Louis weren't here anymore for a long time!" he wailed.
My eyes widened and I bit my lip. I turned to look at Rose and Heather. They returned the same look to me. I started rubbing his back again.
"It's okay Johnny, they'll be back in no time" I whispered soothingly. His head shot up to look at me. "They're really gone?" he asked, his wide eyes tearful.
"Yes, but it won't be long, it'll go by quickly, I promise!" I promised my little brother. He nodded, rolling over so he was sitting next to me.
Rose changed the channel to some cartoons for Jonathan.
"Oh my! That was my favorite show when I was young!" Heather squealed. "Me too!!" Rose added.
I laughed and grabbed my phone, which was vibrating. My eyes widened when I looked at the screen. "Call from Liam" it said on the screen.
I quickly moved to the kitchen and closed the door behind me before pressing answer.
"Liam?" I asked hesitantly.
"Abbie! Can you hear me?" Liam asked.
"Yeah, loud and clear" I laughed. "You've landed in America?" I added.
"Yeah we're in the airport. I got your text, I'm glad you like your phone!" he said.
"Yeah I love it, but I still think it's a bit too much for me. I didn't earn it"
"Abbie! Yes you did! You have to learn to accept a gift once in a while!" Liam said, making me roll my eyes.
"Fine. So are all the lads alright?" I asked as I sat down at the kitchen table.
"Yeah we're all fine. Though we're all going to miss everyone back home, but apart from that we're fine." he said. I knew he was referring Danielle. "The lads want to talk to you."
"Okay!" I smiled.
I heard some muffled nouses and some arguing before an Irish voice greeted me.
"Hi Abbie." he said quietly.
"Hey Niall." I answered.
"Do you like your present?" he asked nervously. "I didn't want to get you mad, I swear. I wanted to give it to you because you really deserve it, and I wanted to be able to keep in touch with you" he said quickly.
"It's okay Niall, I'm not mad anymore," I sighed. "I'm just confused." I added.
"What for?" he asked.
"Well you said we shouldn't go out or anything, and you didn't even talk to me for two weeks. And then you get me a phone to keep in touch? I don't get it."
He sighed and laughed nervously. "Well, I'd already bought the phone before the beach thing. And I couldn't return it anyways, but I knew you'd still want to keep in touch with us; or the others, at least, if you were mad at me" he explained.
Well that made sense. "Oh okay" I said hesitantly.
It was silent for a moment.
"Louis wants to talk to you" Niall broke the silence, and I sighed.
"Okay, bye Niall."
"Bye Abbie."
I talked with Louis, Zayn and Harry after Niall passed the phone. Louis and Harry reminded me to take care of Rose and Heather, and Zayn asked if the kids were alright.
They all told me to text them anytime I wanted to, or if I just wanted to talk. After they hung up, I went back to the living room.
Jordyn was now awake too, and they were all still watching the show. They never noticed I was gone.
I sat back down on the couch and tried to concentrate on the show playing. The effort was worthless though; all I could think about was Niall's voice. Gosh, how I missed his voice. I barely heard it in the past two weeks, and now he's gone for three months. Hearing his voice now made me regret not trying to talk to him before.
I miss my Squishy. Even if he doesn't feel the same way about me.
Niall's POV****
"C'mon mate! Cheer up! At least you talked to her!" Liam said as he slapped me on the back.
"After you forced me, yeah" I mumbled as I shoved past him, pulling my suitcase through the airport. The girls in here were going as nuts as a squirrel's breakfast.
I didn't want to talk to Abbie in the first place, because I knew the feelings I was trying to put aside for her own good were going to come back, and make this harder. But the lads didn't understand that. Nobody understood.
I couldn't be with Abbie, no matter how much we both wanted. Management didn't want us to. The fans didn't want us to. Fate didn't want us to.
We signed a few autographs for some fans, and I forced a smile for the pictures. After about fifteen minutes, Paul told us it was time to keep going, we had to get to the tour bus. We waved goodbye to the fans and disappeared around the corner, down the hallway, and outside, to the tour bus waiting for us.
We all climbed in and dumped our suitcases wherever there was space. I went to the back of the bus and rolled into my usual bunk, the bottom left one, pulling the curtain to hide myself. I pulled out my phone and opened Twitter. I decided to scroll down my mentions for a bit, just to make some fans happy and reply to them.
I retweeted a couplei, and answered a few, until a certain one caught my eye."Hey @NiallOfficial! I made a Twitter! have a good trip to america :) x" It was tweeted by a certain @AbbieDuckyx. I clicked on the name and scrolled down her tweets. She had only tweeted me and the boys, wishing us a good trip in America. I followed her back and got her tweets sent to my phone.
"Hey guys! Abbie has a Twitter!" I shouted. "Go follow her!"
I heard them let out surprised gasps, and next thing I knew, my phone was buzzing with their tweets. "Go follow our friend @AbbieDuckyx! She's new to Twitter!"
I thought about tweeting it, but management would kill me, so I decided against it.
I started scrolling through my timeline, and another tweet caught my eye. "@mirandacosgrove: Can't wait to start filming our new episode featuring @onedirection!"
I retweeted it, and replied. "@mirandacosgrove gonna be a blast! Can't wait"
We were going to film it in two days, right before the tour started. We were going to spend the next two days rehearsing and learning the script. This would be our first time acting for a TV show, so we were all looking forward to it.
Louis pulled back my curtain then, and frowned. "What are you doing here? We were all going to go out to eat, we've stopped at a restaurant"
"I don't feel like going." I mumbled.
"You're not going to stay here and mope around. C'mon mate" Louis reasoned, pulling my arm. I grunted and gave in, getting out of my bunk and following him outside.
We went into the restaurant and ordered lunch, since it was barely noon here. Jetlag was really going to mess with us later, like it always does. I ordered two cheeseburgers and a large fry. I was starving.
A few girls came up to us and asked for pictures and autographs, as usual. Apart from that, the lads and I talked about the iCarly episode. We were heading for the studio after this to start rehearsing. Harry was excited, because he overheard somebody say that he was going to have a main role.
Once we were finished eating, we went back in the bus, which headed for the studios. Before we walked inside, our manager stopped me. He brought me to the side. "Niall, I have to talk to you. It's a bit important."