Emily's POV:
How did people ever live without electricity? Seriously, what did they do without Facebook and Twitter and Youtube and all that? Was the world just a better place back then where you could go out and make frineds? Maybe everyone was just more friendly? Could you go out and have fun with your friends without having to worry about a guy stabbing you from behind because he thought you looked like someone he knew who owed him $20?! I blame the econemy for the lack of civility in this society. Society is something that upsets me a lot and fascinates me at the same time. So many people are so different and yet we're all the same somehow.
That was way too deep of a thought for me.
Anyway, the electricity is finally back!
I turned on my computer and it signed me into Skype automatically. It said Niall had added me as a contact? I almost forgot that I had sent him my Skype name before the hurricane arrived.
"Niall Horan is requesting a video call"
Whoa, hold your horses kiddo. I haven't even turned on my anti-virus yet.
Wait did I read that right? He really wants to talk to me? That fast?
I answered the call.
"Hi?" I said as his face appeared on my screen.
"Hey Emily! It's nice to see you!"
"You too!" I smiled and he smiled brightly back at me. God, that was a beautiful smile he had.
"How is Katie? Louis has been worried about her for days."
"She's fine as far as I know. Of course I don't know much, I can't talk to her anymore..."
"Oh yeah, that's right." His smile faded and mine did the same.
"But since the power is back on for me I'm sure she has power again. Louis should check his messages."
"Ok, I'll tell him that." Niall turned around and yelled towards the doorway. "Louis, the power is back in California, check your messages!"
I laughed at him while he was shouting. "That was deafening." I said, taking out my earbuds and rubbing my ears.
"Oops, sorry."
It got very awkward suddenly. Neither of us had a clue what to talk about.
"Did you um, did you need anything?" I asked and then reazlied how stupid that sounded
"Do I need anything? Like what?"
"Uh, I don't know. I don't really know why you've called me I guess..." I laughed a little to lighten the situation.
"I don't know why I did either." His expression changed so fast. He went from being the giddy way he's known to be to looking depressed and offended within in seconds. I didn't mean to let him down, but I don't know what he was expecting me to say to him? "I guess I just thought it would be nice to get to know you. And I didn't want you to feel alone so I..."
"Oh, so you just feel sorry for me because of my parents?" I hated that I got all defesive so easily. I get that from Katie I think.
"No! I didn't mean it like that!"
"That's the last thing I need." I crossed my arms.
Niall stared at me for a moment without speaking. I don't know what he was doing. I think he was trying to figure out what to say that wouldn't offend me. "I'm sorry." I said. "I didn't mean to snap at you like that..."
"You don't have to apologize, I get why you felt that way." He smiled at me again. That damn Irish smile...
"I don't have a lot of friends and I guess this is why. Everyone tells me I tend to push people away and I almost just did it again to you."
"I kind of thought we were already friends? By association?"
"I guess we are." I said. "But we've never really talked alone. I don't really know you yet and you certainly don't know me." I looked down but when I looked back up at the screen, Niall was gone. The room he was in was empty. "Niall?" I asked.
He had walked away and then walked back over. I couldn't understand why. He sat back down in front of the computer and smiled at me. "Hello, my name is Niall Horan. I'm from Ireland, I like to eat at Nando's, and I'm in a band that you may have heard of called One Direction. What's your name?"
I laughed at his gesture. No one has ever done anything like this to me before. "Hi, my name is Emily Manon. I'm from America, I like to eat at Chick-Fil-A, and I run a fanpage for a band you may have heard of called One Direction."
Niall laughed at my answers and I smiled at him until he spoke. "I've never been to Chicki-Fil-A. It's on my list of places I want to visit when we come to America."
"Oh you'll love it! Wait, you have a list?" I raised an eyebrow as I asked.
"Yes! Wait right here." He jumped up and walked away again.
"When are you coming to America?" I shouted. I didn't know if he could still hear me though.
"I think the tour starts next week. We're still on break right now." He shouted back. "Ok I got it." He sat back down in front of me and unwrapped a huge piece of paper.
"I'm guessing it's only restuarants on your list?"
"Dine in and fast food, yes." He gets so serious when he talks about food. "What do they have at Chick-Fil-A?"
"Other than the best chicken known to mankind, they have fries and ice cream and..."
"What do you suggest?" Niall interuppted me.
"To eat? Well the chicken strips there are good...and so is the lemonade and..."
"Ugh, why don't we have one of those over here." He groaned and leaned back in his seat.
"If it makes you feel any better I've never eaten at Nando's."
"What!" If I had been sitting there with him, he probably would have spit on me while he shouted that. "Never? Really?"
"We don't have them in America."
"Not even one?"
"Nope, not a single one."
"Jesus, I'm not gonna make it through this tour." He rubbed his faces with his hands.
I lauged at him. "Don't worry, Chick-Fil-A will make up for it."
"Next time you happen to be in London...or Ireland...let me know so I can fix you up with some Nando's." He winked at me.
"Well let me know when you come here so I can fix you up with some Chick-Fil-A." I winked back and we both laughed at each other. This was going to be a nice friendship, I could already tell.
Katie's POV:
Things were pretty normal now. Sasha went back to the guard after the hurricane. The National Guard was recruting as many members as they could to help the town get back on their feet. It had been 2 weeks since the storm and Sasha and her crew from the Guard were coming over to our house for dinner.
"Yay! I'm so glad you guys made it!" Sasha opened the door, greeting all of our guests. My mom, dad, Angel and I stood around Sasha and smiled at her friends standing in the doorway. "Ok, guys this is my mom, my dad, my best friend Katie, and her sister, who's also my best friend, Angel." Each of us waved as them as she called our names. "Guys, these are my friends. This is Annie, Eren, Marco, Jean, Armin, and Miki..."
"I told you not to call me that. It's Mikasa."
"Yeah but a lot of people can't pronounce that." Mikasa gave Sasha a death glare and she rolled her eyes at her. "Fine, Mikasa. God... oh and this is Levi my um, he's um, we're just..."
"You have a boyfriend?!" Angel blurted out and Sasha and I glared at her for shouting that.
"No! I mean, well he's my friend from...he um...we worked at The Baked Potato Co. together. He was in the National Guard as well but in a different district."
Levi didn't shake anyone's hands or even smile at any of us. He walked straight past us to window and slid a finger across the windowsill. He held the finger in front of his face and stared at it. Was that little rat checking our house for dust? Who does that?!
"Is there a problem?" My dad asked and Levi looked up at him.
"Oh no, not a problem it's just...well I was just noticing something...but nevermind."
"What is it?" My mom asked.
"Your windows look so...dull. You're using genric Windex aren't you?"
"Yes, we can't afford the name brand but the generic one seems to work the same." My mom crossed her arms and defended her cleaning.
"No it doesn't at all. There's a clearly visible difference." Levi said so calmly. He acted so cool about this. I was trying so hard not to yell at him for Sasha's sake. "If you want I could bring a bottle over and show you how to clean the windows more efficiently?"
I walked straight up to his face and spoke to him. "That is such a sweer and kind gesture isn't it? But I'm afraid you couldn't reach most of our windows and I wouldn't want to embarass you in front of all your friends by making you stand on a stool." I turned around and everyone was giggling behind me. Sasha looked slightly horrified by my statement.
Levi grabbed my shoulder and spun me around so his face was right in frony of mine. "Now you listen here you lil..."
"Well what do you know, it's time for dinner!" My mother grabbed me and pulled me and Levi and pulled us apart. "Let's all head to the kitchen shall we?" That Levi kid is lucky, I could sassed his ass if I had the chance. Everyone walked to the kitchen but my mother pulled me back and whispered in my ear. "Let's try to be nice to him."
"But he said..."
"I know what he said and it was uncalled for but Sasha hasn't had very many boyfriends. Let's try to make this work for her sake." I hated when my mom was right.
Dinner was quite nice but her friends were so...different. They were attacking the food as if they hadn't eaten in years. I swear, no one taught this lot any table manners. For a bunch of kids straight out of the Guard this seemed odd. But Sasha was really odd too so she fit in pretty well. It was nice seeing her get along so well with friends like this.
After dinner everyone retreated to the living room and sat around to talk. I felt awkward with Levi there, especially sine Sasha was practically sitting on his lap. It was kind of gross to be honest. They were all just sitting there arguing over who had the more dramatic rescuse story to tell. I grew bored with their bickering and excused myself to my bedroom.
It was really late, I felt bad, I never told Louis I wouldn't be on tonight. I opened my laptop and signed into Skype. He was online so I called him.
"Hey, I was starting to think you were too busy." He said. He had his headphones on and the room was fully lit.
"Of course not! I'm sorry, I forgot to tell you that Sasha's friends were coming over tonight and I wouldn't be on."
"Well you're on right now?"
"I know, I bailed. They're so weird. This one guy she brought home is just so...ugh!" I groaned and looked away.
"Oh boy, what did he do?"
"He basically insulted our methods of cleaning before even saying hello." Louis laughed at how silly that sounded.
"Did someone say Sasha?" Harry's face popped onto the screen right beside Louis.
"Are you eavesdropping, Haz?" Louis pushed him away but Harry pushed right back.
"Does Sasha have a boyfriend?" Harry blurter out quickly before Louis pushed him again. Harry was getting really pathetic, who knew he was really like this...
"Why do you care?!" Louis pushed him again but he wouldn't budge. Harry was so stubborn when it came to Sasha, I'll never know why.
"I don't think they're dating yet but they definitely like each other. I'm sorry Harry, she's really not interested in you. I don't think you're her 'type'." I said and Harry looked so offended by my words.
"She's not my type?! How is she not my type?!"
"A better question, how is she your type?" Louis agreed with me and defended what I said.
"Who's side are you on here, Lou?" Harry glared at Louis.
"Her side of course!"
"But you've known me longer!"
"But she's absolutely right! Stop picking on that poor girl!"
"Should I just leave or...?" I asked, jokingly as the two fought.
"No!" They both shouted in unison.
"Get away from me, I'm trying to have a conversation here!" Louis pushed Harry away again until he disappeared from my screen. "Now where were we?" We both laughed a little.
"Um, I don't know. It doesn't matter." I shrugged. "So why are you all still awake?"
"Writing a new song." He held up a notebook in front of the camera.
"Can I hear some of it?"
"Not yet, when I say 'writing' I mean we literally just started because they've been playing Fifa all day and blowing it off..."
"Oh wait." I interupted Louis as a message poped onto my screen.
"What?" He asked.
"Harry Styles is requesting a video call"
I laughed louder than I should have. The folks down stairs probably heard me. "Your boyfriend is calling me." I joked.
"Damnit Haz, will you leave her alone? Now you're harassing two girls?" Louis shouted to the right of him. I'm assuming Harry was still in the room with him.
"I'm harassing girls? You're the one that started this trend of Skyping with fans!" Harry shouted, still offscreen.
"At least she wants to talk to me." Louis crossed his arms all sassy-like. "I'm not obsessing over it like you, mate."
"I'm the one obessing? That's really funny, Lou. Because..." Harry appeared back on the screen again and got right in front of the webcam. "Has he told you what he did yet, Katie?"
"Told me what?" Everything went from lighthearted to very serious all of a sudden.
"You haven't told her?" Harry turned and looked at Louis and laughed in his face. "When were you planning on telling her?"
"I don't know yet..."
"Tell me what? What's going on?" I asked them. Harry walked away and Louis was left alone to explain what was going on to me.
"We um, we... I... suggested we add another concert date to our American tour and well...."
Harry jumped back in front of the screen and pushed Louis away. "We're coming to your town!"
"What?!" I shouted. I didn't know whether to be happy or sad about this. "Are you kidding? I thought you were only coming to San Francisco?"
"Well we pulled some strings..." Louis said proudly. He went from bashful to proud so quickly, it was crazy.
"Wait, you're only coming here because of me?"
"Yeah, I want you to see the show, love. Think of it as a birthday present."
I started giggling uncontrolably. "I can't wait to tell Emily about this. She's going to freak out. She's wanted to see you guys longer than I have."
"We'll send enough tickets for you and all your friends, alright?" Louis said.
"You guys are so sweet. I'm so lucky to have you guys as friends." I smiled at Louis and he smiled back.
"How many tickets do you think you need?" He asked.
"Um, I guess aside from myself that would be Emily, Angel..."
"And Sasha!" Harry added from offscreen. "Don't forget to invite Sasha!"
Louis rolled his eye. "Jesus, Harry... just let it go."