Chapter 34: Wish I Could Freeze This Moment in a Frame and Stay Like This
Okay so there's and event in the latter end of the chapter and here's what the chickies are wearing to that: polyvore.com/really_cute_event/set?id=63613473
*Michelle’s P.O.V.*
I kept checking my phone, obsessively even, waiting anxiously for a message from Niall. All I wanted was to know Haley was okay. Of course, they were probably busy being all supportive and lovey and stuff, but you can’t blame me for worrying. Having been in Haley’s position, I was naturally concerned. I know how shitty that cold, dark place feels, and I felt inclined to help her see the light. “Hey, you okay?” a concerned Bradford accent asked from beside me. I turned towards him, plastering a smile on my face as I’ve done so many times.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I just feel bad for Haley and her feminine problems,” I replied nonchalantly, playing the situation off lightly. Honestly, I was feeling a lot more than just “bad”, but I guess I’ve had enough practice acting happy for even Zayn to believe me.
“Well aren’t you sweet?” he teased, nuzzling his face into my hair. I giggled and cringed away in response to the tickling sensation, swatting at him playfully as a grin crossed his face. He pecked my cheek quickly and I made a face, but he knew by now that he still made my heart tingle. Still, despite the warm, fluttery feeling in my stomach, I found myself continuously glancing up towards the staircase, waiting to see if Haley and Niall would eventually descend. Everyone burst out in a chorus of laughter, though I was lost due to my wandering thoughts and worries. I whipped my head towards them all, questioning Zayn with my eyes.
“What’s so funny?” a voice asked from behind me. I turned back, my hair flying around me once again as my attention was turned over to Haley. I repressed a relieved sigh as she and Niall approached us, and I instead opened my arms out wide. She placed herself in my lap, giggling as I let out a small oof in response to her sudden weight.
“I wish I knew,” I replied as I wrapped my arms around her waist and she simultaneously wrapped hers around my neck, since everyone else was too busy laughing to even hear her question, let alone answer it. Everyone calmed down after a moment, catching their breath and wiping their tears. Niall playfully frowned at the sight of Haley and I together, and I kissed her cheek jokingly for effect.
“Zayn, our girlfriends are leaving us,” he whined, hugging Zayn, who was standing, from behind.
“Damn,” Zayn responded simply, chortling lightly before pulling Niall into a hug. “Well, now we can be together!” he chirped cheerfully. Everyone laughed again, Haley, Niall and I included this time, and I hugged Haley closer to me. I felt strangely protective of her, with my new knowledge of how fragile she truly was. That, and the fact that she was sort of a shadow of me, her present being an almost mirror image of my dark past. And that was not a place I’d want anyone to be, especially not Haley.
“Okay, now that we’re all here, I have news,” Liam announced, grabbing everyone’s attention as we all turned towards him. “Management called, reminding us that the interview we rescheduled due to Dani’s funeral is still set for tomorrow.” We all looked around at each other, making it clear that the interview had clearly slipped all of our minds. The mention of Dani and her death also flooded over us like a wave of nostalgia, remorse, and longing, along with many other negative emotions. “We’re also performing to raise money for breast cancer research, so wear something pink,” he instructed, subtly trying to pull us out of the suddenly dark and suppressive mood.
“Aye aye, captain!” I put in, adding a salute in attempt to loosen the tension. He smiled at me gratefully, and I returned it, clutching tighter the extremely breakable girl in my arms who seemed even more shaken by the mention of her dead best friend. Poor girl, I thought empathetically, holding her tight.
*Harry’s P.O.V.*
“What about this one?” Haley asked Megan as I scrolled through Twitter and Instagram. It was nearly 23:00, and Megan still hadn’t decided on which item of clothing to borrow from Haley. Apparently, she didn’t have a pink dress, and Haley obviously had plenty. I didn’t fully understand why I had to help decide what they wore, but I had to, and apparently that was that.
“Ooh, yes! That one’s cute!” she agreed. “Hazz, what do you think?” she asked me.
“I think you’ll look beautiful in whatever you choose,” I answered honestly, not even looking up from my newsfeed. Apparently that wasn’t the right answer.
“You suck,” she sighed lightly.
“Well it’s true!” I insisted. But I still looked up, the agitated tone in her voice luring my gaze upward. She was holding a black dress with pink flowers up to herself, her feline green eyes clearly searching my face for my honest. “But I do like that one,” I added honestly. It really did look good with her. “Can we sleep now?” I requested, putting on a pout. Megan looked to Haley, who nodded and took the dress from Megan’s hands and proceeded to hang it up nicely.
“Night guys!” she chirped as I stood up. I crossed the room to her and kissed her quickly on the cheek. She had seemed a bit off the whole day, and I just wanted to let her know I loved her. Besides, can’t a cousin kiss their cousin good night?
“Night night Halez,” I said with a smile, taking Megan’s hand and leading her across the hall. I love the way it fit in mine, the rough yet feminine texture of it. She was just absolutely beautiful in every aspect. I closed the door as we entered, plopping my body down on the bed and closing my eyes. I hadn’t even been very active at all the entire day, but for whatever reason I was exhausted. I heard Megan giggle and I opened my eyes to shoot her a questioning look.
“You’re sleeping with you jeans and shoes on?” she asked teasingly. I groaned, throwing my head back and clenching my eyes shut. I didn’t want to worry about to pajamas; I just wanted to sleep. I suddenly felt my shoes slipping off my feet, along with my socks. I glanced down my body at her, an amused grin on my face. She noticed me staring at her and smirked back up at me.
“I think you should probably take care of your pants yourself,” she teased, standing up and ridding herself of socks as well. I averted my eyes as she began to unbutton her jeans, the sound of her zipper coming undone filling the sudden silence.
“Fine,” I groaned lightheartedly, trying to clear the sexual tension out of the air as I slipped of my jeans and my shirt, tossing them into the hamper in the corner of the room. I pulled the thin sheet over my body, snuggling up to my pillow as I felt Megan’s body slither in beside me. I opened my eyes and smiled at her as she situated herself. I opened up my arm, unhappy with her distance from me. She rolled her eyes, but grinned and wiggled adorably until she was close enough for me to pull her into my body. I wrapped my arms around her waist and buried my face into her blonde hair, lightly inhaling the delicate aroma of baby powder that she always carried with her. I kissed the top of her head, finding myself unable to picture a better way to be spending the night.
“Are you okay Hazz?” she asked suddenly, her big forest eyes staring up into mine. I sent a confused look back down at her, although I had a good guess as to what she was referring to; it had been lingering in the back of my mind all day. “Well, just, the mention of Dani I guess…” she trailed off, making my heart sink to the pit of my stomach. “Never mind, I should just sleep,” she dismissed.
“No, no,” I insisted, gently pulling her back to me. She looked up at me expectantly with a smidgen of regret and remorse on her face, and I put a small smile on my face for her despite the tingling sensation behind my eyes. I kissed her freckled nose affectionately, assuring her she had done nothing wrong. “It shook me a bit, but it shook all of us. I’m holding up though, I promise.” I kissed her lips once before continuing. “Thanks for your concern, love.” She smiled back at me, illuminating the dimly lit room. “How are you doing?” I asked her, genuinely concerned.
“Same as you,” she shrugged in vague response. I nodded, not really having anything to say. Instead I just held her in a tighter embrace, letting her cry softly on my shoulder as I shed a few tears.
“We’ll get through this,” I vowed in a whisper. “Together.”
*Haley’s P.O.V.*
I stood in Michelle’s bathroom the next morning, mouth hanging open as I applied mascara to my eyelashes an inch away from the mirror. I had just finished putting on Megan’s eyeliner, as she didn’t trust herself or anyone but me with me. To be honest, I was kind of smug about that, but I had gotten used to it by now. “Come on, we have to go!” Liam’s voice carried through the house from the bottom of the staircase. “It’s going to be a long ride!”
“Coming!” Sydney called back as I screwed my yellow Colossal Maybelline mascara back together and the rest of the girls who were squished in the bathroom put their makeup away. We rushed down the stairs to find Liam in the front doorway, and I assumed all the other boys were outside already. We all filed out behind him, grabbing our shoes and hopping about as we tried to slip them on and walk at the same time. Megan and I managed, but Julez, Michelle and Sydney all had heels, so it was a bit more difficult for them. I laughed at them as they hopped quickly over the hot pavement to the slick black limo that was waiting for us. Nice, I commented mentally, grinning slightly in approval. One limo was already pulling out down the driveway, and naturally I looked to Sydney for an explanation. “The boys had to take a separate car,” she explained. I nodded in understanding.
“What about Jesse?” Megan asked.
“I’m riding with you guys!” his voice answered excitedly from inside the car. We all smiled and loaded in, not wanting to waste another second. Megan sat next to Jesse, Julia next to Megan, and then on the other side I sat between Michelle and Sydney. I felt the care start to move as I smiled at my friends across from me in giddy excitement. “Well, isn’t this exciting?” Jesse teased.
“Well, it’s not like we’re being interviewed,” Julia reminded us. I made a face at her and Jesse smirked at us as Megan rolled her eyes.
“True, but we’re the girlfriends,” Sydney explained. “There are going to be a lot of pictures of us, which is kind of exciting.”
“What about the gay?” Jesse joked. “Don’t I get any publicity?” We all giggled in response to that, launching into the pointless banter that would amuse us for the two hour long ride. Megan plugged in one headphone, as did I. I smiled a bit to myself as Desperately Wanting by Better Than Ezra came on, and settled down into the soft cushions of the limo.
*Niall’s P.O.V.*
“Alright lads, so the plan is clear?” Louis confirmed with us. We all nodded, grinning with excitement. I actually couldn’t wait for the interview; we had an amazing surprise, and we had never done anything like it before. Since Michelle and Sydney were going back to university in a couple days and Julia and Megan were heading back to America, we had decided to do something special for them. It had dawned on me recently how lucky I was to be able to have my girlfriend come with us wherever she went; even on tour she would come with us and have a personal tutor to take care of her school work. “Alright, now shut up!” Louis hissed. “They’re here!” I turned around to see Jesse and the five girls strolling towards us, giggling amongst themselves. Michelle had obviously been sleeping, and Haley’s legs looked a bit wobbly from the long ride. I chuckled lightly as she fell into my arms.
“Tired?” I asked teasingly. She nodded and straightened up, fixing her pink polka-dot dress. I smiled at her, becoming impatient.
“What are you so smiley about?” she asked, making me laugh again. I shook my head and supplied her with a very vague reply.
“Nothing.”
*Dani’s P.O.V.*
“And now, the boys of One Direction will perform one of their rare bonus tracks, Truly, Madly, Deeply!” the host of the telethon announced. I was perched on one of the lights that were shining down on the stage, swinging my nonexistent feet back and forth. The four boys popped up as the guitar began strumming. I smirked as whispers arose as to where Liam was, as I knew exactly of his whereabouts. Hell, I knew the whole plan. Niall and Louis walked to the left side of the stage as the guitar carried out longer than usual, Harry and Zayn taking to the right. Suddenly, a light shone on the middle of the back of the stage and out walked Liam, walking backwards as he dragged a confused looking Sydney out onto the stage with him. A chorus of “aww”s rung out as he began singing and the other four exited back into the wings.
“Am I asleep, am I awake, or somewhere in between?” he serenaded, Sydney’s emeralds widening as she smiled at him like the sweet Southern Belle she is, obviously winning all of the fans’ hearts. It was quite obvious she would always be the favorite girlfriend. “I can’t believe that you are here and lying next to me. Or did I dream that we were perfectly entwined? Like branches on a tree or twigs caught on a vine.”
Then, out walked Niall. I laughed so hard at Haley’s expression that if I didn’t have paranormal powers I would’ve fallen off the light. She just looked utterly terrified. “Like all those days and weeks and months I tried to steal a kiss. And all those sleepless nights and daydreams where I pictured this. I’m just the underdog who finally got the girl, and I am not ashamed to tell it to the world.” Was that… yep. Tears. Haley was holding back a sob like the little baby she is. Still I couldn’t help but smile at her adorable sappiness. It was just such a Haley thing for her to do, start crying because a guy is being sweet to her. What made it even more adorable was how Niall was looking at her with so much love and, yes, tears in his eyes as well. Although, Haley’s tears weren’t just from love; I could tell she was also afraid of how the fans were going to react, due to the hate she had been receiving. The way Niall was twirling her around clearly helped her feel better about that.
I have to admit, it hurt a little watching Harry guide Megan out onto the stage as he began singing to her. But they were happy, and therefore I was happy. I sighed to myself and sat back, enjoying the show along with the audience as the song carried on. By the end, all of the couples were on stage being all cutesy together. Although, and this is probably just my mind playing trick on me, even though Harry and Megan were completely lost in each others’ eyes, I could’ve sworn they looked up towards me. If only for a second.
I admired the adorable scene once more before flashing back home to be with my mom and Derek.