When Worlds Collide

CHAPTER EIGHT
*MADI'S POV*
"Sophie is going to need a few more days in the hospital," the doctor informed me.
The cuts had been deeper than anticipated, and the hospital wanted to keep her on watch.
The hospital has programs for teens with problems like Sophie did. Since she still hadn't woken up, she couldn't tell us exactly what happened and why. But for the moment the assumption by all the doctors was that Sophie was mentally unstable at the moment and needed to be watched over. That way she couldn't go home and try again. If you know what I mean.
Dr. Montgomery (the doctor watching over Sophie) left the room. Not a minute later, Niall texted me.
-'We r still @ the diner but will be leaving soon. I'll take them back 2 the flat to see if u reappeared and then I'll take everyone to the hospital. We'll probably be @ there in an hour.'
I didn't respond, seeing his text and knowing it was just an info dump. I wasn't totally sure what to do in the meantime, so I just shut my eyes again, hoping to get some rest before they came for a visit.
*GRACE'S POV*
30 minutes earlier
"I'm not really that hungry," I said to Niall, who had just asked me why I wanted for breakfast.
"That's nonsense beautiful you must eat something!" He said back, laughing. "If you don't order I'll order for you!"
I faked a smile and laughed, half-heartedly. I was gonna have to eat, like a lot, or else Niall would be worried about me.
"Grace what are you ordering?" Zayn asked me while looking at his menu.
"Um I think I'll just get a short stack of flapjacks. I don't really need anything, Niall I-"
Before I could finish he cut off my sentence.
"That's nonsense, Grace! If you're just worried about paying there's no need I've got it covered. If you're worried about a big appetite then don't worry about it, I have one too. And if you're just not hungry that's just too bad. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!"
I looked up at Eliza with a pleading look. Maybe she could get me out of this. But unfortunately for me she was in deep conversation with Josh, facing away from where I was.
Reluctantly, I let Niall order for me.
I pulled out my phone while the chirpy waitress took everyone's meal orders.
I quickly sent a text to Madi.
-'where are u?'
She didn't respond for several minutes, and when she did it wasn't the message I was hoping for.
-'Hospital. Can't talk now text u later'
I furrowed my brows wondering why she was at the hospital. Sighing, I put my phone away and looked up at Niall.
He was smiling at me with that sweet, beautiful, genuine smile. He was so happy despite his crazy life. He always kept a laugh in his pocket, ready to be used. It was unbelievable how strong he was, and how much I felt like I knew him, as if he were an old friend.
"What did you get for me?" I asked him blushing, finding myself staring at him.
"It's a surprise," he said grinning, " but it's definitely not a short stack of flapjacks."
A few minutes later the same smiling waitress came out with our food. She seemed fidgety, staring at each boy with burning cheeks. After she had given us our food she turned to leave, but stopped before she turned all the way around.
"Would you mind if I got a picture with you?" She asked, her face getting even more red.
Harry burst out, obviously agitated by something.
"Can't you see we've had a rough morning?! We can't take pictures with every girl we see, alright?"
The teenage waitress' cheeks went from red to red. She apologized quietly, looking down and turning to leave. But before she could leave she was stopped once again.
"Of course we'll get a picture with you, love." Liam said sweetly. "Do you have a camera?"
The girl nodded and smiled a bit, pulling out her phone. Liam got up and whispered in her ear. She quickly glanced at Harry and she nodded with a look of guilt in her eye.
"Come one boys, get up." Liam said to his mates.
Niall apologized and excused himself from me so he could get up and be in the picture. He wrapped his arm around the waitress's shoulder and smiled for the camera Eliza was holding.
I twinge of jealousy formed in my chest as I thought about Niall with his arm around her. I looked back down at my phone to see if I had any new messages, but I came up empty.
When I looked back up Niall was already getting back into his seat and digging into the food he'd ordered for himself. 'How does he eat so much and still be so small?' I wondered.
That was when I looked down and remembered Niall had ordered me breakfast. Just looking at it made me have a stomach ache.
On my plate there was a stack of pancakes taller than Big Ben.
Each pancake had what looked like marshmallows melted into them. There was probably half a stick of margarine balanced on top of the pile, with pink syrup drizzled all over, making a puddle of the liquid at the bottom of my plate.
It might as well have been a pile of my own pink blood.
I looked back up at Niall, who was looking at me with a grin.
"Whatcha think of that beaut?" He cried with a laugh.
I fake laughed one more time, only one thing running through my head: 'That BEAUT is going to make me even more fat than I already am...'
Sighing softly I took my fork and cut into the top cake. Picking it up with my fork I put the food in my mouth and cringed at the thought of all the calories that we're entering my body right about then.
I gave a small smile to Niall as he continued to look at me with a grin stretched across his face.
"Thanks for breakfast, Niall." I said as I put my fork down.
"Well don't stop you've only taken one bite!" He said putting his arms up.
Louis chimed in, "Lucky you, I wish I had ordered that... These eggs are nast." He said, pushing his food away from him and making a face.
"Would you like some?" I asked hopefully.
Louis looked at me with bright eyes. "Oh, gents can we keep this one? She shares her food!" he joked as he passed his plate down to me.
I piled half of my pancakes onto his plate and gratefully handed it back to him.
Niall looked a bit disappointed that I wouldn't be eating everything that had been on my plate, but I was relieved that my task of eating everything had been lightened up a bit. Even though I knew the scale was going to hate this meal, it would definitely be easier to eat what I had since half of it was gone.
I took a quick sip of water and looked back at Niall to see if he was still watching me eat.
He was.
I quickly took a quick sip of water. I closed my eyes knowing I would regret doing this later, and started to eat.
Each bite was like a knife moving its way down my throat.
It felt like eternity until my plate was finally empty. My stomach was like a balloon that had been inflated. I felt sick to my stomach and knew I probably looked like some girl who couldn't keep her face out of the pantry.
I looked up one more time and saw Niall eating his own food. When he saw I had finished what was in my plate he beamed from ear to ear.
"See, that wasn't so hard, was it?" he asked giving me a round if applause.
I shook my head and pretended to be satisfied.
'If only you knew how hard that was for me, Niall.' I thought.
*NIALL'S POV*
Grace finished her pancakes after an eternity. She took these tiny little bites and then took forever to chew them up and swallow them. By the time she was done with half of her food I had already gone for seconds.
It was cute though, the way she ate.
I quickly pulled out my phone and saw I had received a text from Madi that Sophie had been given stitches. I told her what was happening on my end of the line and pushed send.
Putting my phone away I looked over to see Harry barely eating a thing. He was just pushing his food around his plate with a fork and looking all glum. I nudged him. "What's wrong?" I asked him.
He looked at me. His sad expression turned mad when he realized I was talking to him.
"What's going on." He demanded. "Why are we here? Really."
I sighed and looked at him in the eyes. It hurt to lie to him. It really did.
"I don't know what you're talking about, man." I replied with a pang of guilt hitting me square in the gut.
Harry's eyes turned cold.
"Don't lie to me Niall Horan. I know something is wrong I'm not an idiot. We're at breakfast without your cousin, who by the way you seem to really need to look out for, and you haven't even mentioned her name!! What is going on?!"
I sighed again. I didn't know what to tell him! I really didn't want to come right out and say Sophie had cut herself this morning. That's not at all what I had in mind. Sophie didn't deserve to be treated like some story. She was a human being with feelings and I know that she got embarrassed easily. What if she was ashamed of what she had done? I could tell that she like Harry and I really didn't want to make her feel embarrassed in front of someone she had feelings for.
On another note I didn't even know the whole story yet. No one did. She needed to wake up from being unconscious before we could know
everything that had happened.
So, instead if telling Harry about Sophie being in the hospital due to an unfortunate accident, I simply left it to 'we'll see her soon'.
"What the bloody Nora is that supposed to mean Niall?"
Harry was getting louder and much more frustrated than I wanted him to be.
"Please, Harry. I'll talk to you about it on the way back to the flat."
He sat back down with a huff and went back to silently playing with his food. He looked over one more time and mumbled something under his breath, probably calling me an ignorant little girl. But I didn't really care.

Notes