Little Misunderstandings [Sequel to Little Steps]

I woke up, my body feeling sticky. Niall snored softly beside me, his arms still wrapped tightly around my waist. I was feeling a bit nauseous, seeming so that morning sickness wasn’t quite over for me.

“Niall?” I shook him slowly, trying to wake him up. His grip around me was too tight to slip out of.

“No, don’t go,” he spoke, eye still closed. “You’ll hurt yourself.”

“No I won’t,” I smiled, “I just feel a bit sick.”

“Stay.” He pleaded, eyes opening into a squint. “Please.”

“Ni, I feel sick.”

He blinked at me, the reflection of the morning sunlight hitting against his blue orbs. “You’re so cuddly though,” he whined childishly, pulling me towards his chest.

“Niall,” I sat up, his arms still locked around my waist. The nausea was starting to build up in my stomach, finding its way to my throat. “Let me go or I will vomit on you. And then I will not be cuddly.”

He rubbed his eyes and slowly detached him arms from me. I took the opportunity to shoot out of bed and run into the restroom, bending over the toilet just as the vomit came pouring out of my mouth. What a great start to my day. My hands gripped the toilet seat as I vomited, and soon Niall was behind me, holding my hair back. His hand rubbed over my back in a soothing motion until the vomiting ceased. My breathing was a bit ragged, but slowly the nausea subsided and I flushed the toilet, sitting on the bathroom floor. Niall crouched down beside me and brushed the hairs out of my hair, planting a soft kiss on my nose.

“You okay?”

I nodded. “I’m pretty used to this shit now.”

“Aww,” Niall frowned, helping me up. “I wish I could help you feel better.”

“You’re trying your best and that is all I need.” I smiled, reaching up to kiss his lips. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He pecked my lips back. “I’m going to go wake the kids up. What do you say we go out for breakfast today?”

“Sound good,” I gave him a thumbs up and he left the bathroom. I stepped into the shower after ridding of my clothes and let the warm water wipe away everything bad that had happened. No more tears, no more blood. I couldn’t let any of that get to me again. I shampooed my hair with the vanilla strawberry shampoo Niall always went crazy for, then rinsed my body and found a nice outfit to wear to breakfast. After lightly blow drying my hair, I brushed my teeth and applied some light makeup for the day.

Once Niall the kids were showered, we headed to a small pancake house around the corner for breakfast. Nate was still half asleep as we sat in the booth, the smell of buttery pancakes filling my nose. Colette on the other hand, was full alert, watching waiters walk by with plates piled with pancakes.

“Hey,” she yelled suddenly. The waiter stopped and turned around. “Is that our food?”

Niall stifled a laugh while I cupped a hand over Nicolette’s mouth.

“Sorry, babe.” The waiter laughed at Nicolette. “This is their food.” He gestured to another table. Nicolette sulked in her seat and pouted as the waiter walked away, chuckling to himself.

“Nicolette,” I hissed, trying to remain serious despite the smile growing on my face. “You need to be patient.”

“I’m hungry,” she whined, kicking her feet under the table.

“That’s no excuse,” Niall joined me, having my back. “I’m hungry too, but I know how to be patient.”

Nate snickered lightly at Nicolette, a bit woken up by her outburst. There was never a day we went out with the children that wasn’t eventful in some sort of way. Whether it be an outburst like Nicolette’s, or them telling us a joke that had coke coming out Niall’s nose. Boring was the last word I would use to describe the four of us.

Nicolette dug into the pancakes when they arrived, Niall out-eating her by a single pancake. Nate however, still seemed a bit drowsy, eating slowly. I frowned and noticed the lack of color in his face all at once. I pressed the back of my hand to his forehead and got a pretty accurate idea as to the cause of his behavior.

“Nate,” I cooed, slipping a finger under his chin. He looked up slightly, blinking hard. “You feeling okay, babe?”

“I’m tired.” He said simply, “I want to go to sleep, mum.”

“Niall,” I turned to my husband. “He’s got a fever.”

Niall looked up and set his fork down on his plate, reaching over to feel Nate’s forehead. His eyebrows widened at the warmth rising on Nate’s forehead.

“Why you feeling my head, daddy?” Nate slurred slightly, his eyelids starting to droop.

“I think you’re sick, bud.” Niall frowned, finishing us the last bite of his pancake before taking out his wallet to place a tip on the table. “Let’s get you home.”

“Ooh, he’s sick?” Nicolette questioned. I nodded in reply. “That means Nate didn’t wash his hands.”

I chuckled lightly at her four year old logic and helped her up from the booth seat while Niall picked Nate up from his seat. Once we left the café, I looked around, making sure no stalkers were watching us. I hated feeling like I was under surveillance, like I had to watch out for my kids lives every second. Nate had started to cry by the time we got to the car, complaining that he didn’t feel right. Niall shrugged his jacket off as he held Nate tightly, covering him with the jacket to shield his weakening body from the cold. Once we were all inside the warm car, Niall pushed on the gas pedal, going a bit over speed limit in attempt to get Nate home faster.

Nicolette tried to keep Nate awake, poking at his arm constantly until he slapped her arm in annoyance.

Niall carried Nate upstairs to his bedroom and Nate’s head rested on Niall’s shoulder. He lifeless as a puppet, about to fall asleep from the obvious lack of rest. I searched through the medicine cabinet, hurriedly looking for Benadryl, Tylenol, or just about any medicine that would bring Nate’s temperature down. I finally found an unopened bottle of Tylenol and grabbed it, along with a thermometer to check his temperature with.

Nate was tucked under his covers when I entered his room, Niall singing softly to him. I smiled and tapped Niall’s shoulder, signaling for him to move aside so I could check Nate’s temperature. I slid the thermometer under his arm and waiting for it to sound. When it did, I read the four digit number on the small screen. 101.1. How had I not realized Nate had a fever as soon as I noticed his lack of energy during breakfast? I tilted Nate’s body up and woke his drowsy self up to give him his medicine. He made a face as he swallowed it, but he was too weak to really respond.

“He needs to rest,” Niall told me quietly, kissing Nate’s forehead before putting a hand on the small of my back to lead me out of the room. I exhaled once his door was closed. I always had a slight panic attack when one of the kids got sick. It was a lot of stress on me, having to wake up at ridiculous times to give them medicine, assisting to them when their fevers got to high, taking them to the doctor. And Niall knew that, too.

“Hey,” Niall gripped my shoulders. “Don’t stress okay? He’ll be better in no time.”

My shoulders sagged. “Where’s Colette?”

“In her room,” Niall answered, taking my hand. He led me into our room and told me to sit down on the bed. I watched him curiously as he sat next to me and scooted up to rest his head on the pillow.

“I was meaning to do this yesterday,” he began, looking a bit nervous. “But I think we need to talk. Or,” he paused again, “I think you need to talk.”

“What?” I frowned, clearly lost to his ambitions.

Niall took a deep breath. “I want you to tell me whatever is on your mind.”

I blinked at him. “What?” Still lost.

“I don’t know how many times I’ve said this,” Niall explained, running his fingers through his hair. “But you’re hurting and I can see it. There’s obviously something going through that mind of yours if I’m finding you on the bathroom with an empty pill bottle and blood on your wrists. Your smiles aren’t real. You’re eyes don’t shine. There’s a lack of your laughter in the house. Even this morning when we were leaving breakfast, I caught you looking around like you were afraid of something. I want to know why.”

My mouth moved, but no words came. It wasn’t the first time Niall had sat me down and told me to vent to him, but it was the first time I had seen him look so desperate, so broken because he didn’t understand me.

“I just can’t cope with having to see you break down like that again,” his voice cracked, and he gulped in attempt to cover it up. “You don’t know how much that hurt me.”

It made me uncomfortable to tell him, or anyone, anything. There wasn’t really a specific thing that made me do this. It was just a lot of little bad things that had managed to take over me that day, turn my mind around, turn me into a whole different person.

“It’s hard to…” I trailed off, not knowing what to say.

“Hard to talk about?” he finished, a knowing look on his face. I nodded, glad that he understood what I was trying to say. “That’s the thing though, princess. If you don’t tell someone, it’ll just build up inside you and nothing is going to get better.”

“I know.” I spoke timidly.

Niall scooted back down to sit beside me and cupped my face, looking deep into my eyes. “I promised you that I would stand by you forever, but how am I to stand if you only fall?”

I gulped as tears approached my eyes. I tried to force them back but they weren’t in my control, spilling onto my cheeks. Niall wiped them away, kissing each of my cheeks with love. “Just tell me.”

“It’s not that easy,” I shook my head, my voice already starting to sound wonky. “especially when I don’t know what’s going on. I’m confused. I just want to find out what’s happening. I just want to be able to step outside without having to worry about someone shooting our children. I just want to live one day not thinking their lives are in my hands.”

“Why do you think their lives depend on you?” he asked softly, caressing my cheek.

“I’m the one receiving the messages, I’m the one finding the notes, I’m the one who was targeted before, and somehow because I can’t be the target this time, they’ve targeted my children, whoever ‘they’ is.”

Niall nodded slowly. “I’m listening.”

“The day, you know, in the bathroom, I was just thinking about the kids and what might happen to them if I didn’t do something. And suddenly I was thinking that I was wasting my time, not doing anything with them, like a little voice confirming that they were going to die as I might as well enjoy my last days with them. I just… went crazy. Literally.”

Niall searched my eyes, a sorrowful expression on his face. “Can you do something for me?”

I cocked an eyebrow at him. “Sure…”

“Can you get that scrapbook?”

I didn’t know what he was up to, but he looked like he had something in mind. I pulled open the drawer in the bedside table and took out the scrapbook, giving it to Niall.

“Okay,” he took the scrapbook. “There’s got to be something in here. Something that will give us another clue.”

Niall flipped through the pages, looking closely at the pictures. His fingers traced over each one. I looked closer as well. Maybe he was right. Maybe I just hadn’t looked at the simpler things. Niall and I looked through the scrapbook for a good long hour and found absolutely nothing. Just pictures of Scarlett and I, Scarlett and Jace, and a few with my mother.

Both of us jumped when my phone vibrated with a text.

Mom: You’re looking in the wrong place, Ri.

“Holy shit,” I threw the phone onto the bed as if it were poisoned. “We’re literally being stalked. They know we’re looking through the scrapbook. Oh-oh my god.”

“What?” Niall questioned. “Let me see.” He took my phone and read the message, his eyes widening. “What the hell.”

I searched around frantically, walking over to the windows to see if anyone was there. Nothing. An empty street with soft winds rapping against the window, but nothing other than that. That only scared me more.

“There’s something in this room,” Niall assured. “Something in here that gives whoever the fuck is stalking us immediate response. Like, a camera or something.”

Camera. Where the hell were camera’s in our bedroom? I froze as one very obvious device came into my mind.

“Niall,” I gulped, “my phone.” I walked towards it, picking it up from the mattress. Maybe right now, our stalker could see our face clearly.

Niall came to realization and told me to give him a second. He exited and re-entered the room with his laptop in his hand. “Let me look it up.”

I watched him type in the words, signs that your phone is tapped, and watched as results appeared one after the other. Niall clicked on a link and read out the text to me.

“If your phone is tapped, the following signs may occur; slowness in internet, automatic shut down, low battery even after long periods of charging, and glitching. Apps and other links may disappear due to another user messing with the phone contents.”

“It makes sense.” I gulped. “My phone has been weird lately. It runs out of battery really quick, and shuts down without me actually trying. It’s really slow as well.”

“Well that explains something,” Niall sighed. “But that means if your phone is tapped, mine might as well be, too. Hell, all the phones in the house could be tapped.”

“So do we just need to change our number or something?”

“I don’t know.” Niall buried his head in his hands.

I sat down on the ground and tried to relocate all the information I had just learned. Someone was stalking us through the camera in my phone and apparently knew everything going on in the house as long as my phone was present. It wasn’t just me under surveillance. It was the whole house. My whole family. If they had been able to see Niall and I looking through the scrapbook, what else had they seen?

The hell.

“Fucking perverts,” I muttered, rubbing my eyes. They must have seen every single thing happening in this room, all day, all night.

I felt sick. Really sick.

“I just- I need some fresh air.” I stood up and walked out of the room, unable to think. No, this was too much. This is the reason why. This is why I’m so broken, so scared, so worried every second of the day. Because there is truly someone watching me. I stepped outside the house and shut the front door behind me, sitting on the cold brick of the front porch.

Drizzling rain fell slightly from the sky, a cool mist sweeping past my skin. I closed my eyes and tried to block everything out, imagine a normal, happy life. I prayed to a god that I didn’t believe in the way I used to, asking for this is stop.

But what was the point of God if he wasn’t going to save me?

What was the point of standing proud if there was no one to catch you when you fell?

What was the point of being a princess if your prince was just as hopeless as you?

What was the point of living if you were going to die?

Scarlett, if you’re out there, please stop hurting me. I’ll give anything. Don’t hurt my kids. Don’t hurt my family. I don’t know what I’ve done to you.

Just stop.

I beg of you.

The rain started to fall down harder, a curtain of water shielding me to the shelter of the porch. The street lights turned on as the clouds darkened the sky, just like the way my mind was darkening. I had nothing to believe in, no one to trust in, no one to depend on.

I was in a battle with myself, with the world, with a person or maybe more who wanted to kill my family, and I was losing terribly. When was I to know what would happen next?

Soon, my tears were on with the rain, soaking my cheeks with wetness. My life was like a necklace, and the clasp had let loose. The charms were falling, slipping out. Nothing about the necklace was beautiful anymore. Nothing about my life made it worth anything anymore. It was then that a flash of light shined through the blur of the rain. I realized it was a car, or more so a truck. It stopped by our mailbox and stayed there. I stood up and watched carefully as a figure got out of the truck. I started to back towards the front door my hand on the doorknob ready to bolt inside.

“Aria?” the person called over the rain. I recognized the voice too well.

“Jace.”

“Aria,” he breathed out, coming closer. I could see his face clearly now, him standing on the porch with him large blue eyes. “What happened? You called me ten times and then I start getting these messages saying your in trouble. You didn’t answer when I called you back and I got extremely worried.”

“What?” I blinked at him, my grip still tight on the doorknob. “I never called you.”

“Yes you did.” He squinted at me before he realized I was truly clueless. He pulled out his phone and showed me the texts as proof.

From: Aria

Jace, answer. Please I need you.
Sent at 9:17 pm, October 15, 2019

Jace hurry please get over here. Please please Jace.
Sent at 9:18 pm, October 15, 2019

Answer my texts Jace. They’re hurting me. Jace where are you?
Sent at 9:20 pm, October 15, 2019

“So you drove all the way over here because of a few texts that I didn’t even send?” I questioned. Unbelievable.

“Yeah.” He frowned. “You couldn’t just expect me to ignore you. You sounded like you were in real trouble. And then when you called me, you were sobbing and begging for me to help you.”

“But I didn’t send those texts,” I gulped, my mind flying back to the discovery that my phone was tapped. “Oh my god.”

“What?” Jace looked confused, scratching his chin as he waited for an answer.

“Look,” I cleared my throat. “You can’t be here. If Niall sees that you’re here, he will personally kill you and never look at me again.”

On a fucking ridiculous cue, the front door opened and I grabbed into the wall to keep my balance. Niall stood at the door, staring at Jace. His gaze then dropped to me, and his eyes began to narrow.

“What the hell is going on here?” Niall asked in a calm tone. In other words, he was pissed. “What is he doing here standing at our doorstep?”

“He has a name,” I shot back at Niall, frustrated with the way he immediately disrespected my practical brother. “Jace, this is Niall.”

Jace held his hand out but Niall didn’t accept the gesture. He simply stared at Jace’s hand as if it were the most disgusting thing he had ever seen.

“Look, why don’t you come inside.” I grabbed Jace’s wrist and started to pull him into the house, but Niall’s body blocked me.

“No,” Niall protested. “There is no way he is taking one fucking step into my house.”

“It’s our house, Ni,” I gave my husband a sweet smile while shooting daggers at his face with my eyes.

“I don’t mean any harm, man.” Jace tried to tell Niall. “I think this was just a mistake.”

“You bet it was a mistake,” Niall got up in Jace’s face. “Get out.”

I slapped Niall’s arm. “Niall, come on. He’s harmless, and you’re acting like an asshole.” Niall turned to me and stared at me the way he had stared at Jace.

I pushed past Niall and pulled Jace into the warmth of the household. Niall shut the front door, continuing to stare at Jace and I.

“Jace, can she and I have a second?” Niall asked, not bothering to wait for Jace’s answer before tugging me by my arm into the kitchen.

Notes

Oh....so Jace is back. WHAT THE FUDGESICLESINUNICORNPOOANDSPARKLES JACE IS IN THEIR HOUSE WHAT EVEN I DONT EVEN KNOW WHAT IS GOING THROUGH MY MIND ANYMORE. jace is back. jace is back. jace is back.

So how has y'alls Spring Break been? Tell me in the comments below and also remember to vote and subscribe!!!