Drama
Chapter 15: Double Trouble
Leila's P.O.V.
I arise from my sleep to find out I’m in my living room. I feel heat next to me and I remember Niall’s right there, still asleep, and smile as I watch his eyelids flutter. My phone is sitting on the coffee table in front of me, so I reach over and grab it. Madison texted me twice:
Hey, I’m with some friends, be back late this afternoon
And the second one:
BTW, saw you guys on the couch this morning, had to take a pic and send it to you :)
And attached is a picture of me and Niall lying on the couch this morning, cuddling and sleeping. I smile as I save the picture into my camera roll.
“Hey, what are you looking at?” Niall’s morning voice asks from behind me.
“Nothing, Madison just texted me,” I reply, which was the truth. I turn off my phone and set it back on the table.
“Mmhmm, ok,” Niall says, knowing it’s not the full story. “So what do you want to do today?”
“I don’t know, Madison’s out until later this afternoon,” I reply.
“Well, whatever we do, I really just want to stay inside,” Niall suggests.
“Are you mad at me?” The question slips out of my mouth before I can even think about asking him at the right time.
“Mad at you? For what?” Niall asks.
“For leaving the party early last night. I feel bad because you looked like you were having a lot of fun, but then I wasn’t and I practically made you leave…” I trail off.
“Lei, I’m not mad at you. It’s okay, my friends understood. I told them in advance that I was bringing someone who’d never been to a party before, and they know that it’s intimidating, the first time you go to a party,” Niall explains.
“I still feel bad,” I add.
“It’s all right, I’ll see them again. Come on, you’ve got to get your mind off of this,” Niall states.
“You’re right. I’m going to go shower because I feel all gross from the party, so,” I announce, standing up. Niall grabs my arm and turns me to face him still lying on the couch.
“Hey, don’t think about the party, okay? Think about…the show,” Niall suggests, dropping my arm.
“Yeah, about that,” I express, giving him a look.
“Oh, yeah,” Niall says, understanding me. “Well then…think about me.”
I laugh and walk towards the bathroom.
“What’s so funny about that?” he shouts after me.
“Nothing!” I call back, entering my room to grab a cute, comfy outfit. I head into the bathroom and take my long, needed shower, washing off the memories of last night. Not all of it was bad, but most of it was, and the image of Spencer floods my mind and makes my stomach uneasy. Stop it, I warn myself. Niall told you to think of him, don’t think of the party. I inhale a deep breath of the humid air and in my mind, I board the party on a train and send it off. A new train arrives with Niall on it and he climbs off, running to me and picking me up, spinning me around. That little image makes me smile as I turn off the water and step out, drying off. I change and make myself look acceptable, then head back out to the living room.
Niall is sitting on the couch on his phone. He looks up as I plop down next to him.
“Hey, do you have an extra toothbrush I could borrow? My mouth feels disgusting from the alcohol last night,” Niall questions.
“Uh, yeah, my mom made me pack an extra one, it’s in the bathroom still in its wrapping in the drawer. You can use the toothpaste, too, obviously,” I respond, giggling a little bit while he stands up and pads into the bathroom.
As I wait for him to finish up, my stomach growls and I enter the kitchen to find something to eat. I find out that we have pancake mix and decide to make blueberry pancakes. I get out all the ingredients and utensils and begin to pour the mix into a cup to measure it out when Niall sneaks up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist and causing me to spill out the white powder onto the table.
“Holy shit, Niall!” I exclaim, smiling and setting down the cup.
“I wasn’t expecting you to jump like that!” Niall defends, squeezing me into a hug.
“Well, you should because I get scared easily,” I explain. He releases me and stands next to me instead.
“So, we’re making pancakes?” he asks, picking up the box of mix.
“No, we’re making spaghetti,” I sarcastically respond.
“Ha, ha, very funny,” Niall chuckles, rolling his eyes.
“Instead of standing there and laughing, how about you measure out the oil?” I say, pushing the bottle of oil towards him and a measuring cup.
“Okay, doesn’t look too hard,” he comments. “How much oil?”
“Look on the box, it should say,” I reply. I finish measuring out the right amount of mix and pour it into the bowl. Niall takes the box from me and studies the back, finding the recipe and measuring out the oil. Water needs to be added, so I take a cup and fill it up from the faucet by the sink. I dump it in the bowl as Niall also drops the oil in at the same time. I realize I forgot to bring out the whisk to mix it all up, so I turn around and find the drawer with the utensil. Right as I spin back around, Niall flicks some of the white powder in my face.
“Niall!” I laugh, licking off some of the mix that hit my lips. It doesn’t taste very good…
“Gotcha!” Niall adds, poking my stomach.
“You will pay for this!” I yell at him.
“Wait! I need a picture!” he declares, and scrambles into the living room for his phone.
“No, no, no, no, no, no, no!” I scream and attempt to back away. Not a great idea since the counter is right behind me. Niall backs me up and snaps a picture of me.
“You didn’t,” I begin.
“I did,” he taunts. “Leila and I making pancakes this morning and someone got a little messy…” he recites, tapping away on his phone.
“You’re not,” I start again, my eyes widening.
“And…tweet,” he says, tapping the button on the screen.
“No!” I scream, pouncing on him. He falls back on the floor and his phone jumps out of his grip. I catch it before it breaks on the floor below and I come crashing down on Niall. Before I get up, I look at the tweet and how many people are already retweeting it and replying to it. Niall realizes what I’m about to do and grabs the phone back before I can delete it.
“Bad, Leila,” he playfully scolds. I pout.
“You do look pretty cute, though,” he adds, brushing a little bit of the powder off of my cheek. His baby blue eyes meet my rainbow hazel ones and I can feel the heat of my cheeks spreading throughout my body. Before I know it, our lips come together naturally as if we were both thinking the same thing and it sends electric shocks throughout my body, tingling every inch of my skin. Niall’s arms wrap around my back and hug me closer to him, but I’m pretty sure I’m as close to him as I can get. His arms become loose again and drop back to his sides and he pulls away from the kiss, his expression not what I wanted when I looked at him.
“Ew, that stuff tastes nasty!” he declares, wiping the mix off of his lips. Oops, I forgot I still had some on my mouth.
“That’s what you get for flicking me in the first place!” I playfully retort. I get off of him and help him up.
“Yeah, I guess I should be the one to blame,” he apologizes.
“Okay, well, I’m starving, so can we actually work now?” I ask, wiping off the powder with a towel.
“Yeah, I’m getting hungry, too,” he agrees.
We work together to make the perfect blueberry pancakes, fluffy on the inside and golden brown on the outside. We sit down at the table and eat while telling each other some of our most embarrassing moments in life, considering that this one will also be embarrassing, even though the ending was the sweetest part. I feel comfortable telling him about anything, everything, basically all of the things Cameron knows. Oh, no, I haven’t even told my family or Cameron about Niall, how is he going to take it?
“Niall, would you mind if we video chatted my family back home? I haven’t really had the chance to talk with them over these past few weeks, and now that I’ve had 2 weeks on the show…” I ask.
“Yeah, sure, that’s fine!” he answers, smiling at me. I smile back and take the dirty dishes to the sink. Niall plops down on the couch and I call my parents, hoping they’ll be able to video chat. I grab my laptop from my room and enter the living room, sitting next to Niall and opening it up.
“By the way,” Niall starts, “this is also my new phone background.” He shows me his phone with the picture of me covered in the pancake mix.
“You’re such an idiot,” I laugh, waiting for the laptop to power up. It finally does and I’m able to load up Skype. I find my parents’ account under my contacts and click on it. The green button tells me they’re online, so I click “Call” and the video begins.
My parents, along with my brother and Cameron, blow up on my screen.
“Hey, Leila!” they greet, waving.
“Can you hear us?” my dad asks.
“Yup, loud and clear,” I answer.
“So how’s everything over there?” my mom questions.
“Really good, it was tough the first week but this past week hasn’t been too bad,” I return. “By the way, I want you to meet Niall.” I gesture to him and he waves at my family.
“Oooohhh, who’s that?” my mom interrogates.
“He’s a member of the new boyband, One Direction. You’ve heard of them, right mom?” I say.
“Yeah, yeah, I remember you showing me that you bought their first CD. How are you, Niall?” my mom asks.
“It’s been crazy over here as Leila just said,” he responds. He explains his whole situation with his uncle and how he’s able to come to “Red Light Studios” to have an inside look at some new shows. My parents look interested in his story, but I see Cameron on his phone. It hurts me to think Cameron would rather be on his phone than listen to Niall’s story, since Niall is my boyfriend. But then I watch as he turns back to the screen and listens. A few seconds later, my phone goes off and it’s a text from, you guessed it, Cameron.
Are you dating this guy?
I stare at the words and my first implication is that he doesn’t approve of Niall and he hates me for choosing him. But Cameron is my best friend and he has the right to know, no matter what he feels about it. I text him back: Yes
I turn my focus back on the conversation as Niall’s story is just ending.
“Wow, that’s great,” my mom immediately replies.
“So, Leila, how’s life on set?” my dad asks. I see Cameron texting me back and I hear my phone buzz again, but I don’t pick it up since I go into a story on my life here.
After my long novel, I ask if we can speak to Cameron separately. My parents and brother have no problem with that, and my nerves go up as I now have to face Cameron about this.
“Hey,” he greets.
“Hi,” I reply back.
“I still miss you over here,” he starts.
“I miss you, too. I’m sorry I haven’t been able to call or text, but-”
“Is it because of him?” Cameron interrupts, pointing at Niall through the screen. Niall looks at me confused.
“No, we just got together about 2 days ago,” I inform Cameron.
“Oh,” he responds, his expression low.
“Cam, I’m really sorry,” I apologize.
“Lei, save it. I’m happy for you, I really am. I just wish I did things differently before you left,” he explains.
“Are you mad?” I ask him, the same question I just realize I asked Niall this morning.
“I’m mad at myself, not you. It’s not your fault,” Cameron delivers. “Well, I’d better go. Talk to you later.”
I watch as Cameron reaches across the keyboard and presses the “Escape” key, ending our video chat. My eyes continue to stare at the screen as I am in absolute disbelief at what just happened.
“Leila,” Niall begins. I snap my eyes away from the laptop, shake my head, and close the laptop cover.
“Are you okay?” he continues.
“I don’t know,” I reply, looking up at him with watery eyes. The tears spill over as I realize I’m losing Cameron. He said he’s really happy for me, but his expression clearly didn’t show it. I cry into Niall’s shoulder once again as he wraps his arms around me in a tight hug, rocking me back and forth and shushing me. My tears let up and I loosen my grip around him as he does the same.
“You’ve been doing an awful lot of crying, haven’t you?” Niall chuckles. I take a deep breath.
“Cameron’s my best friend,” I start. “We’ve been best friends since, I don’t know, way back when were kids. He’s always had my side and told me to go after my dream, even if it meant that I’d be moving. Before I left, the day of, to be exact, he kissed me and we found out we both had feelings for each other, but I couldn’t get wrapped up in a relationship when I was about to move across the country to live my dreams. I had to focus on moving, focus on adjusting, focus on the show. I couldn’t do it. But now I’m here, I’ve adjusted, I’ve begun the show, I’m ready. But he’s miles away, there was no way I was going to call him and tell him we’re together when I don’t even know when I’ll see him next. And you came along, and I guess you took Cameron’s place…”
Niall stays silent, then speaks.
“Does this mean you want to...?” he asks.
“No, no, I didn’t mean that. I guess, what I’m saying is, is that I’m ready for a relationship and you’re here instead of him. I love both of you, but he’s back home, and there’s no way I’m going to be in a relationship with him for a while, at least. You’re the one who’s here now, and I’m not losing you,” I explain.
“Good, because I don’t want to lose you either,” Niall delivers, taking my hand and bringing it up to his mouth to kiss it. “And just like the party, we’ve got to get your mind off of this, too. Movie?”
“You know the perfect way to cheer me up already,” I smile.
“Well, now I can check that off of my list!” Niall laughs. He reaches over me and grabs the remote, turning on the TV and booting up Netflix. He picks out a comedy that we can both laugh at and leaves it play for the next couple of hours. He’s right; it does take my mind off of the events that have happened just recently.
I arise from my sleep to find out I’m in my living room. I feel heat next to me and I remember Niall’s right there, still asleep, and smile as I watch his eyelids flutter. My phone is sitting on the coffee table in front of me, so I reach over and grab it. Madison texted me twice:
Hey, I’m with some friends, be back late this afternoon
And the second one:
BTW, saw you guys on the couch this morning, had to take a pic and send it to you :)
And attached is a picture of me and Niall lying on the couch this morning, cuddling and sleeping. I smile as I save the picture into my camera roll.
“Hey, what are you looking at?” Niall’s morning voice asks from behind me.
“Nothing, Madison just texted me,” I reply, which was the truth. I turn off my phone and set it back on the table.
“Mmhmm, ok,” Niall says, knowing it’s not the full story. “So what do you want to do today?”
“I don’t know, Madison’s out until later this afternoon,” I reply.
“Well, whatever we do, I really just want to stay inside,” Niall suggests.
“Are you mad at me?” The question slips out of my mouth before I can even think about asking him at the right time.
“Mad at you? For what?” Niall asks.
“For leaving the party early last night. I feel bad because you looked like you were having a lot of fun, but then I wasn’t and I practically made you leave…” I trail off.
“Lei, I’m not mad at you. It’s okay, my friends understood. I told them in advance that I was bringing someone who’d never been to a party before, and they know that it’s intimidating, the first time you go to a party,” Niall explains.
“I still feel bad,” I add.
“It’s all right, I’ll see them again. Come on, you’ve got to get your mind off of this,” Niall states.
“You’re right. I’m going to go shower because I feel all gross from the party, so,” I announce, standing up. Niall grabs my arm and turns me to face him still lying on the couch.
“Hey, don’t think about the party, okay? Think about…the show,” Niall suggests, dropping my arm.
“Yeah, about that,” I express, giving him a look.
“Oh, yeah,” Niall says, understanding me. “Well then…think about me.”
I laugh and walk towards the bathroom.
“What’s so funny about that?” he shouts after me.
“Nothing!” I call back, entering my room to grab a cute, comfy outfit. I head into the bathroom and take my long, needed shower, washing off the memories of last night. Not all of it was bad, but most of it was, and the image of Spencer floods my mind and makes my stomach uneasy. Stop it, I warn myself. Niall told you to think of him, don’t think of the party. I inhale a deep breath of the humid air and in my mind, I board the party on a train and send it off. A new train arrives with Niall on it and he climbs off, running to me and picking me up, spinning me around. That little image makes me smile as I turn off the water and step out, drying off. I change and make myself look acceptable, then head back out to the living room.
Niall is sitting on the couch on his phone. He looks up as I plop down next to him.
“Hey, do you have an extra toothbrush I could borrow? My mouth feels disgusting from the alcohol last night,” Niall questions.
“Uh, yeah, my mom made me pack an extra one, it’s in the bathroom still in its wrapping in the drawer. You can use the toothpaste, too, obviously,” I respond, giggling a little bit while he stands up and pads into the bathroom.
As I wait for him to finish up, my stomach growls and I enter the kitchen to find something to eat. I find out that we have pancake mix and decide to make blueberry pancakes. I get out all the ingredients and utensils and begin to pour the mix into a cup to measure it out when Niall sneaks up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist and causing me to spill out the white powder onto the table.
“Holy shit, Niall!” I exclaim, smiling and setting down the cup.
“I wasn’t expecting you to jump like that!” Niall defends, squeezing me into a hug.
“Well, you should because I get scared easily,” I explain. He releases me and stands next to me instead.
“So, we’re making pancakes?” he asks, picking up the box of mix.
“No, we’re making spaghetti,” I sarcastically respond.
“Ha, ha, very funny,” Niall chuckles, rolling his eyes.
“Instead of standing there and laughing, how about you measure out the oil?” I say, pushing the bottle of oil towards him and a measuring cup.
“Okay, doesn’t look too hard,” he comments. “How much oil?”
“Look on the box, it should say,” I reply. I finish measuring out the right amount of mix and pour it into the bowl. Niall takes the box from me and studies the back, finding the recipe and measuring out the oil. Water needs to be added, so I take a cup and fill it up from the faucet by the sink. I dump it in the bowl as Niall also drops the oil in at the same time. I realize I forgot to bring out the whisk to mix it all up, so I turn around and find the drawer with the utensil. Right as I spin back around, Niall flicks some of the white powder in my face.
“Niall!” I laugh, licking off some of the mix that hit my lips. It doesn’t taste very good…
“Gotcha!” Niall adds, poking my stomach.
“You will pay for this!” I yell at him.
“Wait! I need a picture!” he declares, and scrambles into the living room for his phone.
“No, no, no, no, no, no, no!” I scream and attempt to back away. Not a great idea since the counter is right behind me. Niall backs me up and snaps a picture of me.
“You didn’t,” I begin.
“I did,” he taunts. “Leila and I making pancakes this morning and someone got a little messy…” he recites, tapping away on his phone.
“You’re not,” I start again, my eyes widening.
“And…tweet,” he says, tapping the button on the screen.
“No!” I scream, pouncing on him. He falls back on the floor and his phone jumps out of his grip. I catch it before it breaks on the floor below and I come crashing down on Niall. Before I get up, I look at the tweet and how many people are already retweeting it and replying to it. Niall realizes what I’m about to do and grabs the phone back before I can delete it.
“Bad, Leila,” he playfully scolds. I pout.
“You do look pretty cute, though,” he adds, brushing a little bit of the powder off of my cheek. His baby blue eyes meet my rainbow hazel ones and I can feel the heat of my cheeks spreading throughout my body. Before I know it, our lips come together naturally as if we were both thinking the same thing and it sends electric shocks throughout my body, tingling every inch of my skin. Niall’s arms wrap around my back and hug me closer to him, but I’m pretty sure I’m as close to him as I can get. His arms become loose again and drop back to his sides and he pulls away from the kiss, his expression not what I wanted when I looked at him.
“Ew, that stuff tastes nasty!” he declares, wiping the mix off of his lips. Oops, I forgot I still had some on my mouth.
“That’s what you get for flicking me in the first place!” I playfully retort. I get off of him and help him up.
“Yeah, I guess I should be the one to blame,” he apologizes.
“Okay, well, I’m starving, so can we actually work now?” I ask, wiping off the powder with a towel.
“Yeah, I’m getting hungry, too,” he agrees.
We work together to make the perfect blueberry pancakes, fluffy on the inside and golden brown on the outside. We sit down at the table and eat while telling each other some of our most embarrassing moments in life, considering that this one will also be embarrassing, even though the ending was the sweetest part. I feel comfortable telling him about anything, everything, basically all of the things Cameron knows. Oh, no, I haven’t even told my family or Cameron about Niall, how is he going to take it?
“Niall, would you mind if we video chatted my family back home? I haven’t really had the chance to talk with them over these past few weeks, and now that I’ve had 2 weeks on the show…” I ask.
“Yeah, sure, that’s fine!” he answers, smiling at me. I smile back and take the dirty dishes to the sink. Niall plops down on the couch and I call my parents, hoping they’ll be able to video chat. I grab my laptop from my room and enter the living room, sitting next to Niall and opening it up.
“By the way,” Niall starts, “this is also my new phone background.” He shows me his phone with the picture of me covered in the pancake mix.
“You’re such an idiot,” I laugh, waiting for the laptop to power up. It finally does and I’m able to load up Skype. I find my parents’ account under my contacts and click on it. The green button tells me they’re online, so I click “Call” and the video begins.
My parents, along with my brother and Cameron, blow up on my screen.
“Hey, Leila!” they greet, waving.
“Can you hear us?” my dad asks.
“Yup, loud and clear,” I answer.
“So how’s everything over there?” my mom questions.
“Really good, it was tough the first week but this past week hasn’t been too bad,” I return. “By the way, I want you to meet Niall.” I gesture to him and he waves at my family.
“Oooohhh, who’s that?” my mom interrogates.
“He’s a member of the new boyband, One Direction. You’ve heard of them, right mom?” I say.
“Yeah, yeah, I remember you showing me that you bought their first CD. How are you, Niall?” my mom asks.
“It’s been crazy over here as Leila just said,” he responds. He explains his whole situation with his uncle and how he’s able to come to “Red Light Studios” to have an inside look at some new shows. My parents look interested in his story, but I see Cameron on his phone. It hurts me to think Cameron would rather be on his phone than listen to Niall’s story, since Niall is my boyfriend. But then I watch as he turns back to the screen and listens. A few seconds later, my phone goes off and it’s a text from, you guessed it, Cameron.
Are you dating this guy?
I stare at the words and my first implication is that he doesn’t approve of Niall and he hates me for choosing him. But Cameron is my best friend and he has the right to know, no matter what he feels about it. I text him back: Yes
I turn my focus back on the conversation as Niall’s story is just ending.
“Wow, that’s great,” my mom immediately replies.
“So, Leila, how’s life on set?” my dad asks. I see Cameron texting me back and I hear my phone buzz again, but I don’t pick it up since I go into a story on my life here.
After my long novel, I ask if we can speak to Cameron separately. My parents and brother have no problem with that, and my nerves go up as I now have to face Cameron about this.
“Hey,” he greets.
“Hi,” I reply back.
“I still miss you over here,” he starts.
“I miss you, too. I’m sorry I haven’t been able to call or text, but-”
“Is it because of him?” Cameron interrupts, pointing at Niall through the screen. Niall looks at me confused.
“No, we just got together about 2 days ago,” I inform Cameron.
“Oh,” he responds, his expression low.
“Cam, I’m really sorry,” I apologize.
“Lei, save it. I’m happy for you, I really am. I just wish I did things differently before you left,” he explains.
“Are you mad?” I ask him, the same question I just realize I asked Niall this morning.
“I’m mad at myself, not you. It’s not your fault,” Cameron delivers. “Well, I’d better go. Talk to you later.”
I watch as Cameron reaches across the keyboard and presses the “Escape” key, ending our video chat. My eyes continue to stare at the screen as I am in absolute disbelief at what just happened.
“Leila,” Niall begins. I snap my eyes away from the laptop, shake my head, and close the laptop cover.
“Are you okay?” he continues.
“I don’t know,” I reply, looking up at him with watery eyes. The tears spill over as I realize I’m losing Cameron. He said he’s really happy for me, but his expression clearly didn’t show it. I cry into Niall’s shoulder once again as he wraps his arms around me in a tight hug, rocking me back and forth and shushing me. My tears let up and I loosen my grip around him as he does the same.
“You’ve been doing an awful lot of crying, haven’t you?” Niall chuckles. I take a deep breath.
“Cameron’s my best friend,” I start. “We’ve been best friends since, I don’t know, way back when were kids. He’s always had my side and told me to go after my dream, even if it meant that I’d be moving. Before I left, the day of, to be exact, he kissed me and we found out we both had feelings for each other, but I couldn’t get wrapped up in a relationship when I was about to move across the country to live my dreams. I had to focus on moving, focus on adjusting, focus on the show. I couldn’t do it. But now I’m here, I’ve adjusted, I’ve begun the show, I’m ready. But he’s miles away, there was no way I was going to call him and tell him we’re together when I don’t even know when I’ll see him next. And you came along, and I guess you took Cameron’s place…”
Niall stays silent, then speaks.
“Does this mean you want to...?” he asks.
“No, no, I didn’t mean that. I guess, what I’m saying is, is that I’m ready for a relationship and you’re here instead of him. I love both of you, but he’s back home, and there’s no way I’m going to be in a relationship with him for a while, at least. You’re the one who’s here now, and I’m not losing you,” I explain.
“Good, because I don’t want to lose you either,” Niall delivers, taking my hand and bringing it up to his mouth to kiss it. “And just like the party, we’ve got to get your mind off of this, too. Movie?”
“You know the perfect way to cheer me up already,” I smile.
“Well, now I can check that off of my list!” Niall laughs. He reaches over me and grabs the remote, turning on the TV and booting up Netflix. He picks out a comedy that we can both laugh at and leaves it play for the next couple of hours. He’s right; it does take my mind off of the events that have happened just recently.
Notes
Eeeep! This is my favorite chapter so far because it's so cute! How are you liking the story so far? Please vote and comment, I really appreciate feedback!If you still don't know, I have made a Twitter for this fanfic: @Drama_1Dfanfic so please follow me there! Follow my personal, too: @leikelamichelle, I'll follow back on both accounts!
Rachel :)
Make a Sequel please.
9/13/14