It felt weird, you know… sleeping. I woke up that Sunday morning by hearing someone coming in to my room and I recognized Em’s voice.


“Maja?” she asked quietly. “Are you awake?”

“Maybe,” I said still having my eyes closed.

“It’s dinner time, you’ve slept all day. Would you like to come out and eat?” she said.


I then opened my eyes and nodded. I sat up straight and ran a hand through my messy hair, before I stood up and put on a hoodie.




“Finally got some sleep, uh?” Aida asked me when I entered the kitchen where a pot of deliciously smelling chicken soup stood on the table.

“Yeah, it felt quite good…” I said as I stepped forward to look in to the steaming pot and for the first time in a really long time I felt my stomach growling.

We all sat down and started eating and I did want to eat the entire thing, but after only a few bites I already felt a bit sick, since my body wasn’t used to getting any nutrition at all.


“I can’t get over how great last night was,” I suddenly said and I felt a smile form on my lips as they both nodded eagerly. “I’m just really happy that people liked our music and that we got another concert in a month…”

“I’m just really happy that you and Niall made up,” Aida said with a huge smirk on her face.

“Yeah me too,” Em began. “I mean, look at you. You already look much better than you’ve looked for the last couple of weeks. Heartbreaks can’t be good for your health.”

“Wait, hold on, Niall and I didn’t make up,” I corrected them. “He told me he was sorry and I really want to be with him, but honestly I don’t know if I can. I already had enough trouble trusting people before and all these problems haven’t made it any better.”

“Are you saying that you don’t want to be with Niall?” Em asked with tears forming in her eyes.

“No, I’m not saying that, relax,” I quickly exclaimed when I saw their reaction. “I will try, because I do happen to care about Niall a lot, I just can’t make any promises.”


They both looked calmer but still a bit disappointed in my answer.



I suddenly felt some arms pull me in for a hug and recognized the smell of Aida’s light perfume.


“You can’t imagine how happy I am for you. And for us. I’m so glad that we can spend time together all of us and have fun. I think everybody has been pretty worried about both of you,” she said in to my hair.




And at that point I instantly realized that what Liam had said a few days ago was true; the problems between Niall and I didn’t only affect us, but the entire group, and the more I thought of this the more terrible I felt.


As Aida and I pulled away, I said: “I would like to tell you that I’m really sorry about all this. I’ve been acting so selfish for the past couple of weeks and the fact that you never hold anything against me, no matter how awful I’ve been acting around you, shows how good friends you are to me.”

“Oh that’s just what friends…” Em began but I cut her off.

“No. It’s not what all friends do. Living with a depressed and moody monster can’t have been particularly easy for you guys. And I promise that from now on I will try to act more like an adult and just once in a while put my own needs to the side.”

“But…” Aida then tried but I looked at her with a persistent expression that made her finish her sentence with an “okay”.




After dinner I offered to do the dishes and later I went to my room to play a bit on the piano, since I felt the need to. As always I didn’t really expect anything good to come out of it and this time it didn’t seem like there was nothing special about what I ended up with, but I recorded some anyway just in case. Maybe someday I’d find something to do with it.



Even though I had slept all day I didn’t have any trouble falling asleep again a few hours later, guess I had a lot to catch up on.





Working at Aunt Betty the following day wasn’t as hard on me as it had been for the last few weeks and I actually managed to seem a bit more friendly to the costumers this time.


“Well, you seem very happy,” Nathalie also said when I cheerfully walked around the café humming while cleaning the tables.

“I am,” I just said and kept on smiling. My humming that to begin with was just a mixture of a few different songs, ended up returning to the same notes that a while after became a cute little melody. I kept humming it in order not to forget it before my lunch break, where I found my phone to record it.

I saw that Eric had both called and texted me: “Call me when you get off from work? – Eric.”



And then I saw that I had also gotten a message from Eleanor saying: “Hi friend. Want to have coffee this afternoon? Xx Eleanor.”

I wrote back: “I would love that! Where? I get off from work at three. Xx”



As I sat outside smoking I received another message from her. “At Anthony’s – also on Tottenham Court Road. I’ll see you there at half past three then.”

“Ok,” I wrote back before recording my new melody that I suddenly realized sounded a bit like a cute children’s song. But I couldn’t figure out whether that was a good or a bad thing.



I ate my lunch that consisted of five small bites of a bagel with chicken, until I almost felt sick like last night. Eating breakfast early in the morning wasn’t something I was capable of yet either so my intake of food was still quite small. It didn’t bother me though – I couldn’t help but hope that I would lose some weight, which would make it the only positive thing that had come out of the trouble with Niall.


When I got off I headed towards Anthony’s that I had had to look up on Google Maps, since I was still so terrible at finding my way everywhere.


I pulled out my phone to call Eric as he’d asked me to.


“Hello,” his voice answered after only one ring.

“Hi Eric, it’s Maja,” I said. “You’ve called me?”

“Yeah I have. It’s good to hear from you, it’s uhm… about my folk band. Do you still want to try it out?”


At first I couldn’t help but be a bit surprised that the thing about the band was actually true, but it only made me happy.

“Of course!” I exclaimed.

“Oh. Great then! We rehearse every Thursday evening at eight till ten at a place in Knightsbridge. Are you free on Thursdays?”

“Yes I am. Can you send me the address in a message or something then?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’ll do that.”



In the same second I saw a tall girl with brown hair wave at me from outside an old building with a wooden sign saying Anthony’s.


“Oh, I’ve got to go, but I’ll just see you on Thursday, okay Eric?” I quickly said in my phone as I waved back at Eleanor.

“Okay, looking forward,” he said with a flirtatious tone and I just chuckled and hung up.



“Hi Eleanor!” I said smiling. “Wow, you look beautiful!” She was wearing a red tight dress with some black pointy stilettos and a leather jacket.

“Thank you, coming straight from an interview to a fashion show,” she said as she hugged me.

“Then whoever the designer is they’d be crazy not to hire you, gurl!” I said that last part with an American accent that Aida and Em really were the champions at but through the years I kind of had caught up on their habit of doing it every once in a while.

“David Longshaw,” she said smiling. “One of the big bombs actually. We’re hoping for the best.”

I nodded.


“So,” I began as we walked inside Anthony’s that on the inside looked like a mixture of a bar and a café, “is there any particular reason you wanted to meet me?”

“No, just thought it would be fun to hang out,” she said shortly and I couldn’t help but smile. She really seemed like the nicest girl.



“What can I get for you?” a waiter asked suddenly standing beside the table that we’d chosen to sit down at.

“Uhm… I’ll have a glass of red wine,” I said.

“Make that two,” Eleanor added.

“You be careful girl, I don’t want to be the reason for another night with a sick stomach,” I said teasingly.

She laughed. “Don’t worry, today I had a proper lunch.”

“I actually have been wanting to talk to you for a while,” she then continued and I looked up at her curiously. “But then all that stuff with Niall happened and I didn’t really know how to react and I thought it might be a little weird if we all hung out with you, except for him so I didn’t do anything. The thing is I like your company even though we don’t speak that often.”

I couldn’t help but smile at her honesty. “Yeah. I feel the same way. How are you then?”

“I’m great actually, getting lots of jobs so I’m working quite a lot. What about you?”

“Working a lot as well. Not in as fancy a way as you though,” I said and she chuckled.

“Where are you working right now?” she asked.

“Aunt Betty – the bagel shop a bit further down Tottenham Court Road.”

“Wow. That must be tough working there all day every day…”

“It is, trust me. I really hope that music could maybe one day be my job.”

“It will,” she suddenly said and I looked at her a bit surprised. “You guys are really talented song writers and musicians.”

I blushed. “Thank you, El. We’ll see what people think.”



Our glasses of wine arrived and we both took a sip before I lid up a cigarette, when I saw that you could smoke in there.

“What about you and Louis? Is everything good there as well?” I asked.

“He’s amazing,” she answered nodding. “I feel so lucky to be with him.” Her face expression was almost kind of serious which made me admire them as a couple even more.

“You seem really happy as well.”

“And Niall?” she asked.

I knew the question was inevitable but it still felt a bit uncomfortable to talk about it. Eleanor seemed like a very trustworthy person though, so I decided to tell her about what had happened between us and what he’d said when we saw each other this Saturday.




“Wow,” she said when I had finished telling about us. “Louis visited him a lot the past few weeks, he said that he wouldn’t get out of bed, that the recording wasn’t going well with him and stuff like that. I think he must like you a lot. But I’ve told you that already.” She smiled to brighten up the mood a bit.

“Yes that’s what he says as well,” I replied. “But you know… it’s hard to trust someone that you’ve been hurt by, even though it might just be that one time.”

She agreed. “Promise me that you’ll try to trust him again.”


I looked up at her very surprised by her sudden comment. “Uhm…” I began but she continued:

“I think you guys could really be with each other. He’s never introduced us to a girl properly before and even though he made a mistake I can assure you he’s a good guy, who would never mean to hurt you in any way.”

“I know,” I said and looked down at my hands feeling a bit sad.

“And I know it’s none of my business, but to be honest I would like to keep you, Aida and Em in our group without there being any tensions – you’re such nice people and already some of the best friends I’ve had in a long time.”


For a few moments I didn’t know what to say. “That is so sweet, Eleanor. I’m happy to hear that, and I will make the promise to try my very best to make everything work with Niall. Cause… you know, I do like him as well… a lot.” I kept blushing more and more, both because of her compliment but also because of thinking about Niall and she just sat smiling at my cute behavior.




We spent hours sitting at Anthony’s, drinking wine and talking about practically everything. I wrote Aida a message that I wouldn’t be home for dinner, since we decided to eat at the café as well.


At eight o’clock I found myself sitting in the tube on my way home smiling at the thought of a new friendship with someone truly great as Eleanor.



I stepped inside the apartment still feeling happy. “I’m home!” I yelled, but didn’t get any answer. I took off my cowboy jacket and went in to the kitchen that was left empty, so I walked further in to the living room where no one was to be seen either. I checked my phone to see if I had gotten any messages, the girls would never leave without telling me where they were.


As the last place I looked in to both of their rooms to find them in Aida’s room sitting on her bed.


“Hi guys, what’s up?” I asked and sat down as well. “I had the most amazing afternoon…” I began but immediately stopped once I saw the look on Aida’s face.


“What’s wrong?” I then asked worried.


None of them answered for some long and agonizing seconds, where Em just sat with her head bowed down to look at her hands. “It’s Harry,” she then suddenly said.

I looked back and forth between the two of them, until I noticed tears forming in Aida’s eyes.

Notes

12 votes and still going strong, thanks to you guys! Love you! Keep on boosting my self-esteem :-D Love, love, love!