Niall's POV

I've literally done nothing since I got home. I've sat on this couch after my unprovoked fit of rage all my things are scattered around the living room. My legs won't stop bouncing. I've called my Ma, my Dad, anyone I could think of to just pass the time. I know that Erica is out of class and probably at home by now.

I'm hoping she's at least read what I wrote. At least given me a chance. I still have faith in her and in us though.

An alert from my kitchen security monitor has me jumping up, running to see who it is. I get that nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach when I see the familiar Mini of Erica's. I'm literally jumping up and down trying to calm my nerves and myself.

I start pacing around the dining room, just waiting. It's a little windy outside so I can't hear her car door close, I can watch her in the cameras but I don't want to be creepy so I just wait. My palms are sweaty, I keep wiping them on my pants, I pause when I hear footsteps getting closer to the door, I just rock back and forth, waiting. She knocks, doesn't ring the bell, and I all but trip on the chair trying to rush to get to her. I pause at the mirror and see that everything looks about as good as it could be.

She looks up at me when I open the door, I can see she's nervous too. She has her purse in one hand, my journal in the other. “Hi.” She looks at me slightly and then down at the ground.

“Hi, come in, come in.” I move to the side, my right hand still on the door handle as I gesture for her to come in.

“Thank you.” She starts to unbutton her black coat and I quickly rush to help her. She spins out of it and looks at me, slightly smiling. I feel like we're fifteen all over again, shy kids in school. We stand in the entrance, that silence, Erica walks to the side table and drops her purse off, her hands still on the book. “Thank you for letting me read this.” She holds it out for me to take and I shake my head and I push it back to her.

“I want you to keep it.” I smile. “It's pretty much all about you so no matter what happens to us I want you to keep it.” I hope this isn't the end, but I want this to be something that Erica has forever.

“Thank you.” She brings the book to her chest and holds it, clutching it to be exact. “What happened here?” She looks around and slightly laughs.

“Um, I was unpacking when you arrived.” I lie slightly.

“Sure, unpacking.” She laughs and starts to walk towards the suitcase explosion to fold my clothes.

“You don't have to do that Erica. I can get it later.” I take the shirt from her. “Besides, most of this stuff needs to be washed.” I start picking things up and putting it in the corner of the room, a central location at least. Of course out of the corner of my eye I can see Erica picking up things as well, adding to the pile.

“Can we talk?” I stop and turn to face her.

“Yes.” I say suddenly, dropping my swim trunks on the floor where I stand.

“On the couch?” She smiles sweetly as she walks from the back of it and sits, patting the spot next to her for me to join her. God I'm so nervous. I don't know if this is the end or just the beginning with us. I don't say anything, my jaw is like locked. “I wanted to apologize.” She starts off and it catches me completely off guard.

“You're sorry?” I hold back a laugh.

“Yes. I feel like I over reacted just a little bit.” She's pulling at the hem of her shirt, it's that nervous habit of hers that I smile at. “I was just so worried for you, you were really scaring me with how you were acting at your Nan's funeral. I just thought you could stay an extra day and feel better, get a little more rest.” I can't believe she's apologizing to me, this is completely a shock to me and completely unnecessary. “I was just hurt. And then when you called me drunk and you acted like you didn't care at all that really hurt.” She starts sniffling and it just breaks my heart to think that she's the one who thinks she's in the wrong and that she's crying over feeling like she's an idiot. It's the complete opposite. “And then-” She pauses to choke back tears.

“Erica stop.” I scoot closer to her, bringing her into my chest to hug her. “Just stop.” I whisper into her hair as she shakes with tears. “Look at me.” I whisper once again. “Look at me.” I pull her face away and brush the tears away with my thumb. “You have nothing to be sorry about. I can promise you that. I like to avoid things. That's what I was doing at Nan's funeral. I was so shocked to hear of her passing, I don't like missing shows. I was being selfish. You had done everything in your power to try and fix things for me, you helped my family so much that weekend, we are forever in your gratitude. I didn't mean to let you leave. I just wanted to leave. I wanted to go and get away, avoid everything.” I hate this but our communication is terrible. That's our problem

“It's okay.” She whispers.

“No, it's not okay Erica.” I turn so I'm sitting sideways on the couch, facing her. “When I went to Jakarta things were great. I could just avoid everything and that was what I wanted to do. Run away. I'm not used to having someone at home waiting for me. I didn't mean anything when I went out with Louis that night in South Africa. You know as well as I do that him and Eleanor are having a hard time, he just wanted to get out and have fun so I went. My deepest regret is what I said to you. You know me more than anyone else, you know everything about my life. You've never been on tour with us but you understand because I can't keep things from you.” I chuckle a little bit, the only thing I've ever kept from her is that journal she's still clutching but now it's hers. “So I'm sorry.”

She laughs a little bit, we're both awkward laughers that when we don't really know what to do we laugh. “I was just so hurt Niall. It was a defensive thing to ignore you like I have been.” She won't look at me, still pulling on that invisible string.

“I don't blame you. I deserve it.”

“No you don't. I shouldn't ignore someone I love. We could have fixed things over the phone. My stubborn side of having to see you face to face isn't always going to work. Their will be times when you're gone and we'll have problems and we just have to learn.” She stops pulling her shirt and brings her legs up to her chest, another protective trait that I've noticed she always does.

“I know, we have to learn to communicate big time. You can't just let things slide when you're upset Erica. You have to tell me or I'll just keep doing them. And vice versa, I need to tell you too.” She nods, slightly biting on her bottom lip.

“So now what do we do?”

“I love you.” I reach my hand out and pull her chin up so she's looking at me, she tries to look down or turn away but I won't let her.

“I love you.” She smiles, it's the first time that we've actually said it to each other. Not just her saying it, not just me saying it, but both of us. Our foreheads touch and my hand creeps behind her head into her hair as I pull her towards me and our lips softly meet. I've missed her lips. She pulls away slightly, I can feel her smiling against me as we continue to kiss.

“It's always been you.” I whisper. “It will always be you Erica.” I don't even feel cheesy saying it, something I would make fun of the guys for in a second I now totally understand. Come hell or high water I will always fight for her.

She laughs as she wipes tears away from her face with the back of her hand. “I missed you so much.” She wraps her arms around me and I feel like I've finally relaxed.

“You have no idea.” I pull her on my lap and just hold her. I don't need anything else right now, I just need her. The whole world could end right now and I wouldn't notice because I have my whole world right here.

Notes

So this is it! My last chapter! I'll be posting an epilogue tomorrow though, so look out for it! Sorry I didn't write notes yesterday, I always write them!! But the website was super slow yesterday and it took me almost an hour just to copy and paste a chapter, then every time I tried to go back in and edit, my computer would freeze so I just gave up.

So what did you think? The end!! I can't believe it's finally here, I've been posting this story since December! You all got a happy ending, never a guarantee with me but hopefully you all liked it! They truly love each other so they just needed to get over their fears of communication, something they've been struggling with the whole story.

I can't thank you all enough for your kind words, subscriptions, messages, votes, just all of it means so much to me! I hope my Zayn story lives up to my Niall expectations, you just never know! I'll be starting that story sometime next week so check back her for a link.

Once again, thank you all so much for being the most amazing readers. You all give me the confidence to keep writing!

Have a wonderful day!

xoxox