Niall’s view:
I never thought I would say this but video games got boring. I resorted to YouTube. I watched funny videos of us and tried to comprehend what we were thinking in that moment. I watched how to learn piano videos and couldn’t understand how to get my fingers right at all. On the right column there were suggested videos and as I scrolled through I saw a picture of her. I clicked the video and saw a mob all around her. The camera was shaking badly and it looked scary. Soon it ended. I looked at another one and this was of her playing in the park. She was working the media well because there was a nice crowd around her. She looked full of emotion and graceful as usual. I clicked another one and it was the same song, different angle, and different user that posted it. I sat up and focused more on my laptop. This video was taken today. She was here in L.A., which I knew, but she was blocks away from me. That was a game changer. It was around noon. Tomorrow at noon I could go there and see if she’s there.
“Come in.” I said after the faint knock.
“I can't its locked.” Harry said.
“Oh yeah, I forgot sorry.” I tossed the laptop to the side and opened the door. Harry shut it when he came in. “What's up?” I asked. I felt pretty good about my plan to talk to her. I bet this anxiety would go away and I would have her then –
“You have Liam fooled but I'm not that stupid.” Harry blurted out.
“What are you talking about?” Playing dumb never gets you anywhere.
“I know you like this girl. I saw the way you looked at her at the VMA’s; it was the way I looked when I saw Kendall. I know.”
“If you're going to lecture me I don’t want to hear it.” I spat.
“I'm not going to lecture. I want to be your wingman.” Harry said sitting on the bed… great.
“Why?” This was stupid but if anyone could get a girl the right way it's Harry.
“Well, I know you are still suffering from your anxiety and you seem to be pretty down because of this girl. I bet if you got talking to her you wouldn’t be so unhappy.” Harry had the right thinking but I was taught that happiness comes from inside, not from other people.
“And if it doesn’t work?” I asked.
“Good luck.” He punched my arm then noticed the laptop out. He picked it up and set it on his lap. “What's this?” He asked with a teasing tone.
“That’s nothing.” I tried to shut it but he stopped me and pushed replay. I heard the song Cry Me a River playing softly and his face was soft with a smile.
“You are pathetic.” He joked.
“Stop it!” I blushed.
“This is sad.” He kept watching her though.
“Look, I just wanted to find out her name and that popped up.” Lying gets you nowhere.
“Liar, you had to hear her play.” He paused and watched for a minute. “She is really good.” He said again.
“I know. I watched videos on how to even start playing and it's impossible.” I chuckled because I was pathetic.
“It’s time to eat!” Louis yelled outside my door.
“Let’s eat and then we can talk about a plan.” Harry stood up.
“I have one.” I smiled feeling better about this. At the dinner table everyone was eating silently. No one wanted to say anything because it was awkward. Dinner sometimes is like this for reasons. This time it was my fault. Other times it's because Liam and Zayn had a fight. It's hard to take the silence when it's your fault.
“Where is Zayn?” I asked.
“He isn’t eating with us because he and someone had a date.” Liam said after a gulp.
“Is he going out with Perrie?” Louis asked.
“Not sure. He told me he doesn’t want anyone to know because he doesn’t know if it will last long.” Liam informed our quiet table.
“How is El?” Harry asked Lou.
“She’s great, but she’s sick and feels crappy but I bring her favorite soup every day.” Louis is a sap, always has been.
“What about you Niall? Any luck on that piano girl?” Louis passed the conversation my way. I stiffened and Harry did too.
“There isn’t anything going on with her. I mean she is cute but I don’t like her. I know nothing about her to like her.” Good save and calm one at that.
“At the VMA’s you looked smitten.” Liam cooed.
“Like I said she's cute.”
“Cute is an understatement Niall. If I wasn’t with El I would tap that. She is someone I would want to just pull an all-nighter with.” Louis was gushing about her looks.
“You think she's that hot?” Liam asked.
“Don’t you?” Louis asked him. I watched them intently back and forth as they spoke about her.
“Yeah, but she isn’t that hot. I would do the deed with her but I wouldn’t want to date her. Is that wrong?” Liam asked Harry.
“Yeah…” He grunted out. He knew what was coming. I wanted to blow up and tell them not to talk about her like that but I can't. They would know I like her and haven’t even formally met her.
“Harry you can't say you don’t like her.” Louis said rolling his eyes.
“I mean, I do, but I would at least like to know her first.” Harry looked at me apologetically. I nodded.
“Niall you ok? You got quiet once we started talking about your crush.” Louis was being like this on purpose.
“I'm fine.” I strained out.
“I'm going out tonight. Who is coming with?” Harry asked changing the subject.
“I'll go.” Louis said.
“I'm in.” Liam smiled as he stood up.
“I think I'll hold down the house.” I smiled a devious smile. I was going to have my own little party.
“It's settled.” Louis said standing up as well. “Niall has dish duty.” They rushed off to get around as I took care of their plates and silverware. They left out of the house one by one waving to me. I waved back and then proceeded to do the dishes no one in this house takes the time to clean. Once I was done I headed upstairs with my prune-y fingers and grabbed the laptop. I typed her name into Google and started to look into her profile. I wasn’t going to let her get away. As I pulled up a picture I heard a knock on the door. Who would be here? I glanced at the picture and saw it was still loading exceptionally slow so I ran down the stairs to answer.
“Hey!” A short, long haired, brunette said cheerful.
“Is this Selena?” I hugged her.
“Niall…” She laughed.
“What are you here for?” I asked.
“My tour is getting pushed off for a few dates and I thought I would visit the ole house.” She smiled stepping in.
“How long are you here?” I asked happy to see her. She is great for advice.
“Just tonight and some of tomorrow, then it's off to work.” She frowned.
“Hey at least we can hang out.” I suggested.
“That’s why I'm here!” She said happy again.
“So what do you want to do?” I then realized I had no life.
“Well, I was hoping to stay in tonight and just relax.” She sat on the couch.
“Well you can help me check in on someone.” I proposed.
“Horan has a crush?” She smiled cheekily.
“You can't tell anyone.” I was nervous she would get mad because if Harry was right that she liked me, it wouldn’t turn out well.
“Of course, I won’t.” She smiled sincerely making me feel better.
“Her name’s Claire.” I said walking up the stairs with Selena following.
“Like the pianist?” She was smiling really wide now.
“Yeah, she’s the piano player.” I blushed.
“Horan you have competition.” She sounded sad.
“What do you mean?” I asked closing the door behind her when she was in my room.
“Justin obviously likes her.” She looked genuinely sad about it.
“No he doesn’t. He wants you back.” I tried to cheer her up.
“Have you seen the pictures?” She looked like she was about to cry. My heart ached at her look. Then I registered what she asked me.
“What pictures?” I asked now scared it was true.
“Here,” She took my laptop and clicked around. Her eyes sulked even more and glossed over. This wasn’t going to be good. “Does this look like he wants me?” She asked me handing me the laptop.
“Are you kidding me?” There Justin was on the counter and Claire kissing him with her back to the camera. It looked like more than one of those tiny pecks and they looked like they were enjoying themselves. I clicked the picture to open up the news article and read about it. It was talking mainly about her and how she was new to the industry and getting Justin’s attention was a big thing for her career. I got pissed with every word I read but I didn’t stop. There was a whole album dedicated to them. Most of them were from lunch earlier today with Ryan and someone no one knows.
“I think they’re dating.” Selena was trying her hardest not to cry.
“Come here.” I held her under my arm. She finally cried and her makeup was destroyed. This was all a bunch of crap. Justin said I would love her. He might have meant that as a friend but then he takes her before anyone else can have her.
“I want to get him back.” Selena said through sobs.
“Well he told me a few days ago over text if I would talk to you for him. He told me he wants you back so all we need to do is make him jealous.”
“Niall you're brilliant!” She smiled up and me.
“What?” I was lost at my brilliance.
“You and I fake date to make them both jealous!” She sounded devious enough to actually pull it off.
“Selena that is rash, we should just talk to him. I'm sure something is going on that we don’t know about.” I reasoned.
“Niall, he is with her. Kissing isn’t something you just do to anyone.” She had a very logical point but paps take anything and everything they can get.
“I'm not dating you. I'll call him.” I pulled out my phone and dialed his number. It rang, and rang, and rang until his voicemail popped up. I looked at her biting my nails.
“He didn’t answer.” She stood up and started to pace.
“We could go to his hotel.” I suggested. I was going to get her back with Justin so Claire could be with me.
“Yes.” She was sniffling again. I grabbed a jacket for her and handed it to her. She took it and put it on over her jeans and a t-shirt. We walked out to the car and got in. We were on a mission so there was no time to talk. I sped to his hotel which was considerably far. We pulled up and parked. There weren’t many paps out right now because someone was having a party and they needed to get every picture they could of famous people drunk. Chances are Louis and Harry would show up in pictures tomorrow.
“What’s Justin Bieber's room number?” I asked the lady at the check in and out desk.
“You are?” She asked even though she knew.
“What’s my name? Niall Horan.” I said. She flipped through a list and nodded.
“He's in room 268.” I started to walk with Selena but she grunted. “She isn’t on the list.”
“I don’t care. She’s coming up there.” I continued to walk. The lady was too shocked at my attitude to do anything. Selena was holding my hand as I pulled her around the hotel looking for his room. I stopped at the correct door and knocked. There wasn’t an answer. I knocked again. There wasn’t an answer. “He’s not here.” I said looking at her. This was a problem and something neither of us thought about.
“Let’s just go back to your house.” She said with a smile for me.
“We could wait but –”
“No, I want to go home, to your house.” She smiled.
“I'll call him again and see where he’s at.” I said taking her back to the lobby. There were a few paps outside but not too many. We walked right past them and got into the car. Driving off was hard because they were crowding the car but we managed to get on a stretch of road and take off. I pulled out my phone and called him again.
“Still no answer?” Selena knew when I put the phone in my lap.
“Look at my messages; he said he wants you back so I highly doubt those pictures were real.” I tossed her my phone. She read my phone screen intently as I pulled into the drive.
“I just want to go to bed.” She gave me the phone back.
“Ok, go to my room. I'll be up in a minute.” I said opening the door. She walked upstairs as I called him again.
Claire’s view:
“Hold on I have to take this.” Justin exited the room.
“You guys are so amazing for practicing this late.” I said to the eager group.
“You are amazing at teaching.” Lou said.
“I actually like this job, and I don’t even get paid.” I joked.
“I bet if you told Justin you could.” Someone said.
“No, I am going on a talent show soon and Justin, the other Justin, already told them I would be trying out. He was able to pull strings and put me through to the judges instead of going through regular auditions first. I'm mad he did that but he won't tell me why.” I sighed.
“How did your audition go?” Someone else piped up.
“Oh, it was strange. They took the sheet music of my song and then they thanked me and I was gone. It wasn’t like they wanted me.”
“I'm sure they want you! You are too amazing to pass up! Speaking of amazing talent, could you help me with this section here while Justin is on the phone?” Lou asked.
“.” I jogged to her played the section just as easily as counting to three. Justin was in view of us and he seemed to be screaming into his phone. He looked beyond pissed and I wondered who was on the other line. Justin looked at his phone and hung up then ran his fingers through his hair. Everything about the look on his face screamed angry. The wrinkles on his forehead, the red on his cheeks that’s slowly fading to pink, and the frown he hasn’t dropped yet. He looked in the window and saw me so I ducked away knowing it was too late. He has a lot more things to handle than me and something was telling me it was about that photographer at my house. He came walking up the steps and into the building.
“Are you and Justin talking?” Lou whispered to me.
“Why? What makes you say that?” I snapped fast.
“It was just a question.” She whispered back.
“No, we are not. I'm simply teaching you guys to play and he’s someone I kind of sort of work for.” I replied in a better manner.
“So you kissed?” Lou gossiped.
“Yes. It was a mistake and now everyone thinks the worst about our friendship.”
“Listen you guys, rehearsal is done for today. Claire I need to see you in the hallway.” Justin hollered to everyone. I left to the hallway with my bag slumped over my shoulder.
“You ok?” I asked.
“No. Everyone has seen the pictures. They hit the internet before I left your house. The ‘us’ going out for dinner just makes it all seem a bit more suspicious. We can fix this but it's going to take something from you.” Justin still looked pissed.
“Look, I'm worried about you. Selena wants you back too so I think if you and her talk –” Justin’s phone started to ring. I read the words Horan and thought back to the VMA’s and the blonde blue eyed boy standing at my door.
“Sorry it's just Horan.” He said silencing his phone.
“Why don’t you answer it?” I asked looking at his hand clenched around his phone.
“I'll call him later. It can't be that important.” He shrugged it off. “I just don’t want your new career centered on being with me.” He jumped the gun on the other subject.
“I'm glad you get that I want my own name but I did set myself up for failure when I started teaching you guys about music.” I laughed. He let out a strained chuckle.
“I'm glad you’re not mad.” He let out a sigh of relief.
“Look I get this stuff happens. I just hope that it doesn’t ruin my career and Justin doesn’t find out.” I punched Justin on the shoulder.
“Do I have to start calling him dad?” Justin laughed but then stopped. “I'm sorry; I spoke too fast and didn’t think –”
“It's ok Justin.” I smiled at his anxious speaking.
“Let’s call this a day.”
“It's actually night.” I corrected.
“Go home Claire!” He called at me. I started to walk the semi long sidewalk to my house. It was a cold night but my hot and sweaty body felt great in the weather. It shouldn’t be too late at my grandma’s so I pulled out my almost dead phone.
“I wondered when you were going to tell me about this Justin.” My grandma’s opening line was fantastic.
“We aren’t dating. I don’t want anyone right now.” I chuckled.
“That’s a bummer, he’s a cutie!” She gushed.
“I know but I'm not a big fan of famous people.”
“Aren't you famous?” She asked in a frail voice. I smiled at the fact she thinks I'm famous after one performance.
“Not there yet, soon I will be though. I'm going to be on this TV show that’s recording here. I'm going to be dancing and everyone will know who I am.” She started coughing so I gave her time to settle her throat then respond.
“Well that’s great dear! I'm so glad my little girl is doing what she loves. Her father would be so proud.” She was talking about me and JC. I knew this would happen but I still tried not to let it show when the tears started streaming down my cheeks.
“Grandma I'm crying, stop.” I whined and wiped the tears away.
“Well how about we talk about this, I have been talking to Justin about me moving in.” She stopped talking.
“And…?” I pressed for her to go on.
“Everything is finalized. I will be moving into the guest room when everything here is packed.” She was smiling, I could tell. I was smiling through tears of joy.
“I'm so excited! We will get to have late nights again and you can come with me to all my auditions and be by my side.” I was thinking ahead.
“I would love too but it's going to be hard for me to get around. I have only been getting worse you know.” She didn’t sound too sad about it.
“I'll call you later when I'm home and it's not late back home. I love you.” I hung up and cried. I didn’t want her to hear me cry. I was wiping my tears and not watching my path and ran straight into someone.
“Sorry, that was entirely my fault. Are you alright?” Some Irish accent softly hummed.
“Sorry, I’m fine.” I glanced up to see the same blue eyes from the VMA’s.
“Are you sure? You look like you're crying.” He said examining my face.
“Umm... ” I looked at him mesmerized for a bit. “I need to get going, Niall.” I said his name to let him know that I knew who he was. He stared at me blank faced for a moment before I pushed past him and walked away. I didn’t want anyone to see me sad. I honestly wanted Justin right now. Not Bieber, Timberlake. It made all the difference to me. I kept trudging until I was home. I opened the front door and slammed it shut. I went right to my room and just sat on my bed thinking about the problems I'm going to face and the fact the only true family I have left isn’t going to be there all the time. I'm 17 and lonely, a great depressing life to start trying to be famous with. Most kids have at least a close relationship with someone to keep them grounded but not me. I'm going into this industry cold.
“Claire, are you ok? You came in a bit loud.” Jessica asked through the closed door. I opened it and just wrapped my arms around her. I felt her stroke my hair awkwardly. This was going to be harder than I thought. I may have people around me but I don’t feel happy. Something is off, something inside me is missing.
Niall’s view:
I couldn’t believe she knew who I was, she said my name. Why was she sad? She is always crying when I see her. I wonder why. I reached Justin’s hotel and entered. Selena was asleep in my bed and I had nothing better to do but finish things with this kid. He was taking someone I wanted to know so I was going to need to set things straight. That sounds bad; at least he can talk to her. I'm such a baby I can't even have a decent talk with her; given every time I have tried or seen her she has been crying. I walked right to his hotel room and knocked. No answer. I just about hit it again when the door opened. He was on the phone but let me in. I took a seat on the couch and waited.
“Horan just got here. I'll talk to you tomorrow, no rehearsal just you me and some food.” He smiled and listened. The phone call ended and he was attentive to me. “Sorry I didn't pick up your calls. I was busy and it was a bad time.” He apologized.
“I'm assuming you were with Claire Elizabeth.” I was here for business not chats.
“Dude, I swear there is nothing going on! I keep getting calls from people and I don’t know how to stop this from getting out.” He wasn’t with her?
“So you're not with her?” I sighed a bit but it went unnoticed by Justin.
“No, she is teaching us the coolest music for my upcoming tour. I thought I told you I want Selena back.” He looked at me with a raised brow.
“About that she’s at my house sleeping. You need to talk to her because she thinks you are with this other girl.” I was feeling a lot better about this because Justin would be my way in. I could talk to her through him.
“Why is she at your house?” Justin gave me a pretty judgmental look.
“She didn’t know if you wanted to talk to her. We stopped by here and you were gone. I let her come back to my place and she just passed out.”
“I had a late rehearsal because Claire called for one. We kind of have to work on her schedule but it's no big deal. Do you think Selena would believe me if I told her nothing was going on between Claire and me?” He looked at me with pleading eyes.
“She misses you but that might take some convincing.” I wasn’t going to lie to a great friend of mine.
“Niall, I need your help with this.”
“Look, I have my own problems just come back to my house with me and talk to her. I will give you guy’s space so you can fight, yell, and then kiss it out.” I stood up.
“What if it doesn’t work?” He was psyched out.
“Just kiss her when it starts to fail.” I laughed. If only I could grab Claire and kiss her to make her fall madly in love with me. That would be great.
“I wasn’t kidding when I told you, you would love Claire. She is funny and everyone knows she’s a great musician. She almost reminds me of the American girl version of you.” He chuckled.
“Well I have yet to meet her properly.” I said closing the door behind us.
“If I get back with Selena I will owe it to you to meet her.” He said walking straight down the hallway.
“That would be great. “ I took a deep breath of relief He offered me exactly what I wanted.
“Awesome.” He was excited for me. The walk out was silence and there weren’t any paps. They must have taken the night off tonight. We walked with ease to the car. “I can't believe you thought I liked her.”
“Well in that picture you did seem pretty cozy.” I tried to joke but my humor was dry.
“That picture wasn’t supposed to get out. I mean paps do what they can to get the most absurd things out. She was cleaning my lip up after her friend Alana attacked me and she kissed my cheek. The angle looks like it was on my lips but it wasn’t.” He sounded genuine.
“Well Selena is going to want to hear that. Not me.” I loved hearing that! It made me feel so good.
“Besides she's really young.” Justin shot in as we pulled up.
“How young are we talking about?” I asked getting out. He met me at the front of the car and continued to walk to the door with me.
“She’s only 17.”
“Whoa!” I'm 19 and she is 15. This could be one problem, a very big problem.
“You sound shocked and kind of let down.” Justin said as I unlocked the door. I opened it and looked around. Louis was home because his things were at the door.
“I thought she would be older. She looks older.” I stated.
“She acts older too!” Justin added in. Louis came down stairs and looked mad at me.
“Did you sleep with Selena? What is she doing in your bed? How is Justin –?”
“It's fine Louis. Niall and I have talked about it.” Justin calmed Louis down.
“I’m just looking out for you. It's an odd thing coming into your room to talk to you and seeing Selena there.” Louis chuckled giving a nod to Justin.
“Well, Justin you know where she is, I'll let you two work it out.” Justin started walking up the stairs when I thought about something. “No messing around in my bed. Take her to the spare room.” I called up to him.
“So as I was saying, we need to talk.” Louis took me outback to the patio. It was brick and had squares with plants. We sat at the large glass table to talk. “This Claire girl,” He started. “I know you like her.”
“I don’t like –”
“Harry told me.” He interrupted my famous lie. “Just talk to her.” He said. He didn’t continue talking and I was waiting. After a few minutes he stood up. “That’s it.” He said.
“No lecture?” I asked.
“No, you just need to talk to her. There is nothing special about it. If you don’t know her and like her then there is something that is appealing about her so you might as well go for it.”
“I wish it was that easy.” I scoffed.
“What's the problem?” He asked sitting down again ready to gossip.
“She’s 17.”
“Ooh.” He let it slide into silence.
“Well?” I asked.
“I mean if you're into that…” He said.
“Louis shut up!” I laughed. It was a funny joke and I laugh at everything. Well mostly everything but that was just wrong.
“Look, if you didn’t know her age, like at the VMA’s, and you still had some feelings for her then what’s changed?” Louis had a point.
“Well that law hasn’t.” I said matter of fact.
“So wait three years.” He shrugged.
“What if someone else gets to her?” I asked.
“Then it really wasn’t in your stars to date this chick.” He then got up and fully left. I pulled out my phone and clicked twitter. I had a lot going on but none of it was about any drama. Most of it was “follow me” and “RT me”. I wanted to see what was trending and I was mad because it was all about Justin and Claire dating. I clicked on one of the hash tags and read about how everyone wants them to date. People were saying things along the lines of how cute they would be and some people were talking about their kids already. This wasn’t ok. It hurt.
“Hey!” Justin popped up behind me.
“Hey…” I trailed my voice off. I held my phone down so he couldn’t see the twitter feed.
“Well Selena is going back with me to my place.”
“It went that well?” I asked standing up.
“I guess. I’ll get a thing together with you and Claire.” He said smiling and hugging me. I locked my phone and stuck it into my pocket.
“Anytime, anywhere…” I said and walked with him into the house. Selena was probably already headed to the car so I accepted the fact there wasn’t going to be a goodbye from her.
“I need to go, though, because Selena really hasn’t fully gotten the whole story on Claire so I'm sure there will be more to explain and fight over.” Justin bro hugged me and then left without further due.
“You are something else Horan. You know that?” Louis asked coming downstairs.
“Why?” I asked looking at him peculiarly.
“You always help others first without thinking of anything in return.”
“Is that a good or bad thing?” I chuckled.
“It's a great thing.” Louis patted my back. I smiled and slumped my way upstairs into my bed.

Notes