The Reckless and the Brave

The same morning that Reckless Little Hearts arrived in New York City (on Halloween), pictures of Liam and Spencer holding hands in Florida surfaced. They weren’t too sure of how people got them, but somehow companies like TMZ and Perez Hilton got their grimy hands on them. They were all freaking out. Previously, only the pictures had gotten on tumblr, but soon they spread like wildfire. It was undeniable that it was Spencer and Liam. It was the same morning that they all went costume shopping. The pair was clearly spotted. They even caught onto the fact that Ash and Louis were walking closely together, but Perez claimed fuck buddies. He was only really half right.
Simon was due in New York within the next six hours. They had approximately six hours before everything was inevitably turn to shit. The bands were dreading whatever was about to happen, and they knew it. They knew that this wasn’t going to have a possible outcome for any of them. It’s ridiculous really. They shouldn’t have to have gone through all of this crap that they’re experiencing. It was too much, really.
“Should I say goodbye to freedom now or…” Ash trailed off.
Emery rolled her eyes.
“Oh shut up. We’re all going to be okay. We’re going to be fine. This is all going to blow over,”
“That’s what you said the last time,” Spencer grumbled, shaking a hand through her tangled hair.
“I meant it, okay?” Emery sighed heavily. “We’re all going to be fine, and everything is going to work out. Things aren’t going to be crap for forever,”
Roxie snorted.
“How inspirational, Em, really. How about we all puke rainbows and learn to fly now,”
“Shut up, Roxie,” Liz rolled her eyes. “Emery’s right. We all can’t be all “doom and gloom,” we’ve got to have some sort of optimism.”
“I’m taking Zayn to meet my parents. There is nothing positive about that.”
Zayn sighed, and rubbed his hands on his girlfriend’s shoulders.
“It’s okay,” He whispered.
“Liam’s meeting my aunt.” Spencer shrugged. “If I can do that, you can do it too.”
“Thanks Spence,” Emery rolled her eyes.
“Okay. Okay. We’re not all going to stand around and argue over what may or may not happen today. We’re going to go have some fun. We’re in New York!” Harry smiled. “Isn’t this where dreams are made of? Things happen here all of the time. Miracles even!”
Louis smiled fondly, ruffling Harry’s curls.
“That’s right, Haz.”
“I’ve got a doctor’s appointment,” Ash sighed heavily. “Liz is taking me first while Niall talks with Lola.”
Liz smiled at Niall.
“She already loves you,” The girl encouraged. “We won’t be too long, hopefully.”
“It’s okay. I’ll have fun if I have food,”
“Of course you will, Nialler,” She laughed. “We shouldn’t be too long. What are the rest of you going to do? We need a game-plan.”
“We need to meet back up within six hours. Simon has important stuff to discuss,” Inga chimed in, hiding behind her cell phone and sunglasses. “I’m sure you won’t disrespect him so much as to not show up,”
Roxie rolled her eyes.
“Listen, Blondie. We’ll be there. Stop chomping your gum like you’re actually someone. You’re just another little puppet in Simon’s world, okay? So what don’t you take your designer shoes, shiny phone, and fucking clipboard and shove it up your surgically enhanced ass-,”
Harry’s hand flew over her mouth.
“She’s a bit brash in the morning. Don’t worry, love. We’ll be there,”
Inga smirked, winked at Harry, and then glared at the rest of the members as she walked toward her own hotel room for what is probably the rest of the day.
“I hate you,” Roxie nearly yelled at Harry’s face. “Why can’t you just let me do something stupid?”
“I let you do stupid shit all the time,” Harry crossed his arms. “This was just an exception. Stop making a deal out of it,”
Roxie opened up her mouth to say something before letting out an aggravated groan. She punched Harry’s arm before stomping off toward her own room.
Ash rolled her eyes.
“Well that was dramatic.”
“Roxie flew off the rocker,” Liz muttered. “How much longer do you think?”
“What do you mean?” Niall questioned, looking at them all.
“I’m confused myself,” Louis sighed, gripping his half-hazard quiff.
“Roxie’s about to crash and burn.” Spencer supplied. “We’re just not going to be there to really catch her.”
Zayn sighed.
“And that entails?”
“That she’s going to hit rock bottom alone,” Emery stated, gripping Zayn’s hand. “Come on,”



Emery and Zayn laughed as they walked around Brooklyn like they weren’t some world famous couple. The funny thing about Brooklyn is that no one really seemed to care all that much that they were there. Emery smiled wider than she had the entire tour, and that was something that made Zayn’s heart just melt. His girlfriend was finally getting back to being the girl that he had first met. Sure, Emery didn’t have it all together, but the last tour had put some real emotional damage onto the both of them. They were having a good day; a great day even.
Zayn picked his girlfriend flowers as she led him through the strange city. It was different than the usual tours of places that they usually stopped at. This kind of tour had history behind it. The tour has an essence of someone who had actually lived through this very hard experience and had come out the way that she did. It wasn’t normal for people like Emery.
“And this is where I had my first real kiss,” Emery stopped underneath a particularly beautiful tree with white flowers.
“Tell me about it?” He questioned, slowly moving toward her.
[url= http://www.polyvore.com/emery_20_tratb/set?id=78127741] Emery[/url] scrunched up her nose.
“Are you sure you want to hear this one?”
“I want to know everything about you,” Zayn promised, stepping closer to his girlfriend underneath the tree. “I want to hear all of your stories all of the time, and I want to hear them over and over again because I will never get bored. I love you, Emery.”
Emery blushed like a school-girl.
“I love you too,” She sighed, looking up at the tree’s branches. “I was sixteen, and gone for a guy named Seth. We had our first date here in Brooklyn because it was cheaper than in the city. He took me on a long walk on a Friday night, and kissed me right underneath this tree.”
“Yeah?”
“I was with Seth for a long time, you know that,” She spoke softly. “He was what I thought that I wanted. But music was Seth’s first love. When we got signed, everything changed for him. He wasn’t the Seth that I fell in love with. He was turning into a jealous monster before my very eyes. He tried really hard to cover him up, but I could tell that it was killing him. So I think that’s why it ended. He couldn’t handle this part of my life, so he dropped it,”
“I’m sorry,”
Emery laughed.
“What for? I got you out of it,” She smiled easily. “And I think that it might be the best thing that I’ve ever had in my life. So he really allowed me to find you,”
The dark haired male chuckled, and wrapped his tattooed arms around his tattooed girlfriend.
“What would I have honestly done without you?”
“I think you might have wound up with someone God-awful, but we won’t speak about that,”
Zayn leaned in and brushed his lips gently against the girls.
“You’re my absolute favorite. Have I told you that lately?”
“No, but it’s implied.” She smiled, gripping his hand, and tugging him into a different direction.
Zayn didn’t ask too many more questions as he mindlessly followed his girlfriend around Brooklyn. It wasn’t long before they found themselves back into the city. Once they got there, it wasn’t long before people with camera’s started to show up. Emery got aggravated, and shouted at them to move. Zayn didn’t exactly join her efforts, but he pushed back a pap rather hard when he got a little too close to Emery. Zayn didn’t care about them yelling at him, he just wanted to protect his girlfriend like he silently promised her that he would do for her.
Emery kept spouting off stories of places that the girls had been over the years in New York City. He had heard some of them before, but there was nothing like actually hearing them in the place where they were lived. It was almost like a movie as she described being plastered on 42nd, and waking up just a few feet shy of their apartment building. She even took him past her old neighborhood.
“What’s that?”
“That is my house.” She sighed. “I mean…it was my house years ago. I have been there…in ages.”
“How long as it been?”
Emery looked up at the two story townhouse with sadness filling her eyes.
“You don’t wanna…”
“Emery…love…” Zayn gripped her hand tighter, wrapping his arm around her as soon as she let go. “How long as it been since you’ve seen your family?”
“It’s been around six years,” She admitted, looking to him for a moment before her eyes were back on her own life. “They dropped me the second that I didn’t want to be like them anymore.”
“I think it was probably for the best,” He encouraged. “Meeting me and all that,”
Emery laughed lightly.
“Yeah,” She nodded. “Hang on, I have to do something,”
“What are you doing?”
“Just wait here,” She instructed, leaving him at the bottom of the stairs. Emery nearly jogged up the stairs, and rung the doorbell. To Zayn’s surprise, a young girl of around five or six answered the door. This visibly left Emery floundered. For a moment, she didn’t move or speak, so Zayn pushed forward. He reached the top of the stairs, and placed a hand on the small of her back. “Um…are your parents?....are they home?”
“Of course, I’m not an idiot,” She laughed, before smiling. “You brought me Zayn?!”
“Um no…” Zayn trailed off.
“Oh,” She pouted. “We’re going to see you tonight. My mom said that I get to meet some very special people tonight!”
“Sofia…who’s at the….Oh.”
A woman that looked strickenly like Emery came to the door. Her hair was pulled back into a lower messy bun with glasses resting on her nose. She stood, gaping at the two of them before looking back down at her daughter.
“Please go tell your father that I said for both of you to stay in the study?”
The little girl, Sofia, smiled widely with missing teeth before nodding. She bounced off, barely waving toward Emery, before she was out of sight.
“Wow,”
“Emery,” Her mother sighed, closing the door behind her as she stepped out onto the front porch. “What on earth are you doing here?”
“I uh….I thought that maybe Margot would be answering the door. I thought…um…I thought that you would be at work.” She stammered. “I came to invite you guys to our album release party tonight. It’s kind of a big deal. Of course I wasn’t expecting you to actually be here. I’m sorry….we’re going to go,”
Her mom just stared at her as Emery pushed an envelope toward her hands, and turned to walk away.
“Sofia knows everything about you,” Her mom cut in, making Emery turn around. “She really likes looking at old photos of you. I think that you should meet her,”
“How old is she? Emery questioned.
“Your father and I had her six months after you moved out,” She sighed. “She’s six this May.”
“Oh,” Emery nodded. “We’re going to go…enjoy your…life?”
“Em?”
“Yeah, mom?” She looked back at her.
“I’m glad that you’re happy…Sofia’s fond of your boyfriend as well,”
For the first time since the encounter, Zayn smiled.
“Thanks, Mrs. Addams,” He nodded, gripping her hand. “Are you ready?”
“Yeah,” She smiled.
“Bye,”
Before Mrs. Addams could repeat anything, the famous couple had left the neighborhood. It was almost like they were running, but Emery wanted to get away from whatever that was. It was different, and not something she wanted to repeat.

♥

“This is the old record store that we would skip school to come to before we all dropped out,” Emery stated as she and Zayn stood in front of the old wooden door with a open sign in the small window.
“Can we go in?” Zayn questioned, looking between the door and Emery.
The girl smiled softly before nodding her head. She took the first step, opening the ugly maroon door. The inside of the shop was almost as battered as the outside was. It looked like it hadn’t moved since the seventies, but it had a home-like atmosphere about it. Instead of tile flooring, the floors were covered in the carpet that was the same color as the door. The walls were lined with a beige wallpaper that was probably once white. The isles were covered in cds, old and new, and they had an entire section just for records. Zayn stood in awe. He hadn’t seen something like this in forever.
Beside him, Emery had already started to rummage through the racks for new music. It must have been easy for her just to walk back in here, and see that nothing had changed much. For Zayn, this was a first time experience, and he didn’t really know what to think about it. Slowly, he started to follow Emery as she looked at the different music. She smiled widely, and picked up the first ever Reckless Little Hearts album. The CD was wrapped and oddly enough, signed by each of the girl’s. Before she could put it down, Zayn pulled his iPhone out of his pocket and snapped a picture of her with the album. Emery giggled, setting down the album after placing a hardy kiss on the very front of it.
Zayn ended up finding an old Nirvana record that he had been trying to find for forever. Emery just picked up a few albums from other bands that he vaguely recognized, but knew that they meant something to his rocker girlfriend. When Emery least expected it, Zayn caressed her face before planting his lips upon hers. Emery instantly melted into the kiss, and gripped the bottom of his t-shirt in return. He rubbed his thumbs over her rosy cheeks because well, he could. Zayn could kiss Emery so openly because no one knew where they were. No one in the nearly empty shop really cared about them. They were just another couple kissing in the classic Rock section.
A loud ruckus caused the couple to pull apart. Zayn sighed, dropping his hands and planting a kiss on her forehead. Emery smiled softly, apologizing almost, before gripping his hand in her own. The second that the girl turned her body, she stopped walking. Zayn suddenly saw exactly why. He wasn’t too sure what was going on, but he didn’t want to interrupt her. He looked at his girlfriend’s face with a questioning look. Emery looked all too scared and confused to really move her body. He gripped her hand tightly, looking back at the other person.
“Em?” He asked. “Emery Addams?”
The man with dyed-red hair questioned. He had a lip piercing, blue eyes that rivaled Louis’, and he was tall. He was tall, but not that lanky. The boy was definitely older than both of them. His black jeans clung to his legs in a familiar fashion as he stared at Emery. He was wearing a Pink Flloyd t-shirt with a white long-sleeve shirt underneath it. On his feet, Vans were adorned, and cds scattered around them. To put it simply, both he and Emery haven’t spoken or seen each other in years. It had to be four-odd years. It was like something had changed in the room, and suddenly the air was thick around them.
“I…you look….different,” Emery spoke, eyes wide. “What are you doing here?”
The male smiled softly.
“I own the place now,”
“What happened to Jeff?”
“He died a year ago from cancer,” The mysterious male spoke. “You look good,”
Emery’s eyebrows raised, turning toward Zayn. Zayn knew who the male was in that moment. She looked terrified to be there in that moment, and he wanted nothing more than to save her from what was going on.
“Don’t,” She warned. “I haven’t spoken to you since I was eighteen, Seth. Save me the niceties,”
He nodded, stuffing his hands in his pockets.
“You must be the new boyfriend,”
“I’m Zayn,” Zayn finally spoke. “It’s…nice to meet you?”
“I know who you are,” Seth nodded, leaning back against the employee’s desk. “You’re making a hell of a living Em,”
Emery nodded.
“Yeah,” She nodded.
“I heard that you were in town,” He spoke. “I didn’t think that I’d be seeing you around and all. You know, after your big rockstar life with your popstar boyfriend,”
“I’m still Emery, I’m just grown up a bit,” She spoke. “I was showing Zayn around,”
“Ah,” Seth nodded before he bent down to pick back up the CDs that he dropped. He left them where they were standing, and went to work to put them in their proper place. Emery stood frozen, looking straight ahead.
“Are you okay, love?” Zayn questioned, looking down at the girl.
“I’m just in shock,” She stated back. “Can you wait outside? I need to have a few words with Seth,”
Zayn looked between his girlfriend and the man that let her go. He was now sitting back behind the desk, looking at them. He nodded, bending down to kiss her softly. He whispered a soft “mine,” against her lips before pulling away and walking toward the door.
“Nice meeting you, mate,” Zayn called with a little half-wave, completely throwing Seth off.
Once Zayn was out of the shop, Emery turned toward Seth.
“Why didn’t you just ignore us?” She demanded.
Seth looked taken aback.
“Em…”
“Don’t call me that! You lost that right a fucking long time ago,” She retorted, not caring who heard. “Why did you mention tonight?”
“I wanted to honestly come to your show. Me and the guys wanted to check your new stuff out,”
Emery huffed.
“I can’t believe you!”
“What?”
“You have the audacity to leave me while I was on tour, and we were engaged. I practically never heard from you again! I haven’t seen you in nearly four years, Seth! Now you’re standing right here, twenty feet in front of me, and all you have to say to me is ‘you look good.” That shit isn’t going to fly with me!”
Seth brought up his hands.
“Whoa, sorry Emery…I didn’t meant to step on anyone’s toes,”
“Well you did!” She shouted back. “You fucking left me! Do you know how that makes someone feel, Seth? That’s makes them feel like they were never even important in the first place!”
Seth sighed, stepping closer.
“You know that’s not true,”
“I thought I did,” Emery sighed, looking down at her shoes before looking back up at him. “Thank you,”
He furrowed his brow.
“What?”
“Thank you for breaking my heart,” She sighed heavily, but she was slowly starting to smile. “If you didn’t end things with me, then I wouldn’t have found Zayn. He’s honestly the best thing that has ever happened to me,” “I’m so sorry,” Seth sighed, raking his hands over his face. Emery noticed a tell tale silver band on his left hand. “I didn’t want to hurt you. I just knew that it was what I needed to do,”
Emery hummed before taking a deep breath.
“Who is she?”
“Huh?”
“Your wife, idiot,”
And it was Seth’s turn to smile kind of stupidly before looking down at his hand.
“Her name is Erin. She’s a painter,”
“I hope you’re happy,”
“Happiest I’ve been in a long time,”
“Congratulations,”
“You too,” He smiled. “Are you ready to check out?”
Once Emery paid for the albums, she shared a long, last hug with Seth. He wrapped his arms tightly around the girl, and squeezed her tightly. Emery held on just as tight. She nuzzled her head into his chest, embracing the oddly familiar sent that consumed her from the very beginning. It was bittersweet. This was the closure that Emery had been so desperate for the entire time that they had been apart. She never wanted revenge on him, she just wanted closure. To her surprise, Emery started crying. She was sobbing, but she was happy. It wasn’t making sense.
“We had a good run, yeah?”
“We were great,” Seth agreed, petting her hair the same way that he knew that she loved. “You were the first girl I ever really loved, Emery Addams.”
Emery smiled, pulling away from him.
“I loved you too,” She stated. “How about you and Erin come to the show tonight? It will be nice to have some friendly faces in the crowd, and we all can get properly introduced,”
Seth smiled at her before setting away.
“I’d love that,”
“Me too,” She smiled, whipping her eyes and taking her bag. “Thanks, Seth,”
“You too, Emery.”
And when Emery left the shop, a few tears falling down her face, she felt whole. For the first time in years, she felt like she patched up all of her heart, and she could get over it. The closure was just what she needed. As soon as Zayn saw her, he sprung into action, whipping away the rest of her tears.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m perfect,” She smiled. “I got my closure,”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely,” Emery gave him and deep kiss before pulling away. “We’ve both moved on, and we’re the happiest we’ve ever been,”
Zayn grinned widely because that’s all that he wanted from her.