She's a Rebel, She's a Saint

A cigarette was placed delicately between his lips as his naked body lay next to mine and the room was filled with the familiar smell of smoke as he inhaled from the small white stick in his hand, exhaling a puff of smoke from his o-shaped lips a moment later. My lower body was sore and I was gazing lovingly at the beautiful man that was next to me.

"What time is your wife going to be home?" I asked him as I responded to the text one of my parents had sent me asking if I was coming over on Sunday like I always did, wondering at what time he might want me to leave.

"She's staying at her mom’s house tonight with the kids. She won’t be back until Sunday night. Which means, you and I get to spend the whole weekend in bed."

"Can you please not refer to them as kids?" I pleaded as he put out the cigarette and stood up from the bed and pulled his clothes on.

"They are my kids. I don't understand why you have such a big problem with the term." he said with the British accent that I was envious of clearly shining through his words, buttoning his white shirt that would most likely be left untucked and fixing his tie a second later.

"Daniel, I went to high school with your daughter. We graduated the same year, she's not a kid."

I watched as my 'boyfriend' chuckled slightly before using his hands to fix his hair and perfect his appearance.

"Are you staying tonight?" he asked me, seemingly disinterested in his own question.

"No." I said, reminding him of something I had told him half a million times already.

“Why not?” he asked with a slight hint of anger in his voice as he finally turned away from the mirror to look at me.

“It’s Friday night, Gab’s getting married tomorrow afternoon to Liam.” I said, watching as not even a hint of recognition was in his eyes as he stared back at me blankly, “Gabriella’s my best friend, I’ve told you about her and Liam countless times. You said you’d come to the wedding you even bought me a dress and you bought yourself a new tux.”

"I can’t go. I have a meeting tomorrow with my associates." he said angrily as he put on his tie and fixed his slacks, making me sigh.

"Daniel, the wedding is tomorrow afternoon. Where am I going to find someone to walk in with now?"

“If I give you money to buy the dress, will you stop whining about me not going with you to your friend’s wedding?” he said, again thinking that his money could solve all the world problems.

“Maybe you could come with me to my parents’ house Sunday morning? You know they really want to meet you, and you can meet my little sisters and stuff.” I suggested even though I could practically already hear him saying no.

“You know I don’t have a problem with your parents in particular. I don’t hate them and I defend their right to do live the way they want to live and love whomsoever they want to love, but I don’t want to be part of a family like that.” He said, successfully making me feel like my family dynamic was even stranger then it truly was.

“So what,” I began, “You think my parents having children is wrong?”

“I understand you were raised by a lesbian couple but I don’t agree with certain couples being able to get married and have kids.”

I shook my head, moving off of the bed and bringing the thin sheet with me as I walked to the bathroom to take a shower. The warm water washed over my body and I could feel my hair slowly curling up thanks to the water that was being poured over it. When the water went cold, I quickly got out of the shower and pulled my clothes back on before meeting Daniel outside of his room and in the kitchen where he was drinking coffee out of a small black mug.

“I’m leaving,” I said with a hint of anger in my voice because of what he had said about my parents, walking towards him and leaning down slightly to kiss his pink lips briefly that obviously left him wanting something more from me, walking away a moment later, “I’ll call you whenever I get back from the pub.”

I walked out of his large home, waving to the butler with the confusion expression as I did so. When I was in my car, I quickly sped back to my luxurious flat that I purchased after my first big check to change and get ready for Gabriella’s party. I was walking up the six flights of stairs due to my irrational fear of elevators when my phone vibrated from where it sat in the pocket of my purse. I reached for it, sliding my thumb across the screen so that I could answer the call, holding it to my ear once I did so.

“Hello?” I questioned as I unlocked the door to my flat and waited for my best friend’s voice to ring through from the other end.

“Hi, my love! I decided that tonight I just want it to be me and you since we already were hanging out with the other girls recently anyway.” she said with a cheery tone in her voice, happy that I had answered her.

“Okay, do you want to come over and we get ready together?” I asked her.

“I can’t, I tried to get off but I’m working today for another hour. When I’m done I won’t have time to go home, get my stuff, and drive all the way to your place.” she said, a slight whine in her tone as she did so.

“Okay, so I’ll pick you up at six?” I asked after looking at the time to see that it was four thirty, calculating about how much time it would be until she was done at work and how much time it would take her to get ready.

I could almost picture her nodding her head with her long dark brown hair bouncing around her beautiful face as she said, “Yeah, that sounds good. I’ll text you when I’m done, baby. I love you.” she said, most likely attracting the attention of whoever was around her as she most likely finished the last models hair and makeup.

“I love you more.” I said before hanging up the phone, remembering the first time we met when I moved to England as a teenager.

I sighed, walking back to my spacious living room with a bag of jalapeño chips in one hand and an ice cold Pepsi in the other as I walked to sit down on the plush white couch. I kicked off my shoes and put my feet up on the circular coffee table right in front of it, grabbing the remote and turning on the flat screen TV that was mounted on the wall in front of me. Once the TV was on, I saw Liam on the screen holding a microphone to his face. The rest of the members of his bands, whom I had yet to meet, were copying his actions and singing in harmony. I shoved a handful of the spicy chips into my mouth before downing a large gulp of the Pepsi and focusing my stare back on the screen. I already met Liam and he was a complete sweetheart. I met Niall a few weeks later at a party that was being held at the flat my best friend shared with her fiancée. The first time I met Louis was after a concert. From what Gabriella’s told me, the other members were pretty nice as well, named Harry and Zayn.

I watched the rest of the show, noticing that it was a playlist on MTV as it came to a close at about five thirty. Liam waved to the camera and walked off the stage with the rest of his friends, me turning off the TV slightly after. I walked to my bedroom and pulled out my blow drier, flat iron, and curling iron to fix my naturally tight and unruly curls into large, beachy waves. I put drops in my eyes to help my clear contacts stay moist and not dry out before lining my eyes with black eye shadow and eyeliner. I pulled on the dress that Daniel bought for me and paired it with plain black stiletto heels, running a nude lipstick on over my full, plump lips and smirking at the girl in front of me. I looked at the time to see that it was nearly six and I rushed out of my flat and into my car. The silence was driving me mad as I made the fifteen minute drive to where Gabriella lived with Liam, my fingers fiddling with the radio buttons to find a station.

'And here's One Direction with their newest single Live While We're Young.' I heard the voice echo before Liam's voice filled the air around me.

I smiled and sang along with the few words I knew, soon finding myself parked outside of their building, waiting for Gab to come down. Her hair fell in the big natural waves that cascaded around her shoulders as she came out. Her dress clung to her body just enough and her blue eyes were happy when they spotted me.

"Hi, my love." she said happily when she got in the car, placing a kiss on my cheek as she did so.

"Hi beautiful," I replied happily as I pulled away from the house, "Where do you want to go?"

She shrugged her shoulders and I drove out to the closest club that was luckily only about ten minutes away thanks to my reckless driving. The whole time that I was driving, she was whining and criticizing how fast I was going while I claimed that I couldn’t control it. It was hard to drive at an appropriate pace in a sports car.

"I can't wait for the day that you get arrested for speeding." Gab said from where she sat next to me once I stopped the car in front of the club and passed my keys over to the valet.

"You're just mad you don't have the same amazing driving skills as me." I joked playfully, my fingers lacing with hers as we stepped towards the door.

"There's so many people here," she began with a small whine, most likely wondering how we were going to manage to get in even though I was already leading her towards the entrance and not towards the end of the line, "What are you doing? We need to wait in line to get inside. These people have been here for hours."

I raised an eyebrow as I looked over at her, watching as a sign of recognition made its way to her big eyes. Since Daniel owned most of the clubs in London, it wasn’t really a hassle for me to ever get into any one of them. Most of the bouncers knew me and they advised me not to go in if his wife or one of his children were in.

"What if we run into Daniel?" she asked me, always one to freak out over the littlest details.

"He owns so many of these clubs, the odds are he doesn’t even know where this one is." I said, dismissing her whines of protest with a wave of my hand as I called over a waitress to bring us a few drinks – a glass of wine for Gab and a Cosmo for me.

She nodded her head, not fully accepting my barely there answer as she took small sips from the drink that was in the clear glass in her hand. I looked around at the crowd for just a few seconds, making sure that we wouldn’t run into anyone that could potentially ruin our night together.

“So, what is Liam doing tonight since you’re not home? Crying in the corner while he realizes that he’s finally tied down?” I joked playfully, watching her almost spill the wine from the glass in her hand as she erupted into multiple bursts of laughter.

“The guys are taking him out tonight.” she said, wiping her mouth with the black cloth napkin that sat in front of her.

“Oh, so they’re going to a strip club tonight?” I asked, earning a few curious looks from the people around us that silenced their conversations when the words left my mouth.

“Why,” the blue-eyed beauty in front of me began, “If they were, you would know. Who did you switch shifts with?”

I laughed loudly, at her joke. She never passed up an opportunity to tease me about anything. Especially since she knew every single sordid detail of my relationship with one of the most powerful married men in all of the United Kingdom. Gabriella followed my actions by laughing as well and we made complete fools of ourselves for the rest of the night. The next morning, we were cuddled together on my bed when I woke up. As usual, she was still sound asleep. I slid out of bed before shaking the girl that had been sleeping next to me.

“Gab,” I whispered a bit since I didn’t want to give her such a harsh and rude awakening, “Wake up, you’re getting married to Liam fucking Payne in less than eight hours.”

I watched her full lips curve into a smile even though her eyes weren’t even open. She slowly sat up, ruffling her hair with one hand while the other rubbed the sleep out of one of her eyes. After taking a deep breath and fluttering her eyes a bit, she looked towards me.

“I’m getting married today.” she said, still slightly in shock over the whole event even though she had been planning for months.

“Yes, my love. And even though I remember when we were just seventeen and we vowed to marry each other, I'm still excited for you.” I said, pulling on dark grey sweat pants and a purple tank top before throwing a similar outfit her way.

She pulled on the clothes I gave to her and I pulled on my black and white converse as Gab borrowed my grey ones. We walked down the stairs and got into my car before making our way to where the ceremony would be held. Almost twenty minutes before she was supposed to be walking out with her father by her side, I was in my dress and was smoothening out the last few wrinkles in the skirt as my two younger sisters ran around the dressing room.

“Natasha, Sophia,” my mom yelled, “If you girls don’t quiet down, you’re not going to be allowed to be the flower girls anymore.” she scolded, effectively quieting the two brown-eyed girls down easily.

I watched as they both picked up their small baskets with the flower petals inside and looked into it, almost as if they were making sure that the dyed blue rose petals were good enough for the girl they were raised with on her big day. I felt nerves in my stomach and the butterflies kicking around as I restrained from running a hand through my hair since my mother had just finished braiding my bangs off to the side.

“I can’t believe Gabriella’s getting married. I feel like just yesterday the two of you had just met. Now she’s like my other daughter and her father is giving her away today.” my mom said from behind me, her Spanish accent thickly coating her words since it hadn’t faded even though we moved out of Spain almost six years ago.

“Yeah, but don’t forget that you met Liam and you liked him. If I can recall correctly he even told you that he was planning to propose before anyone other than her mother even knew about it.” I said, bringing a smile to her face as she wiped a tear away from her big green eyes that I had always envied.

“How do I look?” Gabriella asked as she walked towards us before twirling around slightly in her Cinderella-esque dress, quickly distracting everyone from the separate conversations that they may have been having.

I smiled and wiped away a tear that I was not expecting, nodding my head since I did not trust my own voice. There was a knock on the door and my mom walked over to answer it, letting in four out of the five members of One Direction, Liam most likely waiting at the alter already.

“Gabs,” Niall began in a sweet tone, “You look gorgeous.”

“Thanks, Niall.” she said, walking over to me and grabbing onto my hand, “I’m sure you all remember my best friend, Ashley-Olivia. I think some of you have met her.”

Zayn introduced himself politely, smiling sweetly and shaking my hand before both Niall and Louis hugged me since we’d met already. I looked over at Harry and raised an eyebrow when I saw that his eyes had just finished looking over my body. He cleared his throat and stepped closer towards me.

“Well, Ashley-Olivia, I’m Harry Styles.” he said, taking my hand in his and kissing the back of it lightly, making me queasy at his blatant attempts at flirting with me at my best friend’s wedding.

“It’s nice to meet you.” I said simply, taking my hand from his and placing it back at its rightful place by my side, “We should be heading out now.”

We all got in position once we stood in front of the large doors; I groaned inwardly when Harry moved to stand next to me. It’s not that I wasn’t attracted to him, I simply wasn’t interested in a relationship with anyone other than Daniel.

“You’re the best man?” I asked as the wedding march began even though the doors had yet to open.

“Liam couldn’t choose, he put everyone’s name in a hat and asked his neighbor to pick it a random. My name was the one they pulled out.” he explained.

The doors opened and everyone walked through. My little sisters were first, then came my Gabriella’s mother, my parents, Louis and Eleanor, Niall and Kaitlyn – Gabriella’s cousin, Harry and I, and last but not least, Gabriella while her arm was linked with her father’s.