Torn

“Are you okay?” asked a strange voice. I opened my eyes to see the curly – haired boys’ big brown eyes staring back into mine. His football in one hand, a look of horror crossed across his face as his eyes left mine to look at my knee. I followed his gaze to see the blood gushing through a hole in my tights. I sat up so that I was sat with my legs outstretched, I looked up at the boy to see him pulling something out of his jacket pocket, it was a small strip of something, I couldn’t see with the sun burning down on us. He passed the strip to me, it was a plaster. I took it from him with a grateful smile and applied it to my now only slowly bleeding knee. “I’m Harry,” the boy said, holding out his hand for me, “Nikki,” I replied with a smile as I took his hand and stood up onto the grass, the smell of spring lingering in the air as the early morning dew gently hung on the blades of grass.

That was 10 years ago today. The day that me and Harry met, both of us only nine when he helped me at the park, my knight in shining armour along to save the day. So much had happened since that day, although I still remember it like it was yesterday, still remember ever little detail, still taste the days atmosphere in my mouth. Since then Harry had gone off to X-Factor, became art of One Direction, then they became the biggest boy band in the world. Then came my life, the complete opposite to Harry’s. I lost my best friend whilst he gained four, then my parents’ marriage and divorce, then me and my mum falling out and me moving in with my dad, we haven’t talked to each other since the day she left my dad, that was almost a year ago and my best friend still doesn’t know about it. I just missed him so much; I had no-one to talk too anymore. Sure, I saw him when he wasn’t on tour, but he always is now, I know it’s not his fault, but I still miss him. Harry knew nothing of my parents’ divorce or about me and my mum. Since he left for the X-Factor we had gradually grew apart and so I felt I was bothering him if I rang up. And he’s never rang me before, not since he left a year ago anyway. I doubt he’d even remember me, never mind the day we met.

I sat on my bed thinking, reminiscing in all the memories me and Harry had shared: playing football together, I would always win him and he would get annoyed and not talk to me all the way home. We always tried to fake fall out with each other but we could never go long, it was usually me that cracked first; we used to play on the monkey bars, just swinging upside down talking about everything, then we got older we would sneak out in the middle of the night and talk on-top of the football nets. We even had our own special spot in the surrounding forest where we would go when one of us needed to talk, it was the perfect spot and we would always go there. So much had happened to us at that park, so many of our best memories. Then there were the bad memories, our arguments. They started off small over nothing in particular and would last for a matter of minutes, then they turned into hours, then days. Before long we would not talk to each other for weeks. They only got worse after the X-Factor because everything changed. I’m almost certain if he did remember me at all he would hate me.

Tears began to form in my eyes as I stared at my phone, hoping for just one text of my best friend. Just one to show he didn’t hate my guts. The tears began to flow as I thought about the curly haired boy. Its difficult thinking that we would probably never talk again, his fame ruined any chance of that. I knew I would never get a text, it was stupid of me to think otherwise, but still I stared at my phone screen waiting, pleading for any sign of my once best-friend.

An hour passed. Still nothing. I was running out of hope rapidly when I hit my bed with my back, changing from my cross-legged position with my back against the head-board to now lied down. I ran a hand through my hair checking for tangles as I sighed. I placed the cool pillow on my head covering my face completely as I sank down into the pillow below, thankful for the cool underside that consumed my face. I let out a groan, all hope was lost when suddenly I got a text message. I jumped up and grabbed my phone, I did a little dance around the room, he had text me, he still cared! I couldn’t believe it. I opened the text message with overwhelming joy only to be disappointed. It wasn’t from him. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. How could I think that? How could I have been so dumb? I screamed in protest as I threw my phone at the wall – hard.

After I had calmed down and pulled myself back together I walked over to my phone which was fine luckily, I put the battery back in, half –grateful it was the only part that had been damaged and loaded my phone back up. I looked at the text message:

Charlotte: Heeeeyy! Im bored:-(im coming over – C xx

I replied with a simple ‘K’ not really in the mood to talk to anyone. I slumped over to the bathroom to fix my makeup. I washed off the mascara that had run down my face making me look like a scary emo kid, and I re-did it along with my foundation. I fixed my hair up into a messy bun, not really making an effort. I went back to my room and sighed looking around the clothes scattered all over the place, everything was out of the wardrobe and shoes were everywhere. Charlotte would be round soon and I would have no time to tidy up, so I found a black vest top and layered it with an emerald blue camisole, then I opted for plain black leggings from my collection of practically every colour and pattern ever made – mainly because they were the only ones I could find that were clean. Harry was always the tidy one of the two of us; I blinked a tear away as I thought of the curly- haired boy yet again. My phone buzzed again signalling I had another text message, I left it as I knew it would be Charlotte. Then came a knock at the door, seeming as I was home alone because my dad was out shopping, I shouted for Charlotte to come in. I heard the door open, but then I heard mumbles and shuffling. I stood up in confusion and made my way for the stairs to see what was going on.

I got half way down the stairs to see five boys all with bags packing themselves into my hallway, one of them looked up at me and smiled. He had fairly short blonde hair that was in a sort of quiff and was wearing a plain red polo top with some tan chinos. He reminded me of someone I knew, but I couldn’t place the face. As he saw the confusion on my face he tapped the shoulder of one of the boys, it was the only one who was facing away, somehow all the boys looked so familiar but I didn’t know where from. The boy looked even more confused now as he once again tapped the other boys’ shoulder trying to get his attention. This boy had curly hair, I choked back a tear, thinking of Harry. This boy had a checked shirt on and he reminded me so much of my best-friend. I had no idea why Charlotte had brought all these people round, and where was she? The boy began to turn around, and as he did so I felt all my hairs stand on end. My heart began to beat out of my chest, the boy bore his eyes into mine, that boy was my best friend! His gorgeous brown eyes stared into mine, IT WAS HARRY!

“Hi babe,” He said, a huge grin crossing his face as he took in my messy hair. I smiled, like a Cheshire cat, but I didn’t care, he was here! I felt my skin tingle as I launched myself into curly- haired boys’ embrace as I hugged him with all I had. I felt him seem taken aback by the force but as I dug my face into his neck to hide the tears that had began to flow, I felt his warm hands embrace me and hug me back.

I had missed him so much. I had missed his embrace, his warm hands enclosing me so tightly yet so gently at the same time. I had missed his voice and our conversations. I missed his hair, his eyes even his dress-sense. I had missed him. All my worries suddenly vanished as I stood here in his arms, the perfect moment.

It was him that pulled away first, but I shrugged it off as we must’ve been there for almost five minutes. I heard the other boys giggling, probably at how desperate I looked.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?” I joke-yelled at him, slapping his arm playfully in the process,

“I did!” He replied defensively

“No you didn’t,” I said back almost instantly

“I sent you a text,” he replied.

I thought for a moment. The text from Charlotte must’ve been from him. I looked back to see him grinning as he waited for me to admit defeat. But me being my stubborn self refused to admit defeat and so changed the subject. Harry noticed this and snickered to himself.

“So how come you guys are here?” I asked no-one in general,

“We’re staying at the hotel down the road. Harry said we had to check out the locals first,” The unmistakable Irish accent said. The blonde boy innocently shrugged at the last bit pretending like he didn’t know what Harry was talking about when he said ‘check out the locals’.

“So I’m just a local now?” I said to Harry, a little hurt and annoyed from this remark,

“Hey, in my defence I said beautiful locals,” Said Harry, grinning at me with his dimply smile as I rolled my eyes. Harry was ok now though, he always knew what to say.

“He got the beautiful bit right,” said another voice, this one from a boy with dark brown hair. He was wearing a plain top with a Varity jacket. He had his hair styled up and looked like a million dollars. His image was pristine, not a fault in sight. The boy received a punch in the arm for the comment; it wasn’t a light punch either. I loved how Harry looked out for me, he was like a big brother, it was just one of the many, many things I loved about him.

Harry introduced us all then I don’t remember what happened after that. Somehow we ended up in the kitchen making popcorn. Me, Harry and the blonde boy I knew as Niall were lounging around the kitchen waiting for the popcorn to cook. The flirtatious boy I now knew as Zayn was sat with Louis and Liam at the kitchen table watching TV. I had no idea how they could hear the TV as the radio was up full volume blasting Ellie Goulding out of it, it was making the glasses shake it was so loud, but they seemed happy so I left them to it.

The microwave pinged signalling the popcorn was done. I grabbed a bowl and emptied the packet into it. We had come to an agreement we would all watch a film before they headed off to the hotel. Harry was in the living room picking out a film with all the other boys apart from Niall who was still in the kitchen with me helping me get more food for the film. I could hear the disruptions about the film from the kitchen, it seemed there wasn’t a film without at least one objection from someone, I left them to it as I grabbed a bag of Doritos from the cupboard and put them on the table with the rest of the food. There was suddenly a knock on the door and I left Niall, who then went into the living room, to answer the door.

It was Charlotte. I had completely forgotten about her coming over, I let her in and shut the door behind her. She began walking into the living room when I had to grab her,

“I have to tell you something,” I told her, biting my lip. She took in my facial expression,

“What is it?” She pretty much whispered, getting slightly worried,

“Ermm…well, er-“ I was cut off by one of the boys saying something and as the expected follow of chorused laughs came I got a confused look off Charlotte,

“Who’s that?” She said, seeming confused as well as worried now,

“Promise you won’t over-react?” I asked her, she looked at me even more confused then slowly nodded her head,

It’s, err… One Direction?” I told her, sounding more like a question. She took it surprisingly well, way better than I thought she would. Charlotte squealed and ran into the living room,

“OMG, Harry hi!” She practically screamed. One Direction was Charlotte’s all-time favourite band and the fact that one of her friends was in the band just made her love it all the more. Harry got up and hugged Charlotte,

“Hi babe,” He told her, it was finally like the old gang was back together. “How are you?” She responded immediately,

“I’m great!” I had never seen Charlotte happier. After she calmed down I attempted to introduce her to the boys, even though she probably knew a lot more about the boys than me.

“This is Liam, Niall, Louis, Zayn and Harry, but you’ve already met him,” I said, pointing to each of the boys in turn.

“Yeah, you’ve already met me, if 18 years counts,” Harry laughed to himself. Charlotte smiled back. After she said all her hellos, we all sank back down onto the couch to watch the film after we finally decided - which happened to be Iron Man. I didn’t really like it but I didn’t object.

With Charlotte sat next to Zayn and Liam, Louis sat on the end, Niall, me and Harry were on the other couch. With Harry’s arm around me and my legs tucked up under my chin we began to watch the film. This was shaping out to be a perfect day.