Canon

I speed my way to the hospital and practically jump out of the car before I put it in park. I rush into the building and right to the front desk.

‘Hi, my mom’s giving birth to my little brother. Ella Matthews.’ I explain quickly to the woman sitting behind the desk.

‘She’s in room 421.’

‘Thank you!’ I breathe out speed walking my way to the elevator.

The delivery ward of the hospital was brightly colored. There were a lot of pastel colors around. Families sat in brown leather chairs in the waiting area. Nurses jog up and down the hall in and out of rooms. Their black sneakers making squeaking sounds as they go. Finally I reach 421 then firmly knock on the door decorated with a clown holding colorful balloons.

‘Lizette.’ Dad cheers pulling the door open, ‘come on in.’

‘You haven’t missed a thing.’ My mom smiles tiredly from the hospital bed. ‘But he’s moving fast.’

‘Aw, we’re finally going to meet little guy.’ I beam patting my mom’s stomach gently. ‘I think we’ve waited long enough for you.’

Three and a half hours later my little brother, Elijah Ryan Matthews was born weighing in at 7 pounds and 3 ounces. I hold him in my arms with watering eyes.

‘He’s perfect.’ I croak rocking him slowly. ‘Hi, I’m your big sister. Nice to meet you.’

‘We’re here.’ My grandpa Charles and grandma Lula burst through the doors with open arms.

The room soon filled up with close friends and family members coming down to get a glimpse of Elijah. I sit in the corner of the room with my dad and grandpa Charles admiring from afar.

‘Let me look at you,’ grandpa Charles takes a hold of my hand, ‘beautiful as ever – I bet you have the boys at school knocking their teeth out over you.’

My mind flashes back to today after gym where I ran into Niall on top of some random guy. His fist collided with the strangers face. Again. Again. And again. He pulled away from me with intense eyes. Everyone in the parking lot stares as he peeled out of the parking lot.

‘She’s in a relationship with her studies,’ dad folds his arms across his chest with a short laugh, ‘my princess doesn’t have time for guys.’

‘I am here!’ Rose scurries inside with a hand full of balloons and gifts. I feel a wave of relief rush over me, ‘Congratulations Mr. Matthews.’

‘Thank you Rose. How are your parents?’

‘Great. They’re working constantly but they send their love and congrats just as always.’

‘Tell your mom thank you for the flowers. They are beautiful.’ Mom speaks from the hospital bed across the room.

‘I will Mrs. Matthews. May I say for a woman who’s just given birth you are gorgeous. I can only dream to look half as good as you after having a baby.’

‘Oh thank you.’ She blushes pleased with Rose’s compliment.

‘Can I talk to you outside for a second?’ I wonder directing my eyes to Rose.

‘Sure.’ She nods leading the way out to the hall, ‘what in the world happen at school? Everyone’s saying that Niall went insane in the parking lot.’

‘I don’t know! After gym I was walking to my car and I just saw him beating up this guy. I tried to step in and break it up but he flipped on me before driving off in his car.’

‘Zayn’s called him but he hasn’t answered. He dropped me off and was going to see if he can find him anywhere.’

‘I thought things between me and him had actually changed especially after what happened last night.’

‘Hold on, what happened last night?’ Rose raises an eyebrow at me.

‘We sort of- kissed.’ I brace myself for Rose’s reaction which was bound to follow shortly.

‘WHAT? When did this happen? Where at? Why am I just now hearing about this? Was it good’ she says with the same breath, impressive.

‘At Zayn’s apartment on the patio when you two decided to get food.’

‘Who kissed who here?’

‘He kissed me. It was completely unexpected.’

‘Did you like it?’

‘It was perfect.’

‘So yesterday he kisses you and today is shouting at you?’

‘Pretty much.’

‘Why?’

‘I have no idea why. He seemed pretty okay when he dropped me off last night.’

‘Have you tried talking to him?’

‘How can you talk to someone who won’t even look in your direction? He practically ran from me all day long.’

‘Do you know where he lives?’

‘Yeah, I think I could find it.’

‘You’ve been to his house?’

‘Homecoming night. He stopped by his place to, get something.’ I nod remembering Niall’s encounter with his drunken father.

Once Rose leaves I head back into the hospital room to sit with my mom as everyone slowly started to leave.

‘So, I’m going to go home with Lizette to make sure she eats something then I’ll be back.’ Dad yawns as he rises to his feet.

‘Stay here,’ I insist, ‘I can just grab something on my way home. You two haven’t had any quiet time with Elijah all day.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Yeah, remember when I stayed home by myself when Aunt Helen got sick? I was fine.’

‘All right, lock all the doors. No company.’

‘Got it.’ I fish out my car keys and head towards the door. ‘I’ll be back before school in the morning.’

Are you going to Niall’s? – Rose.

No I’ll just wait it out until tomorrow. – Lizette.

That was on Monday and it was now Saturday. It had been five days and I still hadn’t bucked up the nerve to talk to Niall. My mom and dad were back in Elijah’s nursery watching him sleep as they did a lot. Rose was off somewhere with Zayn and I didn’t feel like inviting anyone else over.

‘I’m going out for some air,’ I chime standing in the doorway of the nursery.

‘It’s getting pretty late, isn’t it?’ Dad questions raising one of his thick eyebrows.

‘No.’ my mom answers with a laugh before I could open my mouth, ‘She is eighteen years old and it’s 10:30 at night on a Saturday. Go out and have fun Liz.’

‘Thanks mom.’ I reply backpedaling out of the room.

‘What was that?’ I overhear my dad inquire as I lean against the wall of the hallway.

‘You can’t control her forever.’ Was the last thing I heard before slipping out the front door.

After driving around in circles and cutting down backstreets I finally came to a stop in front of the familiar small, white house. Niall’s 1965 Mustang sat in the driveway beside a beat up old pickup truck. I hesitantly knock on the door after standing there for nearly five minutes. Niall swings the door open wearing a pair of grey sweatpants with a black tee shirt. He gazes at me puzzled before tightening his eyes at me.

‘What are you doing here?’ his voice laced with curiosity.

‘So you haven’t lost your voice. Did you lose your phone?’

‘Go home, Lizette.’ He rolls his eyes at me but doesn’t close the door.

‘Not until you tell me what’s going on with you.’

‘I really don’t want to do this with you right now so why don’t you just go home. I’m sure your dad’s waiting for you at the door.’

‘Why are you being such an asshole? You kissed me for Christ’s sake and now you can’t even bare to talk to me for five seconds?’

‘Well I didn’t see you make any kind of refusal when I so-called kissed you.’ He defends stepping a little closer to me to shut the front door. ‘If I’m such an asshole to you then why are you standing on my porch at eleven o’clock at night.’

‘Because I thought you were worth it.’

‘Sorry to get your hopes up.’

‘Was it when I kissed you on your cheek that night? Look it was stupid and I really don’t know why I did it. I’m sorry if I made you feel weird and uncomfortable about it but in my defense I thought that it was a pretty common thing to d-…’

‘Are you serious?’ Niall laughs cutting me off mid-rant. ‘It’s not that.’

‘Then what is it? Because I thought that whole thing at Zayn’s was nice.’

‘You really have no idea?’

‘No idea about what? If I had some sort of idea I wouldn’t be texting you repeatedly to tell me anything.’

‘Just forget it.’

‘No.’

‘Go home.’

‘No.’

‘God you are so fucking stubborn.’ Niall states with a nearly invisible smile on his face.

‘Are you going to tell me?’

‘I would if I didn’t think that it’ll do more harm than good.’

‘Well, do you want to talk about something else?’

‘Like what?’

‘I don’t know. Anything you want to talk about.’

‘Come on. It looks like it’s about to pour any minute.’ Niall pulls the wooden door open and steps aside.

‘Is your dad in there?’

‘He’s back in his room. Come on, it’ll be fine.’

So I followed Niall down the empty hallway and into his bedroom. I glance around the room for a few seconds admiring it. He had a simple desk, with his laptop and camera. His backpack was on the floor near the foot of the full sized bed. A tall plastic hamper was filled with clothes, which were folded neatly. Several different pairs of shoes were scattered around near the double door closet. His Ray bans were on the dresser along with a watch I had never seen and the remote control. A nice size flat screen TV was wired to the wall adjacent from the bed.

‘You can sit down.’ Niall flops down onto his bed quickly grabbing up his pack of cigarettes.

I slowly sit down on his bed beside him laying my back on a large fluffy pillow after kicking my shoes off.

‘You have a nice room.’ I compliment finally settling down beside him.

‘Thanks. I’ve had the same room for too many years. Just different stuff.’

‘Do you not like it?’

‘I’m getting an apartment pretty soon.’

‘What about your dad?’

‘He’ll be fine here. I need something of my own. My own space.’

‘I have a question.’

‘Did you really have nothing better to do on Saturday night than to bug me?’ Niall shakes his head with playful eyes.

‘May I remind you that it was you bugging me last Saturday night?’

‘What’s the question?’

‘I was just going to ask how many tattoos do you have?’

‘I lost count at fifty something.’ He shrugs glancing at his arms.

‘Do you have any on your back?’

‘Yeah.’ He answers as he leans forward and pulls his shirt over his head.

I hold my breath as Niall lies across his bed displaying all of his tattoos to me. Not an inch of pale skin could be seen with all of the tattoos across his back. I reach my hand forward to touch his back and he doesn’t move nor stiffen.

‘What are the roman numerals for?’

‘It’s a match with my brother.’

‘I thought you don’t talk to your brother?’

‘I don’t anymore.’ He answers with a shrug, ‘and I know that you’re going to ask why not next. I don’t talk to him because he does a lot of stupid shit. He’s in and out of jail so I tend to steer clear from him. Plus he has the tendency to be a real dick.’

‘I was actually going to ask what the numbers stand for.’ I point out with a small smile. ‘But that was coming next.’

‘It was the day that he got out of prison and the day we got the dumbass tattoos before he started screwing up all the time.’

‘Where is he now?’

‘I hope far away from me as possible.’ Niall answers turning towards me.

There was something that rested behind his deep blue eyes that I couldn’t quite figure out.