I just stood there, in the middle of Happy Harry's tears streaming silently down my face. I couldn't believe it. This just isn't possible. I thought to myself. She was only fifteen. There were still so many things she never got to do…all because of me. I slowly slid down against the wall. On queue, my iPod switched to Hear You Me, by Jimmy Eat World. The perfect song for my predicament. I mean they play it at like every funeral for a reason. I was so out of it by that point I didn't even notice that every single girl in the store under the age of twenty-four started screaming her heads off. I don't know how I missed the fact that One Direction for some odd reason was in Happy Harry's with me. To be fair though, it was Delaware, and as described on SNL Delaware is a hellhole that no one ever comes out of. Eventually, their bodyguards fended the girls off, since there only really were a few, so the boys could get their things and go. They looked around but were confused about where to go since they had never actually been there. Eventually they wandered into my aisle, but I didn't even notice. I was so completely out of it. I'd had issues before with depression, anxiety, and low confidence, but I knew there was no returning after this. How could there be. I killed the most amazing person that I have ever met. I am the reason that only person who was ever been there for me after all that happened is dead. While I didn't notice them, they noticed me. They had seen crying fans before, but they knew this was something else. Niall noticed me first. He slid down on the wall next to me.

"You okay?" he asked softly.

I paused for a moment to think about how I was going to answer. I wanted to talk to someone about what happened more than anything else in the entire world, but this was our first conversation…ever. Finally I made my decision.

"I'm fine." I replied, trying to wipe the tears off my face but it was no use.

I was just too overwhelmed. I was so fed up with the way my life was turning out. I hadn't gotten the chance to be a normal teenager in two years despite the fact that I was only seventeen years old.

"No, you're not…I'm not an idiot." He replied softly.

"Look it's just so complicated…no one really knows everything…and it's kind of personal and I don't know you and if I told you, you would think I was weird or boring for telling you my entire life story when I've never actually met you before…"

"What if I want to know? What if I'm asking for you to tell me you're whole life story no matter how personal it is…"

"Are you sure you really want to know?"

"I am one-hundred percent positive."

"Before I tell you anything you have to promise that you will never tell another living soul…no matter what."

"I swear on my life…now please tell me."

"Okay it all started about two years ago when my parents and their friends all decided to go in on the lottery for the biggest jackpot ever."

"How much was it?"

"Nine-hundred million dollars."

"Whoa…"

"Yeah…"

"Continue please"

"They bought forty tickets and won the jackpot."

"Oh my God."

"They had to split the money equally but still nine-hundred million dollars even after taxes and split five ways is a lot of money."

"Yeah… continue"

"Well anyways they decided to celebrate their winnings by going on a vacation around the world together…without the kids. They figured that if they bought us all a mansion to stay in together, we couldn't do any thing bad. I guess they thought that since there were so many little kids and since the teenagers would have to be responsible nothing bad would happen. They told us that they would be back in two weeks. Well that two weeks turned into two months, then four and so on and so on. They told us they would call us everyday. They did at first but then they just stopped talking to us altogether. With them being gone, Jeremy and I had to take over and be responsible for everyone. You have no idea how hard it is taking care of seven people at the age of fifteen. Eventually, Jeremy just cracked and I had to take all of his stuff on too. It's been so hard trying to keep up with school, SATs, College shopping, and raising seven kids. I haven't actually been able to be a teenager since the day my parents left. I couldn't tell anyone about this arrangement because after everything I've been through I can't risk social services coming and splitting us up. I love them all. The only person I felt like I could talk to about this was Maddy. Her parents were in on the lottery thing too. Despite the fact that I was taking care of her and the fact that she was two years younger, we just clicked right from the start. I felt like I could say or do anything and she would still love me no matter what. We were sisters. Then last week, I was driving with her to get subway and this car came out of nowhere.. It was dark out and they had their high beams on and…"I stopped because I couldn't finish because tears were pouring so hard down my face. But, I didn't need to finish. He knew. He knew exactly how I felt. He hugged me, rubbed my back and whispered into my ear

"Shhh…it's going to be ok…I'm never going to let anything bad happen to you ever again."

I buried my face into his chest. I somehow felt better, which I didn't think was possible. I slowly stopped crying and looked up at him to show him that I was better now. When he saw that I felt better his face lit up.

"I'm Hailey by the way"

"Niall" He chuckled

"So Niall you know a lot about me it's only fair that you tell me something about you…"

"Well" He laughed, "I'm in One Direction, I'm Irish, and I think you don't know you're beautiful!"

I started laughing at his joke, which made him laugh, which made me laugh, which made him laugh, and so on and so on until Liam found us sitting on the ground laughing our heads off.

"Niall what are you doing?" asked Liam puzzled

"Laughing," replied Niall

"Why?" questioned Liam

"I –I –I really don't know!" replied Niall, which only made us laugh even harder. Liam started laughing a little at the absurdity too. Finally, we all calmed down.

"So I don't mean to be rude but who are you?" Asked Liam

"Hailey" I replied

"Hi Lily I'm Liam"

"Wow so you guys actually are One Direction.." I said

"Why wouldn't we be?" asked Liam

"Well this is Delaware, and literally no one famous ever comes to Delaware. We are such a small state we don't even have a news channel. We just use Philadelphia's. I mean TV shows use us as an example of the middle of nowhere. When I went to Texas and told people that I was from Delaware most people didn't even know that it was a state…" I replied

"Well, our bus broke down…" Stated Niall.

"That makes much more sense" I replied.

Then their bodyguard came up.

"Come on boys we have to go now! I got taxi to take us to the Double Tree but that's as far as they will take us. Looks like we're going to be be stuck here for a couple of days…" said the body guard.

"Can't we just stay here a little longer?" Niall pleaded.

"No! Those girls who attacked you started texting their friends! We don't have much time before you five get mobbed."

"Ok fine. Hailey can I please have your number?" Niall asked sweetly.

"Sure." I replied as we switched phones.

"I will text you as soon as I get settled."

"Okay," I replied blushing a little.

He smiled sweetly.

"You're so cute when you blush." He said softly.

Then the bodyguard pulled him away as I tried to mask the huge grin on my face. That was how it all began…