Second chapter of the night before I go to sleep. This goes for Ringoisastarr, like I promise ;)

Love!!

XOXO

II

Tallulah

I sighed for the umpteenth time, contemplating throwing my new Channel purse at my supposedly called friend. Now that McFly had finished successfully his tour around Latin America and were on their mini vacations, Mike was totally free. Which meant he had more than enough time to annoy the hell out of me.

"But I don´t understand it!" He insisted for the umpteenth time, just as many times as I had sighed. How much of a punishment would I get if I casually and completely non-intentional-y threw my glass of wine to his head?

"Well, I always thought you were a little dense, you know? For all I know, you didn´t even had great grades in college. You're a fiasco." I muttered. Mike had being annoying me since Harry –I mean McFly- had gone away. Every email, every phone call, every SMS had the words what, the, fuck, were, you, and thinking, and every other synonymous he could find. Weird thing, it seemed he only annoyed me. Stupid chauvinist.

"Oh, shut up, Tallulah. You know what I mean. He loves you and you love him. Why the fuck-?!" He exclaimed too loud, getting carried away. I grunted.

"Am I not dating him? Because it wasn´t going to work. I know you are a hopeless romantic deep down and watched Casablanca or Gone with the Wind or Wuthering Heights like millions of times. But get down to the real world now, for me. Love is not always enough." I muttered. I knew what I was saying was true, and I really believed it.

But it still hurt.

"Oh, come on, Scarlett. Now that you're naming those movies –and we're going to leave Casablanca out of this because we both know Harry and you are no Ilsa and John-, do you really want to end up like Scarlett? Realizing you're in love with Rhett far too late?"

I almost flinched. Of course, Mike was right. But I wasn´t about to tell him that.

"I won´t because I already know it." I muttered.

Mike sighed exasperated. "So you want to go all Ilsa, then! You two can´t be friends and the whole world knows it, Tallulah!"

"I don´t want to be his friend, anyway." I said. And I'm not really sure if I ever want to see him again…

When Harry had gone to Latin America, he called every day at first. We talked for hours to no end just… talking. But after the first week, his phone calls started to be shorter and taking more time between each. I never was a sobbing kind of girl, so when that happened, I knew things had ended for both of us. Of course, it hurt, but I wasn´t about to go crying and get depressed because I knew it was going to happened sooner rather than later. I was damn proud of myself for taking the right decision and not succumbed to him. If we would have being dating again then, the pain would have been too much.

"Then what? You're going to married some idiotic man that loves you just in order to hurt him?"

"I'm not going to go all Cathy on him either! God, Mike, don´t you know me?" I snapped annoyed.

"Yeah, yeah. I know you. Sorry. It's just that this is complete stupid. I don´t get it."

"The way Harry loves and the way I love work against each other. And that's it."

"Fine, I' won´t annoy you after this But… what are you going to do?"

"Well…. I already finished the book, as you know. So I'm taking vacations. My cousin invited me to Ireland for a month, and he said that if I needed to, he could get me a part-time job near Dublin. I'm going the day after tomorrow."

"You know what happened the day after tomorrow?" Mike asked as if it was some big important secret. I didn´t think it was good the mark his grammatical mistake.

"No? What happened?" I asked, following his game.

"North America was taken over by a climatic catastrophe and Jake Gyllenhal had to run down one of the avenues in New York to save his pretty ass."

I snorted, amused. "This is not a movie!"

"Fine, fine. You were naming books and I felt left out." Mike pouted at me. It was hard to stay angry with this man, really hard.

"Idiot." I laughed.

"You know you love me." He grinned.

"XOXO, Gossip Girl?"

We started to laugh at my completely crazy and random thought and that was enough to get Harry out of my mind. Mike and I finished our food talking and chatting, and then we leaved towards my apartment. He needed to pick up my pendriver with the last edit version of the McFly book.

"So, you're moving out?" He asked amazed when he saw the baggage in my living room. I laughed.

"Nope, just taking some time off with my cousin and aunt in Ireland." I stated remembering him what I had just said some time ago, knowing he was just being sarcastic.

"Oh, tell Ian I said hi." Mike grinned. He had always had a slight crush on my cousin, "Is he with that bitch yet? Did he realize the goodness of male-male sex?"

I laughed. "Answers' no and no. Hannah cheated on him with some random bloke. And Ian is still as straight as he can get no matter how much he sings to YMCA."

"Oh, well. I'll still keep my hopes up."

"You do that if it makes you happy." I grinned.

I tossed him my pendriver and soon after –after eating all my ice-cream and chocolate cookies, that is- he leaved. I was left alone with my thoughts, which wasn´t a good thing when Mike had put Harry back into my mind. It was never a good thing to have Harry back into my mind, because I wasn´t smart enough to stop the way he worked on me.

I did love him, but it hurt. Everything hurt. He had promised something and he hadn´t acted like that. What if I had accepted to be his girlfriend again? Then I would have been positively crushed.

So I decided I would act like he didn´t exist and just ignore him, enjoying my vacations.

That night, I dreamed of him.

I've been dreaming badly since that night, that dreadful night, but it was a dreamless sleep.

That night, however, I couldn't take Harry's image out of my mind.

It was a weird dream, the kind of dreams that seem like a movie and you're the witness. I was like the omnipresent witness and I had the whole scene laid upon my eyes. Apparently, it was a wedding, my wedding.

I was sitting in a bathroom in the back room of a church, crying, and that was strange alone. I don´t believe in god –much less in marriage- and I would never, ever, get married in a church. But there I was, with my white, puffy, princess-esque dress crying, and I was Lindsay Lohan. Yes, I was, shut up.

At the same time I saw myself there crying my eyes out, I could see, or feel, not really sure, Mike, Gio and Maggie outside, trying to either calm me down, kill me with my hair or shut me the fuck up. It didn´t work, sadly. Whichever one of those they wanted to accomplish.

I was getting married with someone I didn´t know, but the Lindsay-Lohan-me did. She had convinced herself she loved him, somehow, and she had accepted to married him. At least he was rich, because I recognized the church as the same church where Lady Di had gotten married. That was relaxing, I wasn´t so stupid yet.

"Tallulah!" Maggie yelled, sounding both frustrated and angry, as she kicked the door. Inside the bathroom, Lindsay-Lohan-me didn´t even flinched and just ordered them to go away. Of course, none of them heard me, and finally, Mike managed to open the door.

That was when the dream started to get blurry, as if was the day before Christmas and I had a visit of the Future Actions Ghost or whatever. Mike said something that I, both mes, interpreted as you're being stupid, girl! It's all your fault for not telling Him you love him!

I knew then what it was.

My Cathy Earnshaw finale.

I didn´t like it. I wanted to wake up because my dream had turned into a nightmare, but I wasn´t allowed to.

Slowly, the scene changed and I was walking down the aisle all by myself. The church was full, but I couldn´t see any face except for Danny's, Tom's, Dougie's and my friends. Weirdly enough, my cousin Ian was there too.

My husband was smiling. I didn´t see his face, but I could sense it. He had a killer body, but Lindsay-Lohan-me didn´t love him. She had the same man in her mind that I did.

Harry.

Lindsay-Lohan-me stopped next to her soon-to-be-husband, still crying under the veil, listening to the priest speech in silence. And as if it was a cliché romance novel, when those common and always expected words were said, the doors opened with wind and light and all that jazz. Everyone turned to the new comer.

Harry.

But when he opened his mouth to say whatever he wanted to say, instead of his sexy voice, an odd screeching sound came of his mouth that slowly changed to Jace Everett's song 'I wanna do bad things with you'.

I woke up sweating and crying for the first time in years. I was scared and afraid and I had the sudden urge to call Harry. I didn´t want to get married with Faceless Man and I didn´t want to get married in a church at all.

My alarm clock kept sounding until I threw it to the floor, angry.

Instead, I got up and went right to the shower, opening the water and getting inside the shower with my pajamas still on. They were going to the dirty clothes basket, anyway. I took my time to get clean up, and then I dried my hair and my body and got dressed.

It was early, I knew it, but I didn´t want to be in my house any longer, so as soon as I was ready, I called a cab and waited. Harry came back to my mind as soon as I stopped moving. If things kept like that, I was going to hate him. That was my defense strategy to deal with things. If I cared way too much, then I'll change that feeling to hate.

Because it was easier.

I hated to think of Harry, because I felt like I was the stupid naïve in love little girl pinning over the Football captain in school. Too Taylor Swift for me.

Thank god, the cab arrived to rescue me of my thoughts, and I almost hugged the driver for it. The trip to the airport was full of mindless chatting, mostly from me, just so I could keep Harry away. But when I was left in the airport, and the check-in was done with, I didn´t have any other excuse.

So I blasted my Ipod in my ears and started to walk mindlessly.

For three whole hours!

That's how desperate I was.

I even started to talk with an eight-year-olded boy that was angry with his older brothers!

But finally, my plane arrived and after another hour or so, I was sitting there, as it took off.

Thank god an old lady sat next to me, and I could talk to her about anything so I could not think. I found out about her family, her daughters, why she was going to Ireland, her husband's death and all that things, but I coudn´t recall anything. I was just trying to keep my ghosts away.

Almost three hours later, I was standing in the land on my ancestors, calling a cab and in my way to this little town where Ian and his family lived.

My aunt was waiting for me outside of her house, and as soon as she saw the car approaching her, she started to squealed and jumped up and down. She was so excited she couldn´t even wait for me to get off that she jumped inside the cab to hug me as she threw open the door.

"Nicky!!!!" She yelled. The poor driver must thought she was a mental case, really.

"Hi, hi, Auntie Em." I grinned, patting her back. There was no way for you to find out she was actually 41 years old. She looked 25 or 30. Her name was Emerald so when I was younger and obsessed with The Wizard of Oz, I named her Auntie Em.

"It's been ages!" She squealed.

"I know, I know. But I need to pay now, aunt, and the poor man is going to get you in a mental institution if you keep squealing like that."

Emerald grinned. "Ok." She said, getting off of me and helping me out of the car. I paid with a big tip and then we were left alone to dragged my bags to the house. "Wow…. You're moving in?" She asked delighted when she saw my entire luggage.

I smirked. "Nope, but you're not the first one who told me that."

We dragged everything inside and Em prepared tea for us, showing me to my room. I leaved everything there, only taking my cute dresses out and then I went to the kitchen. We had our oh so British tea, but not long after, Em was needed in her local work in her own pub, so we went there, still catching up with our lives.

The Raven was the biggest pub in the town, or so it seemed to me, at least. It was totally Em in every single possible way and I loved it since the very moment I stepped on it.

Em abandoned me when we got there to go and check on the man working behind the counter and the waitress and waiters. I was left alone in a pub not completely full to think. And that wasn´t good, everyone knew it. So I asked for a Margarita and sat near the pool tables, so I could chat with Em when she wasn´t working and in the mean time observed the boys playing pool. Their bums, ok. It's not my fault, really, if they didn´t lean over the table like that then I wouldn´t need to check if… if their trousers broke, that is. I was barely managing to do so when the door opened for the first time in a while and in came my cousin with a pretty girl in his arm.

"Ian!" I squealed, acting a little bit too much like Em. It was contagious. I jumped up and ran to him, hugging him. "Ian! I missed you so very much!"

"Tallulah? What the hell are you doing here?!" He snapped but he wasn´t angry, he was more than happy to see me.

"Vacations, idiot. You invited me!" I threw back at him.

"Yeah, but I didn´t think you would come so fast. You do love me, then." He laughed. The girl in his arm looked awkwardly uncomfortable and she was blushing madly. Ian was always the idiot bad-mannered.

"Hi, I'm Tallulah, the boy's cousin. Forgive him and his manners." I said grinning and offering her my hand.

"Hi… I'm Salem." She said shyly, offering me her hand. I shook it.

"And how did you managed to catch him, anyway? You seem nice enough to do better." I smirked.

Ian's smile was so wide I was afraid it will fall off of his face. "I just met her in the streets and she pleaded me to be my girlfriend! I could say no to her."

Salem blushed even worse than before.

"I can´t believe that. It sounds like something you would do, actually…. He's not molesting you, is he?" I asked curiously at the girl. She looked frantic, shaking her head no.

"It's not like that! I actually asked him if he could… pretend to be my boyfriend…" She murmured.

"And you still have to explain that. Just sit here, wait for me and I'll bring drinks." Ian said grinning widely. "You want something?" He asked at Salem.

"No, no. Thanks. I'm good."

Of course, Ian ignored her. "I'll bring a Margarita for you and an Aubrey for you, Nicky." He grinned, walking away. Just if you were asking, and Aubrey is Baileys with ice-cream and it's called like that for me. Yeap, my whole name is Tallulah Nico Aubrey Callhoum McCoy. A whole mouthful, right?

"So… Did you really ask that to my cousin?" I wondered amused.

She smiled softly, her cheeks burning. "Yeah… I needed him to help me escape from… someone."

"Oh, an ex. I totally understand you. I'm here to escape an ex too." I laughed. Yeah, fine, I'll admit it now! One of the most important reasons why I accepted to come here was because there was no chance to encounter Him here.

"Oh, well… he's not an ex. He's the older brother of my brother's girlfriend. And his friends." Salem said. She was getting more comfortable with every word and her shyness slowly dissipated. I grinned to myself, there was something too cute about shy girls.

"Wait, so your almost-brother-in-law is pestering you and you needed a fake boyfriend? He totally likes you."

"No, he doesn´t. You're the second person in less than six hours that says that to me… I mean, I'm not saying there's not a chance, because of course it is. And it's a high probability too, statistically speaking. But I just know it. He doesn´t like me."

"… Wow… You're far too rational!" I exclaimed laughing out loud as Ian approached us.

"I would disagree with you if it wasn´t because you're almost always right." He grinned, giving us our drinks. Salem thanked him with a shy smile and a blushed. "So. Tell us the whole story."

Salem inhaled deeply, nervously, and she started talking. "I was invited here by the mother of the girlfriend of my brother, and the only reason I came here was because I thought he wasn´t going to be here until the next week or so. But he came here now and he hates me. Not likes me, hates me. So he wants to make my life a living hell. I decided to come here to buy some things, and they decided to come too –he and his friends, I mean. So I told them I was meeting my boyfriend." Salem said. She started slowly and then she became more and more sure of her words. "I invented a boy meeting me here and then they decided they had to come to see if he wasn´t a rapist. We were waiting outside and when I least expected it… You came in the picture and you looked amazingly and highly improbable like he boy I created. And the rest, as they say, is history." She finished.

Ian and I were completely speechless, staring at her. Was she for real?

"This is destiny!" Ian suddenly exclaimed, happily. "Let's toast for that!"

"Hum… Thanks, for acting the role for me." Salem said blushing again. "You really helped me out."

"Luck of the Irish, you know. To find a pretty girl in the street that asks him to be her boyfriend out of nowhere!"

"Ian, you're molesting her now." I stated.

"No, I'm not."

"Ian?" Asked Salem surprised.

"Yeah, that's my name. Nice to meet you, cupcake."

"If you're going to pretend to be her boyfriend, you should probably go for the name she gave you, you know?"

"Uh? And what name is that?"

"… Sid…?" She said timidly. I grinned, god, I love this girl! "But he doesn´t have to keep pretending!" Salem exclaimed looking scared.

"It'll be my pleasure. And that way you can save yourself from Doug and save myself of my cos'." Ian laughed, and I elbowed him. Geez, not 'thanks for coming, how much I missed you'?

And then I noticed the name. Doug sounded extremely familiar. But it was also a very common name.

… Right?

There are many Douglas in the world. And it can even be a last name, which moves the number way up.

So I didn´t ask about him.

It would make me completely freak out.

"I… I don´t want to intrude… or anything…" Salem said worriedly.

"Nonsense, girl. I would love to spend time with someone smart instead of my cousin." I laughed.

Salem smiled then, a bright smile that lighten up her face as if she was a little girl. Too cute. "Thanks, then. I really appreciate it."

"So, girlfriend… Am I supposed to take you to your house, then? You told them that."

Salem nodded. "If it isn´t a problem? I'd go walking if it is. It's not that far…"

"Girl, if you're going to spend time with us, you'll stop all that. It's not a problem or he wouldn´t offer it."

"She's right." He said to Salem, and then turned to me, winking. "But she can have fun before! I'll give you two a tour for the town." Ian said happily, didn´t waiting for us to finish our drinks or anything and dragging us out of The Raven after waving at Em.

Oh, what a day.