"T-Tara?" Alyssa said in shock. "Yes, I'm here." Tara said, focusing her sight on me. "And who's this?" She said, and aimed an accusatory glance towards me, then each of the boys in turn. "Funny, I was just about to ask that myself." Harry said, and looked deep in my eyes. "I-I" I began to say, before I was interrupted by everyone talking at the same time, none of them speaking pleasantly. All that is, except Niall, who kept looking forward, his back towards me. "Wait!" he said, hushing everybody suddenly. "Give her a chance to speak for herself." he said. The silence continued. For a very long time. "Well?" The other girl, stood behind Zayn, I think her name was Cass, said angrily. "Yeah, say something in your defence? You're looking at genuine fraud here!" Alyssa said, a hint of sadness in her tone. I couldn't think of anything. All words just left my mind. Instead of being sensible and doing the right thing, apologising, I ran.
I ran outside to the car park, and saw Ally and Chloe in their signed clothes, clutching autographed pictures. "Look, I know it's been a rough day, but-" I said. I got cut off mid sentence by Ally running and hugging me. Chloe offered a welcoming smile, and said "So Ash, where have you been?". Rather than explaining now, with the risk of the boys, Alyssa, Cass and Tara coming to hear too, I said "In the car. I'll explain later!" They did, and I sped home. It was only when we got in the front door I realised I completely forgot about dropping Chloe at home, and Ally was going too. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry. You can have the sleepover here." I said breathlessly, that ride had banned driving licence written all over it. "We can?" Ally questioned. "Erm, yeah. Mum and Dad are out tonight, remember?" I replied.
Before they had a chance to argue, I ran upstairs. I flopped on my bed and took out my phone. Surprisingly, it wasn't taken from me during the signing. I desparately texted, the fastest I ever had before. Within minutes, Katy arrived, red faced. "How can you have a red face? You only live next door?" I asked with a laugh. "Long story, I'm not going to tell it" She said, happily, as always."So why did you text me to come over?" She asked. I told her the whole story, she was the only person I could trust right now. After half an hour of explaining, she sat back against the wall and said "Oh god, Ash. You've really done it this time." Blinking back tears, I said "Yeah, I know." Katy came over to me and cuddled me, in an attempt to cheer me up and calm me down. It didn't work.
Fifteen minutes later, she hatched another idea. "I know! I'll check Facebook and Twitter, then you'll know you're overreacting! Hasn't Ally told you like thirty thousand times this fandom is understanding and friendly?" I nodded, but wasn't holding out much hope. Katy got up and walked over to my laptop, and began typing away. Ten minutes later, she rolled back on the chair and said "So? How about ice cream? My treat?". It was obviously Katy's idea of distracting. I decided to bite the bullet and have a look. Every single trend on twitter was about me. Including #hatethefaker and #Tarawelovetherealyou and #Niallerweloveyounomatterwhat. It wasn't good. Facebook was no better. The official page was slating me off, as were the fans. Great day for Ashleigh.
Katy slept over that night, for 'moral support'. I appreciated it. At eleven o'clock, she went home. As soon as I knew she was home, my phone buzzed, meaning a text. I assumed it was Katy, saying she'd forgot something, but I was wrong. An unknown number. I was scared to press 'open' but I did anyway, for some reason. I read it carefully, multiple times.
'I know what's happened. Meet me at the coffee shop at 1pm. You'll know me when you see me.'
Adrenaline was pumping through my body, so I went and got Katy, and explained to her on the way to the coffee shop. When we arrived, Katy had a genius moment, and got her brother to come and wait outside, just in case anything went wrong. I looked around, and there were plenty of people inside the coffee shop, and lots of shoppers rushing around outside. Having a coffee shop in the middle of a shopping centre suddenly didn't seem a stupid idea anymore. Me and Katy stepped inside, and we both starting turning our heads looking for whoever asked to meet me. I was praying it wasnt an insane fan who would go psycho on me the second she saw me. But no, Katy tapped me on the arm and nodded her head towards a table at the very back of the shop. On it sat a steaming hot cup of coffee, and in front of it sat Niall. After a deep breath, we headed towards him. He was looking towards the ground, his head down. His blonde hair shone, reflected by the lights. He was silent, as he was during the signing, up until that moment when he defended me. "Niall?" I said softly, he looked in a fragile state, for some reason. He stared at the ground for a couple of minutes, and I couldn't see his expression at all. He looked up, and staring right back at me, was a black eye, the biggest I'd ever seen.