I was speechless, for the first time in about 2 years. A million questions were racing around in my head. Who did this to him? How did it happen? When did it happen? I only saw him yesterday...
Niall picked up on my thoughts. "I know what you're thinking" he said. I just stared at him, trying not to let my thoughts become speech. "Believe me, I'm thinking something" I replied. "Look. Yesterday, after you, um, left, we had a huge discussion. And then-" He got cut off by Katy coming back, 2 coffees wobbling on her hands. I got up to help her, then whispered "Need to talk, now!". Without hesitation, Katy grabbed my arm and took me to the other side of the shop.

"Spill!" she said, still worryingly happily. I explained all what Niall said, and she sat down on a vacant chair and said "Wow." I nodded and took the seat across from her. "It's a bit cryptic though, isn't it?" she said. "What do you mean?" I questioned, knowing she was thinking. "Well he hasn't told you much, has he? And the things he has told you, they don't make much sense" she replied, staring into space. Without realising, I found myself walking back over to Niall, with Katy right behind me. "Ashleigh, be careful." She said quietly. I sat across from Niall again. Katy waved at someone else in the shop, and went over to them, I didnt know who it was, though.

We were back where we started, silence. "So, tell me exactly what happened" I said softly. I didn't know if it sounded demanding or not, sympathy wasn't exactly my strong point. "Well, all of us discovered you weren't coming back, and we weren't going to go after you. So we decided to go home for food. And to question Tara about where she'd been, because you know, she'd been gone for five hours before we saw you, and we assumed she had came back. Sorry about how harsh Harry was, too." I couldn't help a little smile creep on my face when I relived the memory.

"It's okay, carry on" I said, hoping my little laugh was covered by the fake cough. "Well, we all decided to stay over at Harry and Alyssa's house, they offered, and we were all really tired. Anyway, about two hours after we got there, we got some alcohol, to celebrate the end of the signing. We all got a bit, you know. Except Liam, obviously. After the alcohol was gone, we were all more tired than we thought. So, I think I just collapsed, but it's all a bit fuzzy, last night." He was looking at the ground again, and I realised he was deliberately not telling me the source of his black eye. "I'm sorry, but you haven't told me about, you know." I said. He looked up at me in confusion, and I pointed to my eye. "I did, I told you I collapsed. I must have fallen on something."

How he could blatantly lie like that baffled me. "Niall, seriously. Tell me how you got it." He sighed, and said "You know Ashleigh, you're smarter than I gave you credit for." What? "Thanks, that means so much coming from you" I muttered under my breath in a mocking tone. Up to yet, I still don't understand why Ally is so infatuated with this band. Niall isn't exactly giving them a glowing reputation in my eyes. Neither did Harry, based on his behaviour yesterday. "Wait how do you know my na- Never mind. Tell me what REALLY happened." I said. "Well, true story we did stop at Harry and Alyssa's house. Everyone was deciding where they would be sleeping, there were only 3 guest bedrooms. I offered to sleep downstairs, so Zayn and Cass took one, Liam and Danielle took another-" I cut him off. "Who's Danielle?" I asked, imagining Ally raging at me for not knowing the answer. "Liam's girlfriend." Niall replied quickly. "Why wasn't she at the signing?" I questioned. "She had stuff to do, I don't really know what." I nodded, signalling for him to continue with the story.

"Louis took the other one." I couldn't help a feeling of sadness wash over me, when I asked "He was alone?" Niall looked regretful, and nodded. "His girlfriend ended their relationship last week. He's kind of been a devastated mood ever since, nothing will get him over it." I nodded once again signalling the continuation of the story. "Which left me and Tara downstairs alone." I had to say "This story doesn't lead to anything cringeworthy does it?" he actually laughed, the first time I'd ever heard him laugh, and said "No, Ashleigh. Don't worry." "You may continue then." I said, sounding more posh than intended. "After the others had all gone to bed, we stayed up chatting until around 3am, then things took a turn for the worse.

I found out she'd been out the previous night partying. Not the innocent kind with friends, though. She'd cheated on me that night, too. That effectively lead to the biggest argument we'd ever had. She accused me of things I had never done, some I would never even think of doing. She had no defence. She knew that, and resorted to threats. We must have been pretty loud, because Harry and Liam came down. They asked what was going on, and Tara turned on the charm. She made it sound like I was the bad guy, and resulted in Harry kicking me out. So, I wandered around the streets last night. I couldn't even go home, Tara had the keys. I eventually found a hotel, and that gave me somewhere. For a while, anyway. I left around 9am, and wondered what to do. I remembered my friend lives nearby, so, in a last ditch attempt, I explained everything. He seemed to believe me, but word had got around. By word, I mean Tara's fake version of events. My friend's brother came, and kicked me out. My friend argued, but his brother was stronger and had more authority. So once again, I was all alone. By this time, the news was all over the story, I bet one of the boys had gone to the press. I passed a group of thugs on the street, and then, this happened." He pointed to his black, puffed up and swollen eye.

"Oh my god. Niall, I am so, so sorry." I said, letting all my defences down. "And that was only about two hours ago." he said, a tear falling down his cheek. I found one falling down my cheek too. "So you've just been roaming around on your own ever since?" I said. "Yeah, pretty much" he replied. "But don't you have like security to keep you safe? You and the rest of the boys?" I said, growing more concerned for him with every sentence, which was insane. "I did, before word got around. Now I think I'm out of the band." My mouth fell open in shock. "Surely they cant make you leave with no warning?". "They can. If it's a majority vote. I think Liam and Louis might have tried to stop it, but it's never enough. But maybe I'm not out, maybe I'm just anticipating the worst." I got myself together and replied "But don't you have millions and millions of fans that fight for you?" He smiled. "Yeah, they're the best. But it's not enough. If Tara has told her lies like she has to everyone else, they will think it was a mutual breakup and I'm on holiday or something." I looked around and saw nothing out of the ordinary.

"That's why there's no fangirls here then?" He laughed and said "Yep, that's why". I said "You need to go and talk to the boys, put your mind at rest. They've had time to cool off, and they seem like nice lads, they'll understand. Just tell them everything you've told me." He took a deep breath and got up. "You know what? I will. I'll go right now." He started to leave. "Wait!" I said. He came and sat back down. "I still have a few questions!" He smiled and said "Go". "Right, first of all, how do you know my name, second- how did you get my mobile number, finally- how the hell did I get mistaken for Tara in the first place?" He stretched out his arms, took a breath and said "How do I know your name? You think I didn't see your bracelet with the charm that says 'Ashleigh' on it?" I looked down at my wrist, and there was the bracelet Katy had bought me for my birthday last year. "The other boys didn't" I said in my defence. "They're not as observant as me" he replied with a wink. "How did I get your number? I do my research." I looked at him. "Research? Really? That's a bit creepy isn't it?" He thought about it, and said "Yeah, I suppose it does. Actually, while you were gone outside, your sister and her friends got to the front of the queue. When I asked them if they wanted anything else, your sister gave me a folded piece of paper and said 'I think you and her would get on amazingly'. That piece of paper had a mobile number on it. Then, it was pure luck that it was yours." I rolled my eyes. "Yeah that sounds like Ally" I said with a laugh. "And how did you get mistaken for Tara? I don't know really, I think Zayn sent out security out looking for Tara. And truth be told Ashleigh, you could be twins." I put my head in my hands and said "Don't say that."

Niall got his phone out and showed me a picture. It was of a girl, smiling sweetly. "How did you get a picture of me, Niall?" I questioned. "It's not you. It's Tara." I obviously couldn't remember Tara too well, because she was literally my spitting image. I didn't really look at her though, to be fair. Right down to the sparkling brown eyes and glossy hair, she looked scarily like me. "Fine, one point to you." I said. "Is that all?" He said happily. I nodded, and he once again got up to leave. As he was about to go out the door, I caught up with him. "One more little question." He laughed again, and said "Last one then Ashleigh." I laughed too, and said "Promise. So yesterday when I got home and everyone hated me, and still probably does, I saw a trend on twitter." He looked at me, confused, and said "Yeah, so? There's trends all the time?" I replied "No, no, I don't mean that. You said all the fans wont be supporting you right now. How come '#Niallerweloveyounomatterwhat' was trending?"

He stared right into my eyes, and let a dazzling smile take over his face. "Hey, I didn't say they all weren't supporting me" he said, then left. Just like that. I turned around to try and find Katy. The coffee shop had got noticeably more busy since we entered. I didn't notice, though. Our table had been taken already. We'd only left it a minute ago. I found Katy eventually. She was sat across from a girl we know from college, Evie. "Hey Katy! Hey, Evie!" I said, with new found optimism. "Someone's happy about something!" Katy said, in an equally happy tone. "Hey" Evie said, in a normal tone, like I normally speak in. We chatted for an hour, then me and Katy headed to my house. Katy was stopping over again, as was Chloe. The next morning, I awoke to another text message. Yet another unknown number. I knew it wasn't Niall's though, I had saved that as a contact. This message wanted me to go somewhere, too. Good thing it was a local place, because I really couldn't be bothered to drive today. I waited for Katy to wake up, and when we'd had breakfast, I said "So, ready for another adventure?"

Sorry for the really long chapter, I just kept thinking of things to write c: