Chapter 26 - Relationship

So I guess I have a relationship with Niall. A secret relationship and let me tell you: it’s more exciting than what you imagine. Knowing that all this is our secret, that no one else is part of it and that so many people oppose to this makes it even more thrilling. I know my two stepsisters would push me off a cliff for getting near Niall. Rhonda would make sure I’d burn in hell with Satan for touching one of her precious celebrities, AKA her money. And let’s not forget his fans. I bet that if they knew I’m with Niall they would send lovely letters telling me how much they hate me and that I shouldn’t be near Niall.

Really, it’s exciting!

Being all secretive, organising so no one sees us yet finding time to see each other. I didn’t think I was going to enjoy this so much.

I carry on with my days as normally as usual, cleaning rooms, toilets, doing the laundry, helping at the pool, so on and so forth. In that sense, it’s like nothing has changed. But I do sneak out sometimes, to meet him. Most of the time at the stables, that’s our place. And we go horse riding almost every night.

I haven’t told Charlie and Liv yet, nor Harry. I’m really enjoying the secrecy and I want to make it last for as long as I can. It’s our little world, I guess, and other people would ruin it. But of course, my friends know me. Especially Charlie. So they note the change in me, they see how my smile is everlasting, how I’m in such a good mood, how I don’t even hit Charlie when he says something cliché and I just mock him. I blame Niall. That boy is so cliché I guess I’m getting used to it little by little. I wouldn’t be surprised if by the end of summer I end up doing a musical number with him.

“So, Ella dear,” Charlie starts when we’re having lunch together, almost two weeks after Niall took me to the picnic to pay the bet. “Since when are you and Niall together?” He asks and I choke on my food, spitting it like in cartoons.

“What?!” I exclaim, still trying to collect myself from my near-death experience. “What are you talking about?”

Charlie actually rolls his eyes and I hear Liv chuckling next to me. “Don’t give me that ‘cos I’m still hurt that you didn’t tell us before,” he says, rather dramatically if I say so myself. “Spit and cut the whole show already. It’s obvious you two are together.”

I’m getting worried that people can read me that easily.

“How can it be obvious?” I ask, not exactly confirming it but not denying it either.

“‘Cos you’re all smiley and he’s all smiley too, and you never have dinner with us, and I dunno, you just look happier, like a girl in love, you know,” he states and I feel myself blushing.

No, I’m not in love with Niall. I’m sure of that. I like him very much and I may be falling for him, but I don’t know him enough to be in love. But that could happen, and I’m not closed to that possibility. And surprisingly, I’m not against it either. Falling in love with him doesn’t seem that bad anymore.

“So, when?” Liv intervenes and I can’t help it, I look down at my lunch on my lap, a smile making its way to my lips.

“Aw, look at her. Charlie, Charlie, look at her! Take a picture, please. I’m begging!” Liv dramatises, bringing me back to reality and I smack her playfully.

“Don’t be an idiot!” I shout but Olivia and Charlie are laughing so hard at me. At the end I laugh, too. Just because I’m happy, happier than I usually am.

I know I’m angry most of the time, I know that I hate this place and the kind of life I have, but I’m not miserable. I have good things and I always try to focus on those things to keep me going. Plus, summer is almost over, which means I’ll soon be out of this place. And as if that wasn’t enough, now I have Niall and he makes me happy, in a way I didn’t think it was going to happen. It’s not exactly like he’s the other half I was missing my whole life, but he’s a plus. A lovely and unexpected plus.

“Come on, tell us,” Liv urges me, bumping shoulder with me.

“Almost two weeks,” I confess and I feel the heat in my cheeks.

“You’ve been hiding this from us for two weeks?!” Olivia explodes, making Charlie burst out laughing. “I thought we were friends.”

I laugh, not as much as Charlie, though. “I just like that it was our secret,” I tell her and she smiles playfully, but then she frowns.

“Was it his idea? To hide all this? I know he’s a celebrity and if he doesn’t wanna admit that you two are together then I dunno, but maybe—”

“It was my idea,” I cut her off, surprising her and also Charlie, because he stops laughing. “I don’t want Rhonda to know. I want the rest of the summer to go as smoothly as it can. I know that if she finds out she’ll flip out and force me to stop seeing him. She may even kick him out or she’ll make me clean all the toilets with a toothbrush. I don’t know.”

“Well, that’s true,” Charlie says, nodding. “And then she’ll make you pick the horse shit and clean the stables with another toothbrush.”

“Thank you for that mental picture,” I tell him sarcastically and he smiles widely. “But yeah, it was my idea. Kind of. I was telling him that it wasn’t a good idea, because of Rhonda and ‘cos I want peace, so he offered that, to keep it secret. I agreed immediately.”

“And what happens when summer is over?” Charlie asks, the real and most important question. “We’re going to Oxford, Ella. We’ll be awfully busy. He’ll be awfully busy. You won’t have Rhonda, but do you think you can have a relationship with him?”

I always knew, in the back of my mind, that time was against us and the thing is I have so many plans and I never considered this. I don’t think I can even have a normal relationship with all the things I want to do once I’m out of here. I never imagined I would end up with a celebrity, an international pop star. This certainly gives a twist to my plans that I wasn’t expecting.

I don’t think it’s impossible, but it makes everything so much more complicated. Maybe too complicated. But I don’t really want to think about it, I don’t want to ruin my good mood. I’ll think about this later. I’ll talk to Niall and we’ll see if we can make it work and if we see that we can’t, then we take our separate ways. It wouldn’t be the end of the world.

We’ll see that when summer is over.

“I don’t know yet, Charlie. For now I’m just focusing on finishing my contract here and this relationship is only beginning. Maybe it won’t work out at the end. Maybe it only works while we’re here. I don’t know but I know that I don’t really want to think about that for now. I only know that I won’t quit my dreams for anyone.”

They don’t say anything and I take another bite of my lunch. Whatever happens next I’ll figure it out and I know that I can’t make a decision without talking to Niall. I’m no expert in relationships, but I know that it takes two people to make it work but only one to ruin it. I don’t want to be that one person.

“Good luck, then,” Charlie says. “And I’ll have to talk to him. The whole old brother thing, you know? That if he hurts you—”

“We chop his balls off,” Liv ends for Charlie, both nodding in agreement and it’s my turn to burst out laughing.

“Fine, fine,” I say, still laughing.

After that we joke a bit more as we eat our lunch and go back to our chores. I know that by the end of the day I’ll see Niall, but that doesn’t keep me from wishing that the hours would pass faster and I don’t really care how cheesy that sounds, it’s the truth. I have such a great time when we are together, even if we only tell lame jokes. And as I get to know him more, I like him even more. I don’t even see him as a celebrity anymore, I can’t, even when I tell myself he is one. Niall is just Niall for me now, a normal guy, with fears and insecurities, with flaws and virtues. He’s just a boy, a boy I’m getting to know every day. A boy for whom I think I’m falling, rather quickly.

I insist, he’s no prince charming, but that’s okay. I never wanted a prince to rescue me from my shitty life. So I’m fine, I’m really fine.

+ + + + +

I’m on my way to the stables, after I finish all my chores of the day and ready to meet with Niall, when my walkie-talkie beeps, a few seconds before I take it out. I sigh because her voice comes immediately after.

“Arabella, I need you,” Rhonda speaks and I sigh heavily.

“Coming,” I reply and turn on my heels to walk in the direction of her office. I don’t know what she wants at this time, but I shall find out, before she hires someone to find me and drag me to her office. I totally believe she could do that.

It takes me around five minutes to arrive and when I do, she’s not on her chair but giving me her back, her eyes looking through the window.

“You called me,” I say and she doesn’t even turn around. It’s like I don’t even matter that much to get her attention.

“Yes. You’ve been neglecting your duties, Arabella,” she accuses me and I open my eyes in shock.

“I have not,” I protest, folding my arms. “I do as told, everything is perfect. Has any guest complained?” I demand because I refuse to think I’ve done something poorly.

“Not a guest, someone far more important,” she replies, turning around this time to meet my eyes. Her disgusted expression is unmistakable, there’s so much disdain in her eyes that I even take a step back. She normally shows no emotion towards me, nor even hatred, but now it’s like she’s tired of my presence and she can’t wait to get rid of me.

I guess… I guess she wants me out of this place as much as I want to leave, but she doesn’t want to lose, just as much as I don’t want to lose. If I quit, she wins. If she fires me, I win. This is like the chicken game, and I’m not chickening out. So I take two steps forward this time, holding my head high.

“And what am I doing wrong according to this person?”

“You are not only supposed to do the maid duties, Arabella. You are, want it or not, part of this family and you are supposed to help your two stepsisters. Kimberly and Jennifer have complained until no end of how lousy your job has been lately. They asked you to keep them updated with all what the boys from the band are doing, but you avoid them. I explicitly told you to help them in anything they needed it and you haven’t. Why have you not done this?”

My eyebrows rise in surprise. I was not expecting this, not at all. I thought it was some snobby celebrity being all shallow again. It’s happened before, even when I do nothing to annoy them. They always find something. But I had totally forgotten about my stepsisters.

“I’ve been busy with all the chores I have to do in one day,” I defend myself and her look is only sterner.

“Then you must be faster and help them. Summer is one month away and those boys will be out anytime now, so you need to help my girls. It’s part of your job, Arabella.”

Technically, it is not, but I don’t want to argue with her. If I do, I’ll be late to meet with Niall and she already ruined my mood. I don’t want her to ruin this night even more.

“Fine, I’ll make time to help them with all the gossips I can get. But I’m not a matchmaker, I can’t work miracles.”

“They do not need a miracle, they only need the perfect opportunity and you better help them. Especially now that the blond boy is single.”

Not anymore, I think, a smirk playing on my lips before I say the next works: “As you wish, Rhonda. As you wish.”

-:-:-:-

Dedication to @whitegirlwalking. Enjoy those butterflies this book gives you... I'll kill them soon.

Bel, xx