RECAP

Niall spoke again, “Grace,” he paused in wonder, “you can see!”

I broke out into a huge grin, “Michael and Luisana adopted me. Hattie is Luisana’s sister and they got me the operation on my eyes as soon as it was possible.” I paused, blushing. “I can’t believe you’re really here.”

I don’t know how long I sat there just basking in the fact that he was really here. I watched him enthusiastically talk to my adoptive parents. I was snapped out of my reverie when a girl came barreling over and latched onto Niall’s side.

We all turned to look at her with surprise. “And who might you be?” Luisana asked friendlily.

“I’m Jade, Niall’s girlfriend,” She purred, eyeing me down spitefully.

This can’t be happening.

_______________________________

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

GRACE POV

     Michael coughed as he and Luisana looked around awkwardly. Niall looked uncomfortable and I- I wasn’t really sure what I was feeling at this moment. The girl- Jade, stared me down and seemed to be calculating her next move.

It figures that someone as amazing as Niall would have a girlfriend. It should have been obvious, but unfortunately for me, I had been painfully oblivious. Jade continued to stare at me like I would somehow magically disappear. I raised my eyebrow at her.

“Nice to meet you… Jade.” I managed to say somewhat genuinely.

She laughed, abruptly turning to face Niall. She placed her hands on his chest and leaned forwards, whispering to him while looking up into his gorgeous blue eyes.

Niall moved backwards quickly.

“Are we leaving babe?” Jade asked.

Niall sighed, looking extremely perplexed.

“Yeah, I have a meeting I have to get to unfortunately…” Niall trailed off unhappily.

I frowned; this had been too short for my liking. Even if he had a girlfriend, it was like a breath of fresh air being around him- even if it meant I could only be his friend.

“Grace, could you hand me your cell phone?” Niall smiled at me. My heart skipped a beat and I nodded, unable to break eye contact with him.

I pulled out the new phone that Michael and Luisana had gotten me and handed it to him. I hardly had any idea how to use it- I had always had an outdated flip phone. My parents never saw the need to give Preston or I anything new and high tech.

He started typing on the brand new iPhone quickly and held the phone out to me.

“Text me soon, okay?” He asked, gazing into my eyes.

I nodded, a blush creeping up my neck.

Please go before the redness of my cheeks gives me away! I thought with embarrassment.

I reached out and grabbed my phone but Niall didn’t let go. I gave another small tug, confused.

He laughed, “I want to hear you promise Grace.”

I grinned, “I promise, Niall.”

He seemed satisfied with my answer and let me take back my phone. I noticed Jade was impatiently tapping her foot.

With one last look Niall left our table, Jade clinging to his side. I stared after them long after they had left through the doors. I felt a hand on my arm and looked up in surprise.

Luisana was looking at me with understanding, “You like him, don’t you?”

I blushed again, staring at my fettuccini alfredo with renewed interest. Michael chuckled, taking his napkin from his lap.

“I think we’re all tired, I’ll go pay the bill and then we can head home.” He said, excusing himself from the table.

I looked up at Luisana and nodded my answer to her question. I felt like saying it out loud was useless now, seeing as he had Jade. And as much as I wanted to deny it, she was extremely pretty. She even had the English accent going for her. I sighed, the thought bringing me down even further.

“It’ll all work out, sweetie. We’ve all been there. Let’s go shopping tomorrow to get your mind off of it, yeah?” She grabbed her purse

I nodded; it was nice spending time with Luisana and Michael.

---

We pulled up to the house I had been living at for about a week now and I gasped in wonder. It was the first time I had been able to see it with my own eyes. Obviously I knew that it was enormous, but the sight in front of me left me breathless.

The house was everything I had dreamed of. The ceilings were high, the walls painted calm neutral colors and different shades of lighter to darker brown. The couches were leather and the hardwood was dark and shiny. It was enormous.

“Wow,” I breathed.

Luisana laughed, “Welcome home, for real this time!” She hugged me.

I laughed with her, following her as she led me to my room. I would probably be able to find it through touch, but I was much too excited to see my room to be that patient.

She left me in front of my door with a smile and took the stairs down to the first level. I took a deep breath and opened it.

“Oh my god,” I whispered, covering my mouth. Tears formed in my eyes and I fought hard not to cry. My room looked almost identical to my room back in Vancouver. The only things different was that this room was much larger and had newer looking items and furniture.

A small knock brought my out of my surprise. “Come in!” I shouted, turning towards the door.

Michael and Luisana stood there with hopeful expressions on their face.

“H-how did you do this?” I sniffled, wiping stray tears from my eyes.

I spotted a cork board with old photos on it and rushed over to get a better look. There were pictures of my family- mom, dad, Preston and I. There were some of Harper, and some of my other friends from high school. There were even some pictures of me at the hospital with Niall. I had no clue anyone had taken them, of course. One was of me and Niall laughing together while he laid beside me on my bed. Another was when I had apparently fallen asleep while he was still there and he was brushing a piece of hair from my eyes. The last one was of Niall looking at the photographer in surprise and was blushing fiercely with a guilty looking smile on his face.

I was crying now, this entire room was put together so thoughtfully.

“We’re glad you like it.” Michael said quietly. I looked at the two of them with adoration. I was so thankful and so lucky to have been taken in by people so kind and caring.

“I love it, thank you so much.” I cried, wrapping them in a hug.

“It was actually done before you got here. We had our interior designer get some photos of your friends and family and find out what your old room looked like. We wanted you to feel as at home here as possible.”

“It’s amazing, it really is.” I whispered, sitting on my bed.

“We’ll let you get some rest. It’s getting late. Goodnight, love.” Luisana said as she gave me a kiss on the forehead.

“Night kid,” Michael said hugging me.               

I slowly got ready for bed, taking in every detail. I made my way back into my room and fell back onto my soft bed. I turned off my bedside lamp and gasped. They had even gotten the glow in the dark stars on my ceiling like I used to have back in Vancouver.

NIALL POV

     Last night had not gone like I planned it to. I had envisioned seeing Grace again and not once did I think it would turn out as badly as it did. I was supposed to have hugged her, taken her hand and talked with her for hours. Not awkwardly run into her with another girl- especially one who I had no feelings for.

I groaned, stuffing a pillow over my face.

“What’s wrong Niall?” Liam asked me curiously.

I sighed, “I saw Grace last night.”

“What?!” I heard Harry screech from across the room. “What happened, what did you say?” He prodded me, sitting on my legs while I laid down on the couch.

“I ran into her at the restaurant I took Jade to last night.” I groaned again, upset at what happened. On top of it all, Grace hadn’t texted me. I had given her the power to start the conversation in case she actually didn’t want anything to do with me. The thought terrified me. I should have made her give me her number as well.

The boys looked at me with eyes as round as saucers. “That’s awful! How did that turn out?”

I sighed in defeat. “Jade introduced herself as my girlfriend. I didn’t want to make things even more awkward for Grace if I started an argument in front of her. Jade can be truly terrifying when she wants to be.”

Zayn groaned, “Worst thing that could have happened!”

“You’ve got to go after her, mate!” Louis said with determination.

“I gave her my number… if she wants to talk to me she’ll text me. I’ll give her a week before I take drastic measures and show up to her house uninvited.” I laughed humorlessly.

“You know where she lives?” Harry asked, raising an eyebrow. “You work faster than I thought, Nialler!” He elbowed me playfully and winked.

I laughed, “I wish I was that smooth! Nah, she was adopted by Michael Bublé!”

The gasp that went around the room was hilarious. “That’s crazy!” Liam cried, they were all soaking up this crazy story that happened to be my life.

“No kidding! So at least she’ll be easy to track down.” I smiled.

“I wonder how she’s doing with the tabloids,” Zayn said quietly.

That sobered up the mood quickly. I had never thought about Grace having to be in the publics’ eye before now. She had always been the humble, adorable normal girl that had a great private life. Now the paparazzi would be dying to get into her personal life and everything about the crash would be twisted into even more gruesome lies.

My heart ached for her. I would do everything I could to keep her safe.

GRACE POV

     Out of boredom and curiosity, I had decided to log onto my Facebook account. I wanted to see what my friends had been up to and I hadn’t been on in more than a month.

I finally remembered my password and gasped. I had 789 friend requests, 957 notifications and 457 messages. I gaped at it, not even knowing where to start. I completely forgotten I had been in the tabloids for being adopted by the Michael Bublé. It was extremely easy to forget that he was famous- he was so humble. Even Luisana was a famous supermodel.

I decided to check the notifications briefly, seeing that I had been tagged in hundreds of photos, posts, statuses and mentions. I cursed myself for not making my profile more private- yet I still had made it private enough where only friends could see my profile. I skimmed some, and clicked on one of my closest guy friends’ status that I had been tagged in.

Samuel Trescott : I can’t believe that Grace was in such a terrible accident. I haven’t heard from her at all, have any of you guys?

I skimmed the comments, looking for familiar names.

There was twenty seven likes on the status and forty nine comments.

I saw one of my girlfriends from my old school had commented on it.

Lainie Mousseite : I saw it on the news, everyone was killed but her. I can’t believe Preston is gone! :’( I hope she’s alright.

I noticed several people had recently commented saying they had seen me in the tabloids and posted a link to find the article.

I took a deep breath and decided to post a facebook status. It really was about time that I let everyone know I was alright- whether they cared or not.

Before I did however, I checked Harper’s facebook page for any recent activity or posts as to what had happened. She was, after all her best friend.

Her profile picture had been changed to Preston’s obituary with his graduation picture on it. I hadn’t even seen that yet- I looked away quickly, not wanting to cry.

I scrolled down her page and saw the pictures she had been tagged in. There was tons of her at parties, smiling with some girls I didn’t recognize.

I scrolled down some more until I got to a post on her wall showing our totaled car. Her caption said, “Going to miss you so much Preston, words can’t describe the hole that is in my heart right now. Rest in peace.”

I frowned; there was no mention of me anywhere, nothing. I checked my messages, skimming them to see if she had tried to contact me. There were tons from friends asking if I was alright and to please contact them- but not one was from Harper. I had gone through every last one of them.

The sadness in my chest turned to anger; did she not care at all what happened to me? Why had she not even tried to see if I was okay?

I brushed it off. I had other things to worry about.

I typed my status update slowly; making sure it sounded exactly how I meant it.

Grace Tanner : Hi everyone. I know it’s been a long time since any of you have heard from me. I wanted to let you know that this is the first chance I have really had to contact you- I haven’t been ignoring you on purpose. This past month and a bit have been agonizing for me. I know that I’m not the only one who lost someone in this crash- many of you were good friends with my brother Preston. I know he would appreciate your words of kindness and I do too during this difficult time. I lost my vision during the accident and just recently had surgery on my eyes that managed to get me my sight back. It will be hard to reply to all of the messages that I’ve gotten but I will read them all, but in general, thank you for your kind words. I love you all so much.

I frowned at the computer screen, wanting to write so much more than that, but they really didn’t need to know how much I had suffered in the hospital and with grief. They just needed to know that I was alright. I hesitated before I sent it, I didn’t want to sound brief and uncaring but I didn’t know how else to word something so devastating. I hoped everyone would understand.

I posted it and closed my laptop. I was exhausted- I had gone through and replied to most of the messages in my search for one from Harper.

I called Luisana and asked to reschedule the shopping date.

“As long as you’re alright, love… we have all the time in the world to shop.”

“I know, talk to you later. I’m going to take a nap.” I said with a yawn.

“Sweet dreams, sweet pea.” She said before ending the call.

I put my phone on my bedside table and closed my eyes.

My eyes snapped open a second later when I realised I hadn’t texted Niall yet. It was partly because he hadn’t put his name under ‘Niall’. I had no idea what number was his. After I had signed into facebook, all of my old numbers imported into my phone.

I sighed in annoyance. This must be why my dad never got us new phones.

I scrolled through the hundreds of numbers on my phone. I stopped when I came across a name in my phone called ‘Crazy Mofo’. I frowned; I didn’t remember this on my phone before.

I texted it hesitantly, sending a simple “who is this?”

Unable to fall asleep, I opened my laptop again and went to my status. My eyes widened again when I saw that there were 156 likes and 98 comments on it.

The first comment on the status was from none other than Harper herself.

Harper LaGrange : “OMG! Grace! You’re OK! I’ve been trying to get a hold of you for forever! How are you girl? I miss ya! Xoxo P.S. I saw u in the US Weekly magazine! Looked RAD!! U must have been DIGGIN IT!”

I frowned at the comment, confused if we were thinking on the same brain wave.

Harper knew I didn’t like attention. She did everything she could to help me stay out of the limelight. She was always one step ahead of me with avoiding class papers, boys, or catty girls. Yet this person claiming to be Harper didn’t fit her description in the slightest.

I had truly lost my best friend.

I heard a beep on my phone and looked down.

Crazy Mofo had replied. I swiped my phone to open it and read the message. A smile fought its way onto my face until I couldn’t stop grinning even if I tried.

CRAZY MOFO-“It’s Niall. I was worried you wouldn’t be able to find my number! I was beating myself up for not telling you what it was saved under. Miss you, how are you doing? x”

Once again, Niall had saved me when I had started slipping into sadness.