please don't take my sunshine away...

Chapter Ten.

Playlist Song: On My Own, Niall Horan

get ready for a hella Irish chapter.

Fall 2015

We arrived at Mullingar at around ten o'clock the next day. When we finally get all of our stuff out of the bus and walk over to the small house Maura and Bobby are waitin on the poarch. When Niall sees them he happily runs over and hugs them both. We are all so deprived of our parents that when we get to see them we all act like kids. We make our way over and each greet the Horans and then walk into their warm house. I smile and watch as Niall looks around with a smile on his face at the house he has called home since he was child. Louis greets Maura and then walks up next to me.
"How long are you guys going to be here?" asks Maura giving Liam a hug.
"Well we're going to stay the night and then we have a flight to the states," I say.
"The states. Wow," Maura says, always being in awe of our travels on tour.

After going and having a cup of tea with Maura and Bobby and catching up on everything, Niall brings me upstairs to his childhood bedroom. His parents have kept it the same and walking into the small room feels like home. Everytime we're in Ireland we make a stop here so I've been going here since I was a teen. I put my stuff down and fall backwards onto the small bed. Naill gets on it behind me and jumps on it.
"You are a literal child," I say to him, getting up and going over to the small window to look out at the rain.
"I know," Nialls says, getting down and walking over to the window next to me.
"Looks like we're gonna need raincoats and wellies," I say.
"Yeah," Nialls says solemnly. "Let's go," he says, running out of the room and down the hall. I follow after him, allowing myself to act like a kid again in his presence.

Nialls insists that we all get changed into rain gear to go into the dreary but beautiful streets of Mullingar. When we get outside we all walk down the street following Niall to the small school that Niall grew up going to.
"Wow," Nialls says, looking up at the big building.
"Do you think we can go in?" he says looking at Liam who we all know has the final say.
"It should be fine," Liam says so excitedly Nialls opens the door. When we step inside there are a few kids who look at us really weird but Niall ignores them and walks down the hall. While we walk he points out different places that memories are attached to.
"I puked in that exact rubbish bin," Niall said pointing to a large grey bin. I laugh.
"Yeah, I ate too many sweets that day," Nialls prances around to each of the classrooms and we even bump into his third year teacher. After that we leave the school and go over to a small park to play football.

After a couple hours of aimlessly kicking a football around in the small park we go to a small restaurant to get lunch. When we arrive there are only a few people sitting down to eat so we expect it to be quite mellow. We each ordered simple Irish specialtys and by the time the food got there the crowd was too big to eat it without getting mauld. Ignoring Niall's protests we get out of the restaurant as quick as we can making sure to tip lots because of the inconvenience.

Once we get back to the house we all get something to eat and then go and hang out in Niall's room and talk.
"What are we gonna do about Simon?" Li says breaking the once silent room. Him and Nialler are laying on the bed and me and Lou are sprawled out on the floor.
"I don't know," I say softly.
"We can't just leave though," Louis says, cuddling into my side. "I'd miss you guys too much to just leave." I know how hard it is for Louis to leave the band. Much harder than it is for the rest of us.
"I think we just need to do it," Niall says.
"What?" I ask.
"We just need to do what Simon wants us too," he says.
"But we can't give in just like that," Liam says.
"Let's just have a good trip," I say, sitting up and looking around at all of them. "I know we've been putting it off for a while but in all honesty we can't do anything about it til we're back in England."

We all get up and go downstairs to help make dinner. The carpeted stairs are soft under my feet and once we reach the kitchen the mood has lifted immensely. There is soft music playing and Maura is chopping vegetables while Bob is watching football on the TV. Louis and Niall walk over to the living room while me and Liam go over to the kitchen to help make dinner. I work with Maura on chopping all of the vegetables while Liam cooks the pasta and makes the sauce.
"How's it going with Louis?" she asks.
"Good," I say.
"That's good," she says with a nod.

"Didn't you guys talk to Simon recently about ending the band?" she asks. "I remember Niall saying something about it." I nod my head.
"Yeah we did, though it didn't go as we expected," I say, still focused on the vegetables I am chopping into small cubes.
"How so?"
"Well, he said we can't end the band, we can only go on an 18 month hiatus." I say.
"How is that bad?" she asks.
"It's complicated, but basically with only being on a break the contracts will still be in place," I say trying to stay calm. "So no coming out for us," I glance over at Louis who is laughlin lightly at something and then looks back at me for a second and smiles. I smile back at him timidly. He frowns knowing something is up.

"Oh darling," Maura says, pulling me out of my trance. She places her knife down and pulls me into a tight embrace. I hold back tears and when she lets me go I try to occupy my brain by chewing my fingernails. A second later Louis comes up behind me and places his hand on my shoulder. I startle for a second and then relax when I realize it's him. We finish up dinner and then we all sit down at the large table and eat and talk. After that all of us are too exhausted to do much of anything else so we watch some football and then head up to Niall's old room to get some sleep for our flight that we have to catch at 4AM tomorrow morning.

We lay out a few sleeping bags so that everyone but Niall will sleep on the floor. It feels like when we were young and we used to sleep over at each other's houses constantly. We all brush our teeth and change before saying goodnight to each other. I snuggle up close to Louis and close my eyes. Sleep doesn't come easily because the cars are too loud and the room is too bright but eventually I feel my mind wander deep into my brain and sleep seeps into my bones.

Early the next morning I woke up to Liam turning on the light to wake us all up. I rub my eyes and groan before getting out of the sleeping bag and getting my stuff packed up to get on the bus. I stay in my pajamas and brush my teeth and go to the bathroom before putting everything in my bag and heading downstairs. Maura and Bobby woke up to say goodbye and after saying our farewells Paul pulls up with the bus to bring us to the airport. I fall asleep on the bus for a little while and then once we go through the crowded airport we get on the small plane and get ready for the long flight to the states. I fell asleep again rested against Louis with the loud sound of the airplane around me.

this was a pain in the ass to write because i had no motivation but i'm glad we got to talk about niallers story. i'm excited for you to read the next 2015 and the 2012 one to. you guys have no idea what's comin. luv y'all.

Thank you all so much for reading.
All the love.
- Lilah Sage