Picture This (Niall Horan Trilogy)

-Come to Paris and tell me you love me [Chapter 52]

Ashley’s POV:

Empty.

It was all empty.

And white and clean, begging me to take away the emptiness. Frustration building inside of me I stared at the white, fresh paper and with my pencil poised I made a mark, then another, and one more.

Scrap that.

I listened to the ripping sound of the paper freeing itself from the spiral binder and then the crunching as I screwed it up in my hand and launched it across the room yet again missing the bin and landing with the rest of them situated around the bin near the door.

Glancing over at the paper littered at the other side of the room I rested my head in my hands running them through my hair as I clenched my teeth in pure frustration that nothing would go right.

I flipped through my notebook studying my previous design and materiel prints thinking how much easier and smoothly I done them, sure I had to start again a few times and picking a colour scheme was like pulling teeth but they came to me a lot easier than this one. Why was this one so particularly hard? Because this style is not one of mine at all. All blacks and deep rich purples with studs of metal dipping in and out between folds of materiel, I might as well be designing for Dracula.

A knock came at the door and before I had a chance to reply they entered. I had always wondered what the point was of knocking and coming in straight away, you might as well just come straight in, since the warning you give is not even enough of one to be considered a warning neither one that leaves enough time to be acted upon.

I lifted my head from the desk running my fingers through my hair and exhaling loudly as I dragged my gaze to the door.

“How’s it going?”

Niall asked carefully taking a seat on the bed and resting his arms on his knees as he looked at me sensing that I was stressed.

“I don’t want to talk about it”

I snapped speaking through my gritted teeth, he didn’t reply instantly as if waiting before he spoke again would give the sheer anger and harshness of my last sentence time to disappear and be forgotten before a new one took its place.

“Alright. So we were thinking about going out to get a bite to eat and then go for a walk or something? We’ve only just got here and you’ve been in here for hours, give yourself a break for a few hours?”

The question mixed with facts hung in the air for a bit before I began to think about it. This didn’t bother Niall, not in a way he showed anyway, he waited, just sat there as I gathered my thoughts before I began to form my reply.

“Just a few hours?”

I said looking back at my now again empty and blank page and remembering how soon it needed to be filled, not a scratch of emptiness remaining.

“Just a few hours”

He concluded and I bit my lower lip then sighed loudly, he again just remained silent as he waited for my verdict.

“Okay”

I said pushing my stall backwards and closing the notebook and pushing it to the back of the desk along with my pencils.

“Okay”

I repeated calmer this time bending down on one knee to the floor and lacing up my brogues. I took a hairband and roughly tied my hair into a high messy bun. I slung my bag over my shoulder and looked to Niall who had just sat there watching me do all of this waiting for me to back out and sink back into my work again, but not this time.