Simon's Daughter

Chapter 10

All the boys were exchanging looks with one another that I couldn’t read until Liam finally spoke up, breaking the uncomfortable silence.

“That’s great, Abriella. We have them to thank for us getting this far. You’ll do great too!”

And with that they all began cheering again, smothering me in a massive group hug.

“This is great!” Louis was cheering. “Now we can convince management to let you open for us in some country or another!”

“We can spend more time together,” Niall whispered into my ear, leaving me confused as I turned around to ask him what he meant. But he was already across the room, chatting with Jerry, making me wonder if he’d even said anything to me.

Soon after, the boys were all sitting around Simon making plans on their shared iPhone calendar for their trip to America, so I drifted upstairs.

Niall wanted to spend more time with me? Except for saying that, he hadn’t shown me any signs that he wanted to spend time with me in that way. We wrote songs together, but recently they were more about partying and having fun and living life than being in love. We could never finish a love song together, it always seemed to get awkward and we’d just throw away the paper.

Boys were so confusing.

I picked up my guitar and strummed a few chords before setting it down, frustrated. Nothing was coming to me. I was too confused, too anxious about various things.

The boys were going to America. Spending time together? Not for the next couple of months, at least. They’d be in America while I’d be here, trying to put together an album and praying I could get it on the radio.

My manager. What if the person I got was horrible and rude and didn’t care? If they didn’t know what they were doing? If I couldn’t get along with my manager, my career would end before it even started.

A pounding headache started in my brain and I flopped backwards onto my pillow, wincing as it made it worse.

The door creaked open and Jerry stuck his head in. “Abriella, honey, desserts almost ready. Are you going to be coming down?”

I shook my head as gently as possible. “My head hurts,” I explained.

“Should I bring it up for you?”

“Thanks,” I smiled and he left.

My head was pounding. This was the worst headache I’d ever experienced and the screaming from downstairs wouldn’t stop. Louis in particular was making so much noise, it was driving me insane.

I stood up and stalked over to the door, leaned out and braced myself for the pain as I screamed “LOU. SHUT. UP!”

The dining room went silent and they all began whispering to each other instead.