The morning sun glowed through Anya's tired eyelids. She rubbed her eyes and rolled to her side. A strong arm cradled under Anya's neck and she opened
her eyes to see Niall still lying asleep beside her. She smiled and studied his beautiful face. His eyelids flutter as he slept. The mess of blonde hair on his head spilled in all directions and his mouth was slightly gaped open. Anya rested her hand on his smooth bare chest and he breathed in deeply and rolled toward her, rubbing his eyes with a sleepy grunt. She kissed the inside of his
left arm that lay behind her head and he opened his eyes with a smile, gazing at her.
"G'morning, beautiful. How'd you sleep?"
"Better than ever," Anya replied. She couldn't help but smile.
Niall pulled himself up and hovered over her. He placed small pecks on her cheeks in between his adorable giggles and Anya laughed. But they both froze and looked up when they heard the simultaneous vibrations from each of their phones across the room.
Confused, they each got out of the bed to see what had been sent to both of them. Anya slid open her phone to a new message from Harry. "Change of plans: post-holiday gathering in the flat, management's private airline set flights for all @ 2:40 pm. call me for extra deets. Cya all soon".
"So we're just going back?" Niall wondered from the opposite side of the room after reading the text for himself.
"I guess so? Why is management hiding a private AIRLINE from me?! Do you know how many times we could have put that to great use??" Anya exclaimed. Niall
just looked at her blankly so she shook her head. "Whatever, nevermind."
"Maybe we should get going. We have quite a bit of time-it's only eight-but we have to pack and everything now."
"Okay, yeah. But-" Anya stopped and thought to herself. "I don't have, like, any of my stuff. It's all at Louis' still..." What if this whole "change
of plans" was because Harry didn't want Anya going back to stay with Louis any longer?
Niall shrugged. "I'm sure he can just pack it all up. Why don't you get what you have here put together and I'll call Harry about this flight stuff."
Anya nodded. "Alright."
The upstairs hall was only dimly lit. There weren't any extra lights on downstairs or anywhere, just the soft glow from the morning sun coming in
through the windows. This hopefully meant no one was awake yet so no one had noticed Anya hadn't slept in her own room. Anya was wearing nothing but Niall's
Jack Wills sweatshirt and the shorts she'd entered his room in the previous night, and she prayed no one would come up and see her tiptoeing back to her
room. Upon entering she realized she must've left her undergarments in Niall's room, but her phone started to ring loudly and she leapt through her door
quickly so it wouldn't wake the whole house. The caller ID said Liam Payne. "Hi?"
"Should I be worried? Not for our relationship but for her SAFETY that she STILL won't answer me?"
Anya hung her head and sighed. Though it did concern her a bit that her friend still wasn't in contact with her own boyfriend for more than a week now, Liam was going a bit haywire. "You do realize it's the holiday season, right? You don't necessarily know what she's been up to-"
"I WOULD IF SHE JUST REPLIED TO ME." His outburst didn't sound like him. The wear and tear of his disconnection with Kelley sounded like it'd taken over him. It almost sounded derranged.
"Liam stop it! You need to calm down. We need to forget about this for today and me, you and the boys can just enjoy each other's company, and we can
worry about this tomorrow, okay? I'll see you later, bud, alright?" But all Anya heard was a dismissive click on the other end of the line.

After Mrs. Horan cooked them a large satisfying good-bye brunch, Anya and Niall said their own good-byes before Greg drove them to the airport. Anya watched from the car as Niall's mum latched to him like an overprotective leech for a good 2 minutes at the door. When he finally managed to pull away, Mrs. Horan caught a glimpse of Niall's bare left hand, and he quickly and sheepishly slid it into his pocket. Anya swore she saw a look of shocked disappointment flash across her face but it left as soon as it came. Niall got in the front seat and the car began to pull away. Through the back window Anya watched Mrs.
Horan get smaller and smaller, where she was on the front porch, pacing, with her hand clasped over her mouth in disbelief. Anya sunk lower in her seat. She
had spent the last few days forming just the perfect girlfriend image she had wanted to Mrs. Horan, and it didn't take more than a millisecond to crumble to
pieces.

The front hall of the flat was scattered with half-heartedly cast suitcases lying askew near the door. Anya and Niall dropped their bags near the others and searched their surroundings for the other bandmates. Anya quickly spotted her laptop case on the kitchen island, noting that Louis must be here. She rushed to the inside pocket of the case for her Blackberry-basically the bearer of all of their careers-and clutched it close to her chest. "I missed you so much!"
Niall cupped his hands around his mouth and bellowed, "LOUEHHH!"
"Top o' the afternoon, me Irish mate!" Louis appeared at the doorway of the bedroom hall with a huge grin plastered to his face. He galloped to Niall and put him in a playful headlock. "Anya-bon!"
"Boobear! Thanks for keeping my babies safe." Anya patted her computer and phone with a giggle and Louis wrapped her up in a quick hug, too.
"Are we the only ones here?" Niall asked.
"Harry and Zayn should be right behind you. They called from the same cab about 15 minutes ago." Louis responded, mixing together some iced tea that he
must've started before they'd arrived.
"What about Liam? Shouldn't he have got here first?" Anya said.
Louis shrugged and shook his head. "As far as I know, he won't be here tonight. He'll probably be here by tomorrow, I think?"
Anya's heart plummeted into her stomach. "This isn't about Kelley is it? I TOLD him to just FORGET about it for tonight! Someone call him and tell him to get his ass over-"
Louis put a hand up to interrupt her. "Uh-uh, Bon, we need to just let him deal the way he wants to. Another day with the family couldn't hurt him."
Anya sighed and drummed her fingers anxiously on the marble counter top. Niall gripped her shoulder to try to relieve some of the tension and, quite frankly, he did a little bit. Just one of those effects he had on her.
Right then the front door swung open and a curly mop of hair shoved its way through the door. Zayn's voice was heard from out in the hall. "VAS HAPPENIN'?
Someone wanna help me with these bags?!"
"Noo!" Louis shouted from the kitchen with a hearty laugh, then he, Anya and Niall walked over to greet Harry and Zayn.

Everyone had finally settled in for the most part by around seven. Anya and
the boys were sitting in the den figuring out what to do for dinner that night.
Louis was perched on the arm of the couch above Anya, peering over her shoulder
as she scrolled through the list on her phone of their usual dining pleasures.
Anya pursed her lips. "Alejandro's?"
Each of the boys shook their heads with cringed faces and mumbled in disagreement. Anya sighed-it was at least the ninth restaurant she'd suggested. "Then what?"
"How about I take over?" Louis slid onto Anya's lap and confiscated her phone from her own hands, holding it above her reach but still looking through
it himself.
Anya laughed and stretched as far as she could. "No c'mon!" She poked Louis' underarm and he yelped but didn't give in. He just pushed her face into
the couch and she giggled into the cushion.
Anya heard someone clear their throat loudly. Harry was standing now and had an urgent look in his eyes. "Bon, a moment alone, please?" He widened his
big baby blues and jerked his curly head toward the bedroom hallway.
Slightly taken aback, Anya shrugged "okay" and climbed off of the couch to follow Harry. Niall scooted next to Louis to continue the search for somewhere to eat but Zayn remained seated on the chair, gazing after Harry and Anya.
The two entered Harry's bedroom and Harry shut the door behind Anya. He turned around looking frazzled. "What the hell??"
Anya threw her hands in the air in exasperation. "What?!"
Harry flailed his own arms, gesturing towards the outside of the closed door. "Did you forget everything I told you about this Louis-crush s***!?"
Anya sighed and shook her head. "No, no, no that's done! All those weird, little feeling things I had, like, disappeared!"
Harry looked at her curiously, skeptical. "When?"
"Since I went to Niall's. I think it was that easy!"
"Oh no, no,-it's never that easy..."
"YES, it WAS."
"You freaked out way too much for feelings like those to go away that fast-"
A small single knock rapped on the door and Zayn entered. "What's going-"
Anya turned bright red. "Nothing."
Harry shot a meaningful look at Zayn, and a look of understanding swept across his face. "Ohhh, is this about that whole Louis business?" Zayn asked
cautiously.
Anya's muscles froze. "What the f- you TOLD?!"
Harry's face turned to guilt and he fixed his eyes on the carpet. "Uh. I-"
"I told you that in confidence!"
"Look, I didn't like being the only one who knew something this huge! I felt, like, responsible or-or- I-I felt like I was gonna EXPLODE being the only
one retaining this relationship destroyer-"
"No one's relationship is destroyed, Harry!" Anya was at the brink of shouting but knew she had to keep her voice down, which resulted in drastic hand
gesturing. "Going to see Niall again was all I wanted, and all I needed to get over that stupid phase! I don't know what else to say!"
Zayn silently nodded his head once in understanding, but Harry momentarily broke his eye contact from Anya and his gaze darted to her left hand that she'd been frantically flailing while she spoke. He grabbed her wrist and stared at
her bare fingers. Anya felt a heaving churn in her stomach and looked away uncomfortably.
"Did you two-?!..." Harry frantically inquired. Zayn's jaw dropped and he cocked his head with the same question in mind.
Anya yanked her hand from his grasp and rubbed the back of her neck, feeling her face get hot.
Harry still stood in shock. "Shhhit, man..."
"Are we done here?" Anya asked, trying to sound like she felt more annoyed than completely awkward.
"Y-yeah." Harry opened the door for them to rejoin Louis and Niall. Zayn wrapped his arm around Anya's shoulder, reassuringly and in an attempt to make her feel less awkward about the intimate moment she'd accidentally shared against her better judgement. It almost felt supportive. "No one's judging you, Bon."
But Anya was preoccupied with the fact that Harry looked like a zombie walking in front of them, eyes fixed straight ahead at nothing in particular,
his face stark white.
Zayn squeezed the back of her neck and mumbled under his breath to her, "No. One. Don't worry about it."
The group rejoined in the den and Louis and Niall had finally picked somewhere to eat while they'd been absent. It was a quiet little place uptown that they'd been to a few times. Reconnecting with the boys made Anya start to feel more and more at home with every passing moment. It was already eleven and Louis was suggesting they order some drinks by the bar, but Anya wasn't feeling
it.
"You guys can go ahead, I'll take Bon back to the flat," Niall suggested. He rested his hand on the small of Anya's back and a loud clink of a glass and
abrupt cough broke from Harry. He looked down at the table disapprovingly with raised eyebrows.
Anya shied away from Niall's hand and glared at Harry, utterly annoyed. "Um, okay. So, let's go?" Niall nodded and the couple left after exchanging "see you later"s with the rest of the gang.
Niall and Anya climbed the back stairs to the front door of the flat. When Anya went to pull her keys out of her purse, she heard the click of the knob unlatch. "Huh..." Niall looked at Anya questioningly. "You locked the door, didn't you?"
"Yeah..." Anya's stomach started to turn nervously.
The flat was still dark, just like they'd left it. Niall led the way in and Anya clung to the back of his jacket, getting fearful. Her heart began to thud loudly in her chest when she noticed a light streaming into the hall from Niall and Anya's room and there was the sudden ear-piercing sound of shattering glass.