Chapter 26 ~ Liam

Leaving the hospital wasn’t that hard as I though. I truly believed paps were going to be outside waiting for me to come to hit me with all the questions and rumours, but apparently security and the hospital managed to let us leave for another exit so we didn’t find any paparazzo there. Though they were outside my place and they caught some pictures of Mum, Darcy and I leaving my girlfriend’s car. I just know they took some pictures and I’m mentally preparing myself for all the gossips that will come. The good thing is that Darcy doesn’t have twitter nor any other kind of social network, so she won’t see any sort of hatred through the Internet.

By the time we’re in front of my door, I can’t stop the smile from showing on my lips. I’ll take care of the gossips later, when they come. For now, I’m just so happy to be home again. I was so tired of the hospital, of being in a bed the whole day only allowed to move to go to the toilet. I feel free now, even though I still have to take it slow and carefully. I’m not in the hospital and that’s all I can care about.

We cross the door and I never release Darcy’s hand. I’m just so happy to have her with me. She certainly has made all this more bearable and I’m more than grateful with her because even if she can’t do anything to change my condition, she’s there to smile and give me the strengths to face all what is happening. I knew from the moment she said her first word to me that she was a special girl, and she’s just proved it this week that was literally hell for me.

But my surprise leaves me speechless when all I see the moment I step into my home is all my friends around exclaim in unison “Welcome home, Liam!” There’s everyone, all the lads, Lou, Lux, Paul, Andy, Eleanor, Perrie, Carter, Lizzie and Brit.

I look at them not believing what my eyes see, but they are there, smiling happily that I’m out of the hospital. Darcy squeezes my hand tenderly and that gives me my speech back. “Guys, wow. I– I– I’m so happy to see you all. Thank you!”

“Finally we can be all in one place without a nurse asking us to be quiet,” Louis states with relief clear in his voice and his statement makes everyone laugh.

“You can eat anything you want,” Darcy whispers in my ear. “I made sure all the food fulfils the requirements pointed by the doctor. And I bet you won’t notice the difference,” she adds and I turn around to look at her, my eyes intently at her. This only means she is involved with all this, making sure I could enjoy the party without having to care about it.

Without even trying to make it more subtle, I wrap my arms around her and bring her close, not wanting to let her go. She knows that the biggest reason why all this happened is because I wanted to feel normal, to do all the things the lads were doing and she’s helping me out to don’t feel like an outcast again. I can’t thank her enough for this little help.

“Don’t PDA in front of us, please!” Louis begs and that gets me to pull away from Darcy and I’s embrace. I turn around making sure to keep an arm around her shoulders so she won’t leave my side.

Before I can reply something to the Doncaster boy, Brit comes running to my side, demanding attention immediately. She’s more energetic than the last time I saw her, jumping and licking my hands, biting my trousers, desperate to grab something, to have me close. I kneel and scratch her behind the ears, putting our faces together and she makes sure to lick all my face. I hear some ews and some aws here and there before I rise to my feet, with a happy Brit next to me. Soon everyone approaches to greet me like Brit did, minus the licking part.

After that, it’s just to have some fun and catch up. Everyone is happy to have me back and in a way better shape. I feel better, though I still get tired easily but I just have to be carefully. I’ve been through this before, my body will get used to this rhythm again and everything will be fine. I’m hopeful it will be like that.

They don’t stay till too late because they know I need to get rest and I can’t stay up all night like before. I really don’t want Darcy to leave, but Lizzie has school tomorrow and she need to go to bed, and even if I ask her to stay here, I know Darcy wouldn’t accept it, even if she wants to stay. Therefore, soon I’m alone in home with only Brit and Mum as company.

It’s good to have Mum with me, taking care of me and giving me all her love. I know she’s really worry and she doesn’t want to leave, but so far we’re making count the time we can have. This kind of things doesn’t happen often, when we can have some mother-son time.

* * *

“Are you sure, baby?” Mum asks me for the tenth time that day and I smile as I give her a hug.

It’s been three days since I left the hospital and Mum has to go back to Wolverhampton, even if she doesn’t want to. She has asked me a couple of times already to go home with her for a few days so she can take care of me there, but I refused. I can’t stop avoiding the rest of the world.

I’ve seen the tabloids already, twitter and the gossip shows on the telly. Everyone is speculating about my health and the girl with me, Darcy. Wondering if she is indeed my girlfriend or some relative –considering that she has only been seen around Mum and I.

“Yes, Mum. I’ll be fine here. I’m a lot better now and you don’t have to worry. I’m sure no one will let me make the same mistake again. I’ll have to take care of myself even if I don’t want to,” I joke but she doesn’t see the funny side, she still looks concerned. “Mum, I’ll be fine. Stop worrying. This isn’t new for us.”

“I hate this happened to you, sweetie. You don’t deserve this,” she complains and I hug her again.

“But it happened and I have to deal with it. Now, smile that things will be fine. I’ll miss you and I’ll see you soon.”

“I expect you to call me at least once a day, mister.” I laugh and nod energetically.

Soon, Brit comes running next to me. Since I’m back she barely leaves my side. She’s in a better mood and I guess the reason she was so down before is because I was getting worse by the day. Now that I’m better, she’s better as well.

“Bye, son. Be careful and tell Darcy I hope she can visit home soon. I bet your sisters would love her.”

“I’m sure they would. Maybe I can take her to home someday.”

Mum smiles brightly before giving me a last hug and turning around. I pick her bag and walk her to the cab waiting for her to take her to the train station. Brit and I see the car disappear in the distance before we go back inside.

I’m alone again, only with Brit as my company. Darcy must be at Lizzie’s school picking her up and probably both will come later to check how I’m doing. For now, I don’t have any plans so I go and take my computer. I haven’t been online in so long, not even a single tweet and I know all our fans are death worried, wondering what’s wrong. None official announcement has been made so far, I guess management and the lads are waiting for me to make a choice or take the first step. So what I do is to log on to twitter.

As usual, the DMs and notifications are thousands and I feel bad that I can’t reply to all of them. I try to read them but there are so many spams that it’s almost impossible to find something there without the website collapsing. It would be easier to read all the mentions if there were no spams.

I start typing as I read out loud. “I’m fine, thank you all for caring so much. I’ll be doing a short twitcam in five to explain everything.”

After that, I go to another tab to visit the other website and start broadcasting live. As hit the red button, in a matter of seconds I have thousands of viewers and they are all asking the same. ‘What happened?’

“Hi everyone!” I exclaim with a big smile. Brit is next to me at my feet, getting comfortable to sleep. “How’s everyone doing? I’m fine, I’m a lot better now. I know you are all worried and I’m sorry I haven’t been on. Life has been quite hectic lately.”

I look at the right of my screen, with the chat going crazy with all the messages the viewers are leaving.

“As you may know, I was in the hospital last week. Long story short, one of my kidneys failed again so I’m like at the beginning, with just one functional kidney. I’m fine, everything is under control now so don’t worry.”

It seams that those word have no effect because all I see is comments with ‘I’m so sorry’, ‘everything will be fine’, ‘we love you’ and things like that. Soon, #StayStrongLiam is trending topic worldwide.

“Your support means a lot. For now I’m in a little break but I’ll be back and you’ll have One Direction again.” I smile encouragingly. I miss being on stage already, or hanging out with the lads. Our job is extremely demanding, we never get a break, but it’s what I love. “Everything will back to normal soon.”

I really trust things will be fine. I won’t make the foolish mistake of forgetting I have to take care of myself, that I have just one functional kidney. I won’t end up in the hospital again. I won’t scare that way the people I love.

Yes, it sucks, to say the least. I hate having to go through this, but I can’t do anything to stop it. I can only deal with it and everyone is right. I’m a fighter, I’m not a quitter and I can do it. Nothing will stop me to achieve all the things I want.

“Well, I just wanted to let you all know that I’m doing fine. Thank you for your support and I’ll see you all soon!” I say but everyone tells me not to go yet. Soon, they start asking for ‘the girl from the pictures’.

I know they mean Darcy and probably they want me to confirm if we are dating or not. I’m still a bit reluctant to tell them that Darcy is indeed my girlfriend. She says that there’s no problem, that if it makes me feel better to admit we’re dating, then I should do it. But still. I want to protect her for as long as I can. It’s not that I fear everyone will hate on her or something like that, in fact I believe everyone will love her, but I know it’s hard to keep up with someone like me and the lifestyle I have.

However, I don’t want to lie and say that we’re only friends when we’re not. Darcy becomes someone even more important in my life with every day that we spend together. My feelings for her only grow stronger.

“I know, I know. You want to know who she is.” I take a deep breath before releasing the bomb that I know will make twitter explode. “She is Darcy and yes, she is my girlfriend.”

-:-:-:-

It's official, now everyboy knows about Larcy! Let's see how they react. 

Dedication to DanisSharda because today is her birthday, along with Emilydance. Yay! Happy birthday! And yesterday was LizbethHoran13's. I hope you had a great day!

Bel, xx