Hellooooo :D
Here it is :3 I hope you like it

~Kritika~

"Why the hell is your phone switched off?" She hissed.

"I'm sorry." I said. "Let me explain." I began in a vain attempt.

"No. You get back home this instant." she scolded, followed by a cough.

I instantly felt really guilty for leaving her alone when she was sick. I swallowed back the painful lump forming in my throat.

"Are you okay?" I asked, frowning worriedly.

Someone nudged my arm causing me to look up.

Who is it? Zayn mouthed.

Stacey. I need to get home. I mouthed back and then motioned him to stay quiet.

I heard Stacey say something and I brought the phone back to my ear.

"..couldn't sleep the whole night. I was worried sick. Literally. Worried and sick. And to top it all of, Luke had to leave. He wasn't even here for an hour. " I gasped at that.

That little traitor.

"I called Liam this morning and do you have any idea how relieved I was after hearing that you were okay? Angry yes, but relieved too. You know why? Because you are my sister and I love you." Her voice was softer. I knew what she was doing. And it was doing its job.

Emotional black mail.

"Just one phone call. That's what it would've taken." she added.

"I'm so sorry. I couldn't find .." at that moment Liam came running into the kitchen. I hadn't even notice him gone. In his hands he had.. "..my phone?"

"Huh? What? You still there?"

"Yeah, still here. Listen.. A lot has happened in the past couple of hours. I'll explain everything when I get back home. Stop with the emotional black mail, you're making me sound like some witch." I let out in one breath.

"And I can't believe he stood you up. I trusted you with him." I added angrily. I was so going to give him an earful for that. I trusted him with her. He might be my best friend but that wouldn't stop me from kicking his butt.

I held my breath, waiting for her reaction.

"Fine. Now you get back home. I'm tired and hungry. And it doesn't help that the only company I've had all night is a tissue box and a flask of soup." she grumbled.

I could physically feel her harsh demeanour crumble and I almost let out a huge sigh of relief.

"I'm on my way." I said, quickly hanging up and turned to the boys.

Liam raised his hand to stop my from speaking.

"Say no more." he said, and I nodded almost gratefully. I gave him his phone back and quickly grabbed my belongings.

********

"I can't believe this." I groaned.

After telling Stacey whatever happened in the morning, I expected her to give me an earful. Instead, she started laughing.

Guess she took it pretty well. A little too well for my comfort.

"So you're telling me, you hopped off the balcony and onto a freaking tree? Wow. I hope somebody filmed it. I'll pay big money to see that." She snickered, clapping her hands like a retarded seal "ever thought of yelling for them from the balcony? Nope, your tiny brain couldn't do that, could it?"

Okay, she did have a point. I could have done that. But why didn't I? It would've all been so much easier. God.

"I tried okay..?" I lied.

"In all these years, have you ever successfully been able to lie to me? So why are you even trying?" she smirked "my stupid, stupid sister. And.. wait are they yours?"

"They're Niall's.. I think" I retorted but she just laughed on

"I hate you." I grumbled, throwing a pillow at her head.

"Wait but what about my saree?"

I winced "About that.." I held up a bag which contained what remained of the fabric

"What the heck? What did you do? Feed this to animals?" she was only whispering those words since the cold wasn't allowing her to yell. Nonetheless, the glares she was shooting at me conveyed the anger.

So I took a deep breath, and told her everything. I had never really been able to hide anything from Stacey. It was going to give her a heart attack, but it was better for her to know.

"Oh my baby?" she cried, hugging me tightly "I am so sorry for yelling at you. The saree can go to hell. Are you okay? Did they hurt you?"

"I'm okay, babe. Really. He had intervened right in time and saved my sorry behind."

"Where's my phone?" she sniffled

"Stace?"

"I'm going to call him and thank him for what he did. I didn't even trust him before." she wailed "I was so, so wrong. I have to thank him."

"Stace, stop crying please. You're going to worsen the cold." I said worriedly. I mentally kicked myself for choosing to tell her everything. Couldn't you have waited for her to get better? Idiot.

"Oh shush, these are happy tears. Oh and, forget about that saree, you hear? I didn't even like it that much." she said, wiping her eyes and pressing the phone to her ear.

"Stacey.."

"Shh.. Hello? Oh hi, Liam!.." she walked back towards her room as she talked to him.

I sighed, rubbing my eyes. What happened with the drunk men wasn't even on my mind right now. It was all that craziness that followed that was.

I laughed to myself, thinking of what a roller coaster ride yesterday had been.

I heard her walk back into the room "Yes. Yes! Thank you so much, once again... Sorry can't help it.. Yeah.. Yeah, okay. Bye." she said, ending the call "he is so nice?!"

I was very surprised. She really hadn't warmed up to them. For a fact, Stacey never warmed up to anyone. She was the kind of person who could either hate your guts or love you to death. There was no in between. And I was glad it had been the latter in Liam's case.

"He is so nice." she repeated even louder "even better than Luke."

"Oh that reminds me, I have a certain someone's boyfriend to yell at." I said, annoyed. "Nice my pinky toe's nail, I trusted him with you. I gave him responsibility. And he just.. ran away? No way in heck am I going to let him just get away with this."

She stopped me by raising her hand and then sighed.

"Don't" she said after a long pause. Was she for real? Was she really defending him?

I opened my mouth to protest but she cut me off again. She needs to stop doing that.

"I'll do the yelling." she winked.

"That's my girl." I laughed, watching her stalk out of my room. I grabbed my phone and connected it to the charger.

After switching it on I realised I had around 55 missed calls and 70 messages.

Oops? They were all from Stace, as expected, except one.

Two of the 55 calls had been.. Brianna's? Why was she calling me?

One could mean she butt dialed, but there were two..

I quickly called her back.

"Hello?"

"Hi Bri, it's me. You called?" I asked, grabbing my pillow.

"Hi girl. Why didn't you pick up your phone last night?" she asked.

"Long story. Will explain everything later." I assured her. She laughed at that and I found myself doing the same.

Her happiness was contagious.

"Yeah. Um. Just wanted to know if we could hang out sometime?." she asked.

"Hang out?"

"Yeah. Like.. At the mall or something. I mean. Only if you want to. I'll completely understand if you don't--" she rambled, causing me to roll my eyes.

"Stop. Yes. That'd be great. Sounds like a plan. Cut the emotional rant now." I teased.

"Thank you so much. I don't know what I would've done of you'd said no. You and Stacey are my only friends here." She sighed dramatically causing me to laugh.

Brianna Adams was a transfer student from China. She joined college mid semester and was paired with me as my lab partner.

Things were a bit awkward at first but we soon became close friends.

"We are all you need." I joked causing her to laugh.

We talked a bit more and then hung up, deciding to meet at the local bowling alley next Saturday.

"What was that about?"

I almost fell off my bed, startled.

"Geez, you scared me." I said, placing my hand on my chest. Stacey completely ignored my reaction and plopped down next to me.

"Well?" She urged.

"I was talking to Brianna. She was wondering if we could 'hang out' sometime." I said, making air quotes.

She gave me a questioning look at that and I just shrugged.

"I already talked to her at night, by the way." She yawned. "I'm just going to go sleep a bit, yeah? Worry kept me up all night." she added.

"Sorry about that." I said, grinning sheepishly. She grumbled something incoherent and left.

I heard my phone buzz and I picked it up.

From: Liam

You're home, right?

My heart warmed at his concern. I showed Stacey the text and she let out a 'Hah!' like she had been proved right. I quickly typed back a reply.

From: Kritika

Yeah. Reached like an hour ago :)

Thank you so much for letting me stay last night.

To my utter surprise, my phone started ringing.

"Hello?"

"Hi. It's me. Glad you're home safe." he breathed.

"Yeah you can stop worrying now." I joked. "I'm so sorry I left so suddenly. It was rude of me." I added.

"It's okay. We understand." A different voice spoke.

"Niall?" I questioned.

"Yeah, we're all here." Zayn said next and I heard a few murmurs in the background.

Wow, they just love 'conference calling', don't they?

"Hi guys." I laughed.

"Hi." they chorused.

"Umm.. I'll talk to you guys later. My phone needs to charge. Okay?"

"Okay." They chorused.

"Stop it. It's getting creepy." I said, causing them to laugh. "Weirdos. Bye."

"Tell Stacey we say hi." Louis said.

"Will do, Lou. Bye." I said and hung up.

Sighing, I got off the bed and gathered a fresh set of clothes and entered the bathroom. Fifteen minutes later I was sitting on the edge of my bed with clean teeth and wet hair.

As I towelled my hair I heard my phone buzz again signalling I had received a text and I kind of knew who it was from.

From: Liam

Opening presents from last night. I told you not to buy me anything. But thank you so much. Love the watch. Wearing it right now :)

P.S. I'm sorry for the whole you-being-locked-in incident

Oh and Niall was wondering where his pyjamas went.

Now that we know you're a witch, after the whole butter conjuring incident, I request you to not perform any voodoo rituals on it.

I rolled my eyes but couldn't help but let a small smile inch it's way onto my face.

Idiot.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

I am typing this at 11:35 p.m. I'm freaking tired so please don't decapitate me if you see any mistakes.

And I would like to make myself clear on one thing. My fanfic is not entirely based on the boys. So it's not like whatever I state here about them are 'facts'. It's a bit of both, fact and fiction :)

I'll update soon :3

I tried to make this one long. Did you guys like it? Litika/Kiam feels assaulted you yet? Aah? Aah? ;)

Lol xD

Chapter dedicated to @sweetdreams199 for being awesome :D

Shoutout to @ambar0397 and @samlovesoned for their hilarious comments. You guys make my day :)

Cote❤

Stay beautiful❤

Kay❤