She's Not Afraid : Prologue

"She's Not Afraid"

A Niall Horan Love Story

~ ~ ~

Prologue

One year ago...

Baby, you light up my world like nobody else...

The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed...

But when you smile at the ground

It ain't hard to tell

You don't know, oh oh

You don't know you're beautiful

Oh, oh

"That's what makes you beautiful!" Alana sang together with her other four friends that came with her to see One Direction perform at this morning talk show that she don't remember the name of.

The five boys finished their song and Alana's friends started screaming at the top of their lungs. Alana glanced at the five boys waving at the audience and she noticed Niall Horan removing something from his wrist and smiled at the crowd.

"Who wants a souvenir?" he shouted in his microphone with that sexy thick Irish accent of his.

The crowd that consists of ninety-nine percent ladies and one percent guys, cheered at the top of their lungs, reaching almost a hundred and four decibels, as far as she can estimate.

Yes, she is that smart.

Alana looked around and her friends had their arms up in the air. So she did the same thing.

"Here, in my hand, is a bracelet that is very, very special to me and since you guys have become a big part of my life so much and since you are all such awesome fans, I decided to give one lucky fan, which might be you, the privilege to own my bracelet." Niall said, and with that he threw it in the air.

The girls jumped to reach for it. Alana didn't even care if she didn't get it as long as one of her friends will be the one to catch it. She saw that her friend Megan was so close to getting the bracelet and she smiled because she was so happy for her. Even if Alana doesn't get it, she knew that she'd get to see it soon because one of her friends got Niall's special bracelet.

But even before Megan could grasp it, a girl's hand accidentally slapped the bracelet and it flew right towards Alana. See, she's no good at catching things. When someone throws something at her, that thing always landed on the floor. It never ends up in her hands.

"So please, I beg of you, don't throw fragile things at me because it'll only end up in pieces." As Alana usually say.

But today, something miraculously happened. Niall's bracelet flew towards Alana and circled two of her fingers. She grasps it as fast as she can before anyone can take it away from her. Alana immediately wore the bracelet around her wrist so that no one can suspect that she was the one that caught it.

"Oh my gosh, Alana! You caught it!" Denise, one of her friends who's a die hard fan of One Direction literally screamed in Alana's ear as soon as she realized that she was the one that caught it.

"I did! I did!" Alana responded as she allows the fact to sink in to her whole system.

"Who got it? Who got the bracelet?" Niall asked.

Denise started to jump around. "Ooh! Niall, my friend caught it!" she exclaimed as she threw her hands up as high as she can to grab Niall's attention.

Niall saw her and smiled. He walked right up to Denise and crouched down so he was her eye-level. "What's your name?"

"My name is Denise."

"Congratulations to you, Denise. I hope you take good care of that bracelet because it's special to me." he said.

Denise beamed at him before Niall stood up and went back to the center stage to join the other guys. Seconds later, realization dawned over Denise and her smile faltered. "Oh no, Niall must've thought I was the one who caught the bracelet." she said.

Alana smiled at her. "It's okay. We all got the bracelet. It's not like I'm not going to share this bracelet with you guys."

"Are you sure it's okay? I mean, I know how much you like Niall. You should be the one he was congratulating a while ago. You deserved to have someone like Niall Horan talking to you." Denise answered.

Alana laughed at her. "Denise, I'm okay. It's all right. You don't have to worry. If you want, you can have Niall's bracelet instead,” she said as she started to take off Niall's bracelet.

She placed her hand above Alana's. "No, you caught it so you keep it."

Alana smiled at her as they gave each other a side hug for it was too crowded to give each other a proper hug. "Thanks, Denise."

"No biggie."

~ ~ ~

"Goodbye, everybody!" Harry Styles shouted in his microphone as they went back inside their respective telephone booths.

The crowd started to disperse. Since Alana and her friends were on the very front, they were the last one to get out of the venue.

As she was waiting for their turn, Alana felt someone pinching her arm. She thought it was Denise being playful so she turned to her and gave her a friendly glare.

"You did not just pinch me!" Alana said.

"What?" Denise asked with a confused look on her face. "I didn't pinch you. I didn't even do anything."

"Oh. So you did not pinch me?" Alana asked.

"Duh."

"Then, who did it?" She asked Denise.

"It was me, bitch." Alana heard Megan say from beside her.

Denise and Alana cautiously turned around to look at Megan. They both have their eyes wide open for they can't believe that sweet, little, innocent Megan can speak such foul language.

"Megan..." Alana said.

"What did you just call her?" Denise asked.

Obviously, Denise and Alana are the closest to each other out of the five of them. Denise always got her back and Alana got hers.

"I'm pretty sure you heard me the first time, Alana." Megan answered.

"But...why? What did I do?" Alana asked.

Megan grabbed her arm and dug her long nails onto her skin making Alana let out a tiny squeal. She immediately covered her mouth for (1) she haven't made that noise before and (2) she doesn't want to scream so loud in public (which she already did, actually), considering the fact that One Direction came out of their booths and started talking to the show hosts and crew.

"Megan, you're hurting me." Alana managed to voice out.

Megan's other hand started to play with the strings of Niall's bracelet. "I will stop whatever I'm doing if you give me this bracelet and let me keep it." Megan said.

"Megan, why are you doing this? You do know Alana will still share this bracelet to us." Denise said with her natural sweet candy cane voice.

"Shut up." Megan snapped at Denise.

That got Alana.

"Megan, stop. Stop whatever you're doing. I don't want anyone snapping at Denise like that." Alana said harshly. She knows how vulnerable Denise can be.

Megan stopped digging her nails onto Alana's arm and she saw the nail marks Megan left and those little blood that oozed out.

"Just give me the bracelet and I'll stop." Megan said innocently.

"No Megan, Alana caught the bracelet so she deserves to keep it." Celine said for the first time since the Megan-Alana fight started.

"So you're on her side?" Megan asked Celine.

"I'm not choosing sides, Megan. I'm just saying that Alana deserves to keep the bracelet because she was the one who caught it." Celine answered.

"Nonsense." Megan muttered.

Mikayla, who Alana assumed is Celine's version of her Denise, glared at the back of Megan's head before grabbing her best friend's arm and marched towards Alana and the rest.

Megan scoffed. "Four against one. Fine, choose your side. All I need is the bracelet and I'm out of here,” she said.

"No—“

"Fine. Here you go." Alana cut off Denise as she started to undo the strings of Niall's bracelet and threw it at her. "There you have it. You want it more than I do anyway. Marry it so that no one can take that stupid bracelet from you."

As soon as Alana said those words, she regretted it. Not the giving-away-the-bracelet part, but the calling-Niall's-bracelet-stupid part. In her mind, it wasn't stupid. If it was special to Niall, it's special to her as well.

Megan smiled as soon as she wore the bracelet around her wrist. "Good girl." she said as she patted Alana's head like she was her annoying Chihuahua before walking out of the venue that was nearly deserted if it wasn't for them staying there for a while.

As soon as Megan was out of sight, Alana turned to the rest of her friends. "Let's just forget about this okay?" she said. Since she feels like crying at the moment, her voice cracked.

"Alana, are you okay?" Mikayla asked.

Alana nodded as she still fought to keep her tears from falling down. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" Celine asked.

"Yeah."

"Why did you give the bracelet away?" Denise asked.

"Like I said, she needs it more than I do. She wants the bracelet like she wants to marry it." Alana responded.

"But...you really do want it, right?" Celine asked.

Alana sucked in a lot of air. Fighting her tears is hard work. "I...I didn't mean to call it stupid. It wasn't stupid at all! It was my future husband's bracelet and it's so special to him so it's special to me as well!" she said as she finally allowed the tears to flow down. "I really do need it more than anything!"

Denise and Celine rubbed her back as Mikayla stood in front of her and grabbed a hold of her shoulders.

"Alana, look at me." she looked up to meet Mikayla's brown orbs. "We'll get that bracelet back to where it truly belongs. Not to Niall but to you. Out of all the girls that were dying to have that bracelet - yes, I'm talking about Megan - somehow, the bracelet chose you."

Alana smiled.

"You deserve it, Alana. So we'll get it back for you." Celine said.

"Thank you guys. But you don't have to do it." Alana said.

"As Megan said, and I quote: 'nonsense.'" Celine said as she put on air quotes for added effect.

"But guys, we still got another problem." Denise said.

"What now?" Alana whined.

"Remember when Megan was our friend and she was our ride to this event?" Denise asked.

They all nodded.

"That was hours ago and now, we don't have a ride so...how are we going to get home?" Denise asked.

"Shoot."

~ ~ ~

A week had passed since the bracelet incident. Niall had been tweeting a lot about the bracelet and how he was so grateful that a fan of him was taking care of it.

Not exactly, Alana thought to herself as she read the tweet.

"Hey Alana, which color do you think suits me well?" Denise asked.

The four of them, minus Megan obviously (she stopped being their friend since), had a sleepover at Alana's house Friday night, which was the last day before the winter break.

Alana looked up from her phone and looked at the options. She rubbed her chin as she silently decides for her friend. "Pink. It suits you better,” she answered.

"Thanks." Denise said as she went to sit on the floor again and applied the chosen nail polish on her nails.

As Mikayla emerged from the bathroom attached to Alana's bedroom, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in!" Alana shouted.

The door opened and her mom came inside. "Alana, someone wants to see you,” she said.

"Who is it?" Alana asked.

Her mom stepped aside to reveal Alana's tall brunette ex-best friend, Megan. She was fiddling something in her hands and her head was bowed down when she stepped inside.

Alana saw Mikayla rolling her eyes and immediately went back inside the bathroom, probably to avoid Megan.

Her mom left as well.

"What do you want?" Alana asked as she stood up from her bed and walked over to Megan.

She reached out her hand and opened up her palm. Inside was Niall's bracelet. It was at its best condition when Alana last saw it but a week after; it looked like as if thousands of bulls ran over it. The bracelet was now tattered and looked...old.

"My friends outside our group saw that I have Niall's bracelet and since they're a fan of him, they tried to get their hands on it. A tug of war broke out and. . . yeah, that's my explanation." Megan said, her voice was surprisingly sad and it sounded like she really was sorry.

"So you're giving me the bracelet because it's now...destroyed?" Alana asked.

Megan shrugged. "You can keep it again and have someone fix it,” she answered.

"Okay--"

"But don't get your hopes up. I'm giving you the bracelet in one condition." Megan interrupted her.

Ladies and gentlemen, the old Megan is back, Alana thought.

"What condition?" Alana asked.

"You get to keep the bracelet for the rest of your life if you'll stop liking Niall." Megan said.

"What--"

"You'll stop liking him, right? You'll promise you won't have any feelings for him anymore?" Megan asked as she crossed her arms over chest.

"Megan, why are you doing this?" Alana asked.

"Niall is mine and no one else can have him. Not even you. Understand?" Megan answered, raising an eyebrow.

Alana nodded.

"Good. Enjoy the bracelet because from now on, it's going to be the only thing you have of Niall,” she said before walking out of the door.

Alana stood there frozen. Megan came back seconds after and walked over to the side of Alana's wall where a poster of Niall was hanging. She tore it out before flashing a smile and walked out for the second time.

Mikayla came out of the bathroom. "Wow. Obsessed much?" she said.

"As if she'll get to meet Niall. I mean, come on, there's one in a billion chance that'll happen. And there's definitely one in a gazillion chance Niall will love her." Celine said.

"That kind of attitude is a no-no for Niall." Denise said. "Heck, it's a no-no for the whole band!"

Alana smiled at her friends before glancing one last time at the wall where Niall's poster was hanging minutes ago and looked down at the tattered bracelet in her hand.

From now on, Niall Horan will no longer be the most unreachable and brightest star in her sky.

~