A/N Reminder: This story takes place in the winter of 2013, Christmastime of 2013 to be exact. So, the Midnight Memories album just recently came out when this story begins. Hope that clears any questions up if they come up during this chapter. Enjoy!

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Courtney

So far, I’ve had a great time at the cabin (even though we’ve only been here for less than a day). So what have I been doing? Oh, the usual; playing pool, getting into fights, and getting drunk.

Relax, I’m kidding! I know half of the people here would murder me if I did. What I’ve actually been doing is practicing my dancing. We have a winter recital at my studio just after winter break is over, and I’m actually missing one of the final practices. So, to make up for it, I promised my instructor, Ellie, that I would practice while I was at the cabin.

So, after I stocked up my room with a few snacks and a water bottle or two, I locked the door and played the music I was dancing to. I got into the starting position and ran through the routine multiple times.

I didn’t even know how long I was down there until Niall knocked on my door. “Courtney!” he called through the door.

I stopped the music and looked over at the door. “Yeah? What is it, Niall?”

“It’s dinnertime,” Niall said. “Harry took over the kitchen and made something for everyone.”

I went to the door and unlocked it, opening it up. “He did?”

“Yeah,” Niall said. “We’re all waiting for you, though. It’s been ready for ten minutes. Simone screamed for you to get up there.”

“How the heck did I not hear that?” I mumbled. I knew Simone, and I knew she could scream loudly. Not only could she scream loudly, but she could scream at a frequency that could probably shatter glass.

Niall shrugged. “Are you coming?”

“Yeah, I’m coming,” I said, and went past him up the stairs to the first floor.

As I reached the landing, everyone looked in my direction. Most of the people were sitting at the long table already, except for Harry, who was putting the food on plates, and Ana and Kelly, who were standing nearby to help bring it over. “There she is,” Liam said, looking at me with a smile.

“What were you doing down there? Simone screamed for you to get up here,” Lucy asked, sounding shocked.

“Practicing. I promised Ellie I’d practice while I was up here. The quicker I get the practice done, the quicker I can really enjoy the trip,” I explained, sitting down at the table.

“What are you practicing for?” Michael asked.

“You know this, Mikey,” I said, smirking a bit at the use of the pet name. He gave me a glare, but I shook it off. “I always have the winter recital. Normally it’s the Christmas pageant, but they changed it to a date after break so everyone could go. But, I’m missing some of the last rehearsals, so I have to practice.”

“Makes sense,” Michael mused.

I nodded. “Let’s eat, then!”

Ana and Kelly helped Harry set out the dinner he had made for us before they took a seat at the table. We all began to eat, chatting with each other around the long dinner table.

“So, how’s life been for you guys?” Ana asked the guys as she took a bite of her meal.

“It’s been pretty good,” Zayn told us, smiling. “We were working pretty hard on our album for the past few months, though.” The girls and I all grinned. My mind immediately went to my favorite song from the album.

“I really loved Strong,” Kelly told the boys with a smile before sipping her drink.

“Alive was my favorite,” Lizzie said with a grin after swallowing a bite. Louis looked proud to hear that, and Michael looked about ready to smack the twenty-one year old man sitting across from him.

“Midnight Memories!” Simone exclaimed, pumping her fist in the air. So apparently we were going to share our favorite songs, then.

“Don’t Forget Where You Belong,” Ana supplied with a smile.

“Mine was Diana,” Lucy said. And now, we spent a while talking about music and other stuff about their lives in the past three months we’ve been apart. Kyle and Michael were incredibly bored, while the girls and I were all intrigued.

After all of that information was shared, Liam turned to us. “So, what’s been going on back here?” he asked.

“NaNoWriMo,” Ana said with a bright smile. She had been working on a book, and had hit her 50,000 word goal before the end of the month. She was really proud of herself.

“Music competitions,” Lucy said, smiling. Lucy entered a few competitions recently and won because of her singing and piano skills. She was really talented, and it made me jealous, to be honest.

“Volleyball,” Lizzie said. Lizzie was the star of the school volleyball team now. She was planning on trying out for the volleyball team in college, if I remember correctly. She also was going to go out for basketball.

“Art exhibitions,” Kelly said. Recently, she had donated a few of her pieces to the school for auctions so the school could earn money. The pieces she had donated recently actually went for a lot of money!

“Being amazing,” Simone grinned, and we all couldn’t help laughing. That was the truth: she was awesome. She was pretty much taking over the sophomores, because she was the girl who got to meet One Direction.

“Dancing, obviously,” I said after all the girls spoke up. Again, the conversation turned. This time, we talked about all the things the girls and I had done. They all listened, and seemed genuinely interested in what had been going on in our lives. That was one of the best things about these guys. Yes, they were celebrities and had amazing lives, but they were our friends (and boyfriends) and they cared about what was going on in our lives.

In the middle of some questions about Kelly’s recent art projects, Kyle excused himself to take a call. He was smiling, which led me to believe it had to be Olivia. He always smiled when he talked about her. It got annoying after a while, but it was really sweet. He left the room and went to the basement to talk to her, going down the stairs and out of sight.

After a little bit, he came back, frowning. He put his phone down on the island in the kitchen and took a seat at the table. He didn’t say a single word. Michael noticed this and stopped asking Lucy the question he had begun to ask. “Kyle?” He asked. “You okay?”

“Yeah, fine,” Kyle said softly. He began to eat, not saying anything more.

“Are you sure?” Michael asked. When it came to his best friend, Michael was the most kind, caring person. He’d do anything for a friend.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Can we drop it?” Kyle asked him, a bit of an edge in his voice. That got me nervous. Kyle never really got mad or on edge, at least to my knowledge. What had gone wrong?

“Okay, fine,” Michael said. Then, a silence fell over the table. Nobody wanted to talk very much after Kyle’s exclamation.

Dinner went by slowly. It felt like a few hours went by before everyone was done. Kyle’s phone went off a few times, but he never looked back at the phone to even think about who was texting him. Nobody asked him what was going on, since they didn’t want him to explode at them or something. It wasn’t worth it.

After everyone was completely done, everyone left the table. Lucy and Niall volunteered to wash the dishes, while everyone else went to do something else. Ana grabbed her notebook and climbed up to the loft, while Simone challenged Louis and Lizzie to a round of Just Dance. All of the others pretty much disappeared in my mind. But, I saw Kyle go down the stairs to his room. The thing is, he made one fateful mistake.

He left his phone on the island. My brother, who is never apart from his phone for a single second, left his phone unattended on the island in a different room than he was in.

Who are you and what have you done with Kyle Isaac Anderson?

I went and grabbed the phone off the island and opened it up to the lock screen. “Courtney, what are you doing?” Liam asked me, looking at me from the other side of the table.

“Finding out what’s wrong with my brother,” I told him. I typed in the password to the phone (which was "Olivia". Typical lovesick boyfriend). I checked his voicemail to see if there was a part of the call that got caught in the answering machine before Kyle had answered, but there was nothing.

“Courtney, don’t you think that’s his business?” Liam asked me.

“I care about my brother. I need to find out what’s got him down,” I told him. “I can’t help him if I don’t know.” I then checked his texts, since I remembered hearing his stupid text notification go off a few times after the phone call. Sure enough, there were five unread texts, all from Olivia. “There are some texts from Olivia,” I said.

“Don’t read them,” Liam advised me, but I ignored him, and clicked on the small box. My eyes were huge.

Kyle, I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt you.

Kyle, please let me explain.

Luke came onto me! I never meant to let it get this far!

Kyle, please talk to me…

Kyle?

“What do they say?” Liam asked softly. Obviously, he had given up on trying to convince me to stop, since I had already started to read the texts.

“Olivia…she cheated on him,” I found myself saying, looking up from the screen in front of me.

“What?” Liam asked with eyes just as wide as mine had to be. “Olivia? The girl he wouldn’t stop talking about?”

“Yeah,” I said softly. “Apparently this guy named Luke came onto her, and she didn’t push him away. Plus, it must have gone pretty far too,” I added. “Who does this girl think she is? He’s my big brother! He’s, like, the nicest guy, and doesn’t deserve this!”

“What are you doing with my phone?” a deep voice asked. Oh crap.

Kyle came stomping over to me and grabbed the phone out of my hand. He looked down at the screen and frowned. For a second, I saw sadness in his eyes, but it was soon replaced by rage.

“Kyle, I just wanted to be able to help,” I said softly, looking up at him.

“Well just leave me alone!” Kyle exclaimed. Looking at Liam, he said, “You should have stopped her.”

“I tried to, but she wouldn’t. You know she doesn’t take well to authority,” Liam said, trying to make a small joke to make light of the situation. He was right, but I don’t think it was helping much.

“Shut up, Payne. Both of you, stay out of my business, okay?” Kyle said, giving us both cold, dead stares before going to the stairs. He stomped down the stairs and out of sight.

When he was gone, I looked over at Liam. “What am I supposed to do?” I asked.

"He wants to handle it on his own, Courtney. We need to respect that,” Liam told me, giving me a pitying look.

“But he’s my brother, and he’s hurting!” I exclaimed. “I just want to help him!”

“Give him time, and then let him ask for help. It’s better for everyone,” he said.

I sighed. “Fine,” I mumbled, crossing my arms over my chest.

Liam gave me the faintest of smiles, and kissed my forehead lightly. He had a really gentle touch. “I do like how much you care about your brother right now, though,” he told me.

“We have a love-hate relationship. If he touches my stuff, I’ll kill him. But, if he really needs my help, I’m there for him,” I said. “That’s at least what my parents tell me I have to do."

Liam laughed a bit. “Come on. How about you show me that dance you’re working on? I’m curious,” he said.

“Okay,” I smiled. “I have the music down in my room. Follow me.” I walked to the stairs, but then noticed Simone, Lizzie and Louis all staring at us. The game was paused on the screen. “What are you looking at?” I asked.

“You okay?” Simone asked.

“Fine,” I said. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Your brother just went all,” she began, and then made motions like an explosion before continuing, “on you. You sure?”

“Positive, Si. Don’t worry about it.” I looked at all three of them, and also at Ana, who I then noticed was staring at us from over the rail of the loft. “All of you; just don’t worry about it.”

Ana held her hands up in defeat and backed away from the rail. Simone shrugged, and said softly to Lizzie and Louis, “C’mon, you guys. Let’s just keep playing.” And they did.

I turned to Liam. “Come on,” I said, and went down the stairs. As I walked towards my room, I heard the sound of sobs from the corner room…Kyle’s room.

I looked back at Liam. My eyes were full of a pleading look. How could I let my brother sit there like that, crying him a river of tears over this girl?

“You have to let him ask for advice himself,” Liam told me, putting a hand on my shoulder.

“But I can’t!” I exclaimed.

“Just wait,” Liam assured me. “Come on. Let’s see that dance you’re working on.”

I nodded. “Okay,” I said, and walked to the door of my room. I opened the door, and closed my eyes. I really hoped that dance can get my mind off of this like it always does...

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A/N Hi everyone. Sorry for the month-long gap between updates. The past few weeks have been really tough. Simply put: love stinks.

Anyway, instead of letting you read about my pathetic love life, I worked on this! Hope you guys enjoyed it. I feel bad for Kyle though, but this had to happen in order to start off the drama filled two weeks. What do you guys think will happen next?

Please vote and comment on this chapter, and follow too if you haven't already! I'll try my best to get the next chapter up as soon as possible. See you guys next time!