Aurora's POV
I'm done! Finally! I have graduated college. I am done a semester early along with Rose because we just got all of our classes out of the way as soon as we could. I got a job with England's secret service along with Luke. I am so happy I that I get to work in London and live with Rose. I still haven't talked to Liam I am still pissed that he chose Sophia's side over mine. I am still going to Christmas though because it is one of those things that I can't miss no matter how mad I am at Liam because it involves others than just himself. I go to my kitchen for breakfast, my mom is sitting at the dining table.
"Hi Honey!" She says.
"Hi Mum." I grab the carton of orange juice and a glass from the cabinet.
"So are you bringing Rose to Christmas dinner at the Payne's house?"
"No, she is going to Harry's house for Christmas… why? We never bring anyone except ourselves for Christmas with the Payne's it is kind of an uncited rule." I say, I thought my Mum knew this.
"Well you see I was thinking maybe you should bring someone this year because I was talking to Liam's Mum and she said that he is bringing his girlfriend."
"What!?!" I choke on the orange juice that I was drinking. "He can't bring anyone! It is a private Christmas!" I am so angry right now.
"Well honey, he can bring his girlfriend if he wants to… I was just thinking that it wont be so awkward for you if you had someone else there." My Mum was right I couldn't handle this all alone.
"Okay… I am going to call Niall to see if he can come." I say and go and grab my phone.
"Aurora! Hi!!!" I hear Niall say.
"Hey! I was wondering if you wanted to go to Christmas with me at Liam's house?" I ask hoping he will say yes.
"Isn't it a private thing where you guys don't invite people?" Niall asks obviously confused.
"Well you see… Liam is bringing Sophia and I can't handle this alone I might kill her. You remember last time." I say.
"I wish I could come but I kind of want to keep all of my body parts intact. I mean it would be a bad idea if Liam thought we might be a thing."
"You're right… ugh, who am I going to ask now?"
"What about that one friend? What's his name…. Um…. Luke!"
"Oh yea! That is a good idea! Why didn't I think of that? Thanks Ni! You know you're my favorite!" I say to Niall hoping to make him feel special.
"Awe! Thanks Aurora! Have a wonderful Christmas! You have to tell me how it goes okay?"
"Okay! Bye Ni!"
"Bye!" Niall hangs up the phone. I call Luke.
"Hello?" Luke answers the phone.
"Luke, please tell me that you aren't busy tomorrow night." I beg
"Nope" He pops his 'P'.
"Will you be my date to a Christmas dinner?" I ask.
"Sure! Why not? What time do you need me there?" Yes! Thank God for Luke!
"You should arrive here around 1 and then we can leave from my house around 3, you can sleep over too because the dinner usually goes for hours."
"Okay, see you tomorrow Sunshine!" He hangs up the phone.
I am happy Luke will be there he will be able to keep me from killing Sophia. Huh… I wonder who would win in a fight…. I think I would because I wouldn't worry about breaking a nail or getting my hair pulled. I smile at the thought of beating Sophia up. That would be fun I have wanted to do that for years.

*At the Train Station*

I am waiting by the gates for Luke to arrive. I am really nervous I am afraid that the dinner will go badly. I remember last year Liam's and my family were planning the wedding and our future kids. They were so happy that we were dating, but now I wouldn't even consider us friends. This is why you never date good friends. I see Luke walking over to me he is wearing slacks and a nice sweater with a button up underneath, he looks so dapper. He has a backpack on. I go over and give him a hug.
"Hey Sunshine!" Luke says as he kisses my cheek.
"Well don't you look nice!" I smile at him. I am so happy that I will get to work with him after the holidays. He is so much fun to be around. "Come on I have to get ready before we leave for the dinner."
We arrive to my house within a half hour. I go to the kitchen to introduce Luke to my family.
"Mum, Dad!" I call out.
"Yes Honey!" My Mum says.
"This is my good friend Luke, I am going to be working with him too!"
"Hi Luke it is nice to meet you! If you do anything to hurt my daughter I will hurt you." My Dad says as he shakes Luke's hand, why didn't my dad warn Liam?
"Dad! Come on let's go upstairs." I say and drag Luke to the spare room. "You can stay in here. I hope you are comfortable. My room is right down the hall." I say and point to the closed door. "I just have to get ready really quick I won't be long I promise."
I go to my room and put on the red dress I bought to make Liam jealous. I quickly slip it on and grab a pair of black stiletto heels to top off the look. I grab the necklace that Liam bought me last year and put it on along with a pair of earrings. I lightly curl my hair so it has a nice bounce and put on a light amount of makeup because I didn't want to over do it. I go to the guest room to get Luke. I knock on the door and say "Luke, are you ready to go?"
"Yea" He opens the door and his jaw drops. "Wow Sunshine you look amazing. How do you not have a boyfriend?"
"Apperantly I scare people away... " I say.
"I would date you, if I could but I can't because it is against the rules to date a coworker." Luke smiles at me.
"Awe! I feel honored that someone would date me." He follows me down the stairs. We go to the kitchen to see if my parents are ready to go. They were dressed in coats and have their shoes on and my mom was finishing covering her potatoes.
"Are you guys ready?" My mum asks.
"Yup! Let's go!" I say and we head to the door. I grab the present I got for Liam, I know that we aren't really on talking terms but it is a tradition that I couldn't give up on. It is a braclet that I made, a photo of us where we are around 12, I am laughing at the camera and Liam is just looking at me laughing, Sophia is glaring at us with her arms crossed probably because she thinks that we are annoying and Nici with her arm around Sophia with a smile on her face, and finally I made him cookies because he told me that he misses my cooking and he can never cook as well as me.
We arrive to the Payne's house and Nici answers the door. "Auri!!!!! Oh my god! It has been way too long!!!!" She gives me a huge hug and twirls me around.
"Hey Nici! I missed you too!"
"Oh, hey who is this stud?" She asks as she breaks my hug to go by Luke.
"This is Luke, and Nici he is off limits remember what happened to Toby." I warn.
"Oh right... No Luke!" She smiles at me. "Guess who is here!"
"Sophia?" I guess.
"Yes... Ugh I can't believe that Liam would stoop to that level. I mean we all know that he couldn't top you but still."
"Wait! This is Liam's house. Aurora..." Luke gives me a glare.
"Yes... I couldn't go alone Lukey! I need you here! I knew if I told you, you wouldn't come." I say and give him a puppy dog face.
"Yea I wouldn't come because I don't want to die. You did not see the look he gave me when I first met him. And he has enough money to hire an assasin."
"You will be fine because he can't handle my rath." I wink at Luke.
We walk further into the house and I take off my jacket along with the rest of my family. I go to the kitchen and see Liam's mom.
"Mum!!!" I yell and go give her a hug.
"Aurora! My darling it has been way too long! You need to visit me more! I feel like I am missing my second daughter." I laugh at her remark. This was what I didn't want to change when I broke up with Liam.
"Is that beautiful young lady my long lost daughter?" I hear Liam's Dad call from the living room.
"Dad!" I say and turn to him. I give him a hug too.
"Staying out of trouble are you? I don't want to have to come bail you out of jail." I smile, it has been a running joke that if I ever get introuble I would call Liam's parents because my parents would just leave me in there.
"Of course!" I go back to stand by Luke who puts his arm around my waist.
"Who is this dashing lad?" Liam's dad asks.
"This is Luke." I say.
"You better keep her safe and don't hurt her!" He gives Luke his most intimitating look.
"I won't I promise." Luke throws his charming smile.
"Do I smell those world famous potatoes?" I hear Liam call from another room.
I freeze as I see him enter the kitchen. He looks at me and Luke and scowls.
"What is he doing here?" Liam asks "I thought this was a type of party where you don't invite outsiders."
"Hypocritcal much. I mean you invited an outsider too." I retort.
Liam mumbles to himself. "Liam, where did you go?" I hear a female voice come from where Liam emerged from.
"I'm in the kitchen." Liam says.
I see Sophia enter the kitchen. "What is she doing here?" She asks him.
"Hey I have more of a right to be here than you!" I say.
"I am his girlfriend so I think I have the right." Sophia says thinking that she is superior.
"Do you know what is going on right now? Because I feel like you don't."
"Yea I am having Christmas dinner with his family." She says.
"Oh no, no, no, they have their private Christmas dinner on Christmas dumbass, this is our annual Payne-Green Christmas. And this is normally only for people with the last names Payne and Green." I spit out at her.
"Aurora, she is my girlfriend she can be here and you brought your boy toy." Liam says to me.
"I only brought my 'boy toy' because I was told you were bringing Sophia."
I am pretty sure that we were making a scene right now.
"Sunshine, is this really worth it right now. I mean it is Christmas" Luke whispers in my ear.
I calm down after what Luke said. Liam just grew angrier.
"I think we should have a lovely dinner, even though it won't be like other times, and I mean nothing can top last Christmas but let's try!" My mum says as she goes and gives Liam a hug.
"You're right Mum, nothing will be better than last Christmas." Liam says as he hugs my Mum.
"Liam, that isn't your Mum, your Mum is over there." Sophia tells him. Liam gives her a confused look.
"Sophia, I know who my Mum is but she is my Mum too. You just don't understand." Liam tries to explain to her but fails.
I roll my eyes this is going to be a long evening. I head into the living room with Luke and Nici, Liam and Sophia follow behind us. Luke sits in a recliner and sit on his lap. Sophia and Liam sit on the couch with Nici, Liam can't stop looking at me and keeps glaring at Luke. This might have been a bad idea but it would have been worse if I brought Niall.
"So Aurora I heard that you graduated and got a job." Nici says trying to break the ice.
"Yea, I am going to be working with Luke. But we aren't really aloud to talk about what we are doing." I say and smile at them.
"Why wouldn’t you be aloud to talk about it? You couldn't be doing something that important." Sophia says to me. She just fuels my hate-fire.
"Sophia! Seriously? Why do you always have to pick on Aurora? She doesn't deserve it." Nici says.
"She is trying to steal my boyfriend by pulling the best friend and being perfect card. So she does deserve this." Sophia says accidentally.
"Why would I try to steal your boyfriend? I am the one who broke up with him. And the reasons for the break up are still in effect." I tell her.
"You are just a lying bitch! Why would someone give up all of that?" Sophia asks.
"Sophia, she did break up with me. She doesn't want the fame or the press." Liam informs her.
"That is because she is a psycho! God! Liam why are you even friends with her."
I have had enough I have to get out of this room. I go and rush upstairs. The only place I feel completely at home is Liam's room. I go in there and close the door. I hear someone open the door. I see Liam walk into the room. I turn away from him to hide my tears.
He comes and sits next to me on his bed. "Auri, I know Sophia didn't mean it." Why is he defending her?
"You don't know that… you never hung out with her. She used to tell me that I shouldn't hang out with you because it made me unattractive"
"Just give her a chance." Liam says defending her further.
"Liam you just don't see it, you never did."
"I don't want to fight anymore, I miss my friend." Liam tells me.
"I don't know how not to fight anymore…." I look down at my hands.
"Me neither, are you wearing the necklace I gave you?" He asks as he lifts my head to look at the necklace.
"Yea, I wear it all the time. I told you I loved it." I say.
"Do you remember last year? And this bed…." Liam says as his mind drifts off.
"Yea and Nici walking in when you were taking my shirt off…." I start laughing.
"What happened to us? Why couldn't we stay friends after you broke up with me?" Liam asks genuinely oblivious.
"Sophia…" I respond.
"Sophia? That is not an answer, I mean you started going on dates with Luke before I started dating Sophia."
"I don't go on dates with Luke, we got something to eat. I can't even date him it is against our company's rules. I have never liked Sophia she made my childhood a living hell… how did you not know that?" I ask him
"I have no idea, we never really talked about what we did when we weren't together."
"That's because we were almost always together."
"I miss those days! I didn't have to worry about people watching all of my moves and we were friends more often then we were fighting." Liam says.
"I have a proposition for you." I say.
"Okay go!" Liam says.
"We can be friends again as long as we don't bring up Sophia ever and I am never at something that she is also at." I say hopefully.
"Auri, I want this to work more than anything but Sophia is my girlfriend so it will be hard to just avoid anything to do with her."
"I know I just want you to try. That is all I am asking" I feel like I am begging now.
"Okay, come on let's go dinner is probably almost ready." Liam gets up and offers me his hand.
"Yea okay I'll be down there in a second" I say as Liam leaves. I grab the present from my purse and leave it on his bed. I'm glad that I can have my friend back.
I go downstairs and see that dinner isn't ready yet so I go to the living room to make sure Luke was alright being alone. I am the worst friend ever. I see him still in the recliner. I go and sit on his lap.
"Are you okay, Sunshine?" He whispers to me. "I was going to go after you but Liam got up so I thought that it would be weird if I went up too, Sophia practically had a fit when he went after you."
"Yea I'm fine, we talked it out." I smile at Luke
"Good!" He returns the smile.
"Liam! You have to open the present I got for you!" Sophia says as she hands him a box. I feel like present giving should be a private thing, this makes me uncomfortable.
He opens it and pulls out a silver Rolex watch. Wow, that is not something Liam would volunteerly wear. "Thank you, it is perfect" Liam says and leans over and gives Sophia a kiss. Maybe I was wrong. "Your present is at my apartment because I thought that we were going to exchange presents later" He continues.
"I know I just wanted to give this to you now. I have something else for your apartment" Sophia winks and him and Liam gulps loudly and has a little bit of fear in his eyes. I want to throw up right now.
"Okay." Liams voice squeaks.
"Dinner is ready" I hear Liam's Mum call from the kitchen.
We all gather in the dining room and have a nice dinner. We leave and go back to my house. Luke turns to me and tells me "Liam stared at you the entire dinner"
"He did?" I felt like I was staring at him the entire time but I felt like we never locked eyes.
"Yup, and you were staring at him the whole time too… Sophia tried to get his attention a handful of times but he just ignored her. You guys just need to get back together it is painful to watch sometimes." Why does he have to be so observant? I know that neither of us really wanted it to end but Liam definitely doesn't want me now he is happy with Sophia and he doesn't feel the same way that I feel about him, he never really did.
"Luke, we aren't getting back together, he has Sophia and I think he is serious about her, and remember I don't like the fame." I remind him.
"Yea I know but I think I am turning into Rose when I say this but… I am shipping you two so hard right now!" He says with his best Rose voice, I just laugh at him.
"Okay, well I am going to bed good night!" I return to my room and debate if it really is worth all this pain, I mean maybe I can get used to the press.
Liam's POV
Auri left with Luke, I am happy that we are friends again. I needed to be friends with her again because I know that we are meant to be together and that can only be possible if we are on talking terms. I go up to my room and see Sophia starting to unpack in my room. I am really confused.
"Sophia, you are sleeping in the guest room down the hall." I tell her.
"Oh, okay. I just thought because you and Auri used to have those sleepovers all the time…" Sophia said.
"It's Aurora, yea well that's different, I am really tired so I will see you in the morning." I go and give her a kiss, whenever I kiss her I feel empty and I feel nothing. Why am I doing this to myself I am so unhappy without Aurora. I look and see a gift on my bed. I go over and look to see who it is from, Auri. I quickly open it and find a braclet with a puzzle piece on it, a note attached to it saying 'you will always have a piece of me' and there was a picture of Aurora laughing and me staring at her, I remember taking that picture she looked so perfect when she was smiling and laughing I couldn't keep my eyes off of her. I look and see Sophia was giving us a dirty look with Nici wrapping her arm around her shoulder, how did I not see her like that when we were younger, I know I was too wrapped up in everything Aurora I barely notice anyone else. Finally there are some cookies in the box, chocolate chip my favorite. This is the type of present I want, something from the heart not a watch, or whatever Sophia plans on giving me when we get back to my apartment. I hope she doesn't think we are going to be doing anything sexual because I don't want to do that, since I know that me and Sophia aren't ever going to be more than girlfriend and boyfriend. There is only one person that I can even imagine marrying.
I hate this empty feeling I have when I am with Sophia, maybe I should just break up with her and not date anyone until Aurora is ready to be with me again.

Notes

Again sorry for the long ass chapter...but I hope you all enjoy it!

~A xxx