The One Awakened: Book 1 in The One Trilogy by Alexandra North Read Free Book Online Page A

immature, temperamental and unavailable emotionally. I thought back to that night in the student bar, when circumstances had thrown us together and we’d kind of clicked. But he should never have been the one I’d gone home with that night.
    His own parents’ had divorced when he was nine, and although Niall had been raised by a wonderful stepmother and loving Dad, he found it hard to love unconditionally. It soon became apparent during the early days of our relationship that he was not the hopeless romantic I had originally hoped for, but was in fact just hopeless at romance. You’d think that after receiving an incessant bundle of hand made paper objects, recycled goods and mis-matched cotton underwear sets from Gap, for Birthdays and Christmas for the umpteenth time, I should have given up then and there. I was not and never would be a hippy-chick, or the type of girl to wear men’s underwear - he liked that look - some women could carry it off.Personally I preferred to look like a female .  
    I’m all for caring for the environment, but occasionally, a girl wanted to receive a beautifully wrapped glitzy gift, full of tissue paper, bows and scented beads. Niall bought for himself - not for me - and inevitably got it wrong on every occasion.  
    There had been good times and when I fell pregnant with Finn, it seemed that the bad parts of us were worth putting up with, as the reward was so precious and worth waiting for. Unfortunately, Niall became even more introverted, with the arrival of his competition , as he complained, rather bitterly, about our son. It soon became apparent that he felt like he was constantly vying for my attention and he treated Finn as though he was the third person in our relationship, not an extension of it.  
    He started to become volatile, drink more and punish me both mentally and emotionally, to get a rise out of me. He hated the fact that I was still close-friends with Seb, so he made it his mission to separate us and become his ally instead. This happened for a while, as Sebastian, Niall and Gino, my sister’s husband got together for boy’s-nights-out. But I always knew that the reality was, I couldn’t have it every-way. I couldn’t have Seb as my best friend and Niall as my partner. It wasn’t fair to him. So I distanced myself from Sebastian to help my relationship. It was an unspoken acknowledgement from Sebastian that this was occurring and he understandingly went with the flow.  
    Niall’s behaviour towards me, however, worsened, and the belittling and nasty comments continued. Looking back I don’t know how I stayed so long but I was deeply hurt that despite putting up with his crap for years for Finn’s sake, he could make such a fool out of me.Sebastian visited me, during the period after I’d thrown Niall out; it wasn’t one of my shining moments. I’d looked ghastly; my eyes were so red from crying that I looked like I had a bad case of eczema, my hair hadn’t been washed in days and I was visibly shattered; definitely not the Lulu he knew and respected. But that didn’t seem to matter to him; he was the epitome of calmness and rationalism. He was just what I needed in my darkest hour.  
    He didn’t come in and shout, like my Dad had.  
    He didn’t order me to frame myself , like my Sister had and he didn’t say I told you so like my Mum did - although I’m sure he was desperate to do all three, at the same time. He just quietly listened to me, made copious amounts of tea, played with Finn - so I could shower and sleep - and then eventually he sat me down with my bills, helped me figure out a plan, and wrote me a considerable cheque to cover things for a while.“That should get you through the next few months Chick. It’ll help - at least so that you can focus on my Godson and getting yourself a job.”  
    He really had been my hero, I thought, bringing myself back to the present to focus upon fixing the streaks that were annoyingly appearing on my