Since We're Alone |NH|

Chapter 1

Niall's POV

I hung up when her voicemail started.  Going into messages, I texted her:

"Where are you?  It's 2 in the morning!  Why won't you answer your phone?"

Not five minutes later, I was checking my phone for a message I knew wasn't there. I started flipping myself over back and forth trying to get comfortable in our bed but was unable to sleep, too anxious as to where she could be.  My doubts that she had changed creeping into my head.  I grabbed my phone off the bedside table and looked at it again.  Opening it, I called her once more.  This time, it went straight to voicemail.

Rolling out of bed, I knew I wouldn't sleep until she was home. 

"I can't believe you keep letting this happen.  You know what she's doing.  You know who she's with. Ugh!"  I ran my hands through my hair and pulled at it in frustration.  "Why do I keep letting you do this to me?"

I walked into the kitchen, opening the refrigerator and grabbing a beer before heading out into the living room.  I flipped on the TV and sat down, biding my time until she came home.

I kept looking at my phone as the seconds and minutes crept by.  Somewhere around 3 AM, I heard the front door creak open.

"What are you still doing up?" She asked, a bit of annoyance evident in her voice.

"Where have you been?" I asked, not looking up at her.

"Out.  With some friends."

"Friends?  Or friend?"

I heard her sigh loudly before she answered.  "Friends, Niall.  Friends.  Ever heard of them?" 

"I used to," I mumbled, taking a sip of my now lukewarm beer.

"What did you say?"  I heard her toss her keys on the side table in the hallway and kick off her shoes.

"Nothing.  Did you have a good time?"

"Of course, I did."

"Who'd you go out with?"

"Oh, uh, just Sierra, Lindsay and Aoife.  And some other girl; a friend of Aoife's from work.  I honestly don't remember her name."

I looked over at her for the first time since she walked through the door.  Noticing what she was wearing, I raised an eyebrow.  "You had drinks with friends in that?"

She looked down at the piece of fabric barely covering her body.  "We went to a club."

"On a Monday?"

"Yes, Niall, on a Monday.  Lindsay wanted to have a little fun tonight seeing as how she's a free woman now.  Something wrong with that?"

"Not everyone is a free woman, despite always acting like it," I mumbled, again.

"Speak up, Niall!  You know I hate when you mumble everything."

"I said, most people don't go to clubs on Mondays.  But, then again, most people work."

"What did you just say to me?"  Her words were slightly slurred as she moved closer to me.

"I asked how the job hunt was coming along.  Found anything yet?"

"No.  There doesn't seem to be much out there."

"Not even a serving job somewhere?"

She scoffed at the suggestion, "Niall, I don't wait on people."  She started walking out of the living room.

"No, you don't.  People wait on you.  And probably dread every second of it."

"What did you say?  And for god's sake, stop mumbling! Jesus!"