Since We're Alone |NH|

Chapter 7

A loud pounding woke me up.  Groaning, I rolled over and rubbed my eyes.  The loud pounding continued.  "Ugh, alright, alright, alright," I mumbled, rolling out of bed, tossing some shorts on and making my way to the door. 

Opening it, I found myself face to face with Mark and Deo, who both pushed past me without even a 'hello'.

"Good morning, to you, too," I said, sarcastically.

"You take the front, I'll take the back," Mark said as he and Deo split up.

"What the fuck are you two doing?" I asked.  Neither of them said a word to me as they peeked into each room.  "Hello?  What are you doing?"

"Where is she?"

"Who?"

"The girl you were chatting up at the bar last night?" Deo said.  "You disappeared on us, man."

"She's not here," Mark said, coming out from my bedroom.  "Thank god!"

"What the hell, you two?" I said, a little peeved at them now.  "You thought I brought some random girl home with me?"

"Well...yeah," they both said.

"You know I'm not that guy, right?"

"Yeah but dumbass over here," Mark said pointing to Deo, "suggested you get out and 'mingle'."  Mark said, putting air quotes around the word mingle and rolling his eyes.

"And I did.  But I didn't take anyone home with me, as you can see."

"Well, I for one, am glad for that.  You don't need to be doing that sort of thing just yet."

"What sort of thing?  Moving on?  That's exactly what he needs to be doing!  It's been a month!" Deo said.

"But you want him to go around and sleep with any girl he meets.  That he doesn't need to do!" Mark responded.

"Well, considering the last girl made me feel like I didn't know what I was doing, I think we can all rest assured that won't be happening any time soon, guys.  But, thanks for the breath of confidence in me."

I walked past them into the kitchen, pulling out a bottle of whiskey, I simply drank from the bottle.  No glass needed.

"It's 10 in the morning, Niall."

"And?" I looked at them.  "That's what I thought." I took another swig from the bottle.

Deo's phone rang, so he left the room to answer it.  Neither Mark nor I said anything for a minute.  "So, how are you really doing?" he finally asked.

Just then my phone went off from my room.  "Can you grab that for me, please?" I asked.

He left the room but when he came back, he was looking down at the phone in his hand. 

"What the fuck, Niall?"

"What?"

"Why is she texting you?"

"Who?"

"Maggie."

"I don't know," I said, shrugging.

Mark held the phone up to my face, unlocking it.  Opening the text messages I had just received, Mark then looked back up at me.  "What the fuck is this?"

"What is what?" I asked, confused.

"You fucking texted her last night!"

"No, I didn't."

"Yes, you did.  You wrote a fucking novel, too."

Mark put my phone back in my face and showed me where I had sent several messages.  I tried to get my phone back from him but he swiped it away from me before I could.

"What are you doing?" I asked, trying to get to my phone.

"Deleting these messages.  And then I'm deleting her."

Deo returned.  "What's going on?"

"This drunk ass fool texted that bitch last night.  She responded.  I'm deleting them and blocking her."

Deo looked over at me.  "Niall, bro, what the fuck?"

"I don't know!  I don't remember doing it."

"Done.  She's deleted.  Blocked.  You can't contact her and she can't contact you.  In fact, you know what?  Just in case, we're changing your number.  Get dressed, let's go."

"Seriously?"

"Yes!  Niall, dude, we get you're in a bad place but you've got to remember who put you in that bad place," Deo said.

"Yeah, okay.  Fine.  Let me get dressed."

Two hours later, we returned, new phone number assigned to me.  I plopped down onto my couch.  We all sat there in silence for a few minutes until I found that I couldn't keep it in any longer.  Tears started streaming down my face.

"Hey, you okay?" Mark asked me, softly.

I shook my head.  "Why didn't she love me?  Why wasn't I enough for her?" I put my face in my hands and just finally let it go.  "Why wasn't I enough?"