all friends - a one direction story

16

*Eve's POV*

I sat with Ruby with our legs draping over a bank on the college green.

I watched as she pulled a cigarette from her pocket and smoothly lit it, pocketing her lighter  as she inhaled.

"I hate it when you move that," I complained.
Without looking up, she responded, "move then."

I rolled my eyes at her stubbornness before we both grew quiet.

I broke the silence by telling her, "I have another date with Liam tonight."
"Another one?" She asked. "And you're still not even sure if you like to him?"
"No, I'm still not sure," I admitted.

"So where are you going?" She asked.
"To feed the ducks."
She spluttered on her smoke before turning to me with a judgemental expression. "What the fuck did you just say?"

I couldn't help but smile, knowing everything that she was about to say. "We're just feeding the ducks. It's not that weird, okay?"
"Yeah. Don't forget to use protection," she rolled her eyes, underwhelmed by my tameness.

"I haven't even kissed him yet," I carried on, "I'm still not sure about it at all."
"You'll figure it out," Ruby shrugged.

I sighed, before deciding to change the subject. "Have you spoke to Marley recently?"
"Not really, to be honest. Why?"
"I think she's feeling a bit shit," I told her, before adding for clarification, "about Niall."

"Why?" Ruby wondered, but I was convinced that she wasn't that oblivious to the ongoing situation.
"Because she likes him, but Saffron is set on him, and she knows Saff well enough to know that she'll cause problems if Marley even talks to him right now."
"She's not wrong," Ruby admitted.

"Well, I think she's just going to back off. She doesn't think that it's worth it."
"Well, I love Saffy and I want her to get everything she wants, but let's face it, it's not up to either of them. No matter how hard Saffron pursues him or how much Marley backs off, it's up to Niall who he likes," she shrugged, "so we'll just have to see how it goes."

***

Liam and I sat in silence, with him driving slowly and carefully in the driver's seat and me sat peering out the window from the passenger's seat.
He was driving me home after we'd had our 'date' at the duck pond.

"Did you have a good time?" He broke the silence and asked, a hopeful look on his face.
"Yeah. It was nice."

And it had been nice. Again, the conversation had been effortless, and there hadn't been any uncomfortable silences. Feeding the ducks was a good date idea in my opinion, and I appreciated that we seemed to have mutual ideas of activities that we enjoyed.
But, again, it hadn't been very fun.

"Left or right?" Liam asked me once we got near my house.
"Oh, left," I directed.

We drove up the lane towards my house.
"This one?" He checked as we reached it.
"Yeah. Here, thanks."

Liam parked the car before quickly jumping out and rushing around to my door, opening before I'd even had a chance to and moving aside so that I could get out.
I climbed awkwardly out of Liam's car, and he was stood in a position beside the car door that resulted in us being unfamiliarly close together once I was out.

There was a tense silence, and Liam looked at me with adoring eyes.
I watched as his glance flickered from my eyes to my lips and I felt my heart pound at the idea that he may kiss me now, when I certainly wasn't ready to kiss him.

The moment was interrupted by the sound of my front door opening, and I couldn't decide whether I was irritated as I knew who was heading out or relieved that the moment was over.