Someone Like You: A Niall Horan Love Story

Chapter 7: Not a Fairytale

Piper's POV:

"Piper, your friends are here!" My mom yells from downstairs. I hurry to the front door and find them all smiling at my mom, chatting away.

"Hi guys! Mom have you met Megan?" I introduce them quickly before we head upstairs. One at a time, my best friends file into my room and take a seat, cross-legged, on the floor. We're in a sort of pentagon as we silently arrange ourselves. Megan takes a deep breath and asks the question I know they're all asking themselves.

"What did you want to talk about?" I fiddle with my hands, refusing to meet the gaze of any one of them. How will they react? Will they think I'm stupid? Or that I'm rushing things? I just have to get it over with.

"Last night I went over to Niall's house to apologize. We became friends again and were fine."

"Then why do you need to talk?" Nikki asks. Kenzie smacks the back of her head.

"She's not done talking, Nik." I continue:

"He walked me home and we stopped outside my front door. After we said good night, we..." I taper off and awkwardly rub the back of my neck.

"'We?'" Allison asks. I hesitate before I answer.

"We kissed." The look of shock on their faces is almost fantastic. Niall and I have NEVER EVER EVER been romantic with each other at all.

"What?!" Kenzie asks, shock written all over her face. I nod and smile embarrassedly, biting my lip and trying to hold back tears.

"Do you like Niall?" Allison asks, peering over at me. I shrug, and before I know it, tears are sliding down my cheeks.

"Aw babe why are you crying?" Megan asks as she slips an arm around my waist. I take a shaky breath.

"I don't want to lose Niall. I think the kiss ruined everything."

"Just take a deep breath. You'll be fine," Nikki instructs, gazing at me with concern. I follow her orders, calming down enough to stop crying. I wipe my cheeks off just as Kenzie asks me something.

"Do you really like Niall? Or was it more of a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing?" She inquires, leaning back on her elbows.

"Yes! No! Maybe... I don't really know." They all sigh exasperatedly, and I know I'm not being very informative. My emotions have been kind of a roller coaster lately. What with Niall and Greg being thrown together and me having to choose just one... it's difficult. Allison snaps like she just got an idea.

"I know! Who kissed who?" She asks like she just asked the most important question ever. All of their faces light up in anticipation.

"I don't know." Their faces fall immediately.

"You're not exactly giving us much to work with, Pipe," Megan says. I sigh and rest my chin on my palm.

"I'm sorry. I barely knew what was going on at the time, and the details are even fuzzier now." A mutual sigh rises from the group as we consider the current problem. A long silence engulfs the room."I have more bad news," I say, breaking the pause.

"Which is?" Kenzie asks. Megan and I share uneasy glances since we both know what the news is.

"Niall has a girlfriend."

"WHAT?!" Kenzie, Allison and Nikki say at the same time. I nod glumly.

"Who is she?" Nikki asks, looking vaguely confused.

"My twin sister Hope," Megan responds.

"How long have they been dating?" Allison asks Megan. She thinks about it for a moment before answering.

"Three weeks."

"Holy sh**," Allison mutters as she studies the carpet intently, obviously thinking about something. Suddenly her head swings up, her gaze meeting mine. "Have you EVER felt anything with Niall before, or is this totally sudden?" I'm about to answer an immediate "no", but something stops me. My mind flickers to our recent conversations where I started feeling nervous, or my palms started sweating, or I was tongue-tied. Maybe...

"Oh my gosh," I whisper, realization hitting me like a ton of bricks.

"What?" Megan asks.

"I think I liked Niall without knowing it," I reply, my gaze shifting to the floor, unable to meet their eyes.

"Is that even possible?" Kenzie asks. I shrug.

"I guess. Maybe it's like Katniss with Gale, where she didn't realize that she liked him but she really did. I guess it's possible that Niall could be lovers and just be unaware of it until we keep pushing each other away to the point where we realize out love for each other, like a fairy tale or something." An awkward silence follows.

"That may be the cheesiest thing you've ever said. This isn't a fairy tale," Nikki says in response to my statement. Once again, Kenzie smacks the back of Nikki's head. They love each other to death but they have sort of a violent friendship. Nikki's right. I will probably never have a Prince Charming, and will never be someone's princess.

"I think you both just have to pretend like this never happened," Allison advises.

"You're right." I don't think we'll ever be back to normal.