Since We're Alone |NH|

Chapter 48

Ophelia's POV

"Hey, Tomi," I said, as I walked into the bar Wednesday evening.

"Hey, girlie," she said in passing. She was carrying some food to a table.

When she returned to the bar, she looked me up and down. "What?"

"Looking for those marks your man left on you," she said, smirking.

"Makeup."

"Ahh, gotcha."

"Plus, they look better now."

"Good. Don't need anyone thinking someone is beating you. Or worse, that you like it rough!" Tomi could barely contain her laughter as she said that.

I rolled my eyes at her. "Yeah, yeah. All things you already knew, by the way. Or have you forgotten about Jared?"

"Ugh, don't mention that dodo. I still can't believe you let that idiot anywhere near you, let alone inside of you. Ewww!" She made a face.

"It was a moment of weakness. A low point in my life."

"You got that right! Thank god Niall is cute otherwise we'd be having another talk about your choice in fuck buddies."

"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked. "Niall is nothing like Jared. Jared was literally nothing but someone who happened to be there. Niall isn't that. He's..." I trailed off.

"He's what?" Tomi asked, turning around to look at me.

"I don't know. I don't know what he is. Definitely more than someone I would just casually have sex with. I do like the guy. Like, really, really like him."

"I know that. Been saying that for the last month. But you wouldn't say he's your boyfriend, yet?"

I shrugged, "I don't know. Maybe? Or maybe that's something we're getting to? We haven't really talked about it. What about you and Mully?"

"Oh, I guess, we're definitely dating just each other which, I wasn't planning on seeing anyone else and he said the same thing. Why do people think that's really a thing? Is it? Is it normal to date multiple people at one time? Are we the weird ones?"

"Yes, we are most definitely weird. But I can't answer the other question. Huh? I wonder if that's why he's been acting stranger than usual," I said, as I started making a drink that had come through to the bar.

"Stranger than usual? Oh, god, what's he doing now?" Tomi asked.

"Well, I mean, you know how this weekend went."

"Yes, I do, ya freak." She smirked at me again.

I rolled my eyes at her. "And everything was fine until Tuesday afternoon. He made a surprise visit to me on campus and brought me lunch, which was great, not complaining about that. It's just he seemed weird when I called him back and was distracted by Andy's dumb ass being, well, Andy. But he relaxed and seemed back to his usual self by the time I went back to class. But then, we were having dinner and Andy randomly dropped by to do his usual panic session that he likes to do at the end of every month or so. And it seemed like Niall just kind of got thrown off by that. Like, he kind of acted like he didn't like that Andy had just dropped by or that Andy was being so touchy and flirty."

"Well, Niall does like you, as we've said a billion times. Maybe he just doesn't like the idea of some other guy all over you. And, well, you do let guys get all up in your business sometimes. I mean, I know it's harmless, but Niall doesn't. Plus, how would you like it if some random girl came up to him and started being all flirty and touchy? You wouldn't like it one bit!"