Need You -N.H- Book Two

Ten; Polaroid

Polaroid

"Is that-" Louis starts but I sigh heavily and jump from the car the moment it's parked.

Niall is slumped over against the large door, passed out completely drunk. Normally this wouldn't worry me but the sudden insight of his past has my hands shaking as I lift him off the hard cement to wake him.

"Niall babe," I say into his ear and he looks up to me softly.

"Chels?" he whispers, I swallow my words of anger and pull him off the ground. He stumbles in my arms but Lou helps him stand catching his other arm just in time. I push the door open and step inside the quiet mansion

We get him up the stairs and not with trouble as his feet catch the stairs as we go, tripping most of the way up. When we reach the landing I pull him towards his room and kick that door open as well. Lou lays him in the bed as I pull off his shoes and cover him with the sheets pooling at his feet.

"I love you," I say, kissing his forehead and leaving the room quietly.

Lou has gone back down stairs and is standing on the doorstep again, I look at him so confused and step outside to join him. I run my hand along his back and look up at the stars taking in a deep breath to calm myself down a bit.

He gives me a pathetic smile and sighs into the cold air around us. "He called me Chelsea."

"Of course he did," Lou says completely unsurprised by the actions of Niall.

"He's really drunk," I say "I don't think I've ever seen him that drunk."

"That's nothing, he didn't even finish the bottle." Lou kicks at the dirt and it dings against a half empty bottle of rum that had rolled out of reach. "I'm sorry he called you that," he apologizes.

"It's just a name Lou," I say trying to keep myself from over thinking anything without asking Niall what was going on first.

"The last name he thought of," Louis says cutting all the walls I had put up down like they were made of paper instead of stone. "I know that hurt Sarah you don't have to act tough all the time, you can be you around me."

"You don't even know me Lou, you know sick Sarah. Remission Sarah. I used to be strong willed, out spoken and fun. When my dad died I became recluse, quiet I spent my entire grieving time trying to distract myself. I ignored the fact that my father died, I was turning into my mother. So this is me, quiet and ignoring the problem."

"Don't ignore the problem Sarah," he snaps. "And don't ever think that when I met you all I saw was sickness. The first time we met, outside the bus all I could think was how lucky Ni had gotten to find a girl with such a beautiful smile."

"Smiles can hide a lot of pain," I say.

"Since then all I've wanted to do was make you smile Sarah, and right now I know it's fake. Because if Chelsea had ever whispered Niall's name to me instead of my own in a state like that...I would be heartbroken."

"We aren't the same person Lou," I whisper gently. "I know Niall loves me, whether or not that love is strong enough to fight his love for her is what bugs me. I just need to know what he wants."

"He's stupid if he doesn't want you," he says. I know he's only being nice because he would pick her, he would pick Chelsea in a heart beat. The way they talk about her is infuriating, making my blood boil.

"It's cold out here," I say quietly avoiding the hard topics neither of us wanted to talk about anymore.

"I'll stay at the hotel down the street," he says "I don't feel right being in there if Niall hasn't invited me."