why he left

3. Smile Like You Mean It

Niall Horan was a good man for the most part. As his fellow bandmate once eloquently put he was a church boy.

He didn't have any reason to feel guilty he had no reason to feel responsible but here he was feeling exactly that. The bell rang, pulling him out of his thoughts.

"Harry?" Niall asked, concerned as he opened the door to see a very distraught Harry.

"When did you get to London?" Niall demanded.

"Two hours ago."

"Are you okay you look-"

Harry just shook his head, pushing past Niall ane collapsing onto the nearest chair.

His eyes were red, his face pale and dark bags clung to his eyes.

Niall's stomach dropped.

"What happened?" Niall asked, taking a seat across him. Harry shook his head again, staying quiet.

"Will you just please tell me!" Niall said, exasperated. Harry silently pulled out the iPod.

Niall took in a sharp breath.

His stomach dropped.

"Oh." Was all he could say.

"I listened to the whole thing yesterday."

"What was on it? What did he say?" Niall asked eagerly. Harry kept shaking his head as he placed the iPod on the coffee table.

"C'mon give me something."

"You need to listen to it yourself." Harry answered with finality before getting up to leave.

"Where are you going?" Niall called to him.

"Home, I need time to think."

---

The second Harry left, Niall scrambled for the iPod and pressed play.

All he'd ever thought of the past week and a half was Zayn. He didn't want to waste anymore time to find out what happened.

Niall Horan may seem like he was very carefree but he was the most sensitive member.

Anything happened, Niall would be the first to react. Liam would worry and think of a solution, Harry would be slow to process, Louis would be unpredictable but Zayn- well he'd just be Zayn. There was no other way to describe it.

"Harry, before you start panicking, you're not to be blamed. Sorry if I freaked you out." Niall bit his lip and considered what Zayn said.

He'd be damned if Harry hadn't been panicking.

"When I first met you, I thought you were gonna be quite the ladies man. I wasn't wrong mate." Niall rolled his eyes at Zayn's words. A lot had changed since that statement first started getting around.

---

Somewhere along the way, Niall had ended up at Nando's.

If he had it his way, he'd never set foot in here again. He'd been obsessed with it for a good while and the fans made the largest deal out of it, his friends always brought him there to take the mickey out of him and soon enough he'd gotten sick of it.

But by some miracle, he still had his black express card.

The two empty milkshakes in front of him indicated that he was well in through the story.

He'd barely remembered Rebecca, trying to look past his awful experience with the favoritism made it kinda hard.

"When you dated Caroline we made fun of you more. But you were happy and then you broke up because management told you to. They didn't force you. They only mentioned it and you blindly followed. Do things for yourself."