Maybe

06: Best Friends and Confessions

Niall POV

"Bye, Jordan," Tori says as she gives him a hug. I squash my uneasy feeling down and shake his hand.

"Nice meeting you, Jordan." He gives me a curt nod and I walk Tori out, waiting until we're on the elevator to start talking. "So where do you stand with him? In terms of friendship?"

She gives me a funny look. "Jordan's my best friend from when I was fourteen."

"Okay," I say. 

"Look, if you think there's something going on between us, there isn't," she says, wrapping her arms around my neck. "He's just very..."

"Touchy feely?" I ask, placing my hands on her waist. Even though this was only our second meeting, it seemed natural. "Yeah. I noticed."

"Sorry," she says sheepishly. "We haven't seen each other since he moved away when we were fourteen."

"That's okay," I say as the elevator doors open. "Now, which one's yours?"

"That one," Tori says, lacing her fingers with mine as she points to a door with her other hand. $

 I give a slight chuckle. "Are your parents home?"

She laughs. "What, are you scared of them?"

"No," I lie. She winks.

"They shouldn't be yet."

"Okay," I say, shifting my weight to my other foot. 

"You can go, if you like," she says.

"No, I'll wait here with you."

"Alright," she says, pushing open the door. "You don't have to stay with me, Niall. I can take care of myself."

"Do you want me to go?" I tease. She giggles. 

"No, I just thought you might have something better to do."

"Better than getting to know a beautiful girl?" I pretend to think as she turns a bright pink. "I think I'll pass."

 "Alright," she says. "Can I ask a question?"

 "Fire away," I say as she takes donuts out of the fridge.

 "What's something you'd never tell your friends?"

 I think for a moment. "I'd never tell them that I have a stuffed animal from when I was a baby that I named Poopie. It's in Dublin at the moment and kind of embarrassing."

"Why wouldn't you tell them that?" she laughs. 

"Well, I told them I overfed my fish and it died, and I have regretted it," I laugh. "How about you?"

She stops laughing and struggles to keep the smile on her face. "I don't have any friends apart from Jordan."

I study her face carefully as she attempts to keep her smile plastered on her face. "Really?"

"Really," she says, her voice breaking. I smile and reach for her hands. 

"You can count me as a friend," I say. "Now for my question. Why wouldn't a beautiful, funny girl like you have friends?"

She blushes, her smile seeming a little less forced as she answers. "I used to have friends. But then Jordan left when I was fourteen and I became sick for about a year - with a disease completely unrelated to him - and then when I came back, all sorts of nasty rumours were going around and I found that I had no friends left."

"That's horrible," I say, pulling her in a hug.

"It is," she agrees. "My last year of school was spent lonely as opposed to all the other years before that, where I'd be surrounded by friends. Those friends were people I thought I could count on, but I guess I couldn't."