Like Before (Niall Horan)

Chapter Eight: He's Going To Get Slapped

"I refuse to dress up Steph." I crossed my arms over my chest. I had put on light colored blue jeans and a teal long sleeve, v-neck, shirt. It was good enough for me. I even grabbed light blue high top converse so I somewhat matched.

"At least let me choose jewelry." Steph practically begged me.

"Fine."

"Good." She called already sticking her nose in my jewelry box. She ended up handing me teal rose earrings and bangles with two light blue and the rest silver. 

I finally looked up at her and she was stunning as always. Her hair was in perfect curls opposed to her normally straight hair, the blue seeming to be brighter than before. She had red skinny jeans with a black stripe down each leg. Her shirt was black with the word LOVE written on it in neon colors and it looked like the letters were bleeding down the shirt. The shirt rose at the sides so you could see her hips. She had black cowboy boot wedges with red and silver accents on her feet, going up to a little above her ankle. Her bracelets were stacked together, some had spikes and some had chains. Her necklace was a double layer of chains resting at the shirt line and just below the shirt line. 

"Steph, why do you always look so good." She smiled at me and shrugged. Neither one of us wore makeup much and we weren't completely girly, which was why Jaesin didn't totally mind hanging out with us.

"So are you ever going to tell me whats happening with you and Niall?" Steph asked me.

"Theres nothing going on." I told her honestly. Sure we were slowly getting along and he was trying to make me loosen up when things were out of control, but there was nothing there. Steph put her hands on her exposed hips.

"Come on, I see the way he looks at you, and the way you look at him. You guys would be adorable together. Why can't you see that?"

"Because its not true. You're starting to act like Tia." I told her.

"Tia?" 

"She said that she likes me with him because he makes me laugh like before all this stupid stuff happened with my parents and Sarah."

"You know she's got a point." Steph looked at me. "Do they know about that?" 

"They ask but I don't think Sarah told them the whole situation. Who would want to tell people that their Mom left them and their father couldn't take it. Especially when you left your own sisters to deal with it on their own."

"Are you ever going to talk to Sarah about that?"

"I don't know." I sighed and rolled my eyes. "I mean, its not like I haven't wanted to, but I don't want to get into it and have it mess with Tia." Steph nodded at me.

"You know I'm here if you need to vent about it, right?" I smiled at her. I know we fight a lot, but at the end of the day, Steph was always there for me, just like I would always be there for her. We didn't have secrets and thats what kept us so close.

"I miss the days when we could hang out all day every day because we had no parents or guardians here." I told her and smiled.

"I know! But maybe soon Sarah will lighten up."

"I don't know. I hope she moves out again when I turn eighteen." I told her honestly. "I mean, I get it. She's my sister and, whether I admit it or not, she does care about us. But she left and the only reason she's back is because Tia and I couldn't be split up." 

"Why don't you just talk to her? I don't mean to nag, but tell her how you feel."

"Because if I tell her how I feel she'll tell me I'm just being a kid. She's the one that chose to leave us, she should have stayed gone. But I didn't know what else to do. I wish there was another way and I wish they hadn't showed up that day. Just two months and I'll be on my own again. Just me and Tia. I'll have graduated so I can get a real job and I can take care of us and Sarah can go back to her own life." Steph looked at me like she wanted to say something else but instead she just nodded her head.