Twisted Friendship

Chapter 7

"Come on Katie!" I heard Louis plead, his voice echoing through my empty night. Glancing up from the book I was reading, I glared in the direction of the bedroom window.

Slipping out of bed, I peered through the curtains, and there he was. Standing in my backyard, surrounded by the Zayn, Harry, and Liam. Pale moonlight shown across their face, stretching their shadows out in the grass.

Quietly I pushed up the screen, settling my elbows down on the window sill. "Go away!" I exclaimed, watching them all jump by my sudden appearence.

Harry stepped forward, running a hand nervously through his curls. "We're so sorry. Why are you angry at us, for being upset because a boy punched you?"

"We love you!" Zayn whispered. As quiet as he was, his voice drifted up and tickled my ears.

My muscles tightened at those words. They said it all the time to me, daily in fact, but you could just hear the desperation behind those three simple syllables.

I closed my eyes briefly, "I need some time."

Liam fiddled with the buttons on his shirt, "Time for what? What exactly?"

Instead of answering, I let my gaze wander up to the endless night sky.

"Katie?" Louis persisted, using his gentlest tone of voice.

I counted stars. They seemed to be pinning back the darkness that could fall down any second and swallow us whole.

"Im just scared okay?" I finally blurted, looking back down again "What I saw come over you guys was frightening. That wasn't you, that was a monster. You beat up Niall, you could beat me up, none of you can control yourselves"

After the fight I had skipped school, went home, and cried over my bruised face. It was their fault. They were too violent, too dangerous. But they wouldn't leave me alone. Sat outside my house constantly, begging for forgiveness. I was oh so confused.

All thier voices rose and intertwined in protest. I simply turned away, closed the window, and climbed back into bed. Pulling the blankets over my head, I squeezed my eyes shut. Trying to block them out.

************************ The Next Day At School*****************

I slammed my locker shut with a sigh, pressing my hand against the cool metal. What a stressful day it had been, trying to ignore them. They pestered, they whispered. They passed me notes and stared me down. I had to skip a couple classes even to get away.

"Katie." a voice said from behind me. I jumped and turned around, startled to find a blonde haired boy standing before me. His blue eyes were wide and full of a sorrow that made me shiver. Niall Horan stared back at me, a bruise under his eyes and lip split open. Ouch.

"Niall!" I exclaimed, dropping my books and immediatly grabbing his face. I turned his head side to side, examine the damage done. Niall gently grabbed my hand and pulled it away.

"No Katie, listen to me." he took a deep breathe, "I am so sorry for hitting you, I didn't mean to. You don't understand, I am so sorry. It hurts to think that I even did that-"

Niall stumbled over his words, apologizing profoundly and looking like he killed my family or something. It was cute, so very cute. His tousled head of blonde hair and sad expression and how much it hurt him to hurt me.

And suddenly I didn't care very much. Not very much at all.

"It's fine." I interjected, giving his arm a squeeze.

Niall looked horrified, "But it's not fine at all!" he went off into another rant, when I spotted a dark mop head of curls in the hallway. Harry and the boys. Shoot.

His green eyes swept across heads and met mine immediatly, "Katie!" he yelled, over the hallway and not caring who saw. And then he saw Niall.

It was Niall, the boy who hit their best friend and tore her away. I could see hate just etched into his face. The hate was the bags under the eyes and the crinkled forehead, with the frowning mouth.

They began pushing through the crowd to get towards me.

"Come with me!" I muttered, grabbing Nialls wrist and pulling him blindly down the hall. There was closet to our right. Not thinking at all, I opened the door and flew inside, listening to the boys heavy footsteps behind us.