Count On Me | Niam

Chapter Eleven

Niall

"I know, Chloe, but Jessica will take you swimming and when I get back, we'll do whatever you want. Give Jessica the phone back, for a minute, Chlo."

Pushing the door to the cafe open, Niall fumbled with the phone, giving the sitter instructions for how to get to the pool Chloe went to on the bus as he made his way towards the table Liam was sat at, hanging up and shoving his phone into his pocket as he tried to ignore the residual guilt still eating at him and Chloe's earlier tears, the seven year old having taken exception to the fact that, for once, Niall wouldn't be taking her swimming.

Straightening in his seat as Niall sat down opposite him, Liam gave him a tired smile, any adrenaline or energy he'd had from the performance the night before having long gone as he forced himself to focus and stifled a yawn. "Hey. You wanted to talk."

Nodding, Niall tried to swallow any awkwardness he felt and returned Liam's smile, ignoring the dark circles under Liam's eyes and the barely stifled yawn escaping from him and instead focusing on how pleased Liam seemed just to see him, trying to nod and chat through the small talk Liam seemed intent on making before he was asked the question he'd been trying to figure out an appropriate answer to.

"What was it that you wanted to talk about?" Waving the waitress away once she'd taken their drinks order, Liam leaned back in his seat, watching Niall as he shrugged before saying, "I just want to know why, Liam. You're one of the most famous people in the whole world and yet you spent a month hung up on an old friend you ran into twice."

"I told you, I was curious." Still omitting more of the truth, Liam gave the waitress a smile as she set their drinks down on the table, the same girl giving them a shy smile before returning to the counter and leaving the two of them.

Wrapping his hands around his mug, Niall gave Liam a small smile before he shook his head. "I don't buy it. You were more than curious. I went through some of my old things, Liam. Pictures printed out from myspace and you... You have some explaining to do. You sent Greg a message recently, right? Asking about me."

Raising an eyebrow at Liam's silence, Niall clutched onto his mug tighter, taking a sip of his drink before he continued, well aware of how ridiculous he was probably being. "At first I assumed it was a coincidence. An old message that he only just saw, Liam. I figured Greg would be the only person who still has a MySpace and that it was some sort of glitch. But you, and I found your old username and.."

"I messaged your brother. I told you, you made me curious." Swallowing a mouthful of coffee, Liam ignored his phone as it vibrated, indicating another influx of missed calls or messages from people wondering where the hell he was at eight-thirty on a Saturday morning, trying to think of a suitable way to explain as Niall rolled his eyes.

"You used an out of date website to message my brother asking about an old friend you hadn't seen in years. I'd call that slightly more than curiosity." Finally voicing the thought that had been nagging at him ever since he found a picture, a printout of a picture from Liam's MySpace of the two of them, and had called Greg and made him spend half an hour finding the message, Niall shook his head again, the look on Liam's face very similar to the one on Chloe's whenever she tried to lie or hide something from him.

"It was curiosity." Niall's persistent look of disbelief causing him to sigh, Liam took a sip of his coffee, willing himself to wake up more as he said, "It was slightly more than curiosity, if I'm really honest. You ran into me and once I'd realised it was you, it was like, like this annoying earworm except  it was you and it wasn't annoying."

"Earworm?"

"Like a song stuck in my head on repeat but instead of a song, I couldn't get you out of my head and everything I haven't had time to think about for seven years kept resurfacing." Shrugging as Niall raised an eyebrow and stared at him, Liam focused on his drink for a moment, the coffee starting to kick in at last.

"I wanted to see you again. That was curiosity. I kept hoping you'd run into me again or fate would intervene or some shit but it didn't happen so I ended up finding some old stuff from when... I found some old things and eventually trawling through MySpace of all the sites."

"You messaged Greg." Unable to stop himself from smiling as he realised how far Liam had gone to reach him, similar to the amount of effort fifteen year old Liam had made, Niall tried to ignore the stupid, inexplicable grin on his face and the unexpected tingling of butterflies, fucking butterflies, in the pit of his stomach and looked up at Liam, a small smile of his own on his face as he met Niall's gaze, nodding. "I did. He never messaged me back, though. And I went back to hoping that something ridiculous would just happen so I'd see you again. And then it did. Something so fucking ridiculous happened and you ran into me, in the same building, nearly a month later."

Taking a deep breath, Niall's smile faded slightly, Liam's attempt at the truth prompting him to begin his own. "I know. Obviously. About the MySpace thing. Greg told me and I asked him not to message back."

"Oh... Right." Trying not let his disappointment be visible, Liam looked away from Niall and back down at the mug in front of him, his reaction prompting Niall to bite his lip and look increasingly apologetic. "I figured it was a mistake, you know? Or an old message he'd mixed up. I mean, Greg still has a goddam MySpace page. There are so many things wrong with that as it is. I kept thinking it'd be a mix up. I tried not to think about the chance of it actually being you because I didn't think I'd have to see you again after I ran into you."

Trying not to misinterpret Niall's words, Liam nodded slowly, running a hand through his hair before giving Niall a weak smile. Swallowing some of his drink, Liam watched as Niall did the same, neither of them speaking for a long moment before Liam set his drink down, forgetting for a moment that Niall, the person he'd been best friends with for a long time when they were younger, no longer knew everything about him as he said, "I'm really glad, though, that you ran into me. Soph and I were talking and it's just kinda surreal that we're sat here."

"Soph?" The name seeming familiar, Niall took a sip of his drink, letting out quiet sigh as he realised just how out of touch he was with Liam's world, the singer shrugging as he said, "Yeah, Soph. Sophia. My fiancé, well-"

Not hearing Liam finish the sentence, Niall nearly choked on his drink, struggling to swallow the remainder of his coffee as he stared at Liam, unable to speak. Clearing his throat, Niall tried not to look visibly gutted as he asked, "Fiancé?"

"Well. Kind of. For all intents and purposes as far as the media and fans and the public are involved, yeah. Soph is my fiancé." Not realising that Niall had spent the last few years only knowing the most general things about his life, only the really big things and not some of the smaller things like relationships or the like, Liam didn't really make a big deal of explaining his and Sophia's arrangement, shrugging as he took Niall's silence to mean something else.

"You... talked to your fiancé about m- an old friend you'd ran into?" Still processing what Liam had just said, Niall's grip on the mug in front of him tightened, the anger he thought he'd long since worked through resurfacing for a moment before it disappeared again, leaving Niall sitting there, listening to Liam as he continued to talk, one word Liam used to describe everything, surreal, jumping out at him.

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And that's chapter eleven.

Liam has no more secrets. Niall just needs to do the same. I don't mean to drag this part out, but I could not for the life of me figure out how to bring Chloe into this. But hopefully, next chapter.

Hopefully, there'll be another update for this in the next couple of days and there will be more about Niall's reaction to the fiancé and more of Chloe in the next chapters.

Thoughts on the chapter?