Safe

Chapter 31

Chapter 31

She really does have quite a knack for showing up at the most inconvenient times. As I stare at her in the doorway, I try to stifle my look of digust for her. Now that I understand Niall a little better, the last thing I want to do his let him know that I hate her guts. 

"I wanted to come say goodbye." She states coldly. She makes her way into the room and stands on the opposite side of Niall's bed. "I can see you're busy." Her brown eyes shoot me a look of hatred. "Call me when you get a chance, Ni. We can catch up." And with that, she turns and heads for the door again. 

I find it utterly impossible that Niall can't sense the tension in the room between Anabelle and I. Her words spark another wave of anger in me, but I try my best not to let Niall see it. 

"You two don't like each other very much, do you?" He says quietly.

I contemplate for a minute which direction I should go in: do I lie and tell him that's not true to spare him the worry, or do I tell him the truth and risk him being upset about it? I decide to go with the latter. 

"It's not that I don't like her, it's that i don't like what she's done to you." A little bit of a white lie, but not much. I really don't like what she's done to him, but I really do hate her. He doesn't need to know that part, though. 

"I know she did horrible things to me while we were together. Trust me, I know. But she also helped me in a lot of ways. You get that, right?" I can't tell if his tone is angry or sad or neutral, and I try to stay calm while answering his question.

"Yes. I understand that." That's all I can manage to say. I bite my tongue, hard. I want to tell him that although I understand, I don't understand how he can still be so nice to her. I want to tell him that I hate the way she looks at me, I hate the way she acts like they're still together. I hate the way she makes me feel like I'm intruding on their relationship; but I don't. I'll save that for another time. 

"Hey Kat?" I look at Niall and realize I had been off in a different world for the past few minutes. I shake my thoughts back to the present, and my gaze meets Niall's wondering eyes. "What uh, what happened with Corey? Did they ever, you know, catch him?"

He's tripping over his words and I can sense that he's uncomfortable asking me about Corey because he's not sure how I react. My stomach turns at the thought of him and I cringe at the sound of his name. 

"Sorry," he interjects before I can answer. "We don't have to talk about that."

I think back to my day in the kitchen, when Officer Poterek came and told me the news about Corey's death. His suicide. I realize that the only people to know about Corey's death were Izzie and myself. Niall came in and I stormed off, and then.. then the accident happened. He didn't know about Corey. Between Anabelle, him unveiling his traumatizing past to me, and the spat between Louis and Eleanor, I made the executive decision that Niall had had enough drama for one day, and the situation with Corey can wait to be told. 

"No, they um.. they didn't get him yet." I stumble over my sentence and hope that Niall doesn't hear the trace of lie in my voice. Thankfully, before he can answer, the group of people that have been MIA all day come walking through the door. Izzie leads, followed by Harry, Liam, and Danielle. Louis and Eleanor are still missing, and I've got no idea where Zayn and Perrie are. Truthfully, I could care less. I've got enough to worry about. 

"Kat!" Izzie beams as she walks in the room. She wraps me in a warm hug. "Where have you been all day?" 

I give a light smile. "Out and around here. Just needed to be out of these four walls for a bit, you know?"