Prove Me Wrong (Ziall side Larry)

iii.

“What?! Tell me everything, Nialler. Don’t spare any detail. Haz! Hurry up with the dinner already, love. I don’t want you to miss Niall’s apparently exciting afternoon.” Louis shouted throughout the apartment Niall shared with the couple.

Niall all but ran home the moment his shift at the bookstore ended. He was half afraid of running into Zayn again and half eager to tell Louis and Harry what happened because he was hoping they could help shed some light on the situation. Luckily, he arrived just in time for dinner and as he sat on the table, he faced Louis and told him what happened.

“Really, Lou, would you mind toning it down?” Niall asked.

“Says the one who’s always so loud! No one would hear us, anyway. It’s our apartment.”

“Now is not the time to shout though. You’re hurting me ears.”

“Stop it, you two. Or no dinner for both of you,” Harry, who was already serving them both a piece of his homemade shepherd’s pie, said.

“Damn, Hazza. This smell’s so good. I knew there’s a reason I love you,” Louis cooed.

Harry, who went to the kitchen to retrieve a slice for himself, returned to the dining table. “Thanks, Boo. Love you too.” He leaned in for a chaste kiss and sat himself beside Louis. He looked at Niall then went for his stern voice as he said, “Ni. The leftover slice is for Liam. I’m begging you to leave it alone.”

Niall swatted Harry in response. “M’not gonna eat it.”

“Like you promised you weren’t going to eat the leftover pizza last week? You devoured it an hour later!”

“I’m sorry that I got hungry while studying for a big test!”

“Enough about food. Spill the beans already,” Louis impatiently huffed.

So Niall told them about Zayn’s suspiciously peculiar reaction to seeing him. “…and then he thrust his phone in me hand and ordered me to give me number. That’s it,” he finished.

“So, did you give it?” Harry asked.

“Yes. But I thought about giving a fake one.”

“What? Why would you even think that?!” Louis asked, outraged.

“I said I did think about it. I didn’t though. I gave him my real number. What’s gotten into you, Lou?”

“Because that’s horrible, Niall! What if the fake number you thought of giving him belongs to a really hot guy and they hit it off and they get together and get married and then adopt a dog and live in a white picket fence after? Someone would be living YOUR happily ever after and you will end up a miserable fuck and it would be entirely your fault.” Trust Louis to come up with a hilarious prospective situation that is so eerily plausible it’s not even funny.

“Isn’t that a bit farfetched, love?”

“No, Haz, it’s not. It could happen,” he insisted.

Harry raised both hands in surrender. “Alright.”

“Calm down, Louis. I bet he’s already forgotten about this afternoon. And I’m not even sure he’d call,” Niall said.

But because when it comes to Zayn, Niall is constantly being proven wrong, his phone started ringing.

“Is it him? Answer it! I wanna know!” Louis clapped his hands in excitement.

“An unknown number. Which may or may not be him. Really.” Niall said. But he made no move to answer it.

“Well? Pick it up!!”

Niall stood up and ran outside as he answered the phone.

“Hello?” he said as Louis’ “no fair, Niall”! could be heard from inside the house.

“Niall, is that you?” Zayn asked, his unmistakable sexy accent making Niall’s heart race.

“Uh…you really called. I didn’t think you’d call. Why are you calling?”

“We need to talk. Please.”

“We’re talking.”

“Face-to-face, Niall.”

“A phone conversation‘s just fine. A face-to-face conversation is overrated anyway.”

“Are you free tomorrow?”

“No.”

“Day after?”

“Can’t.”

“What about next week?”

“I have something at school.”

“Why are you being so difficult?”

“Why can’t you say what you need to say on the phone?”

“Because!”

“That’s not a reason.”

“Why won’t you see me?”

“…”

“Niall? Please.”

“Zayn, don’t. Just, whatever it is that you want to tell me, forget about it. I don’t want to hear it. You don’t really want to say it. There’s no point, really.”

Zayn tried to interrupt, “You don’t understand…”

“I don’t want to understand! Please. I was young and naïve and I really shouldn’t have done it…I’m sorry, okay?”

“Niall, listen!”

“No! Please. Erase my number. Forget about this afternoon. Forget about that night. M’sorry, Zayn. I can’t do this after all.”

Niall ended the call and turned off his phone.

As he trudged back inside, he shook his head at Harry and Louis. He wasn’t ready to talk about what just happened.

He didn’t know what the hell just happened, truth be told.