Maybe I'm the Wrong You Like

xii.

*&*

Louis woke up to the relentless sound of his phone ringing. He looked at the screen and saw that it was Liam.

"Li? It's after midnight—"

"We messed it all up, Lou. Zayn called me and he's crying so hard I can't even understand half of what he said but it's enough to know that we fucked up. And I can only imagine Niall right now. He must be—"

"Liam. Calm down. What are you saying?" Louis said as Harry stirred beside him asking who's on the phone. "It's Liam, love. Wait."

"—really shattered right now and what are we going to do? I can't believe it all went flying out the window and it's really really bad, Lou."

"Can you come here right now?"

"I'm on my way."

Louis turned to Harry, "I think our plan has failed. Big time."

Liam arrived ten minutes later and tried to explain the whole fiasco that came about from their apparently very poor attempts at playing cupid. "I think we hurt them both. Zayn's torn about it and I couldn't tell him it was our fault. He's really hurt himself bad when he told Niall he didn't like him," he said.

"God, Liam. What did we do?" Louis said as he paced the living room, one hand on his hip and the other massaging his forehead.

"I'll go to Niall. He needs me right now," Harry said from where he's seated.

Louis stopped pacing and turned to face his boyfriend, "Alright, Haz. You do that. I'll go to Zayn's with Liam."

*&*

When Harry arrived at Niall's, he pounded on the door, not caring if he's pissing off neighbors.

The door opened after a while and he mentally winced at the sight in front of him. Niall's eyes were red and puffy and his hair was a mess. He let Harry in and the curly-haired lad engulfed the blonde in a tight hug.

"I'm so sorry, Ni. This is my fault."

Niall sniffed and extricated himself from the hug. "It's not your fault your friend is a...a...scumbag, Haz."

"He's...he did it because he thought it was the only thing he could do, Niall."

"What? Flirt with me? Make me feel wanted? Special? And then tell me it meant nothing? NOTHING?!I let myself fall for him and all this time, he...he was just toying with me." And as Niall said these words, the tears started flowing again and he didn't want them to, but they did. Relentlessly. His tears the only visible manifestation of the hurt, the damage Zayn had done to him.

He wanted to not feel anything anymore. He wanted to shut down. And he figured if he cried enough, then all the tears will wash the pain away. Even just for today. And then tomorrow, he can mourn the loss of something he thought he had.

But Harry kept wiping the tears away. And kept murmuring things he couldn't comprehend.

"—not his fault."

"He's hurting too."

"...likes you. But can't..."

"We thought we were doing the right thing."

"...thought he's doing it for Liam..."

The mention of Liam penetrated through his muddled state. "What has Liam got to do with anything?"

Harry halted his monologue when Niall finally talked again. "A lot. And it's not just him, I do too. And Louis."

At Niall's bemused look, Harry forged ahead. "You see, it was a plan."

"A plan?"

"That went completely bonkers."

"What plan, Haz?"

"Remember when you met Lou and Liam?"

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