Barred (nh au)

VIII. Stalking

HALEY'S POV:

"Explain. Now." Alyssa ordered as I sat in a seat beside her in the cafeteria.

"Well, um, me and Niall almost kissed yesterday and....I, uh, well, the rest is what you can see right now." I made a feeble attempt at explaining.

"Yeah, Niall told me. Tell me why you're doing it." She said.

"You know why." I mumbled.

"No, I mean, what's the point? Like, why are you doing this to him? Don't feel bad, but honestly, nothing major happened that you're reacting this way." She reasoned.

"Al, it's not that. I...I'm scared. I let my guard down too easily for him. That shouldn't happen." I tried to reason.

"Do you want the brutally honest opinion or the opinion that will make you happy?" She asked me.

"Is that something to even ask?" I dead panned.

"Well, the brutally honest opinion is you're being stupid. And you're simply over reacting. I think you shouldn't let this affect you because, if I'm being honest with you, then you didn't even kiss. You're getting paranoid for no reason." She explained.

I nodded, sighing at how stupid I was being.

"And as for the guard thing is concerned, I think it's great that you're trusting him enough to let your guard down. I'm not saying you shouldn't be careful, but I think he's nice. If you think you can trust him, don't hesitate." She gave me a small smile, which I returned.

"Thanks, Al. You're amazing."

"I know," she chuckled, "take your time with letting your walls down again, but do talk to him. I'm not asking you to rush it, but he doesn't deserve what you're doing right now." She added.

"Yeah, it's stupid but I'll wait a bit." I told her and she nodded, ending the topic.

"Y'all we haven't had a sleepover in ages!" Logan exclaimed, causing murmurs to rise in the whole group.

"I know right! I was about to propose one!" Mia agreed.

"Come to think of it, it's true. How about this Friday, yeah? My place. Sounds good?" I suggested.

"Perfect! So at 6 in the evening on Friday, we're all gonna be there at Haley's. It's gonna be a pizza and movies night!" Alyssa cheered, causing everyone to join in.

Niall looked somewhat perplexed by this whole thing, not having joined us in one of these nights before. He had been quite the whole time, I realised. Alyssa saw me looking at him and began to explain everything, Louis joining in as well.

"You're coming and that goes without saying, Niall. It won't be a squad night without you, mate." Louis reasoned, making Niall smile.

I knew Niall was hesitant because of my weird behaviour in the morning and I wasn't blaming him for it. I decided I should speak something too.

"You should come, you know. It'll, um, it'll be nice to have you around." I managed to speak, looking away immediately after that.

"It will?" He asked me, his features visibly brightening.

"Yeah, like they said. The squad is incomplete without you." I gestured to Alyssa and Louis. Alyssa was having an encouraging smile on, happy that I was at least talking to him.

"Sure, I'll be there." He smiled at all of us. I didn't speak to him after that. I saw him trying to initiate a conversation from the corner of my eye, opening his mouth to speak, but he closed it the very next second.