Bruised and Scarred.

A Long Ways From Home

"Let's go to bed" he said after drying my tears.

"Are Harry and Louis staying?"

"No, I'll go kick them out"

"I don't mind them staying"

"They'd probably rather go home"

With that he had left his room and towards the front door to show them out. I was standing in the doorway of his room when I heard Harry and Louis making kissy noises. As childish as the action was it got me thinking as to why they were making kissy noises towards him, but after all I might be hearing things too. Instead of worrying about them I changed into my pj's. Right as I was about to crawl into bed Niall asked if I wanted to sleep with him tonight. For security reasons of course, I'd been feeling insecure all day so anything to help. I shrugged and followed him, crawling into his bed which was almost comfier than mine. We were lying so that we faced each other when he said, "Did you believe me" without making eye contact, but instead playing with the thread to his pillowcase. "Yes" I replied in a believable tone. As sweet as it all was I'm still having my doubts. From there we told each other goodnight and drifted off having peaceful dreams for once.

When I woke up crystal blue eyes were practically staring into my soul. "Can I help you?" I asked sleepily. "Will you pretty please make us pancakes?" he asked like he was a small child scared about waking his parents or something.

"Us? Did you invite the whole town over for pancakes?"

He laughed while I slid out of bed and followed to see my five favorite faces waiting tiredly, but hungrily at the breakfast bar. "You can cook Harry, why didn't you start making pancakes?" I asked while pulling out the ingredients. "Because, yours are better Jessa" he answered with a bright smile. "So, Jessa why was Niall so eager to kick Harry and myself out last night?" Louis asked smoothly while playing with the salt and pepper shakers. I looked at him confused, but continued to pour the batter. "What do you mean? We didn't do anything if that's what you're asking" I replied. Is that what the kissy noises were all about? Did Louis and Harry think Niall and I were friends with benefits or something? Even though the questions rattled in my mind I kept making pancake after pancake for the lads who were talking amongst each other. As Louis leaned in to talk to the other four their voices dropped to a whisper, "Care to share, ladies?" I asked. They stopped talking and waited for the food as Niall blushed. "Ni, do you still have make-up on from yesterday?" If I didn't know better I'd say it was from yesterday, but now I'm knowingly teasing him. At that his blush grew deeper on his pale cheeks. It's funny when Niall is so vulnerable to being teased. "Pancakes for a pack of hyenas coming right up" As soon as I set the couple of plates in front of them they dug in like mad. I'd be screwed if I had teenage boys running around the house with an appetite like that and feeding someone like Niall. Not exactly Niall, but someone like Niall, possibly. I started making my own pancakes as everyone was just finishing their last one. I took my time as they started drifting from the kitchen and into the living room where they will probably end up playing video games for most of the day. Liam stayed though and kept a steady conversation with me while I tried to eat my pancakes. Randomly, Niall came up behind me wrapping his arms around my waist while planting a sticky kiss on my cheek and mumbling "Thank You". Once he left the room once again Liam started a different conversation, "He's cute". "Yeah"

"You don't happen to fancy him at all do you?"

"Can you be blunt enough?"

"Yes, and no, but that doesn't answer my question. Do you fancy him?"

"He's right in the other room you know" I obviously pointed out. He raised an eyebrow and I nodded as my answer. "But..." I motioned for him to zip his lips about it. He nodded and asked another question," How did you meet him before X-Factor?" It was a sad story really, one I didn't exactly love telling, but only to the people who mattered to me.