One More Night (Niall Horan)

Chapter Twenty-Four: New Year

Niall had his arm around my waist as we walked to the front door of Harry’s house, finally back to  normal. We were happy. Happier than we had been for a long time and I didn’t imagine that a Christmas locked in our flat could actually improve our relationship to what it was like over a year ago.

It was strange to think that way. That a year ago Niall was in a box labelled ‘Made in Ireland’ and he gave me a dog. It was even stranger that at exactly this year ago I was also at a Harry Styles’ new years party, except Harry was there with Taylor Swift, and kissed me moments before the New Year and I went back to celebrate with Niall.

Now? Everything was completely different to a year ago, the biggest problem for Niall and I was upcoming tours which meant we’d be spending less time together, now we had more pressing problems, like the media never leaving us alone, another girl was currently pregnant with Niall’s baby and I was in the process of getting a divorce. It was just by the time I realised the year was over, it was the moment I realised how quickly everything else had moved in my life to get to this point. In five months, Niall would have a little girl, and I’d already be on the X Factor USA judging panel, and who knows where Niall and I will be by then.

“You ready?” Niall asks me when we reach the door, and after I nod Niall presses his finger up to the doorbell and rings it, and when the door is opened Harry and Tamia are there to welcome us.

“We’ve been waiting for you two!” Harry reprimands jokingly as he hands us both a can of beer, as if they knew the next guests at the door would be Niall and I. Niall says hello quietly and offers Harry a warm smile, and Harry seems to suddenly relax that Niall isn’t throwing punches at him or anything like that.

Once I’d explained to Niall everything that had happened that night back in February, and told him why Harry had brought it back up on the night of his last party, Niall realised that he was almost okay about it, because he knew how guilty Harry felt.

I think the fact that Harry and Tamia are unofficially a couple made Niall real that Harry’s heart was in the right place, he was acting on Niall’s advice after all.

“How was bowling?” Niall asks Harry and Tamia looks up to Harry smiling like at lovesick bird as Harry returns the same sickly look to her. Did Niall and I ever look at each other like that when we were in our Honeymoon phase? For some reason I hope we didn’t, it was almost sickening to look at, and actually managed to make me feel alone despite Niall’s arm was still securely around my waist, reminding me that he was still here, even after everything we’ve gone through.

Niall presses a kiss to my forehead and I’m about to bring my lips to meet his when my phone makes a noise, pulling me away from one of the few romantic moments I have with my boyfriend nowadays.

What are you doing to celebrate tonight? Fancy a party? – RYAN

I bite my lip, shying away from Niall when he attempts to read my screen from beside me. He doesn’t need to know that I have the numbers of males that Niall knows are drug dealers. But after partying with both Ryan and Blake a few times, I realised it wasn’t the rebellious idea of doing something illegal that made me want to hang out with them, or the fact that they both could supply me with anti-depressants when I felt especially down. But they had this aura of carefree just floating in the air around them. With them there were no consequences to anything. It was simply, party, smoke, and drink. There were no thoughts of hangovers or people seeing you taking illegal substances, there weren’t even judging boyfriends who didn’t like the idea of me hanging around with these types of guys. It was like life stopped moving, and it was life that scared me the most these days.