The Dancer's Daughter (1D)

Chapter Eight

We had hotel rooms the next night, and Paul made sure Mica and I would be sharing. The only people I would allow entrance were Paul himself, Mica (because she had to), Niall, and Louis. I was only allowing the last two because Mica begged. She told me that if I was going to forgive them, I needed to let them talk to me.

“Otherwise you didn't forgive them. You lied. Besides, I thought you missed the boys! I thought you said you weren't really mad anymore!” she argued.

And so, the sign I put on my door read like this:

Unless you are Paul, Mica, Niall, or Louis, this is NOT your room. Don't bother knocking because you WILL NOT enter. Thanks.

Mica says that's overkill. I don't think it is, because now Liam won't let them barge in. And an hour later, when Niall knocked on the door, I was able to let him in without the others trying to force their way in too.

“Haley, the others feel awful. They want to talk to you. They wanted me to tell you that just because your room is off-limits to them, theirs are not off-limits to you,” he told me.

“That's cute. But it won't work. I'm not going to talk to them for a while. They hurt me, and I'm not going to let them hurt me again!” I snapped. His expression made me regret my harsh tone. “I'm sorry, Nialler. I just... this is so hard. I love you all, and it's hard to only be able to talk to two of you without wanting to cry.”

“If you'd give them the chance to explain... or at least talk to Zayn... I've never seen them so upset!” he tried again.

“Ni, if they had done that to you and... okay, you and Mica. What would you have done?” I asked, changing tactic.

“But why would they do that? Mica and I aren't secretly in love with each other,” he said, confused.

“Secretly in love? Okay, it was just an example. And I'm not secretly in love with Zayn!” I exclaimed.

“You're right, it's not exactly secret. You guys are pretty obvious about it,” Mica threw in from across the room. “I mean, the sexual tension is just awful! And have you looked at your phone? Sixty of the seventy texts are from him. And that's just the ones he sent last night after you left the bus! Which, by the way, was overkill. You should have seen the mad scramble to try to get back to that van. And hey! You left me all alone without introducing me to anyone!”

“Mics, I love you, but stay out of this. Please,” I said through gritted teeth. She shrugged and went back to flipping through the TV.

“She's right though, it's not secret. I know for a fact that Zayn has feelings for you,” Niall said absently. My heart nearly stopped.

“What are you talking about, Niall?” I asked.

“Um... nothing?” he tried, obviously realizing his mistake. It was too late. “Okay, fine. After you left last night, he exploded on Louis and Harry. He kept saying things like 'you've ruined everything!' and 'she'll never talk to me again now, thanks to you idiots!' It took Liam and I an hour to calm him down and get him to tell us why he was so much more upset than the rest of us. No offense. And when he admitted that he really actually liked you, we felt even worse.”

“And now he's going to kill you,” Mica said, butting in again.

“Mics, seriously. I'm going to kick you out and change the sign again. I'll share with Niall instead, don't think I won't!” I threatened.

“You'd never do that to me, babe,” she laughed.

“Oh, you're so luck I love you,” I grumbled. Then I turned back to Niall. “Assuming that you're not making this up so I'll talk to you guys again, why wouldn't he just tell me that? That would be the quickest way to get me to acknowledge his existence!”