Black Ink || Harlena a.u.

4.

"So," Anne sighed with a smile as she stared at herself in the mirror. "How do I look?" Her nervous gaze met my look of admiration through the mirror.

"Like a million bucks, babe."

"You think Niall's going to like it?"

The question made me scoff, "Are you kidding? He's seen you in sweatpants and boogers coming down your nose. I've seen how he stares at you adoringly while you're too busy checking to see if Liam has answered your texts."

She grinned at me, "You're right." Her body spun around to face me, "Liam and I had planned to hook up tonight since last Thursday. He had been busy the rest of the week..." her words trailed off in thought. "He's probably going to show up tonight, actually- this was a bad idea. I should tell Niall-"

"No! Enough, Anne- seriously. You're willing to give up such a great opportunity for someone who doesn't even give you the time of the day. You know, getting no messages from him is also a message. He's not serious about you and I hate seeing him use you like this."

The harsh lines in her face softened, "To be fair I knew what I was getting myself into. It's not entirely his fault, either, but you're right."

"Don't worry, if he shows up I'll tell him."

Her head tilted, "Thanks, Selene. I don't want to see Liam anymore and I guess I owe him no explanation since we weren't a thing to begin with."

"Atta, girl," I grinned. Anne's phone buzzed and she looked up from it with an anxious look on her face. 

"Niall just arrived," her hands smoothed down her casual, flowy white dress and ruffled her hand through her wavy hair.

"Have fun and be safe." I hugged her before she replied with a quick 'I will' and left.

My arms crossed themselves over my chest as I thought about Anne and Niall.

Niall was such a kind guy, his eyes told you everything you needed to know about him- no doubt. His Irish accent only added to his boyish charm. Granted, he wasn't the type of guy that Anne would typically go for, but perhaps that was a good thing. We met him after moving in; he works at the grocery store down a few streets from where we live and from the moment he saw Anne, it seemed as if he paid no mind to anyone else but her. He was honestly cute and I was happy that Anne had finally given in.

My head shook as I smiled at the thought and opted to watch a movie after I washed my tattoo.

**

I probably had fallen asleep through the majority of the movie because when I woke up, the credits were rolling. It was then that I realized that it was the knock on the door that had woken me up. My attention went to the clock on the wall, it couldn't be Anne. It had only been about an hour and a half since she left. Besides, she had her key.

Cautiously, I opened the door after rubbing the sleep off my face and tying my hair into a ponytail. 

"Liam?"

His tall frame hovered over mine, his brown eyes greeting my own as he gave me a small nod, "Hey, Selene. Is Anne home? I've been texting her, but she won't reply and my calls go straight to voicemail."

Fidgeting in my spot, I opened the door for him and motioned for him to take a seat. He wasn't a total asshole, it was just the fact that he wouldn't acknowledge Anne as anything more than a pastime- at least from my point of view. 

"Listen," I cleared my throat, taking a seat at the far end of the couch, opposite of him. "I know that whatever goes on between you and Anne is absolutely none of my business and I would never interfere, but lately..." he was staring at me intently, nodding for me to go on. "I've noticed that Anne has been kind of down. She mopes around the house with her phone in hand-" Anne's gonna kill me. "Just waiting for you to give her some sort of sign that you want her and it bugs me because I know that she's such an amazing person that doesn't deserve to be crying into her pillow at night, barely getting any sleep because I know she waits by her phone in hopes that you'll call her or even text her."

He looked taken back, slowly processing the information.

"... So she finally stopped waiting," his eyes darted to mine, frantically searching for something. "She went out with someone new, Liam."

His lips blew out a sharp breath, his fingers lacing with themselves as his leg bounced up and down. He shook his head, I could almost see the thoughts spinning round and round in his head, "Was she happy?" He finally spoke up, his question taking me by surprise.

I thought back to Anne's smile as she got ready to meet Niall, "Yeah."

Liam gave me a sharp nod before getting up. Anxiously, his gaze met mine, but I wish it hadn't. He looked broken- hurt, and it was then that I realized that the sad look was all too familiar. 

Anne.

"Then there's nothing I can do. We had an agreement about what we were and if she changed her mind, then I'm no one to stop her from being happy. I just-" he looked at the ground before he looked back at me, desperately. "I just wish I had known she felt that way, she never said anything about it, so I knew no better, but I should have. Countless times I made it known to her that what we were wasn't anything special and... not once did she say otherwise. Quite the opposite, actually. She agreed every time and there was even a point-" he hesitated. "Where I wanted her to say otherwise, I wanted her to tell me that she wanted more, but-" his hand ran down his face frantically. "She didn't, so I didn't because I didn't want her to leave me, I thought she wouldn't want anything more than what we had-"

My lips pursed: don't fucking cry, Selene. 

"She always looked happy, I figured things were okay between us, but-" he paused, shaking his head once more as he blew out a dry laugh. "I guess I was wrong and I did the exact fucking opposite." His saddened gaze looked at me one last time, "Thanks, Selene." And he was out the door.

Fucking damn it, Anne. She had told me something entirely different and as much as I wanted to believe my best friend, Liam's words tugged at me and left me in utter confusion.

______*****______

A/N: Awww, poor Liam!

Who do you guys believe? Comment on their names:

Anne

Liam

What's gonna happen between Liam, Anne, and Niall?

Harry and Selene?

I couldn't help the double update after your comments haha! xx

-M.D.R.