Fake (N.S)

17.

Niall's POV

"I don't like him," Jade let out, wrapping her arms around herself and quickening her pace in order to catch up to me.

The walks with Jade had become a regular thing during the past few weeks. It was extremely nice to leave the suffocating environment we both lived in, particularly to get away from my parents for a little while. However, listening to Jade's complaining wasn't exactly what I would call relaxing, particularly if I was the subject of her complaints. 

"I don't need you to tell me who I should or shouldn't be with, Jade," I told her, kicking a rock gently with my foot as the two of us walked down the street. "I'm perfectly capable of doing that on my own."

"So it seems like no one else understands their role in a friendship. It's like...the number one rule of a friendship. And as your amazing and trustworthy friend, I have the right to tell you that I don't trust your new boyfriend," she raised her eyebrow.

"Well, my 'amazing and trustworthy friend,' tell me how you can judge him if you've never even met him?" I asked, looking at her with a frown.

"Niall, you literally know nothing. I don't need to actually know him in order to judge him, I just know."

"Really?" I raised my eyebrow at her, both in amusement and annoyance because honestly, there was no one in the world that was quite like Jade. 

"Yes, really. Look, I can't describe what I'm thinking or why I'm thinking it but I really don't like him," she replied.

"I can't exactly trust you on that, since you have literally no evidence as to why I should. You should know that Zach is sweet and I actually enjoy being around him. He's a good guy and you should give him a chance," I said. 

"Why are you so damn confident about him? What happens if he fucks up?"

"Then he fucks up and I get over it. No one's perfect, Jade. So he might not be my 'soulmate' or whatever but it feels nice to have him around."

I was nowhere near being in love with Zach but I did happen to enjoy calling myself his boyfriend. It felt nice to have someone to talk to about something stupid and be able to kiss them at the same time. Especially if they treat you like a person and not some object to play around with and toss aside once they're done with you. 

"I'm not going to force you to break up with him but I will tell you to be careful. Don't put a lot of effort into this relationship if he's just going to hurt you."

"I'll be fine. Zach is a nice guy and here's the funny part...he actually genuinely cares about me. I wasn't aware that actual relationships were like that since I was too caught up in pretending with Harry."

I seemed to have a horribly bothersome habit of bringing Harry up in conversations, even if the said conversation involved talking about my new boyfriend. 

It was annoying, particularly since I just wanted to move on from him and forget everything that had happened between us but I tried not to make a big deal about it. Although it may be seen as a bad sign that I couldn't forget him, I didn't see it as proof that I still had feelings for him. 

Even though I definitely did. 

They weren't strong, nowhere near strong enough for me to be willing to fuck something up with Zach because of them but they were there and always present in the back of my mind like a sick reminder of the fact that I couldn't escape his hold. I couldn't help it. There was something about Harry that I couldn't let go of no matter how hard I tried. No matter how hard I wanted him gone.