Dark Liam

Chapter 26

A/N: Enjoy chapter 26! :)




***



While Kate drives you around, she gives you her phone and shows you a bunch of pictures of strange guys who you had absolutely no clue who they were.

"What about him?" She asks and pulls up a picture of yet another mysterious guy.

"I don't know.. I don't think this is such a good idea anymore. Lets just go back to my house," you suggest. She looks over at you in confusion.

"Why? I thought you wanted to get back with Liam?" She asks.

"I do, but not like this. I'd much rather just apologize or something else," you pick at your fingernails.

We approach a red stop light and she turns to look at you with pleading eyes, "Pleaseeee? I promise you won't regret doing this!"

"I don't know.." You say, looking back down at the picture of the boy again.

"Just trust me, okay?" She gives you one last look before she takes off when the light turns green.

You sigh, and keep looking through the pictures. None of them really caught your eye the way Liam did. You hated the effect Liam had on you. He was always on your mind, even when you thought he wasn't. It was strange. You wondered if you had the same effect on him? Did he think about you all the time? Were you always on his mind, like how he was always on yours? That was a question you wanted answered so badly. You just wanted a little reassurance that he took as much interest in you as you did of him.

At last, Kate pulls up to a bar. This was definitely going to turn out bad.

"Why are we here?" You squeak. This wasn't really what you had in mind when she said she would take you somewhere to look for someone.

"Because there's always hot guys at the bars! And besides, with that outfit," She gestures her hands toward your clothes, "you're SURE to find somebody who will take interest in you! Now c'mon!"

You both open her car doors and get out. You take another quick glance down at your outfit, making sure it looks okay. You mentally give yourself a high five for wearing this. The tight clothes look perfect for a bar-type date.

You take a deep breath before opening the doors and walking in. There was a slight haze throughout the whole room. You grabbed onto Kate's arm like a scared child.

She laughs, "Get off my arm, people are staring."

You quickly let go when a few people look over at the two of you walking towards the bar. You take a seat at the barstools while Kate orders two beers. You normally don't drink, and you had always thought beer was disgusting, but maybe you would give it a try just this once.

Kate turns around and looks towards the back of the room, "Hey," she nudges you, "what about that guy over there?" You look at the back of the room where she was looking, and there sat a man at a table by himself who seemed to be around 20.

He was definitely really cute. He had bleached blonde hair, which was made up into a quiff at the front. He was wearing ripped jeans and a white t-shirt. His muscles flexed as he lifted his drink from the table up to his mouth.

After he sits the drink back down on the table, he looks up and notices you staring. Kate had already turned back around when your beers came, but you still sat there staring at the gorgeous boy, astonished by his great looks.

He smiles gently at you and looks away to pull out his phone. Wow, his smile was so perfect. You wanted him to be yours.

You turn back towards Kate, "You think I could get him?" You motion back towards the guy, not trying to make it obvious you were talking about him.

"Hell yeah!" She takes a big swig of her beer, "just go talk to him! But don't rush things. Remember, you're only using him to get Liam back."

Oh, right. You had totally forgotten about Liam for the last few minutes there. You were so hypnotized by the other guy, that Liam hasn't even existed anymore. All you wanted was the strange man sitting across the room.

She nudges you, "Well go talk to him! I'll wait here."

You take a drink of beer for encouragement. It tastes awful, more horrible than you remembered. You shake it off, and make your way towards the guy, with the beer still in your hand, just in case you need it later.

You stand next to the table he's sitting at, not really sure what to say. He was honestly so gorgeous. His striking features had such a powerful effect on you, almost as much as Liam did.

After staring at him while he played around on his phone, you finally say something, "Hey," you try your best to smile at him.

Your words come out a little shaky. Probably because of how nervous you were.

He smiles up at you, "Hi. Wanna sit?" He pulls out an empty chair at the table. You smile politely back and sit down.

"I usually don't come to places like this," you admit. You mentally slap yourself in the face. Why did you just tell him that? He probably didn't even care. But it just kinda slipped out.

He laughs and takes a sip of his drink, "I do. It's kinda relaxing sometimes. Well, unless there's a fight or something."

You raise an eyebrow, "A fight?"

"Yep. There's tons of them. I'm surprised there hasn't been one yet," he says and leans back in the chair. He was so easy to talk to. You loved it.

You take a drink of your beer for more encouragement. The bad taste was finally starting to wear off after a few drinks.

"I just hope there isn't going to be one while I'm here," you admit.

He laughs and there's a brief moment of silence between the two of you. He was probably wondering why a weird girl came over and started talking to him in the first place.

You decide to introduce yourself, "Well anyways, I'm Brooke."

He sticks his hand out for you to shake it, "And I'm Niall. Nice to meet you Brooke." He smiles at you again, showing off his beautiful teeth. God, everything about him was beautiful.

"So you don't come here often?" He asks.

"Nope. I'm not really much of a drinker," you admit, leaning back in the chair mocking his action.

He laughs, "That's too bad. We could use more people like you in this place," his hands gestures around the room.

"What do you mean?" You ask.

"Well, you seem like a responsible drinker. Most people only come in here to get drunk and start fights and all that shit."

You're not really sure how to respond, "Oh, well I definitely am not going to be starting any fights."

He laughs at your words.
"What's so funny?" You ask in confusion.

"You just seem too innocent to be at a place like this. I bet your friend over there brought you here, didn't she?" He motions over toward Kate with his hand wrapped around his glass of beer. How did he know that?

You laugh, "How'd you guess?"

"I just told you," He laughs. His laugh was so amazing. It was unlike any other laugh you'd ever heard before.

"How about we get outta here?" He asks after finishing his drink. You're taken aback by his words.

"Where would we go?" You ask with clear shock in your voice. You didn't mean to sound shocked, but you weren't really expecting him to ask you to go somewhere else with him yet.

He laughs, "You're too funny. I don't know, my place? Your friend can come along too if she wants."

That made you feel a little better, knowing that Kate could come too. You weren't for sure if you could handle going to his place alone with him just quiet yet.

"Alright, let me go ask her," you say and stand up to go ask Kate. By this time, she was sitting next to another guy on the barstool. They were looking at each other and laughing. You hated to ruin her great time.

You tap on her shoulder and whisper in her ear, so the guy she was sitting next to couldn't hear, "You wanna come to that guys place with me?" You point your head towards Niall, who was sitting at the table on his phone again while he waited for you.

She shakes her head, "Nah, you got this! Go have fun." She lightly pushes you off the other direction. Well, so much for that.

You walk back over to Niall, "She can't come."

"That's fine. Lets go," he stands up from the chair and walks out the doors with you.

***

"So this is where I live," Niall says after you go up the elevator to the 5th floor and walk down a small hallway to his door. He turns the handle in his hand and walks in, with you trailing behind him.

"If only I could see," you say when you notice that there's no lights on, and the apartment is pitch black.

"Oh, right. I almost forgot."

You roll your eyes and laugh, "Of course you did."

A lamp flickers on and lights up his small living room. It looked mostly modern style, with a leather sofa and matching chair.

"Cute," you giggle.

He looks at you and raises an eyebrow, "Cute?"

You look around the room, "Yeah. Cute."

He laughs, "You're something else, ya know?"

You flush and look towards the floor, "Thanks."

He motions toward the couch, "Wanna sit?" His words remind you of just a couple hours ago when you first met him and he said that. Just thinking of the memory gave you butterflies.

"Sure," you take a seat on the sofa while he turns on the flat screen to watch tv.

He turns it to The Big Bang Theory and laughs, "Love this show!"

You laugh at him. He acts just like a child sometimes.

"You hungry?" He asks as he walks toward the kitchen.

You follow behind him, not wanting to be left alone in the strange apartment, "Not really," you admit. Even though you haven't ate since yesterday, you honestly weren't that hungry.

"Well I'm always hungry," he says while he rummages through his freezer before pulling out a frozen pizza.

"You like pizza?" He asks.

"Of course!" You say excitedly. All of a sudden your stomach was growling with hunger at the sight of the pizza.

"K, good! I woulda been a little worried if you didn't," He preheats the oven and gets a pan out to lay the pizza on.

You laugh, "Wow, you know a lot more about cooking than most guys do."

His tone turns serious, "Well I've lived by myself for awhile now. So I had to learn how to eat somehow."

You lean back against the counter, "How long have you lived by yourself?"

"5 years or so." He says as he leans against the counter just across from you.

"So how old are you then?" You ask with wonder full in your voice.

"22."

"Oh. Why have you lived alone for so long?"

He shrugs his shoulders, "I don't know. Parents didn't want me I guess."

You look at the floor. You felt bad for Niall having to take care of himself for so long. You got the impression that his parents probably never took care of him when he was younger. You were surprised by how wonderful of a person he's turned out to be.

He lightens up the mood a little, "So, how old are you then?"

"I'm 21." You reply still looking at the floor. The oven beeps, signaling its ready for the pizza to go in. Niall walks over and places it gently on the oven rack and shuts the door.

"So now what?" You ask.

"Let's go watch The Big Bang Theory!" He says with excitement. You laugh at him and follow him back to the living room.

He jumps on the couch, sprawling himself over the entire thing. You sit down quietly in the chair and watch tv, taking quick glances at Niall every once in awhile. He was so cute. Everything about him was. But you were still curious about his past. You wanted to know what made his parents not want him anymore. You were thankful your dad hasn't kicked you out of the house yet, even though you wanted to move out so badly.

He looks over at you and notices you staring, "What?" He asks and smiles.

You quickly look away and back towards the tv, "Nothing."

He is about to say something else, but is cut off by the timer going off for the pizza. It smelt so good. You could literally feel yourself start drooling.

Niall jumps off the couch and walks to the kitchen, "Be right back," He smirks.

When you see him smirk, it reminds you of Liam. Oh god, Liam! You had totally forgotten all about him. You wonder if he had texted you yet? You pull your phone out of your pocket to find you have 5 missed texts, and 3 missed calls. All from Liam.

All that the texts said was "Where are you??" And "Where did you go?"

You sigh and decide not to reply back. You didn't want your good night to be ruined already. Liam would just have to wait.

"Pizza's ready!" Niall calls from the kitchen. You quickly stand and walk into the kitchen, where it smells heavily of the pizza. It smelt so wonderful.

He gets two plates out from the cabinet and lays one in front of you. You smile and get two slices of pizza, while Niall gets four.

"Want something to drink?" He asks.

"Just some water. But I can get it," you say.

"No no no, you're the guest. I'll get it," he retrieves a glass and fills it up with water from the refrigerator door.

He smiles and hands it to you, "Thanks," you say and sit down at the table. He sits down across the table and joins you.

"You're a lot different then I thought you would be," you say while taking a bite from the pizza.

"How?" He asks

"I don't know, I just thought you would be a little different since you were hanging out at a bar."

He laughs, "Well I could have said the same for you."

You slightly laugh and take another bite. Niall was so easy to get along with. It was like he actually understood you whenever you talked.

"So do you live by yourself?" He finally asks.

You bite down on your bottom lip, "..No. I live with my dad."

"Are your parents divorced or something?" He asks while taking a drink out of a soda can.

You look down and play with your fingers, "No. My mom died when I was 18."

His eyes widen, realizing what he had said, "Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean-"

You cut him off, "It's fine."
You really didn't feel like crying in front of him right now, so you pushed the tears back. You look back up at him. He almost looks embarrassed, his cheeks turn a light shade of red.

You try to start a different conversation "So do you have any siblings?" You ask.

He shakes his head, "Nope. I'm an only child."

"Me too," you say sadly. You had always wanted to have a sibling, but your parents said they didn't have time for two kids.

"Hey, it's not so bad," he says.

"It was for me.." You say in embarrassment. You couldn't believe how well you were opening up to Niall. He almost knew more things about you than Liam did.

"I'm sorry," he grabs your hand from across the table and looks at you, "I wish I could have been there for you."

All of a sudden the room is spinning. His gaze was so deep, it was impossible to look away from his bright blue eyes digging into yours.

You smile shyly, "Thanks."

He smiles back, "No problem."

He lets go of your hand and awkwardly stands up, "You should probably be getting back home. I'm sure your dad is worried sick about you."

You laugh, "I doubt it."

"Well.. do you wanna stay here maybe? I mean, only if you want," he fiddles around with his fingers nervously. He was so different from Liam. If it was Liam, he would be demanding you to stay at his house, or he would tell you that he's staying at your place. He never asked, he just demanded.

You smile, "Sure, I guess."

He nods his head, "Cool. So do you just wanna sleep in my bed, and I'll take the couch?"

"No, I'll have the couch, and you can sleep in your bed," you say.

"Nope. Guests get the bed," he smiles.

"I'm not gonna win this battle, am I?" You laugh.

He laughs along with you, "Nope! Now follow me."

He leads you down the short hallway into his bedroom. It's a fairly big room with a huge bed. Along the far wall is a stereo and a acoustic guitar.

"You play guitar?" You ask curiously. You had always wanted to learn how, but nobody would ever teach you.

"Yeah! Do you?" He asks as he walks over to the guitar and picks it up.

"No, I've always wanted to learn how though."

"Well maybe I can teach you sometime," he smiles up at you and strums a few chords.

You smile back at him, "Okay."

He leans the guitar back up against the wall and walks back to the doorway, "If you need anything, just come get me," he says and shuts the door as he walks out.

As soon as he walks out, you realize that you didn't bring any extra clothes for tonight or tomorrow. Great.

You go over to his dresser and pull out the top drawer to find a few t-shirts and pants. You grab a black cotton t-shirt and a pair of plaid pajama pants. The shirt was loose on you, and the pants were a bit baggy. But they were still super comfy. At least you had something else to sleep in besides those tight clothes that you previously had on.

You were hoping that Niall wouldn't mind you borrowing some of his clothes to sleep in. If you would have known you were going to be staying the night here, you could have gone home and brought a couples changes of clothes.

You walk over to the bed and sink down into the covers. His bed was extremely soft, way softer than yours. Your eyes immediately grew heavy, and you fell into a deep sleep, dreaming of a boy with brown hair who you still loved.