Before You Leave Me Today (a One Direction love story)

50. Family

Chapter 50:

  “Niall.,” Harry says, a hurt expression on his face.

I stare at Niall in awe.  He stands in my room looking out at Harry and me shoulder to shoulder on the roof. He wears grey sweatpants and a light red shirt. His cheeks are the colour of his shirt and his hair is gently brushed across his face. His blue eyes are dull, glistening with pain. He looks like 16 year old Niall.

One hand is in his pocket and the other hand holds a steaming cup of tea. Harry stands up and hesitates as he’s about to speak. Niall whispers something I can’t decipher and Harry nods. He ducks out the window and walks down the hallway.

Niall steps through the window and onto the roof with much more ease than Harry did and comes to sit beside me. He sits with a good distance between us. I can’t read any emotion on his face. He sits with one knee up with his arm rested on it. He hands me the cup of tea in silence. I sip the tea and notice it’s the kind I like before bed. Mint tea with honey and milk before bed, Yorkshire with milk for the rest of the day. It’s funny how much Niall knows about me that I’m not even aware of.

We sit in silence just looking at the stars for a while. Niall’s silence is making me afraid of what he will eventually say.

By the time Niall talks, my tea is half gone.

  “Do you love me?”

When he says those simple words, I let all the emotions out that I had been holding in. He raises his eyebrows at my sudden outburst, but doesn’t acknowledge it otherwise. Niall’s the most carefree guy I’ve ever met. He goes with the flow for everything. He laughs it off. He puts other people and their needs before him. But I’ve never seen him like this. “Do you?” he adds more quietly.

I nod my head profusely as I try to wipe away tears and hold my blanket around my shoulders, and hold my tea all at the same time. “More than anything,” I squeak out. He breathes a sigh of relief and wraps his strong arms around my shaking body.

  “Delilah, babe, I love you so much,” he sighs. “Aren’t you happy?”

  “Niall, you’ve made me so happy over these past months. I couldn’t ask for anything more. I really still can’t believe I’m beside you.”

  “Then why?”

  “I don’t know. Harry—he—-I really had no idea he meant me when I told him to kiss—”

  “What? Kiss who?” he interrupts me.

  “Harry said he was in love with someone so I told him to take a chance and go kiss her to show her how he feels and he kissed me. I didn’t know. I really thought he was sad and in love with Louis…”

  “Well he is in love with Louis as well, but that’s beside the point,” Niall says with a smile.

  “I fucking love you,” I laugh/cry. “Are you mad at him?”

  “Furious. Not for feeling how he does about you, because how could he not? But for kissing my girl. I want to kick his ass, but he’s my best mate. Plus, did you hear t’at speech he gave ye? Would have brought me to tears if he weren’t talkin’ about my girlfriend.”

  “Niall James, I will never get you,” I respond. “I’m sorry Niall. I was going to come find you in the kitchen and tell you what happened but I got thinking about Caleb, and just got sad again.”

  “Listen, I can’t let ye be sad. You matter so much to me and I can’t see ye like this. Please—“

“I feel like I let Caleb down. I let my dad down. And hell, I’m on the way to let my mom down.”