Perfect || Niall Horan

|31|

“No,” I say. “You’re joking. You’ve got to be lying.”

“I’m serious. Why would I lie about that?”

“Parker,” I say, trailing off.

“Look, I wanted to apologize to you. That’s why I came over here to-“

“Stop,” I tell him. “Just don’t even bother. You’ve caused me enough damage to last an entire lifetime, and now you’re standing in front of me asking for forgiveness. I’m finally happy now that you’re out of the picture. I’ve found someone who knows how to treat me, and I’m feeling better than I have in years. You don’t even know half of what you put me through. I want you to leave me alone.”

“Really? You’ve found someone else?” he asks, crossing his arms. His voice was sounding less calm now. More like the Parker who left me lying on the ground in the middle of winter.

“Why is that so hard to believe?” I snap. “It’s Niall for your information.”

“Of course it is,” he scoffs. “I don’t want to get into this. I’m trying to fix things here, April.”

“Some things can’t be fixed. You had plenty of chances.”

“I’ve changed,” he says, stepping closer to me. “Why can’t we just go back to the way things used to be?” He was so close to me. I couldn’t move. My back hit the wall, and he was crowding me on every side.

“Get away from me.” He didn’t shift an inch. “I said….get away from me,” I snap. He smirks and moves his hand to my waist. “You’re a monster,” I mutter. When he still doesn’t move, I bring my knee up to his crotch. He backs away instantly, obviously in pain. “I’m terribly sorry for your loss.”

With that I leave and return to Niall’s side.

“What did he want?” he asks.

“Nothing important,” I shrug. “I just needed to set him straight.”

He smiled like he was proud of me. I finally stuck up for myself, something I should’ve done three years ago when all of this began.

Parker was sending me dirty looks throughout the entire service. I ignored him the whole time. I felt a bit bad about flipping out on him during his grandmother’s funeral, but he shouldn’t have come up to me the way he did. And besides, if I didn’t say it to him now I never would’ve been able to, and those were words that needed to be heard.

After the burial ended, my makeup was completely running down my face. It was all sinking in that Brenda was really gone. This is real. It’s actually happening. Everyone began leaving, and I followed Niall to the car. Although he wasn’t crying, he looked like he was thinking the same thoughts I was.

“Hey,” he says, pulling me into a hug. “It’s gonna be okay.”