Count On Me | Niam

Chapter Seventy-Four

Liam

Was there some kind of guide as to what you were supposed to do when your boyfriend was mad at you because you'd accidentally outed the secret, illegitimate child the two of you had together from an earlier failed attempt at a relationship?

Liam was really hoping that there was because he had no idea what he was supposed to do. He knew that apologising was crucial, but unlike the other fuck ups he could have made, the minor fuck ups that could be easily solved through chocolate, an apology or promise, and sex, this one didn't seem as easily fixed. He was desperately in need of some kind of guide or manual or advice, but he figured that not many people would have been in his position before.

He could also do with a guide for what to do when your boyfriend has locked himself in the bathroom to get away from you and you can't do anything too drastic because that would worry the child you've accidentally outed, causing your boyfriend to need to lock himself away from you in the first place.

Liam's morning was obviously going brilliantly.

He was sat slumped on the floor, having moved there from the sofa when Niall had left as part of an aborted attempt to follow him, his phone on the other side of the room from where he'd tossed it after reading the article that had caused this mess. It...the article...things were fucked, to put it simply. Whilst the journalist hadn't mention Chloe by name, she'd done all but that. Everything Chloe could possibly have told her was included, in the same words Liam figured Chloe would have used. She'd taken Chloe's story and published it. It was bad. Very bad. Hence why Liam's phone was on the other side of the room. He should probably have retrieved it, knowing that there would be a million emails from his team, all of which would be requests for a meeting to fix the mess Liam had let happen.

There had been an outburst of swearing from the bathroom maybe half an hour after Liam had read it, so he figured that Niall must have seen it as well. It was so bad, so, so not good, that Liam felt like an idiot for ever being an optimist and choosing to believe that the journalist maybe would have taken mercy on them and wouldn't have published.

He felt like an idiot for believing that denial might have been an option for them. They could try, but...

"It won't work."

Jumping as he heard Niall's voice, Liam craned his neck, looking around to see him stood behind the sofa, the worried look on Niall's face mirroring the one the had to be plastered across Liam's own features.

"It won't work." Apparently dissatisfied with Liam's silence, Niall repeated himself, rolling his eyes ever so slightly before he joined Liam, dropping himself onto the floor and looking at Liam expectantly before he elaborated. "Denying. We can't. There's no way they'll believe us if we try. It won't work."

"I know." Nodding, Liam was about to say something further, about to apologise again, when Niall leant against him, resting his head against Liam's shoulder and using Liam to keep him upright rather than the sofa, surprising Liam as he did so. Not that Liam minded. The sudden change from hostility was more than welcome, such an improvement that Liam did his best not shift lest Niall changed his mind and decided he and Liam weren't yet on good terms. Closing his eye for a moment, Niall let out a sigh of frustration, his voice sounding softer and more like his own for the first time since yesterday as he asked, "What the fuck do we do now, Li?"

"Let them eat us alive." Wincing when Niall elbowed him, Liam shook his head in an apology, thinking more seriously for a second before he sighed. "Let her out us. Try and deny it anyway. Whatever it is, we have that meeting later. They'll want to fix it. They'll have an idea. We could just go along with it."