Golden Heart n.s

09. Horan and Styles

NIALL

There's a knock on my room door. Louis is out with El which only means I have to drag my arse out of bed to see who it is.

I grunt in annoyance, dragging my feet across the small room and towards the door. I swing it open, only to be met with the guy I really don't wish to talk to at the moment.

"Niall, why have you been ignoring me?" He asks softly, incredibly hurt. I sigh, my features on him softening. Maybe I over reacted?

"Are you mad at me? Was it something I did?" He asks again.

"No, you're fine, Ed, and I'm not mad at you." I whisper, before opening the door wider to allow him to step in.

"Then what is it?" He asks gently.

"Just.." I thread a finger through my hair. "Lots of things on my mind." I mutter, plopping back down on my bed, leaning my back against the wall.

He tentatively takes a seat at the edge of my bed. "Was it because of the dinner on Saturday?" He asks softly. I stay silent. Because it is.

The dinner was four days ago, it's already Wednesday today, and I somehow still haven't gotten over the events of what happened on Saturday evening. And it doesn't even involve me for fucks sake!

"I just don't understand why you didn't even try to help Harry." I blurt out without meaning to. His body tenses slightly, before he sighs, shoulders slumping.

"This affects me more than you, Niall. He's my twin brother. I couldn't just..." he trails off.

"You couldn't just what?" I ask sharply.

"What did you expect me to say?" He replies just as sharp, his voice rising.

"I don't know, anything at all." I throw my hands up in exasperation. "If you mediated or talked some sense into either Harry or your father, matters wouldn't be as bad as it is now."

"If you care so much why didn't you say anything then?"

"You think I didn't want to? Did you think that either Harry or your father would have listened to me? I had no place to say anything, Ed!"

"And I did? They wouldn't have listened to me as much as they would to you either."

"But you're family. The least you could do was-"

"Why do you care so much anyway?" He cuts me off, narrowing his eyes at me. "Do you like Harry or something?" He mutters under his breath, but I heard it loud and clear.

"I can't believe you're turning this on me, Ed. The only reason why I care is because if I had a sibling, I wouldn't want them to cut ties with my parents? With my family?" I say as though it's the most obvious thing in the world.

"Do you think I wanted that to happen? Obviously not. But you don't see me complaining to my mother for not trying to help!" He snaps.

"For goodness sake, Ed. Your mum was already in a crying mess, and I'm sure she's already feeling incredibly hurt. You were in the best position to say something! But you didn't!" By now I can feel my heart thumping in my ribs at how frustrated I'm feeling. He's being so unreasonable. Does he not even care about his own brother??

"I didn't want it to happen as much as you did, Niall! He's my twin for crying out loud!" He says exasperatedly. "We stay in the same room and it's hard enough that he's not talking to me, wouldn't even glance at me. And I'm trying. I really am, to talk to him. To get him to think things through, to talk it out with my parents, but you don't know Harry like I do, Niall. He's as hard headed and as stubborn as a damn donkey. Not to mention he values his pride more than anything." He mumbles the last part under his breath. I sigh, shoving a hand through my hair.