Always Together (One Direction AU)

Chapter 7

Back at Finn’s house, Niall and Grace connected to the call together using Finn’s computer. Finn, India, and Ronnie all used their phones to invite their respective boys to the call (Ronnie just threw her phone at Jack and told him he was invited, but still) under the ruse that they should all get to know each other. Well, it was kind of for that, but only if they turned out to not be Niall’s friends. In that case, they’d all get to know each other as girlfriends and boyfriends and friends of those.

Zayn answered first. For a while all they saw was a ceiling fan. Niall was chewing on his thumb in anticipation. Before they got to see his face, however, Liam connected and Niall’s jaw dropped.

“Liam, mate! Is that really you?” Niall jumped onto his knees in excitement.

“Uh, sorry, man. Who is this?” Liam said with confusion.

Niall realized when he jumped up, he jumped out of the frame. He ducked his head down into the view of the camera. “Niall! Remember me?”

Liam went wide-eyed. “Niall? What are you- I mean how did you- Is this some kind of sick joke?”

“Not at all, mate. It’s me! It’s great to see you!” Niall said, grinning from ear to ear. At that moment, Zayn came into view as he picked up his phone. He was talking to someone out of view, his eyes away from the screen. His gaze drifted back and he squinted for a second.

“Niall? Liam? What the hell? How’d you get this number? Y’all aren’t India and her friends! Someone start explaining,” he demanded.

Grace popped into the frame. “Hold on, we’ll explain everything in a second. We’re waiting on a couple more people.”

“Who?” Zayn asked.

“It can’t be…” Liam said.

“Lou, that’s not how you hold it. Give it here.” Another user joined the hangout, but the view was just a blurry square. The device appeared to be changing hands rapidly.

“Haz, give it back. It’s my phone. Finn said she had something important to tell us! I think she’s finally introducing us to her friends.” The view went sideways and two faces came into focus.

“Hiiiiiii,” they chorused.

Ronnie, India, and Finn put their phones down, letting the five boys work it out. Grace scooted away from Niall so he could reunite with his friends. Of course, they’d all need to be introduced to each other’s girlfriends eventually, but that would come later. This was the time for friendship fixing and relationship repair.

“So what am I doing here again?” Jack piped up.

“Moral support, man,” Ronnie said.

“C’mon, can’t we just listen through my phone?” Finn whined. “I hate just hearing one-fifth of the conversation. This is monumental stuff!”

Niall cleared his throat and hopped off the bed, carrying the laptop with him. He glared at the group as he left the room.

“So. Why do you think they grew apart?” India asked in a gossipy tone.

“Niall already told us. Louis’ mum got sick and it was painful to be around each other, thinking of what they could’ve been,” Finn said.

“Yeah, but what do you think really happened? I’ll bet it was a girl. Some hot groupie slept with all of them and they turned against each other,” India continued.

“For one, ‘all of them’ includes Louis and Harry and they’re gay, so…” Finn said.

“Yeah, and they’re the two that kept in touch. Really in touch,” India said, wiggling her eyebrows.