under my skin || n.h. au

nine: my thoughts echo your name

When Oliver and Nadine show up at her flat unannounced, Brooklyn straightaway knows that they have found out about her breakup. Niall must have told Beck about it and Beck must have passed on the news to their siblings.

They have a sorry look on their faces when Brooklyn opens the door. She hasn't seen that look since she was in her second year of uni and her high school boyfriend had just dumped her through a bloody text message.

This time, however, instead of questioning her about Louis the moment they show up, they decide to ignore the elephant in the room. They talk about anything and everything whilst they prepare and eat their lunch together, completely avoiding the one topic she knows they so badly want to discuss. She knows her siblings that well.

"C'mon, out with it," Brooklyn announces once she's got coffee and food in her stomach.

Nadine and Beck share a look of shock before eventually her sister speaks up, "You and Louis are over? For real?"

"For real," Brooklyn answers with a nod, keeping a smile on her face. She doesn't have to do that, not in front of her siblings, but she does it anyway.

"He initiated it?" Nadine asks as a follow up question.

"Yeah."

Brooklyn has to fight the urge to wince at the reminder of what happened yesterday because although she likes to think that she's completely okay, she's just, well, okay. Breakups suck. And it sucks even more because she didn't anticipate it; it came out of nowhere and although she sensed that something's off between her and Louis, she didn't expect a breakup.

"But why?"

So Brooklyn tells her siblings everything that Louis said to her – not words by words, but the gist of it. And when she's finished recalling the breakup speech, everyone is quiet. Including Nadine who had plenty of questions earlier.

"It's his loss," Oliver says, breaking the silence, as he gets up from the chair and takes his plate to the sink to wash it. At least someone knows how to do the dishes.

Seeing that he's washing the dishes, Nadine decides to take her plate to the sink as well so he'd wash it for her – that earns her a glare, one that she responds with a grin.

"So, what's Niall doing with you?" Beck asks, finally finding his voice. He arches an eyebrow at his twin sister, who immediately rolls her eyes in annoyance.

"He walked me home, that's it."

Beck was conveniently around when Brooklyn returned home last night. And he was kind enough to open the door for them – he usually let Brooklyn struggle with the key – invite Niall inside and offer him a drink. Brooklyn went straight to her room and stayed in there until she was sure Niall has left.

"That's awfully nice of him, don't you think?"

Brooklyn knows what Beck is hinting at. So, she shoots down the idea quickly before it can bloom into something else. "He's seeing someone else, fyi."

"What? Noooo," Nadine cries out dramatically as she sidles up to Brooklyn who has a frown fixed between her brows. "Are you sure he's not just saying he's seeing someone cos he wanted to make you jealous?"

"Why'd he do that?" She crinkles her nose at that suggestion. Niall's not that type of person, Brooklyn is sure of that. He's not the kind to spread lies, especially for the reason Nadine has just mentioned.

"Because he likes you?" Nadine offers her an answer, one that makes her heart skips a beat. Which she thinks is very ridiculous.

Although Brooklyn doesn't need another answer, Beck decides to share his as well: "Because he wants to see how you'd react if he's with someone?"