The Secret Princess (One Direction Fanfic)

Chapter 8: Mr Popular

Chapter 8

NIALLS POV:

 

I still couldn’t believe what she had said. She called me her ‘boyfriend’. If only the circumstances weren’t that she was being forced to marry someone else. But it only made me feel worse— I was practically her back-up. Though why couldn’t I like the idea of a fake relationship? I should be thrilled, over the moon, and yet I’m complaining.

It killed me inside when I had to tell her that we couldn’t do it. And the look on her face was the worst. It didn’t take a genius to see that she was the slightest bit hurt and offended. If only she knew my reasoning behind why we couldn’t be together.

The rules were: Protect Sophie, befriend Sophie, learn her secrets, but never date Sophie. And that was clear – because if we were to somehow break-up and lose our friendship, then she wouldn’t want to be around me. That was shown through Harry. I hated the rules, but they were fair. So I abided by them.

Today was Friday, so I was glad the weekend was coming up. Normally I’d be planning to hang out with Sophie or my brother, but now I had Zayn Malik to worry about. Whether he was the prince of Pakistan or not, I didn’t want him hurting her. So I made it my special duty to be everywhere she was. Even though it was my job, I stayed by her more as a friend.

As I left the front door to go walk to my bus stop, I noticed a car parked on the driveway. It was Sophie’s shared car with Louis. I fixed my bag on my back so that it sat upright and saw her sitting in the driver’s seat. She was looking down, I guessed at her phone, when I knocked on the window and startled her. She unlocked the door and I slid in the passenger side.

“Why are you picking me up?” I asked her.

“Because we need to talk about this whole relationship situation.” She clearly stated.

“Right.” I said.

“I still can’t believe you said that.” I heard a voice come from the backseat. I turned and saw it was Louis who spoke. Liam was also in the backseat.

“Well, I don’t know what to say! I really don’t like the idea of an arranged marriage…” she trailed off. She looked like she was thinking of an excuse for something – almost as if she was hiding something from me.

“And you made me your fake boyfriend?” I recapped.

“Can you just go with it? I don’t want to marry Zayn and I’ll do anything to stop the marriage.”

“I still don’t get why you don’t just marry the guy…” Louis mumbled.

“It’s her decision, Lou.” Liam said.

“Shut up.” Sophie and Louis said at the same time. Though Sophie was talking to Louis and Louis was talking to Liam.

“Look,” Sophie faced at me, “you aren’t in my situation. You’re not being forced to marry someone you don’t want to. Please just go with me on this and see how it pans out. Please?”

I didn’t know what to say. Sophie was begging for me to be her boyfriend and I wasn’t already jumping at the idea and shouting ‘yes!’ What’s the harm of just pretending for the time being until her parents decide to change the deal? If they ever do…

“Okay fine… babe.” I said jokingly.

“Woo! Get in there Niall!” Liam jokingly egged me on from the back seat. I felt my cheeks warm up, so I turned away to put my seatbelt on.

SOPHIES POV:

 

When we arrived at school, the first thing I saw was a crowd. I parked in the student car park and ran back to the front of the school to see what was going on. I kept hearing, “He’s so hot.” And, “I think he’s new.” I pushed through some students and saw what the commotion was about. It was Zayn. He was sitting down at one of the long silver seats. Who was next to him? None other than Harry.