hazy || niall horan

11. phone calls

The weeks to follow are as such:

Niall avoids going to the library in chance of running into Aoife. 

Aoife stares at the entrance doors and desperately hopes to see a blonde head of hair walk through. 

Niall avoids eye contact with Aoife in their shared class. 

Aoife stares daggers into the back of his head. 

She is not quite sure how or what occurred for Niall to hate her so much but she doesn't think it's her fault. She doesn't see how any of what has happed can be her fault, all she did was try to be his friend. 

She supposes that he has decided against being her friend as they hadn't been seen out in public yet and some part of him realized just how weird and distant she truly was. She had tried in the past few weeks to break free of the anti-social tendencies that she had but perhaps she hadn't tried hard enough. 

She tried to talk to him throughout the week as well, trying to engage his attention in the hallways. She would smile and he would barely smile back acknowledging her presence but never stopping to really notice her. Eventually as the week progressed he stopped acknowledging her at all, if he saw her in the hallway he didn't let her know he had. 

Aoife refused to believe she had done something wrong, she refused to believe that any of this was her fault. If she did blame herself, she would feel a lot worse and she didn't need to do that. 

Home life had not been the best either as Patricia had been on a rampage for Aoife's lack of help around the house. 

When Aoife and Niall had first begun to hang out regularly, Aoife had told Patricia that she had to attend night classes for a scholarship that she had received. The lie was ridiculous, nothing like that even existed but Patricia lapped the information up like a thirsty dog at the mention of the word scholarship. 

Aoife was too old to be adopted anymore, nobody liked 16 year old girls, and she was too young still to be considered an adult so she was stuck in the middle of where Patricia wanted her. With a scholarship, Aoife could leave and never come back and Patricia would not have to kick her out and lose money from the foster care agency. 

Patricia had agreed to start picking up the other children from school to make up for Aoife's absence, however, Patricia failed to realize that she would actually have to leave her house and stop watching her soap operas in order to do so. She was miffed at the fact that she could no longer rely on Aoife and that had started to fester quietly until Patricia could handle it no longer. 

Aoife remembers the conversation very clearly. 

*

"Remind me again why you can't pick up the little brats again?"

"I uhm, I have that night class for that scholarship. It runs late."

"And you can't drop off the kids before the class and then go back?"

"I can't walk to their school, walk them home, and then walk back across town to the library." Aoife says exasperatedly. 

"Don't take that tone with me young lady, I could easily take that scholarship away from you and you'd have to waste away for the next two years until I can kick your ass out for good. Don't test me." 

Aoife nodded and turned towards her door rolling her eyes once her back was to Patricia.

She couldn't take away something that wasn't there and Aoife knew that but she also had hoped that her time away from home would result in more time spent with Niall.

* 

As she sat in the library reading her book she really wished she would have never said anything to Patricia in the first place. She was now stuck finding a way to fill her time until she could return back to the house without raising suspicion. 

She was dozing off in between pages of her novel when she heard her phone buzz. 

"Hello?"

"Aoife."

She paused as if to collect herself, "Niall?"

"Can you come to the park." 

She needn't ask which one, she knew it was the park they first met at. She also didn't say no and she knew she couldn't because she heard the desperation and fear in his voice. 

"I'm on my way." is what she replied before she hurriedly shoved her book into her bag.