Never • Say • Never § a Niam Horayne collab fanfic [AU]

Chapter Three - "Never. Ever. EVER."

(This chapter was written by MrsNiallHoran :3)

-- Niall's POV --

I rolled my eyes at the thought of being forced to sit beside Payne. Having him this close to me was like torture. It took all of my self-restraint not to get up and leave. Even the sound of him breathing made me want to punch him.

And he actually thought he won our little spat back there? No way. I was clearly the victor of that battle. It ended up with him on the floor underneath me, my arm wound back and fist poised to punch, though the teacher and multiple students had grabbed me and pulled me off of him before I could hit him. What a pity, I thought in grim amusement. Nothing would make me happier than beating his face in.

"Hey," I said as a girl walked by to get a late slip. Maybe I could ask her for a pen or something to stab myself with. She turned around and I instantly smiled. She was very pretty, with fair cream-coloured skin and gentle gold-brown eyes. Sort of like Zayn's, I thought, but more feminine. She had dark auburn hair, falling down her shoulders in slight curls. Her nose and cheeks were dusted with faint freckles. My original plan disappeared as I was lost in her beauty. I recognized her, but a name didn't come to mind.

"Yes?" she asked, and then glanced at Liam beside me before returning her eyes to me. Her full pink lips drew up into a smile as she kept looking between us.

"What?" I asked, curious as to what made her smile.

"You look cute together. You'd be an adorable couple."

I choked on a breath, which resulted in me inhaling too much air and coughing. I was surprised that Liam wasn't snickering, so I glanced over at him to see why not. His eyes were wide and his mouth agape, wearing a look of complete shock. "W-What?"

The girl just shrugged, still smiling widely. "You and him." she said, pointing at me and then at Liam. "You look really cute together. Like you're destined to be a couple. Are you together already?" she asked. We both shook our heads vigorously. "Too bad. I bet you will be some day."

I was shocked into silence for a few moments before I burst into laughter. She had to be joking. Me and Payne? That was such a stupid suggestion that it actually became funny. "Yeah, sure, whatever. I'd rather be set on fire and burn to death agonizingly slowly than ever be anything but enemies with Payne."

"I'd rather gouge my eyes out with a pencil and eat them then have to deal with Horan." Liam growled in both agreement and mutual hatred.

"Whatever you say." the girl responded sarcastically, chuckling to herself as she turned back around.

"Never." I stated firmly. Payne nodded.

"Never. Ever. EVER." he countered.

We remained sitting in the two chairs until the principal came along. She was a tall woman, with short black hair in a sort of bob cut, a few grey hairs prominant against the colour. She had harsh grey eyes completely void of any happiness - I wasn't surprised since she'd been through three failed marriages and had to deal with teenagers every day - and was wearing a smart black business suit. She glared at the two of us, sighing. This definitely wasn't the first time Liam and I had gotten into a fight and had to come see her. No, we'd been through this far too many times. She pushed her square-framed glasses up higher on her nose and led us into a room branching off of the office. She sat down at her desk. There were two chairs sitting beside each other in front of her desk, but I took one of them and walked all the way over to the other side of the room, sitting it down dramatically - making a point of this action - and then taking a seat. Liam snorted, rolling his eyes as he  sat down on the other chair.

"Why do I keep seeing you boys in here?" Principal Malone asked. Her lips were a thin, tight line. She was clearly irritated of us constantly getting in trouble for picking on each other.

"Because that uncivil, moronic caveman can't go five seconds without antagonizing me." Liam answered, turning his eyes over to me with pure hatred burning in them. I returned it just as intensely. "Isn't that right?"

"Well, I could agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong." I hissed back. "Ms. Malone, the truth is that Payne here just can't stand knowing how much better I am than him, and so he felt the need to act like a brainless five-year-old and push me out of my seat at the beginning of class. I tried to be kind and ignore it, but he decided to start a fight." I explained formally, with a confirming nod.

"You know, Niall, everybody has the right to be stupid sometimes, but you're abusing that privilege."

"Stop, it both of you!" Ms. Malone snapped. She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration. "We'll take turns with the whole story. Liam, you start."

"Go ahead Payne, tell her everything you know. It'll only take about five seconds." I commented, sitting back in my chair and glaring at him from across the room. Ms. Malone shot me a warning look so I didn't say anything more.

"Well, by now I think it's become obvious that me and Niall don't get along. We hate each other. I accidentally bumped into him and, being the brain-dead klutz that he is, he fell off his seat. We were forced to sit beside each other, which was obviously a terrible decision, and as revenge he pushed me. Then we just sort of ended up fighting on the floor." Liam explained.

"Alright. Mr. Horan?"

I cleared my throat, sitting up straighter. "First of all, Liam didn't bump into me. He pushed me on purpose. And yes, I pushed him back. But he deserved it. And then he decided to tackle me on the floor so I fought back in self-defense." 

Ms. Malone shook her head, grumbling about something. "Both of you are receiving an in-school suspension for fighting in class. You'll sit in a room all day and think about what you've done, got it? Usually, we put you in separate rooms. But you obviously need to resolve your differences with each other, so I'm going to put you in the same room."

My jaw fell. I had to sit in a tiny room all day with Liam?! Before I could protest, she led both Liam and I into another room. It was even smaller than I imagined. It was empty of everything except for two desks side-by-side and two chairs in front of them. That was it. She told us that she'd have a teacher checking in on us every hour and then closed the door. 

I swear that I'm the only unlucky Irishman in the world.