I would die for you, but I won't live for you -Niall Horan au

one

I sat in the stands, watching my best friend skate down the ice. Usually I loved coming to watch Riley play hockey. She always came to my soccer games. It was just something we always did. Today I wasn’t really up to watching her though. Maybe it was the fact that our five other best friends couldn’t make it, or the feeling in the pit of my stomach that something bad was going to happen?

 “Payton!” I turned to see the five faces that I had been missing. “Hey!” I called out, waving them over. I looked at each of them. Memorizing their faces and they way the dressed. I hadn’t seen them since before the Christmas break. When they went away on holiday together. But when my eyes landed on him, I couldn’t look away.

 His blonde hair was tousled, just like he always had it. His bright blue eyes searched the arena, looking at all the people but mostly focusing on the game. When he looked at me, he grinned. Showing his perfectly imperfect teeth.

 I could feel my cheeks heat up as I looked at him, so I quickly looked away, hoping he wouldn’t notice. Being in love with one of your best friends is not easy.

 “Hey Payton.” He said, sitting down beside me. “Hey Niall.” I replied, smiling up at him. “I thought you couldn’t make it?” I asked nobody in particular. They all sat down and watched the game.

 “We wanted to surprise Riley. Cause we knew how upset she would be if we didn’t come.” Liam replied. This was a big game for her. Scouts were coming from school’s around the country to draft players.

 “She’s going to hate you.” I laughed, shaking my head. “No she won’t! I brought her carrots!” Louis said, holding up a bag of baby carrots. I rolled my eyes at the silly boy and tried focusing on the game.

 It was hard though, knowing that Niall was sitting so close to me. If I inched my leg over a bit, our knees would be touching. But I couldn’t do that… it would be a little weird. Besides, I doubted he would ever like me more then a friend.

 The boys’ cheers snapped me from my thoughts. “What happened?” I asked, looking at the game. Riley’s team was huddled together by the net. “Riley just scored.” Liam said.

 “Second time tonight.” I said. The boys all said something about being upset that they missed it. “What else did we miss?” Zayn asked. I laughed at what had happened earlier. “She got in a fist fight.” I told them.

 The boys laughed, followed by Liam shaking his head. Riley was really tough. She didn’t show that she was hurt, and neither did I. We were the same when it came to being strong. That’s one of the reasons we were best friends.

 “I’m hungry. I’ll be right back.” I watched as Niall got up and walked away. I could feel a smile appearing on my face just thinking about his name. Oh God, I had it bad! “So, are you going to tell him?” Someone whispered in my ear.

 I looked back over at the spot where Niall had been sitting to find Zayn smiling at me. “Tell who what?” I asked, clearly confused. He let out a low chuckle before answering. “Niall. That you fancy him.” He told me.

 I was in shock. I couldn’t move, and I couldn’t speak. I just looked at him. My mouth forming an O shape. How did he know? Was it that obvious? I really hope that Niall doesn’t know. He’s one of my best friends! How embarrassing would that be?

 I wanted to ask how he knew, and if anybody else knew, but I couldn’t bring myself to ask. “Don’t worry, I’m much more observant then everybody else. Non of the others know.” He said, answering my unvoiced question.

 “Except for Riley.” I whispered. Not wanting Louis, Liam or Harry to hear. But when I turned around, they were all too focused on the game to be paying attention to Zayn and I.