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

twenty

“Because why?” I urged him on. “Because you’re my best friend and it hurt that you wouldn’t tell me you liked Harry. I know now that you don’t, but at the time I thought you did. And we tell each other everything so when I thought you weren’t telling me, I felt like I was losing a best friend.”

Yeah, we told each other a lot, but not everything. Well, I didn’t tell him everything.

“You have to see why I thought you liked him though. You two were spending a lot of time together and you kissed.” He continued. Speaking of kissing, I looked around Starbucks, and a few tables away I saw two people kissing. Why couldn’t that be Niall and I right now?

When the two pulled away, I recognized one of them was Nick. I got out of my seat and walked over to them. “You move on fast huh?” I said. He looked up and once he realized it was me, his eyes widened. He looked at the girl sitting in front of him then back at me.

“Who are you?” She asked. She didn’t say it rudely, but I was very annoyed. “Payton. And you?” I said, showing a fake smile. “Lauren.” She held out her hand. “Nick’s girlfriend. We’re celebrating our four month anniversary.” She blushed. Wow. Celebrating at Starbucks? How romantic.

This time it was my turn for my eyes to widen. I looked over at Nick whose face was bright red. “Hey Nick.” He looked up at me, a pleading look in his eyes. I quickly brought my hand up and slapped him. “So much for a break huh?” I said before running outside.

I sat on the curb across the street from the mall just staring at it. People walked past me giving me strange looks. Nobody even bothered to ask if I was okay. “Payton!” I looked over to see Niall running towards me. Once he got to where I was, he pulled me into a hug.

“Payton, what happened?” he asked. “He’s been with that girl for four months.” I shrugged. He was cheating on me when we were dating. Great. Niall’s grip tightened as he pulled me in closed. He ran his fingers through my hair and it was really soothing.

“It’s okay Payton, I’m here. Everything’s going to be all right. I promise.” He whispered. He made it seem as if I was crying my eyes out, but I wasn’t. Yeah I was sad that Nick did that, but I didn’t have feelings for Nick. I loved Niall. And I always have. So it didn't really bother me all that much that Nick did what he did.

~*~

“He what!?”

“That asshole!”

“Lou-bear! Language!”

“Shut up Harry! I always knew Nick was no good! You know I never liked him.”

“Oh my God.”

Once we met up with everybody and got home, I told them everything that happened. They were shocked to say the least, and Riley kept saying how she was always right about him. “I know Ri, I was just too blind to see it.” I replied.

“Yeah, blinded by LOVE!” Louis screamed. Everyone laughed as I scowled at him. “I’m going to bed.” Riley announced. She shot another death glare and Harry before heading up stairs. I motioned for Harry to follow her and he did. The boys watched him go then turned to me.

I knew they were wondering what was going on, so I told them what I saw, and what both Riley and Harry told me. I even told them how Harry had bought the necklace that Riley wanted. It wasn’t long after I finished explaining that Harry came back down stairs and sat down.

“Did you give her the necklace?” Zayn asked. Harry looked over at me then rolled his eyes. “No I didn’t.” He replied. “And why not?” Liam asked. Harry shrugged and pulled out his phone. “She wouldn’t let me in to talk to her so I had to explain and apologize from outside the door.” He told us.

“Well what did she say?” Niall asked. Harry typed away on his phone before putting it away and answering. “Nothing. So I left.” He said. “Well, how about we go to dinner.” I smiled. “Get ready and I’ll show you the best restaurant.” They all agreed and ran up the stairs. But before he could follow, I stopped Harry. I wanted to talk to him alone, and getting the boys to go get ready for dinner worked.

“Why didn’t you give her the necklace?” I asked him. Instead of answering, he scratched the back of his neck. I sighed and crossed my arms, waiting for him to answer my question. “You pretty much called her fat. Remember that last time you did?” I said when he still didn’t answer.

“But I didn’t call her fat this time!” he yelled. He ran his fingers through his mop of curls and looked at the ground. “Well, then why did you buy it?” I asked him. He looked up at me and sighed. “Because she wanted it.” He answered. “And why didn’t you give it to her then?”

“It wasn’t the right time.” He said before walking around me and heading up stairs. The right time? What was going on with him? Something was definitely up. I walked up to my room and opened the door. When I walked in, I noticed a half naked Niall. “I’m so sorry…” I laughed after closing the door again.

He was only in a pair of boxers but I wasn’t complaining. His body was a lot more developed now than it was two years ago and it was hot. I just had to walk back out of the room because I knew that if I stayed in there with him, I wouldn’t be able to keep my eyes off his body.

“You can come in now.” He called. I slowly opened the door and peeked in. He was fully dressed now and was fixing his hair in the mirror. “You didn’t have to walk back out, you’ve seen me in my underwear before.” He laughed. I blushed and turned to my closet so he couldn’t see.

“Well I don’t know, things change. You might like changing in privacy now.” I replied, grabbing a pair of black jeans, a white tank top, and my grey cardigan out of the closet. “Payton, I live with Louis, Harry, Liam and Zayn. There is no such thing as privacy.” He laughed again.

I laughed with him and went to the bathroom to change. Once I finished, I plugged my curling wand in and did a bit of makeup while I waited for the wand to heat up. I only put on eye makeup so it didn’t take long at all. I slipped on my gold love ring and my gold hope necklace.

Once I was done curling my hair, I walked out of the bathroom to see Niall waiting for me. “Ready?” He asked. I nodded and followed him downstairs. Once we got to the front door, I slipped on my black converse and looked at everybody. “Where’s Riley?” I asked.

Everybody turned to Harry who looked down. “She doesn’t want to come.” He mumbled. I sighed and marched up the stairs to Riley’s room. She was coming to dinner whether she liked it or not. I knocked on her door and she opened it, already dressed.