Still The One (Niall Horan)

Chapter 8

*Sofia's P.O.V.*

After the concert was over we all headed to a party, so by the time we got home, both of us were exhausted. Obviously Niall was way more tired than I was, since he had actually performed and did a bunch of interviews, but I was still pretty tired too. 

"Are you sure you're okay?" Niall asked me for like the 10th time that day. Obviously I wasn't okay, but I didn't want to ruin the great night he'd just had. So I had to lie, yet again. I hated lying to Niall, but I knew how bad he would feel if I told him the truth, so I'd rather keep it to myself.

"Yes baby." I rolled my eyes at him, trying to make my lie more believable. 

"Okay petal. But you know that I'm always here for you right? And you can tell me anything?"

"Yeah, thank you." I felt awful, I was a horrible girlfriend.

"Any time." He kissed my temple before he went back to the room and headed to bed. I was still removing my makeup and I wasn't even halfway done with my nighttime routine. How can guys just change into the pjs, brush their teeth and then go straight to bed? While women have to remove their makeup, wash their faces with special soaps, and apply a ton of products before then can even think about going to bed? It's not fair. 5 minutes later I heard Niall's light snores coming from the room. After finishing with my night routine I finally dragged myself to bed and as soon as I laid down, I wasn't sleepy anymore. I hated when that happened. I laid there awake for about 15 minutes, and I came to terms with the fact that I wasn't going to be falling asleep anytime soon, so I grabbed my phone and started scrolling through my social media. I couldn't believe some of the things I was reading. People were being really mean, not only to me, but to the other girls as well. The twitter fans were the worst, but I just couldn't bring myself to stop scrolling. 

'What does Niall even see in her? She's so ugly.'

'I understand that Maya, Gigi and Eleanor are models, but what do Niall and Harry see in those girls?'

'Why are they even taking pictures with fans? It's not like they're famous or anything.'

'The boys could definitely do better, specially Harry and Niall #breakupplease'

'I'm sorry but they aren't worthy of the boys.'

And the tweets continued and continued, almost every single one filled with hate towards me and the rest of the girls. I felt the tears start forming, but the drop that spilled the glass was when I found a picture of me and they had pointed out every flaw, exposing all of my insecurities. How could people be this mean? That's when I couldn't hold it in any longer, the tears just started flowing and I wasn't able to stop them. I tried to cry silently, but a sob still managed to escape my mouth. I felt Niall stir next to me, I didn't want to wake him up, so I tiptoed back into the bathroom and locked myself there, so that I could cry in peace. I don't know how long I was in there, just staring at myself in the mirror, bawling my eyes out, my insecurities staring right back at me. Everything the tweet had pointed, my crooked nose, my fat thighs, the chubby arms, split chin. What did Niall ever see in me? I didn't understand it. I was sobbing, when I heard a faint knock on the door, shit. I had woken Niall up.

"Petal.." He whispered sleepily as he knocked yet again. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah." I tried to hide the fact that' I had been crying.

"Can you open the door please?" He asked in a sweet voice.  I quickly splashed my face with water, as if that was going to make a difference and magically get rid of my bloodshot eyes and puffy face.

"S..ure." I stuttered, hesitating before opening the door. I knew I would have to tell him everything, there was no way out of it this time.

"Baby, what's wrong?" He asked one more time, the concern evident in both his voice and his stare. And as soon as the words left his mouth, I broke down all over again. Niall quickly hurried over to me, and hugged me really tight. I just couldn't stop sobbing while he kept on asking me what was wrong and brushing my hair, in an attempt to calm me down. I don't know how long we stood there, Niall trying to comfort me and me crying my heart out. I slowly started to calm down, and Niall directed me towards the bed. He continued to hold me all the way to the bed, very tight, as if I were going to break if he let go of me, and who knows, maybe if he did let go, I would. I had never felt like this before, this exposed and criticized, by people who didn't even knew me.