Your Addictive Heart || l.s

Just Friends

They ran through the yard behind Olivia's house until they reached the street on the other side, then they ran up the dim street until they were sure no one was following them.

Everyone caught their breath and let out their chuckles. Niall held his side, clearly cramping from the food he ate earlier. He was the first to plop himself down on the curb in front of the random yellow house they were stood next to. "Jeez, is that what cardio is?" He asked as he wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead.

Harry took a seat next to him and Olivia took the other side. Harry wasn't wearing the most athletic pair of shoes and Olivia wasn't wearing any so it made sense to Louis why they'd need the rest too.

"Don't burn many calories on the yellow brick road, huh?" Louis felt comfortable enough to tease the trio.

Harry reached over and pulled at the sleeve of his pant leg in an attempt to pinch him but Louis had faster reflexes.

"Thank you, guys. All of you." Olivia spoke up. "I know I haven't been the best friend to you guys."

"Same." Anna agreed. "I said some pretty shitty things about you...and Harry." She admitted.

Louis, Liam, Zayn, and Anna were all standing in the street in front of the trio. Anna was on the far end so Louis decided not to strain his neck to see her, even though he was nervous about what she would say next.

After a moment too long Harry snapped his head over to Anna. "Wait...why me?" He had no idea Anna had had anything against him.

"I sort of had like a tiny thing for Diana and I thought you two had a thing and I did and said some things I'm not proud of." She explained.

"Oh" was all Harry could say.

"Well, I may have gone through some trouble to make sure you thought that. You and Louis." Olivia decided to clear the air while they were at it.

"And here I was thinking I was the diabolical one." Louis jested to the group with a mischievous smile on his face.

Louis noticed a weird expression on Harry's face. There had been something off about him all night Louis just didn't know what it was.

"I did some particularly nasty things meself." Louis figured he should apologize while the window of opportunity was open. "I mostly just wanted your guys' attention. I missed you lots. I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too," Zayn added. "I mean if it like counts for anything. I'm sorry I was a shitty boyfriend for the couple of days that we dated and I'm sorry for dumping you on your birthday. That was a really shitty thing to do. I was scared of losing you as a friend..." Zayn was looking twitchy so Louis put a strong arm on his shoulder. "I really like you Liv. I just had really strong feelings for someone else when we started out..." Zayn quickly glanced over to Liam to gauge his reaction.

"It's okay." Olivia gave him a small smile.

"Well, I'm sorry but you were all sort of getting on my nerves so I went to waffle world without all of you." Liam crossed his arms.

It broke the thick tension between them and they all started to laugh, aside from Niall. "You didn't!" He called Liam out for his treachery. "Well, I didn't do anything wrong this whole time so, I'm expecting an apology cake from all of you." Niall pointed his nose up towards the sky and crossed his arms.

"So...this thing you've got with Diana. It's real?" Anna asked.

"We're friends. She's a nice girl." Niall assured her.

Louis could see relief flush over Olivia. How were all his best friends so in love and so stupidly unaware? If they all just said what was in their hearts they'd be so much happier. He wished he could interject with an inappropriate comment and get some dialogue going, but they had to be the ones to do it. They needed to be brave.