Moments With You (One Direction)

Chapter 20

Kol had just come back from walking Dimples and meeting up with a couple of her friends. It took quite a while for her to register that there were two people in the flat other than herself. One was Niall and one was a woman who she had never met in her life.

“Uhm, hello?” she said uncertainly as she ushered Dimples into the barrier that led to the spare room that they didn’t use.

Niall had stood up at the sight of Kol, and the girl slowly followed, looking embarrassed. Niall went over to kiss Kol on the cheek and he put his arm around her waist, and with his other hand, he gestured toward the girl. “Babe, this is Marissa, an old friend of mine. I wasn’t really expecting her, but it’s a great surprise.”

“Hi, I’m Kol,” Kol said, going over to Marissa to shake her hand. “How weird that I’ve never met you though. I have been to Mullingar several times and I’ve met almost most of Niall’s friends.”

“I’ve sort of been travelling a lot lately. It’s kind of one of the reasons why I got to drop by. I haven’t seen Nialler in such a long time!”

“Funny how you never mentioned her,” Kol said in a quiet voice to Niall as she neared her mouth to his ear to make it look like she was just giving him a kiss.

“I’ve met a lot of people, shorty. Mentioning every one of them isn’t my top priority,” he said through his smile. He then said loudly, “This was really nice that you got to drop by Marissa, but I’ve got to go somewhere in a bit—“

“No. Let her stay. I’d like to know all about the things that happened to you before I met you,” Kol said angelically. She went over to Marissa and took her wrist. “We can bake some muffins while we’re at it.”

“That sounds okay,” Marissa said, looking at Niall for confirmation. Niall shrugged and said over his shoulder, “Don’t tell her too many secrets, Marissa. I’ll be back in a few hours, Kol.”

“We should start, shouldn’t we?” Kol said, smiling at Marissa as she headed to the kitchen to take out the utensils. “I’ve only tried baking cookie dough muffins twice, so I can’t say that—“

“I’m in love with Niall.”

Kol froze as she was reaching for the big silver bowl. She must have misheard what Marissa just said. Taking out the bowl, she politely said, “Excuse me? What was that?”

“You heard me.” Marissa’s kind face changed drastically. It was cold now, and she looked at Kol with a sour expression.

“And you think it was a bright idea to say that right to my face when I met you?” Kol said delicately, still taking out the ingredients from the pantry. This girl had no game whatsoever if she had just blurted it out like that. “Instead of befriending me and getting close to Niall again, you go ahead and declare yourself as competition against me? Babe, that isn’t really the brightest idea in the book.”

There was a shadow of doubt on Marissa’s face before the coolness took over again. “I didn’t want to play dirty. I want you to know straight up that I won’t let you just take him away.”

Kol slammed the pantry door shut roughly. “I’m just wondering how I can take him away from you when he wasn’t yours to begin with.”

Kol gave a smile that didn’t reach her eyes, surveying this random girl that was in her kitchen. She really couldn’t be as stupid as she seemed.

“Niall didn’t tell you about his exes, did he?”

“Of course he did.”

“But I bet he never told you about me. I was the Irish girl that he loved, but he wasn’t ready to commit because of the schedule and long distance. I also had a sort of on-off relationship at the time, but I liked Niall. It’s been…complicated.”

“Babe, you have to stop living in the past,” Kol said, not feeling the least bit threatened. “He might have loved you and he might not have told me everything, but I can’t really change what he’s done anymore.”

Marissa continued as if Kol hadn’t just spoke. “And then you came along and ruined everything. His texts started to dwindle until he hardly even texted anymore.”

“Where is this all going, Marissa? I have no time for more drama.” Kol just felt exhausted. Here was just another girl that had delusions about Niall because she had his attention before. She could tell Niall about this easy and he would believe her, but she didn’t want him to have a bad impression if Marissa really was an old friend of his.

“He told me about you being his fiancé and that he’s happy. I just can’t let him go without trying. He’s getting himself into something that he’s just settling with.”

Wow, this girl was giving Kol a headache. “So you’re going to try to break us up, is that it?” As much as Marissa was beginning to be a pain in the ass, she was also sort of amusing.

“Don’t underestimate me. There’s so much about him that you still don’t know.”

“Babe, don’t come into my house and tell me that you’re planning to steal Niall. It’s not polite and frankly, not very nice. Now get out.” Kol said everything in such a mild manner that she could have as well asked Marissa to stay over for dinner. “I can’t stop you from doing what you want to do, but don’t expect that he’ll leave me for you anytime soon.”

There was a smirk on Marissa’s face as she left the room. Kol heard the slam of the front door. She leant her hands on the counter and exhaled. She had gotten used to crazy girls, especially when it came to Niall, but sometimes, it took a lot of her patience to control herself.

In the back of her mind, she couldn’t help but wonder if Marissa did have what it took to take Niall away from her.