Rewrite: A One Direction AU Love Story

Chapter 3: Hook

Sometimes fate brings two people together by causing one to misinterpret a smile.

(Robert Brault)

"Niall?" Liam called out as he walked into his flat. He and Niall had met a year ago when Liam was looking for a flat mate. Liam had always found something a little off about Niall, but he paid his rent on time so Liam wasn't going to complain. Besides he had his pleasant moments. They were few and far between, but they were there. "Niall are you here? I just wanted to know if Sophia returned my call while I was out."

"No, Sophia did not return your call. Just like she didn't return the other twenty calls you left her this month," his flat mate said stomping from the kitchens with a frown on his face. Liam wished he would smile more. With his bright blue eyes and blonde tipped hair Niall would probably get all the girls if he just smiled a little. "Have the last fifty rejections not sunk in for you yet, mate? I thought you were picking up groceries. It's your month Liam."

"I went by Starbucks to pick up a drink along the way and got caught up talking to Louis and Eleanor. Sorry." Niall rolled his eyes. Liam was constantly sidetracked by his annoying little friends. He was hungry and was hoping Liam had picked up a few packets of crisps or something. "It was kind of odd. They kept askin--"

"Unless the next words out of your mouth include the words 'the groceries are in my car' I don't want to hear about it." If he let him Liam would ramble on endlessly about absolutely nothing.

"Would it really kill you to have a conversation with me? I would like to think that we are more than flat mates. That we're maybe friends?"

"I don't need any friends," Niall sulked. Liam was constantly bothering him about how antisocial he was. "What I need is food, which you were supposed to be getting."

"Nialler, everyone needs friends. Come on. You barely talk to anyone as it is. Come out with Lou and Haz and I tonight."

"I talk to loads of people." That was a lie, but who cares? "I talked to Zayn yesterday."

"The image obsessed boyfriend of your cousin Perrie doesn't count." Niall crossed his arms wondering who made Liam the ultimate decision maker on what did and did not count as a social life. So he stayed in most nights? It just felt better staying in instead of going out and pretending to have a good time.

"Fine then," Niall groaned giving into Liam's puppy dog eyes. That boy's eyes were dangerous. He wondered how Sophia had been able to resist him for so long with a sad face like that. "Tell me about your goddamned day." Liam sat next to him on the couch ignoring his tone and continuing on with his story.

"Anyway," Liam continued. "Lou and El kept asking me about the few years I lived in the United States with my family."

"So?" Was there a point to this story?

"So they kept asking what the girls in America were like. It was weird. That was like the only thing they asked." And Eleanor had been the one to ask it which only made things odder.

"What are the girls like?" Liam groaned at Niall's questions. "What? Maybe there's some girl in America who won't turn you down every single time you ask her out like Sophia. Perhaps Lou and El are just trying to get you to look elsewhere."

"Sophia is warming up to me," Liam protested knowing his words were a complete lie. He had been pursuing Eleanor's best friend since they had met three years ago. Sophia was fine being his friend, but nothing more. She had been pretty damn emphatic about that. Liam just didn't understand why she wouldn't give him a chance.

"Mate, you really need to stop lying to yourself," Niall chuckled in his Irish accent. Liam rarely heard Niall full out laugh. "There has to be some other girl that you get on with. All these phone calls to Sophia just make you look pathetic and needy."