Long Live (Sequel to Payton Swift)

Chapter 6

- Payton -

After maybe five or six hours of waiting, I finally got the message I'd been waiting for.

from: zayn
hey payton, niall's back. he looks annoyed so i'll have him text you later. :)

I sigh with relief and reply to Zayn's text.

to: zayn
hey zayn thank you so much! :)

I then walk into the kitchen, confused when I see Connor, Kian, Jc and Bethany all looking intently at the screen. Still confused but also intrigued, I walk over and attempt to look over the shoulders of Connor and Kian.

"What are you guys looking at?" I ask and the four of them jump when I ask my question. I raise an eyebrow, very confused to why they were so easily startled.

"N-nothing," Connor stutters as him, Jc and Kian all stand in front of the laptop screen, which blocked me from even seeing a tiny part of the laptop itself.

"Is everything okay?"

"Well, that's debatable ..." Bethany says, her voice sounding a little panicked. I push the boys away and then stand right beside Bethany, my gaze immediately locked on the screen in front of me.

"Oh ... my ... God ..." I breathe out, my eyes glazing over with tears but yet I couldn't look away, or even blink. Right there, on the screen in front of me, there were multiple pictures of Niall and Barbara and as I looked and scrolled, they got worse. 

It started out okay with the first pictures, but as I progressed, Niall and Barbara were closer together in each one.

"Payton ..." Kian says quietly, placing a hand on my shoulder. "We knew this would upset you so," he continues but then doesn't add anything else to his sentence. No one else says anything, they just stand there while I look at the screen in disbelief.

"I can't believe this. Why would he do something like this? I-I-I ... he said he loved me!" I exclaim, the tears breaking through and rushing down my face. "I can't believe this!" I yell and then immediately run out of the room and up to the bedroom I was sharing with Acacia - running by both her and Taylor on my way to the room. A couple seconds later, I stepped in the room, closed the door, flopped on the bed and started sobbing.

***

I realized that I had fallen asleep after crying because when I opened my eyes again it was an hour later and my phone was really buzzing like mad. I sat up and wiped my eyes, really thanking myself for not putting on any makeup today, before fixing my hair and checking my phone.

from: niall <3
hey babe, i'm sorry for disappearing like that. i hope you're not mad
*
babe? you there?
*
are you mad at me?
*
baby please answer!!
*
payton, come on please don't be mad at me !

The texts went on and on, and I would've felt bad about it if I hadn't seen those pictures of him and Barbara. I took a second to calm myself down, and then I went to answer when, surprise surprise, a FaceTime request pops up. Of course, I press accept and I have to hold back a smile when Niall's face pops up.

"Please don't be mad at me," he says once he notices that I'm upset.

"I'm not mad, Niall," I mutter. "I'm just hurt. I can't believe you'd do that to me after you said that you wouldn't! You even called me and said that you would clear it up, but now it's just gotten worse!" I exclaim, tearing up again.

"What are you talking about?"

I just look at him blankly, more confused than hurt.

"You didn't see the pictures of you and Barbara from today? Isn't that why you disappeared and didn't tell anyone? This is ridiculous, Niall."