Artwork [h.s]

sixty

"Come again?" I asked quickly, a shocked look in my eyes, refusing to believe the words that had just left her mouth. There was no way that Niall had done something like that. Niall treated Harry like a brother, and he cared about him. It didn't make sense for him to do such a thing.

Ella's gaze drifted to the side for a quick second, seeming to be worried about something. "I said it's Niall" she repeated, starting to become a little restless. She put her coat on the back of my couch, next to which she was standing, sending me a careful glance.

I nodded slowly, taking in her words. I couldn't believe that Niall had been behind that whole mess, and I couldn't understand why he'd done it. More than only doing it, he'd clearly come up with it, and that was kind of extremely fucked up. Why would he have gone that far just to push me away from Harry? I really had thought that he liked me, until that moment. And Ella had helped him. I'd thought she'd come back to me and apologised because she cared, but in reality she'd only done it to get me to trust her. "You gave me advice. You acted as if you didn't know" I said quietly, not being able to detach my eyes from her blue ones.

She shrugged at my words, a hint of carelessness evident in her actions. "Well I knew you wouldn't have told Harry anyway. And of course I did, Niall asked me to see if the texts were working" she replied, looking at me as if the answer was obvious.

"But why?" I asked her, confused, trying to understand what was behind it all. Why had Niall got to that point to separate Harry and I? It didn't make any sense, especially considering that he'd been the one that had pushed us together at first.

She twirled a strand of her blonde hair around her finger in an unconscious action, puckering her lips. "He knew you wouldn't have just left him out of nowhere. He also knew how insecure you are though, because that kinda shows a lot, and took advantage of it" she said, her voice a little more cheerful than it should've been.

"I have his phone number though" I said slowly, glaring at her from where I was standing next to the door of the living room. I couldn't believe it. It usually didn't take me long to see that a person was sketchy, considering that I wasn't overly trusting, but I would've never guessed that Niall was behind that whole mess.

She shrugged, her blonde hair shining of golden highlights as it caught the light of the setting sun coming from the window. "He got another phone" she said, staring at me as if I'd just asked the most obvious question on the planet - which I had, because he'd obviously had to get another device to send those texts anonymously. What concerned me, though, was the level of dedication he'd put into the whole thing. What had Harry even done to him, for him to react so violently?

I stared at her for a few seconds, that felt way longer than they actually were. "Get out" I said all of sudden, surprising both her and myself.

"What?" She asked, her eyebrows slightly raised, as if she simply refused to believe I'd told her something like that.

"Get out" I repeated, starting to feel annoyed by her behaviour. I knew I had to do something about the whole thing, I couldn't simply let Harry's life being ruined just because Niall had decided to get some kind of revenge on him all of sudden, and inexplicably so.

"Alright, damn" she spat, grabbing her black coat from the back of the couch and putting it back on before walking past me and out of the door.

I took a couple of steps forward as soon as I heard the front door get shut loudly, watching her walk down the street from the glass of the window. I stood still in the middle of the living room until I couldn't see her anymore, and then I turned sharply and walked into the hallway, stopping in my tracks right away.

What was I supposed to do? My first idea was to call Harry, but after everything it wouldn't have surprised me if he'd refused to answer his phone. And if he had, how could I have told him what I'd discovered over the phone, and be sure he wouldn't have done anything stupid? I wouldn't have forgiven myself if he'd got into even more trouble because of that.