little do you know // niall horan au

chapter 15; almost home

Liam scoffed, but pouted in sympathy nonetheless. "That's what happens when you sign up for an 8 am."

Harry scowled. It was a sore spot for him that they all liked to tease him about. He'd fallen asleep when registrations opened up and got stuck with an early morning class, something he endlessly complained about. "Have a nice day, everyone except Liam," he muttered on his way out, and they all laughed as he shut the door behind him.

Mona felt the smile slip off her face as the jitters came back. Niall's hand was still on her wrist, fingers stroking her skin lightly as an attempt to keep her calm, but all she felt was on edge. "I should, um," she pulled her hand away from him, his warmth fizzling slowly from her skin. "I should go too." She started to gather her books, but Niall leaned forward into her space, placing a hand on her thigh.

"Stay for breakfast?" he asked, voice lifted sweetly.

On any other day, Mona would've probably stayed. But right now, being around him had her feeling too much, and all she really needed was to get out of her own head. "Maybe next time," she replied, trying to keep her voice even. "I really need to go over these notes. And maybe take a nap."

At that, Niall laughed, her thigh feeling impossibly cold when he pulled his hand away. His eyes sparkled, even with that sleepy glaze, and her heart was so gone for it.

She sighed. She didn't know what she was going to do with herself.

~

It was a bit past noon when Mona finally got back to her apartment.

She wasn't sure how she did on that exam, but she was feeling okay about it. If she was being honest, all she really wanted to do was crawl into her bed and take a nap, and as she opened the front door to the apartment, she was determined to do just that.

But, alas, her life sucked lately, and so did her luck.

"Did she eat this morning? I've been trying to pay attention to her but she's gotten so good at escaping me." It was Harlow's voice. She was talking to someone in the kitchen. Mona didn't know why she did it, but she didn't open the door all the way because it was visible from that side of the apartment. Instead, she kept it cracked slightly so she'd be able to hear what else Harlow was saying.

She huffed when she caught herself. She hated that she found herself in this position so often lately.

"Erm, I'm not too sure? She left pretty quickly this morning." Mona rolled her eyes at the responding voice. It was Niall. She seemed to find the two of them whispering about her in odd places nowadays and it was getting on her last nerve. She wasn't a child, she didn't need them to look out for her all the time. "Actually now that I think about it, she picked around at her food last night too."

Mona felt a lot of things over these past few days, but she hadn't quite felt anger in the way she did at that moment. She could feel the shakes coming on again, but this time it was because there was a fire flaring up within her that she needed to breathe through and not wave of panic.

Inside, Harlow sighed. "I'm really worried about her." She sounded very earnest, but that didn't do anything to quell the anger growing inside Mona. "She hasn't been taking care of herself and I'm worried—" she huffed, "I just don't want to see her fall into the same bad habits she had when her dad passed away." Harlow's voice cracked then, and when Niall went 'Oh, Harley,' Mona imagined him to be pulling her into one of his warm hugs. "It was so hard to watch her like that and I don't want her to go through that again."

"Harls, we've got her, yeah?" Niall's voice was soft and reassuring but it only made Mona more upset. "We're not gonna let her get stuck inside her head."