Honest Illusions [niall horan]

Chapter 8

Niall's P.O.V.

"No." I internally groaned, laying my forehead against the palm of my hand that was bent up towards my face.

"Please Niall," Liam pleaded for the probably the fifth time since he stepped foot into my flat.

"No." I shook my head at him, yet again, except this time I shot him a stern look to indicate I had no intentions of complying with his ridiculous ideas.

"Come on, it'll be great," he offered, stirring his spoon in his steaming bowl of soup.

"What part 'f no d'ya not get Li?" I zeroed in my focus at his eyes, so he knew I wasn't just being stubborn but serious. Catching up with Liam always resulted in some sort of disagreement between. Although, in today's case, it didn't look like there was going to be a happy resolution.

"Niall, both you and I know that you want to do this. Just say yes," Liam confidently said. In a way he wasn't wrong. He had come over to discuss his idea of starting an underprivileged music program for kids ranging in ages from about twelve all the way to seventeen. He wanted to present the opportunity to those who possessed great talent, but were just being held back by a lack of opportunity. Of course I was all up for it. There was nothing better that I wanted to do, yet it was no doubt that there had to be an obstacle somewhere. Location. Out of the entire world, Liam picked New York fucking City, and that was exactly why I didn't want to go through with this project.

"Change the location an' ya have yerself a deal," I bargained. There are so many other cities that he could chose from, yet he picked the one I least wanted to go back to. My chances of bumping into Aubrey were small considering New York City was home to millions, but with my luck I'd end up only a few feet away from her.

"If this is about Aubrey living there, you really need to get your mind to see the big picture instead of just being a big pessimist," he replied, narrowing his eyes at me.

"I am seein' the 'big picture' jus' in another city like LA 'r even here in London," I reasoned in hopes this would change his mind. All I really wanted was to lessen and lessen my chances of bumping into Aubrey anymore. Following our minimal time spent together, I felt myself crumbling back to my old self. Not the happy, carefree Niall, but the infatuated yet lost Niall. It was too frustrating to think about it for even more than five minutes.

Ideas of going to the airport before she left yesterday afternoon came to my head, many times actually. Each time I would come close to picking up my keys and heading out to the airport, I immediately back tracked to our last encounter in London a few years ago. The painful memories were more than enough to erase any intentions of mine to see her. I had to admit, though, our small talk the other day was slowly helping me recover. Closure was all I needed, and in a way I got a bit of it with Aubrey's surprise visit.

"New York City is the only place that has studios available around the affected areas. Don't forget these people need to be close to us in order for us to even do anything," Liam explained. As always, since the day I've met him, he was right again. God damn you Liam Payne and your logic.

"I really hate ya sometimes," I breathed out after a few moments of silence. In an instant a huge smile replaced Liam's previous hardened scowl. I knew he wanted this real badly, and I couldn't let my best mate down.

"So you'll help me then?" He asked so excitedly.

"I have no other choice, do I?" I raised an eyebrow at him. Liam's grin widened even more, giving me a little boost of satisfaction. Maybe this would be a good way for me to finally let go of the past.

"So you'll go to the open house of the few properties I have picked out next week?" His voice became quieter and quieter with each word. Usually, Liam was the one who was on top of everything and had things all planned out. He never was one to mention things at such short notice.