The Bet // Niall Horan

23 - Worth It

Don't you worry everyone, Zayn is still in the story as a member of One Direction. He's not leaving this story any time soon.

"I'll use you as a warning sign. That if you talk enough sense then you'll lose your mind."

I Found - Amber Run

Listen to the song it's bangin.

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"What do you mean by 'us'? How does 'us' trend on Twitter?" He seemed baffled, like I just played a word in scrabble that didn't exist. I'm starting to think the bleach is getting to his head.

"You and I. Me and you. Niall and Carter. Carter and Niall. Are you sensing a trend here?" I slowed it down to a first year level for him to hopefully understand it.

"You mean that our names are a trending topic? As in people think we're...together?" The way he said that final word made my heart plummet. You know that feeling when you have such high hopes for something but it ends up going completely wrong? Yeah, that's the feeling I'm having right now. I had imagined, on multiple occasions, of Niall using the term 'together' when talking about the two of us. However, the way he said it almost seemed as though he was disgusted by the idea, not just the term. "Well, yeah. Maybe. I mean, I don't know," I stuttered, trying not to let him hear the disappointment I was feeling inside.

"How do you not know, Carter? Do people think we're together or not!" His voice got louder with every syllable, me flinching at his demanding tone.

"I-I don't know, Niall! I guess some do but others don't, but does it really matter? It's just a stupid hash tag!" I was starting to get angry. Why the hell is he blowing this out of proportion?

"Oh so we're a fucking hash tag now? Great, that's just great isn't it, Carter?" By this point, the two of us had caught the attention of everyone in the room. Mason and Harry's faces said it all, they had no idea what was going on. Shay had stopped eating her bagel and eyed me carefully, sending me a look that said 'lay off, don't make him any more mad than he is'. As for the other three band mates, they were sending daggers at Niall. It was clear to me that no one wanted to see this go any further and I wasn't about ready to piss off Niall to the point of flames coming out of his ears. I was already tired and I thought he would just laugh it off. This wasn't worth it so I said, "forget it, Niall. Sorry for thinking it was ever news to begin with." My hope was that I would be able to walk away from the conversation after that. The only problem is, you don't always get what you wish for.

"You're joking, right?" His eyes were focused on me and only me. And just this once, I didn't want to look back into them. "This isn't something you can just put off to the side and pretend it's not happening. People think we're a couple, Carter. Does that mean anything to you?" His voice has quieted down but it was still stern, demanding an answer.

I didn't know what to say. I was afraid that anything I said would set him off into another frenzy. So I just shrugged. Bad move #2. "Jesus Christ," he muttered before turning on his heal and slamming the back door open and waking out of the house. I was stunned, speechless, frozen. If I had known it would be this big of an issue to him, I would've kept my mouth shut. The room was completely silent despite the fact that there were seven people in it. The tension was palpable, any one of us could wave our hand and feel it. One question kept running through my mind as I stood where Niall had left me. What was the reason for him overreacting?

A slight cough was what broke the silence first. "Err, does anyone want eggs or a bagel or something?" I shot my head over to look at Mason, his innocent eyes met mine in a way that silently said 'sorry'. "I'm in the mood for some eggs." It was Mason's turn to shoot a glare at Louis.