When in London (One Direction Fan Fiction)

23

"Yes is it does," he insisted once he had calmed down enough to formulate proper words. "You're just not deep enough to understand the true double-meaning. Get on my level, Katie."

Oh, how I've missed my brother.

"Why don't you climb down from your almighty high to make that easier for me, mister I'm-the-coolest-guy-on-earth," I said sarcastically.

"Yep," he confirmed curtly. "You have definitely not changed."

"So how was Afghanistan, Jared?" Niall asked, breaking into our bickering.

"Ehh, it was okay," Jared replied with a shrug of his broad, muscular shoulders. "I mean, war's a war, what can you really say that's positive, right?"

"Yeah," Niall nodded, pushing me up by the shoulders so that there was room for him to sit beside me. "Were you on the same deployment as Austin?"

Austin was Pasiley's brother. He and Jared were just as close to each other as Paisley and I are. They were best friends since we moved to Canada, and then both of them decided that they wanted to join the Army at the same time. They're half of the reason why Paisley and I became so close; having someone you love go to war is hard, so to have someone that is going through the same thing as you by your side to support you is amazing. Austin was like an older brother to me, just like Jared was probably like an older brother to Paisley.

"Yeah, Austin and I were together the entire tour," he said with a broad smile, "he and I were in the same division, so we got dismissed at the same time. He's already headed to Canada."

"How is he doing?" I asked quickly, wanting to know if he was okay. 

"He's fine, we did good," Jared replied with a proud smile. I smiled back, not being able to hide my pride.

"I'm proud of you, Jared," I smiled, the tears blurring my vision. Jared just chuckled, shaking his head a bit as he looked to the ground. 

"You need to get this crying thing under control, Katie," he teased lightly. I let out a mixture of a sob and a laugh, attempting to wipe the tears from the corners of my eyes with the pads of my fingers. I felt Niall put his arm around my shoulders, pulling he into his sturdy side as he kissed the top of my head. Right then my eyes found their way to Harry, who caught them only for a second before looking out the windows instead. 

I sighed.

I loved Niall; I did. But it was going to be so hard to be happy with him and love him the way he wanted me to when all I was doing was hurting Harry in return. At least, I thought that's what I was doing. Of course, he might have something completely different that he was upset about, so the only way to find out would be to simply ask him.

The only problem was I didn't really want to know the answer.

"Wow, okay so what's going on with you two then?" Jared suddenly asked with a raise of his eyebrow in question and a sly smile on his face. "Are you two engaged yet or what?" he teased, although his face seemed one-hundred percent serious.

"No, Jared, we're not engaged," I stated with a flat look. I couldn't help but feel how tense Harry seemed to be across the room. The way his shoulders were rigidly straight instead of the careful, natural slant that they were usually in. The way his jaw clenched every time Niall and I were mentioned romantically in the same sentence.  

"We're going to wait a bit, until Katie get's over... Yeah, you know," Niall faded out, not wanting to mention Reece's name in front of me.

Or Jared.

"Oh yeah, about that douche bag prick-head," he started with a sneer. The boys tried to suppress their laughter, but it was to no avail. I rolled my eyes half-heartily as Jared went on. "I think I'd like to have a little chat with him, yeah?"