When Worlds Conclude - WWC3

27; Tours, nightclubs, and punches

Violet

The next day is a Saturday and Niall doesn't work, so he decides to show me around some of his favourite places in Dublin. He takes me to his old school, his favourite food bars, and even shows me around the museum. A place Niall hasn't himself spent a lot of time in, but he thought I would like it. I did.

We walk along the streets eating some hot chips from Niall's favourite store and about every minute or so Niall stops to say hello to someone, and whenever he does his entire dialogue completely changes. Reminder to ask him what the hell "craic" means.

"So, how do you like Dublin?" He asks me after a short while. He shoves a chip into his mouth and looks at me.

"It's great," I exclaim. "Everybody here is so nice."

"Yeah, you get that."

"What was it like growing up here?"

He shrugs. "It's like any hometown. It gets boring when you've been here for too long."

"Do you think you'll come back to London?" I ask him.

He shakes his head. "I don't know. I mean, London was never my home. It was ours."

I feel a pang of hurt at the word ours. "I get it," I say. Because I do. For me, London had too many ties to my past that I just wanted to cut loose. London would always be where Zayn and I lived, but never together, and I didn't know if I wanted to deal with that. Weird how places could feel so empty after a while, like nobody lived in them at all except for ghosts. 

"I like it here," he says, downing another chip. "It's a good place for me to be. I'm surrounded by my family and friends ...." Niall falters at that last part and looks at me. "I mean ..."

"It's okay." I smile. "I understand."

"It's not that I don't miss you, Violet, because I do. I miss all of you guys. But I miss her too."

We walk for a bit in silence and then come to an empty table in the middle of town. We sit.

"How are you doing?" Niall asks me. "I mean, about all this Zayn stuff."

I shrug. "I used to be upset but I don't really feel anything anymore. I think I've finally accepted it."

He looks in the distance for a bit, like he's thinking, and then he draws his eyes back to me. "The thing with you and Zayn is that you're both too stubborn for each other."

I crack a smile. It was true.

"I think it all just happened too fast," he continues. "It was all such a whirlwind of love and passion that it had to come crashing down at some point, and you both needed to take some time to figure out what it was you really wanted. I mean, Violet, from the very first second you and Zayn have been attached. Even when you weren't dating and you swore you hated each other but everyone else could see what was really happening."

I blush a little.

"I don't think you know what it's like to live a life that doesn't include Zayn."

I understand what he means. He's not talking about my life before Zayn, when I hadn't even met him yet, he's talking about my life after. A life after loving Zayn so much. And he's right, because I have loved Zayn so much that it's taken over everything that I had and now it was just me again. I didn't know what it felt like to not be so attached to him anymore. 

And strangely, it felt good.

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"So, where are we going?"