When in London (One Direction Fan Fiction)

32

I knew this Reece, and he wasn't going to back down so easily. Sighing, I crossed my arms to match his.

"I moved here to start a new life, Reece," I whispered back, my tone clipped. "I don't want my past following me around, and you're part of it. So you can either move back to Canada or stay here and pretend we never happened, okay?"

"I'm not going to lie to my friends, Katie," Reece explained, exasperated. "This is my life, too. I'm not going to lie."

"You sure didn't have any problem lying to me," I snapped back, knowing that bringing up his past mistakes would bother him. He clenched his jaw and I could tell I struck a nerve.

Oh well, I thought indifferently. He deserved that.

"Fine," he agreed unwillingly, and I tried to hid the triumphant smirk tugging at my lips.

"Thank you," I huffed, leaning back against the counter. Reece just kept watching me, before finally unfolding his arms and walking towards me. He stopped, his face a few inches from mine as he brought his hands up to rest on the counter on either side of me, trapping me in.

"Just remember that this is what you wanted, Katie," he whispered, close enough now that I could feel his breath against my cheek. "We're going to have to act like friends now, if you want to keep up this little secret. You'll have to act like you like me, so don't blow it."

Without waiting for me to answer, Reece reached around me to grab the beer bottles off the countertop and retreated back into the living room, as if nothing happened.

***

We were an hour or so into the movie and everyone was already drunk.

I didn't think tonight was going to be that kind of pizza and movies, but after we'd started the movie and no one payed any attention to it, I'd sort of gotten the idea of how the night was going to play out.

Tristan had a happily singing Rey in his lap, occasionally singing along when the choruses came around. Alice, on the other hand, had a bottle of tequila clasped tightly in one hand as she danced drunkenly around the living room in a tie dye snuggie and fluffy socks.

Reece, Dante and I sat watching them instead of the movie, and I'd eventually noticed that with every beer I'd finished, the less anxious Reece's presence made me feel.

"PURPLE RAIN, PURPLE RAIN," Rey sang passionately, clutching at her heart as she gave it her all. Tristan watched her with amusement, not daring to interrupt her performance of her "all time favourite song of all time ever", as she had announced before starting.

"Sing it, Rey!" Alice encouraged her as she sank to her knees, her fingers moving quickly along the tequila bottle as she pretended to play it like a guitar.

"You girls are wild," I laughed loudly, watching my roommates have what looked to be the time of their lives. If this was a preview to what living with these people was going to be like, I had no complaints. They knew how to have a good time.

"This is just their warm up," Tristan laughed, taking a swing of his beer. "Wait 'til they perform Thriller. They have the whole choreography down to a T."

Feeling my phone vibrate, I pulled my gaze away from Tristan and down to see that Niall had texted me. It was the second time that day that the simple act of seeing his name pop up on my phone had caused my heart to flutter, and I tried to push the unwelcome feeling away.