One. || h.s.

Six.

...

"Niall?"

"What the hell are you doing here?" He laughs, scratching his head as he takes a seat next to me on the bench and squints his eyes in the sunlight.

"I could ask you the same," I rebut and it only makes him laugh more. I can't help but smile at the sound of his hearty laugh; it's contagious no matter how bad I'm feeling.

"Fair enough. I came back when I graduated, I couldn't stand being away for so long. My life is here," he tells me, leaning back on the bench and staring out at the park with admiring eyes.

I wish I felt the same way about this place as he did. I wish I was happy to be back too, but the way things are going aren't convincing me that I made the right decision.

"What about you?" He asks after a while, turning his head to focus his bright eyes on me. "I thought you moved to Los Angles after -"

"I did," I cut him off, not wanting to hear his reminder. "I was there for three years but my program gives us the option of doing an internship during our last year and I got an offer from Parker. Paid."

"Parker? Wow, that's great to hear! That place is really hard to get into, you lucked out, Sky. Congratulations." He smiles brightly. "When did you get home?"

"Last night."

"Really? Why didn't you stop by?" He pouts and I try my best to hold in my laughter at his ridiculous expression.

"I didn't even think about it, to be completely honest. It didn't even cross my mind that you still lived across the hall." I've known Niall since I was eleven and moved in across the hall from him, we've been friends ever since. He, in fact, was the one who introduced me to Harry. "Plus, I was kind of... busy."

"Busy?" He asks, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion. He sits up straighter and angles himself toward me. Leave it to Niall to pick up on my subtle hints.

"Did you not hear any slamming doors last night?" I ask with a small laugh when I see his eyes go wide.

"That was you?" He has an amused smile on his face as he gapes at me. "What happened?"

The smile fades from my face slightly as I realize I've just entered the mine field and opened up a discussion to last night's events.

"Um... Harry happened," I say quietly and look away from him.

"Harry? Like Harry Styles?" He questions as if he's not believing his ears.

"Yup," I say, popping the p and turning to look back at him.

Something about Niall makes it easy for me to talk about this. I don't know whether it's because he wasn't there last night when everything went down, or if it's because I've trusted him with so much for so long. He knows what Harry is, or rather was, like and what he put me through. There are a lot of things only the three of us know and have locked away forever, never to be spoken of again.

All I know is that I feel better since he sat down next to me. I'm reminded of my life before Harry, the time when I loved New York as much as Niall does.

"But why...?" He starts but I watch as realization dawns over his face. "They told you didn't they?"

"If you're referring to Jessica and Harry telling me that they're dating, then yes, they told me. It didn't end well," I mumble.

We sit in silence, both watching the people buzzing about. There's a small boy not too far away who is being taunted by another boy who looks to be a bit older. The older one is holding something above his head and the smaller one is trying to reach for it. He's almost tall enough, but just not quite.