Count On Me | Niam

Chapter Eighty-Five

Niall nodded awkwardly, the frown on his face telling Liam that it was probably best that they left this topic alone, at least for the moment, though he did give him an actual answer. "Greg will be fine. He's- He always is. Denise will probably try to offload Theo's old baby clothes on to us. I don't think there's really anyone else to tell. Jessica, maybe Missy and Reece, but otherwise."

The frown on Niall's face disappeared after a moment, taking a weight off of Liam's chest, and he fell silent for a while before he posed a very important question. "Are we telling Chloe before we tell your parents?"

That left Liam busy thinking for a while, looking back at the conversation he and Niall had already had and then weighing up their options, trying to come up with an answer that was both helpful and appropriate, something other than 'I have no fucking idea' which he figured would go down well with Niall if he said it. "We could...but maybe we should wait. Firstly, so we have time to do it properly, break it to her without just dropping it on her at the same time we tell my parents, and if we hold off...if it doesn't go well, you aren't alone with her. I'm back in August, that's only another two months...it could wait. Or at least until after we tell my parents. That way, she could still be their sole focus for just a while longer."

Liam stopped talking then, blushing slightly as he realised how much he'd rambled on. He looked at Niall to see him smiling upwards, sort of encouragingly, one of Niall's hands reaching up to capture Liam's and stop them from playing with his hair. Their fingers laced together, Niall and Liam ended up staying there for longer than they maybe should have, to the point where they were interrupted by Chloe returning from a trip to the library with Toby, shepherded around by Jessica and Sam to the bemusement of Toby and Toby's step-dad.

"I'm not even going to try and explain," Niall had said as he'd waved Chloe out the door, giving her a smile and warning her to behave as she went, letting Liam smile into his shoulder as they both pictured the scene that would surely unfold when Sam would be forced to refuse to let Chloe out of his sight. It was another reason as to why they were considering coming clean about almost everything, about Chloe and some aspects of the truth, though maybe not all of it. That way, there would be fewer moments like the one currently happening.

Apparently, the library had been fun nonetheless and Chloe was clutching a pile of books Niall would have to remember to return, topics ranging from space to animals to dinosaurs that she kept chattering on about. Niall listened to her chatter with a resigned sort of smile as he sorted dinner, used to her enthusiasm and ever changing topic of interest, keeping Chloe busy whilst Liam called his parents, hoping that they were free to come up and visit for the weekend like Niall had suggested.

Against the odds — after all his parents were busy people with lives and jobs and things — Liam's call with his mother had ended with her agreeing that they would come up or the weekend before Liam flew back out for tour, and he was left sort of panicking. And sort of wishing that he hadn't called.

It wasn't that he didn't want to see his parents, not at all, but- It was that he didn't want to have to see them this time. He wanted to skip past this time, and the whole 'telling them' thing, and get to the part where they were fine with everything and thrilled and supportive, with none of the surprise and waiting to see their reactions part. He'd been more chilled out with Niall, had painted a picture that was so heavily filtered it could have been a part of the Kardashians' Instagram, but he was a little worried.

Who wouldn't be, when telling their parents they were going to have a baby, really?

And it wasn't like this would be the biggest bombshell he'd dropped on them, ever. Fifteen-year-old him came out; seventeen-year-old him was newly famous; he'd been had to sit down and tell them that, somehow, he was the father of a seven-year-old girl he'd never met, whose father was the ex-boyfriend he'd cut all ties with years ago. They'd be used to it by this point. They probably expected it from him, something shocking every so often, just to keep them on their toes.