Backfire (Niall Horan)

Chapter 13 ~ Harry's day

“Why do they never love me back?” I asked whispering to Harry. He looked at me confused and it wasn’t until he saw my face that he understood what was happening.

“‘Cos they’re arseholes,” he replied hugging me tightly. “You deserve better than them and they lost the most here.”

I bit my cheeks because I couldn’t believe it. The problem had to be in me if I couldn’t manage to maintain four relationships. “I don’t think so, it has to be something wrong with me that pushes them away,” I murmured shutting my eyes trying to stop the tears from falling.

“No, love, there’s nothing wrong with you. They didn’t appreciate you, their loss! You’re great and if they didn’t keep you is ‘cos they are idiots. I don’t see another reason,” he reassured me and I wanted to laugh. He was being too kind.

“Why do they always break my heart?” I asked squeezing his t-shirt in my fists. “Do I deserve it?”

“Of course not!” he replied without hesitation. “I’ve known you for a couple of weeks and I’m sure you don’t deserve anything wrong that might happen. It’s not your fault, Alex.”

Some part of me knew he was right, but in that moment I wasn’t sensible enough to process that information and accept it. I kept blaming myself for something that couldn’t be only my fault. A relationship doesn’t fail only because of one half of it. It’s always something mutual.

“I’m sorry, Harry,” I mumbled after a while. “I normally bury all this things so deep that not even me can reach them, but today everything is up-side-down. I’m so sorry I bothered you with this–”

“You didn’t bother me at all and that’s what friends are for, right? To help each other in the good and bad moments.” He was so sweet, his smile so warm and friendly. I smiled back. “And I was serious, I truly believe you don’t deserve what happened to you. They should’ve treated you better.”

“Thanks,” I whispered with a shaky voice and my teary eyes. He winked at me.

“I bet all the lads would say the same, though. So if you don’t believe, we can ask them,” he offered and I opened my ayes horrified.

“No! Please, no! That would be so embarrassing. I don’t want them to see me so weak and silly like this. Please, don’t tell them about this,” I begged.

“About what?” Liam asked joining us in the booth of the kitchen. “What did you two do?”

“I just said something very humiliating about myself and I’m begging Harry to not tell,” I explained to Liam who cocked his head to one side whilst narrowing his eyes a bit.

“If you say so, I shall believe you, then,” he mused and I smiled brightly whilst Harry was laughing.

“Are you conscious that now I can blackmail you?” Harry stated mischievously and I looked at him petrified.

“You wouldn’t dare!” I gasped and he laughed evilly. “Harry, you can’t do that!” I protested very loudly what made the rest of the lads appear asking what was happening. “I’ll never tell you anything else!”

“Don’t worry, love, I’m not gonna blackmail you,” he promised kissing my temple and I frowned crossing my arms and putting some distance between us. “At least not soon. I’ll wait for a good occasion, when I’ll need you to do something for me.”

“You little piece of shit!” I growled offended, pointing at him with my index finger. “Wait till I know something embarrassing about you. You will never hear the end of it!”

“I’m not worried. Almost the whole world knows things very humiliating about me. I don’t think you can find something to blackmail me,” he said crossing his arms in the back of his neck.

I punched him in the chest but then I ended up laughing. Probably he was only messing with me, he would never use a moment of weakness against me. At least, that was what I hopped. I curled against him again whilst the rest of the lads sat in the booth too and soon the girls joined us. Belle was texting with a grin on her face.

“Dan says hi and that if any of you try to make some move on me, he will slaughter you in your sleep.  Oh, he added a happy face,” she said casually and I giggled, my mood changing brutally fast again.

“You heard her, Harry. Don’t try anything,” I warned the boy who was holding me and he raised his hands in surrender.

“Oi, I know she has boyfriend. I’m not gonna try anything,” he defended himself. “God, thanks for trusting me, uh?”

I giggled again and hugged him tight. “Don’t worry, I know you appreciate your balls, that’s why you’ll never try something on Belle.” All my friends laughed except Harry who was glancing at me with narrow eyes. “Payback?” I said smiling until he laughed, too.

I looked at Phebs and saw her glancing at Liam with a dreamy smile and my heart twisted. We were heading to our next destination where we were going to meet with Danielle and Eleanor, which meant that Phebs was going to have to see Liam and his girlfriend being all lovey-dovey. I wanted to cry for her, shy, so sweet, that she was never going to tell him how she felt.

She felt my gaze because she looked up at me and when she saw the way I was staring at her, she remembered what was going to happen. I bit my cheek to keep me from saying something when all the lads were present, especially with Liam right there. I just looked at her trying to tell her that everything was going to be fine. She smiled weakly and nodded very slightly.

“Shall we watch a movie?” Louis asked and we all agreed, then my phone rang and I took it from my pocket. A big smile appeared on my face when I saw the caller ID. It was my brother!

“Ethan!” I picked up with a big, big smile. “Oh, God, how I’ve missed you!” I added quickly.

“Me, too, little sister. How’s everything going there with that boy band? I still can’t believe you’re on tour with them. What was their name?” he asked.

Obviously, I told him I was going on tour with this popular boy band, but if I hardly knew about them before I had met him, my brother knew less than nothing. We talked over the phone quite often, not everyday because he had a busy schedule and I understood that perfectly. When I was in classes it was the same for both. But at least we talked three times a week.

“One Direction,” I replied still smiling and noticing the different looks on my friends’ faces. Zayn, Phebs and Belle were smiling as well, Harry looked at me a bit confused, Liam and Louis were with his head cocked lightly to the right and Niall had his eyes glued on me, his expression serious and even a bit bitter. “Everything’s fine. We’re having a great time and I can’t believe it either!”

“I’m glad, then. Will you come to see me when you’re here in Manchester?” he asked and I could see his smile clearly in my mind.

“You can bet on that. Nothing will stop me from seeing you.”

We talked a bit more, I told him about how overwhelming seeing the concert from backstage had been, he told me about a knew project he was working on, and a bit about other stuff, until we finally had to say our goodbyes. “Bye, Ethan. I love you.”

“I love you, too, little sis. See ya soon!” By when I hung up, the only one still looking at me was Niall who kept the serious look.

“So, who was it?” he asked casually but his eyes showed something completely different. I wondered why he was acting like that. Could he possible be jealous? I felt my butterflies fluttering in my stomach at such idea, my heart beating fast, excited about it. But I stopped myself, trying not to get my hopes up.

“My older brother, Ethan. Sorry, I just told Zayn about him.” The black-haired boy looked at me when I mentioned his name and gave me a smile. “He lives in Manchester and thanks to him I’m the geek you all know today. Right, Zayn?” He nodded giving me a thumbs up. “See? When we’re in Manchester, you have to meet him,” I declared matter-of-factly.

“Ah, your brother,” Niall mumbled and I saw him blush. The butterflies in my stomach went crazy. “Sure, we have to meet him,” he added and I smiled brightly. Just thinking of seeing my brother made my day.