Second Snapshot (Picture This Sequel: Niall Horan)

-Regulating the silent treatment. [Chapter 58]

“Okay,” She shrugged and now I narrowed my eyes, genuinely confused. Her fingers worked the keyboard of a MacBook for a few seconds before she narrowed her eyes at the screen and then pressed something biting her lip. “Take a look at this and then think about whether you’d like to rephrase that or not.”

She spun the laptop around and we were instantly faced with a very dark recording. It was obviously from a mobile phone, the quality ranging from bad to medium, not helping that it was dark. However the producer of this video was clearly crouched down behind a wall and the video was zooming in on two figures in the distance, further down the road. As it got closer, the figures rang a bell, a beat later, I realised it was Niall and I. The night he arrived in New York, after we talked most things out, and we were on our way to McDonald’s at two in the morning. We were slightly illuminated by the glow of a heavyset streetlight above us but that was it. Despite the bad quality and lack of light you could tell it was us. And the title of the video said it all.

Niall Horan and ex Ashley Dawson make out in New York!!!

It was the triple use of exclamation marks that got me first. So untidy, unnecessary, and totally uncalled for. But that was probably the least of my worries as the video continued on, so did we, it got worse as the seconds slipped by. For us at the time, it was all fun and games, but watching it back, the further it got the less appropriate for the public eye, or anyone’s eye. And pretty soon I felt my cheeks heating up and I had to stop watching.

“Th-That’s personal.” Niall seethed. “You, or anyone has no right to use that against us, or at all.”

Claire shrugged now spinning the laptop back around she raised her eye-brows at the screen and then folded her arms staring back at us.

“Personal doesn’t mean anything anymore dear. If it did, it wouldn’t have been circling the internet for the past god knows how long.”

“No,” Niall shook his head clenching his jaw. “That is my personal life, our personal life. And it’s nothing to do with you, or with anyone. It should be taken down; in fact it will be taken down. It’s invasion of privacy.”

Claire just shrugged as if this remark wasn’t important and Niall had just asked her what the weather was doing tomorrow or something. I could practically feel the annoyance bubbling up inside of me. There’s nothing worse than getting angry about something and then the person you’re angry at just shrugs it off like it’s nothing, it’s infuriating.

“A bit like you were warned on countless times that there was nothing to be going on between you two and then I see this? I’m not even going to comment on all the other pictures that have been leaked, some of them are even worse than this video. And that’s saying something, right? It’s not just the fact that you two are meant to be forbidden from each other. It’s about image, Niall. How are we supposed to have an innocent image if you’re going to go around like that?”

“Are you kidding me?” Niall hissed and now he leant forward in his seat closer to the desk. “It was fucking two o’ clock in the morning; it was dark, and empty. How were we supposed to know some stalker thought it’d be nice and dandy to film us?”

“You should be on your guard at all times.”

“No, we shouldn’t.” He said and I saw the confusion flash across Claire’s bored expression. There’s a lot of things that Niall doesn’t like, but people telling him what he should and shouldn’t do is a major one. “I don’t see why I should have to act differently when I’m with Ashley, or whatever, because I shouldn’t and I won’t.”

Claire narrowed her eyes at us and sunk back into her seat, she rested her elbows on the arms of the chair and sat right back in it and closed her eyes for a few seconds. And for a very brief second, I saw something flash across her face that I hadn’t seen before, but I didn’t know what it was and just as that it was gone, and we were back to cold hard stares again.