"I've been in a relationship where I loved someone more than they loved me back."
Harry and Niall have been friends for seven years. They lived in two different cities in high school, but moved into an apartment together in Baltimore for college.
Niall lived in Alexandria, Virginia while Harry lived in Woodsboro, Maryland. They lived about two hours away from each other, but they texted each other all the time in high school and FaceTimed twice a week.
Harry and Niall meet at a birthday party in 8th grade. Harry was invited to the party out of pity. He wasn't really popular in middle school, so the mom of the kid, Jessica, who was throwing the party invited Harry when she saw him sitting alone in the school parking lot waiting for his mom to pick him up. Jessica was not happy to see Harry there, but Harry's mom begged him to stay for the whole party. She wanted him to get out of his comfort zone and make friends. Niall is Jessica's second cousin. Niall and Jessica were never close, but Niall's mom forced him to go to the party.
Harry was sitting uncomfortably in a corner when Niall just came up to him and started talking nonsense. Their friendship took off from there and Harry left with Niall's Instagram username and his cellphone number.
Harry and Niall took trains to each other that whole summer. They became best friends quickly, and continued to be best friends throughout high school.
Harry found out he was in love with Niall his freshmen year of high school. Him and Niall had been friends for almost a year, and to celebrate they decided to take the train to Baltimore and hang out in the city for the day. Niall had always told Harry that he was gay, but that day, when they were walking around the city, Niall told Harry that he thinks he's pan.
Harry knew what it meant. He was exploring his own sexuality at the time, he also had a tumblr. So when Niall came out, kinda, Harry came out too. Harry told Niall that he thinks he's gay. Niall accepted Harry immediately, obviously. They bought two rainbow flags that day and hung them in their room when they got home. Harry knew that day that he was in love with Niall.
At first he didn't want to say anything to Niall about it. But Niall had started dating this girl and Harry was jealous. Obviously Niall could tell Harry was upset and questioned him about it until he told him.
To which Niall responded immediately with, "I love you, Harry, but not like that."
Then they changed the topic and that was that. They stayed friends and nothing was awkward. They carried on and they didn't talk about Harry's feelings for another year. But the Niall started dating someone else, his name was Jeff and Harry still got jealous. Harry was distant every time Niall talked about Jeff or sent selfies of him and Jeff. The longer Niall and Jeff dated the more upset Harry got.
During one especially depressive episode Harry told Niall again that he was in love with him.
Again Niall said sadly, "I don't love you like that, Haz. Your my best friend."
They left it again. This time for two years. Harry tried to date some people, but it never worked out. They never compared to Niall. They went to college together and moved into an apartment together. And it was great mostly, Harry loved living with his best friend.
But sometimes Harry would get so angry. Niall would get into these relationships and tell Harry everything about them. Niall would talk about how great their sex was, or about how cute their dates went or how nice his significant others family is. Niall knew how much Harry loved him. He knew how much talking about his love life hurt him, but he would still talk and talk and talk.
