Smile For Me || Niall Horan

29: The Distraction

When you truly love someone, you don't judge them by their past. You accept it and leave it there.

~NIALLS POV~

I stare at the screen in front of me that Liam was holding up. Anger floods through my body as I turn and connect my fist with the wall. Liam gives me a sympathetic look, turning his phone screen away from me.

"I'm really sorry," he says in a low voice. I don't answer. Instead I storm into my room and slam the door shut. I sink down to the floor and take slow deep breaths trying to calm myself down.

I have no right to be mad. We aren't together anymore. She's free to date who she wants, so why am I so pissed? Oh, right, maybe it's because I'm still fucking in love with her.

It's clear she's over me by now. I should move on too. I'm just crushed that she seems to act like nothing between us ever happened.

We're friends and I need to accept that. But it's just so hard.

"Niall!" I hear someone yell as they knock on my door. I recognized the voice as Louis. "Niall open the damn door."

I don't answer him. I get up and grab my keys, roughly opening the door and pushing past Louis along with the other boys. They were all staring after me worriedly.

"Where are you going?" Zayn asks.

"Niall talk to us," Harry begs.

"I'm going for a drive," I mumble angrily before slamming the front door of the house behind me and quickly starting my car.

I drive for miles and miles until I realize I'm almost out of gas. I pull over in an empty parking lot and hit the steering wheel angrily. I hit it so hard I was lucky the air bag didn't go off. It was around eight at night by now and the sky was dark. It was a clear night and the only source of light was the moon.

I pull out my phone and tap the internet icon. I hit search and type in 'Alexis and Derek'. It's only seconds before the pictures of them show up. I saw the article Liam showed me earlier and clicked on it. I re-read it over and over, still sort of processing it. I didn't want to believe it. I didn't want to believe that she's forgotten me and everything we've been through and that she's moved on.

I'm so stupid. I should have fixed things when I had the chance and now she's with that Derek guy. Ugh. I should have gotten her back. I shouldn't have let her leave in the first place. She and Claire should still be living with me and the lads and nothing should have changed between us. We shouldn't be 'just friends' right now, we should be in love like we were before.

I am still in love with her, but clearly she likes someone else now. I lost my chance. I gave her up. How could I have let her slip through my fingers so easily?

I sit there in my car thinking of all the ways I could have prevented this. All the ways we could have worked things out and still ended up together in the end. Not friends. Not strangers. Just like we were on tour. Boyfriend and girlfriend. I honestly thought we were perfect for each other. I guess I thought wrong.

~LEXIS POV~

I sat there in bed, staring at my phone. I willed for it to buzz with a new text. My door opened and Austin came in.

"You know there's this new thing called knocking..."

"Sorry. I just wanted to tell you that I got a call from my boss. He says I can only stay a week more so this Friday I need to pack up and bolt," he explains.

I count the days in my head for a moment. Today was Sunday. Monday...Tuesday....Wednesday....Thursday....

"But that's only like four more days!" I complain.

"I'm really sorry Lex, but we can always Skype and call and stuff if you need to talk." I felt my phone vibrate and a grin spread across my face as I dove for it. "Wow someone's eager."

"Shut up," I mumble, tapping away on my phone with a smile playing on my lips.

"Are you texting Niall?" he asks teasingly with a smirk. I tense up.

"No."

He frowns and furrows his eyebrows in confusion. He takes a step towards me and I cover my phone so he wouldn't see Derek's name. He takes another step and I back away. Another step. I leap off the bed. We were in a stare down. He was on one side of the bed near the door and I was on the other side, by the window.

"Who are you texting?" he asks grinning evilly.

"No one," I say, making a move towards the door. He blocks me and reaches for my phone. We end up fighting for it and I shove it in my bra to keep him from getting it. I smile victoriously as he glares at me.

"Why won't you tell me?"

"Because I don't need a lecture."

"Why would I give you a lecture?"

"Because lectures are what you're good at." I grin and dust myself off as I stand up. I push past him to leave and secretly pull my phone out of my bra once it was out of his view.

Derek: u free tomorrow? maybe we could hang out? (:

I check my calendar on my phone for tomorrow and see that I have to hit the studio for the new song me and the boys wrote yesterday. I mentally curse as I text him back.

Reply: Can't tomorrow): Maybe Tuesday?

Derek: Sounds awesome(: i'll text you the details tomorrow...gonna sleep now

Reply: okay. Goodnight Derek(:

Derek: goodnight Lexiboo(; see ya Tuesday. Sweet dreams babe...

His text made me smile as I shut off my phone and headed back into my room. Austin was now gone so I shut the door and plugged in my phone before turning off the lights and crawling into bed.

Derek and I aren't in a relationship no matter what the stupid gossip sites say. Flirtationship would probably be the word to describe it. I feel bad, like I'm using him. He's my distraction. When I'm with him, when I'm talking to him, I don't think about Niall. The one time when that blonde Irish boy isn't running through my head is when I'm talking to Derek. I know, we just met yesterday, but I haven't stopped texting him since.

Tomorrow I would have to see Niall again. I would be forced to think about him. We were friends though, right? I guess it's ok to think about him sometimes but before I met Derek, Niall was on my mind 24/7. That is what I want to get away from. I had to adjust to being Niall's friend, and Derek was just helping me.

AUTHORS NOTE

what a whore xP KIDDING. but what do you guys think will happen? i seriously dont even know O_o well that's about it for this chapter so comment/vote/fan and chapter 30 will be comin your way ;) love you poptarts<33 byee