Chapter Twelve

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Chapter Twelve

Niall convinced me to ditch. It felt needed, and Louis might get mad, but it would be fine. Niall and I went to the river that was about thirty minutes outside of town. We were walking and Niall was throwing stones, attempting to skip them.

“Who are you dating?” Niall asked. I paused for a second, but he didn’t notice. “Or are you even dating anyone? It seems like you are but-”

“No,” I said cutting him off. “I’m not dating anyone right now.” I kept my hand in my pockets and shrugged. “I’ve just been trying to deal with everything at home and keep up with school too.”

Niall nodded. “Yeah, I get that. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like if my parents were always fighting. Tutoring with Tommo’s been helping too, hasn’t it?”

“Yeah, it's quiet there, which is what I need. I can’t focus with screaming and yelling always going on. It’s not like I get this special treatment like everyone thinks.”

“I know that,” Niall responded. He glanced at me for a second then looked back at he threw another stone into the water. “Anyways, what’s the plan for when we’re done here? Are you coming to mine, am I taking you home?” He glanced back at me over his shoulder before looking for another stone to throw in the river.

“I think I’m gonna come with you to yours. I don’t want to be home unless you’re tired of me.”

I heard Niall chuckle. “I’m not tired of you, H. We’re best friends, come on.”

At Niall’s house, his parents were in the living room with us, telling us some story about when they were in high school. Niall does a lot of the same stuff that they did, he just never told them about it. Everytime Niall finds out about something that they did and he’s done it, he just tells me that it was destined to be apparently. I never really challenged it. If he was having fun, then he was having fun.

Plus, his parents were those parents that everyone wanted in high school. They knew he went out to party, but he had rules he had to follow. Did he follow them? Yeah, most of the time. Niall was a pretty good kid, but was a bit sneakier than he let on.

“Beer?” Niall offered. I stuck out my hand and he put the drink in my hand. “Why are you frowning?”

“What?” I asked, looking up from my phone, trying to make my face look as natural as possible. “Just a post on Facebook about the abused dogs. You know, the usual shit.”

Louis was kind of pissed I ditched with Niall, but he wasn’t trying to be. I understood where he was coming from but at the same time, I was a high schooler, I ditched from time to time. It wasn’t going to kill me. And I was caught up and had been for a while, it wasn’t going to be the end of the world.

“Yeah, okay, I’m sure that’s what it was,” Niall said, rolling his eyes. I copied the motion before taking a drink of the beer. “It’s Friday night, I’m gonna get you drunk.”

“I’m not getting drunk, Niall” I denied. Getting drunk meant saying things that weren’t meant to be said. I trusted Niall, I just couldn’t afford to let anyone find out and try to report our relationship.

“Yes, you are. You’re gonna relax,” Niall instructed. “You’ve been acting like you’ve had this major secret and you just need to let it go,” Niall sang off key, making me cringe. He just laughed. “Come on, Styles. It’s just me.”

“You know what, fine.” I took a drink again and Niall cheered to himself.

“And we’re not just getting drunk on beer,” Niall clarified. “We have access to a whole lot of options.”

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