Broken (a Niall Horan love story)

Chapter 21

***Niall's P.O.V.***

My mind was filled with curses and perturbed thoughts as I sat at the table and stared at the empty seats in front of me. It was Friday afternoon, and two certain people were late to lunch. Honestly, it really shouldn't have frustrated me as much as it did. It wasn't like they could control being late; they had probably gotten stuck in the usual London traffic. I had been almost constantly pissed since Tuesday, though, and if I had actually been using logic then I would know that it was because of Navaeh and I's fight. However, I wasn't thinking logically and I refused to believe that the fight had had such an effect on me.

With a huff, I picked up one of the menus again and browsed through the different choices of Italian dishes. Why'd Harry have to pick Italian food anyway? Why not some Irish cuisine? It would certainly be more appetizing. Everything on the menu at that restaurant sounded as if it was going to be drenched in marinara sauce. Who even likes that stuff?

The loud scrapping of two chairs against the floor pulled me away from browsing the menu, and I looked up to see two smiling faces that I was very familiar with. "Sorry we're late, Niall," Harry apologized while he and Elizabeth slipped into the seats across from me, "I took a wrong turn somewhere." I rolled my eyes a little at his words; Harry knew London like the back of his hand. He probably deliberately made a wrong turn just so that he could have more time alone with Elizabeth. Nevertheless, I mumbled out an,

"It's fine." I pushed the other two menus towards them and then looked down at my own menu again. It was pretty pointless; I already had picked out what I was going to get and I was pretty sure that Elizabeth and Harry knew what they wanted too. There would no doubt be a desperate attempt at conversation by Harry in 3...2...1...

"Have you tried the Ziti before?" Harry questioned, and I knew that it was directed towards Elizabeth. Another eye roll from me at his predictability.

"I know that Louis tried to make it at the flat, but I've never had this place's," she replied. Of course, Elizabeth was going along with him; she probably didn't even want to be here. If what Harry did to her was as bad as it seems, then I wouldn't be surprised if she really dreaded being around him. "Are you going to order it?"

"I was thinking about it," he shrugged while his long fingers picked at the corner of one of the menus' pages. The rings on his fingers caught the light and reflected it right into my eyes whenever he moved in a certain way. God, I hated those rings of his; they were distracting, bland, and too clunky to be appealing. Why does he always insist on wearing them? "It's just too much to eat," he huffed.

"Well, if you get it then I'll share it with you," Elizabeth offered which earned a scoff from me; nice, Harold, pretty much guilting her into eating the food. "You okay, Niall?" Elizabeth's words cut through my criticism while she confronted my scoff.

"Just dandy," I forced back while looking up at them and plastering on a smile. A movement from Harry caught my eye. Whether it was deliberate or not, Harry's arm draped over the back of Elizabeth's chair while he propped up one of his legs on his opposite knee. Could he be any more obvious and cheesy?

Elizabeth seemed suspicious of my response, but she let it go and looked over at Harry. "Are you going to put up your hair?" she wondered after glancing at his long locks. He needed to fucking cut his hair...

"Oh, yeah, I almost forgot," he chuckled while raising his arms to pull his hair away from his face and almost hitting Elizabeth with his elbow. Elizabeth recoiled in surprise but then her eyes scrunched together as she shook her head and giggled at his mistake.

"Here, let me do it for you before you knock my head off," she joked. He realized that he had almost hit her when he heard her words, and he sent an apologetic smile her way. Obediently, he slouched in his seat and faced away from her so that she could reach his hair. As she pulled it back and took a hair tie from him, she directed a question towards me. "How've you been doing lately, Niall?" she questioned.