Love Thy Neighbour *editing*

"Nah, he puts too much sugar in it."

I wondered how she would react if she found out I slept with Niall? I didn't even want to think about it. It would probably involve name calling and raised voices. I don't think she would mind so much if she hadn't made such a big deal about him. Okay, he was fit and we all knew it but he was such a slag. He just went about flaunting the fact that he could get any girl he wanted.

And he had had me.

I felt wasted. I felt really, really disappointed in myself. After falling out with him about trying to get into my knickers, I had, essentially, just lost the argument. At least now Sian couldn't call me a frigid bitch.

No, now she could call me an idiot.

I wasn't deluded; I knew there wasn't going to be anything between Niall and I. He was the Irish Shagger after all and I was just...Evie. I wasn't pretending to be anything special and I wasn't pretending that girls like me got guys like that. The sex had just been convenient to the both of us. And it wasn't like I didn't want to sleep with him; trust me, I wanted to.

I sighed. Part of me wished that I had stayed at Kai's. At least that way I wouldn't be feeling full of regret, like I did now. Niall was probably going to go and blab to Billy and his friends about how he managed to get me. School was going to be unbearable on Monday. And I wouldn't even have Sian to cheer me up because she was going to be in one hell of a strop.

I curled up in a ball on my bed and pulled the covers up to my chin. Maybe if I slept for a bit, everything would seem like a bad dream.

A very, very bad dream...

****

"Oh, so you've not been murdered and dumped in a ditch then!" Sian shouted at me on Monday. "Thanks for letting me know."

I shook of Kai, telling him that, yes, I knew that he was coming round after school to see my brother and no, I didn't know that the orange stuff that looked like carrots when you throw up wasn't actually carrots, but in fact your stomach lining. Who knew those sort of things?

"I'm sorry," I muttered, scuttling over to them. "My phone-"

"Ran out of credit," Sian finished for me, her eyebrows knitted together in her favourite glare. "Tell me something I don't know, Evie." I sucked in my cheeks and said nothing; better to let her have her rant than to interrupt and get shouted at.

"After I was mean, I felt like a bitch and went looking for you," Sian babbled, getting into her stride. "And then I asked Kylie and she said that you went off with Niall - she was well up for slagging you off- and then I went outside and you're walking down the street with him!

"Care to explain?" she demanded, her hands on her hips.

"No," I replied meekly. She watched me with her scrutinising eyes.

"You've fucked him, haven't you?" she said. How the hell did she know that? Was I walking funny or something?

"No," I replied, a little too quick.

"Well, that's not what he's been saying," Sian told me smugly. "Him and Billy are saying-"

"That prick!" I exploded. That piece of absolute shit. I was going to kill him, I was going to break his face so bad that he wouldn't even want to go out the house and then...I caught the looks on Sian, Jen and Veronica's faces. They gave each other sly looks.

"He's not said anything, has he?" I whispered, revelling in my own stupidity. Jen, a broad smile on her face, shook her head.

"Bitches," I muttered but I meant it in the best spirit of things.

"So what was he like?" Sian asked, setting onme the same way a cat did with a mouse. "Was he as amazing as he looks?"

"I can't...I can't really remember very much," I admitted. Sian's face fell.

"You shag the best looking boy in our year and you can't remember? Jesus, Evie, talk about an anti-climax!"

Of course it was my fault that she couldn't hear in the ins and outs of Niall Gallagher's anatomy. I couldn't exactly say that I was very apologetic about the fact. I just shrugged my shoulders and changed the subject. Sian was eager to talk about her and Rick so I just let her bang - no pun intended- on. She was practically squealing by the time the bell rang; he was taking her out on a proper date, apparently, and this time, she wasn't going to shag him. Yeah, I could see little piggies flying across the sky.

"Evie." Niall's accent rang out clearly over the hubble of Scottish. I turned and waited for him to catch up. He had left Billy and the crew hanging about next to the storeroom, the well known drug dealing patch.

"You alright?" he asked. I nodded. I don't know why I felt so nervous; nothing had changed. He was still a cocky prick and I was still just another conquest.

"I just thought...I haven't seen you all weekend." I loved the way he was getting tongue tied with his words. It made me smirk.

"I've been busy," I replied simply. "You know how it is."

"Course," Niall said, holding the door open for me. I walked into the classroom and stole my normal seat next to the radiator. Instead of trying to fight me for it, Niall just accepted that it was mine and sat down next to me. Was it me or did he seem somewhat nervous? He kept shooting me anxious glances out of the corner of his eye.

After a couple of minutes of these same looks, I had had enough.

"What?" I demanded. "What's wrong?"

Niall licked his lips and turned in his seat.

"I was wondering," he said, trying to go back to ultra-slick charmer. "I was wondering if you wanted to go out some time."

And I was wondering if I was hearing him right. Had he, the new local stud, just asked me out? I narrowed my eyes. If this was some clever ploy just to get me into bed again, he was wasting his breath; I wasn't going to make the same mistake again.

"I'm busy," I said, picking at my stubby nails.

"I never said when."

"I'm busy all the time."

"Oh."

"You know," I said in a low whisper, "just because you screwed me once, doesn't mean there'll be a repeat performance. So, if you're mates over there have just put you up to this, I'm not that thick." I cast an eye over at Billy's corner, where he and his friends sat discussing wraps.

Niall looked hurt.

"You think that I'm putting myself through this to get a shag?" He asked it like it was totally beyond the realms of disbelief. He was like a human rabbit. "Darling, if I wanted a shag, I would've asked any other girl at this school."

"Then why don't you?" I hissed. "Go on, Mr. Sexpert; go fuck someone else, because you're not getting me."

Niall made an exasperated noise and turned to the front. I shook my head. Did he honestly think that I was that stupid? I knew how boys thought; the moment I had left his house on Saturday, he had probably phoned his friends and told them all about his pity shag. I wouldn't let him crush my heart just so that he could blow up his ego.

"You can be a real bitch sometimes," Niall growled. I looked at him, stunned. He actually sounded like he cared that I turned him down. Was the spoilt little rich boy upset that he wasn't getting his own way? People like him made me want to hurl.

"At least I'm not a complete asshole," I snapped back.

Welcome home, Evie McKenzie...

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Okay, so she's got her guard up but it's going to have to come down, right? So if you want it to happen, votes, fans and comments are all welcome, okay?

Thanks for reading guys!!

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