Mirrors

Chapter Thirty Four

She had on this super short, super tight dress. With a drink in her hand, she was practically fucking the guy she was dancing with, if you want to call what she was doing dancing. She had her back to the guy, leaning into him as she grinded on his crotch. Niall could easily see he was turned on by her movements.

"That guy's about to get lucky." Some guy beside him said to his friend.

"Yeah, he is," his friend said, cheekily.

Niall was disgusted. 'Did I ever act this way?' he wondered. He continued to watch the spectacle in front of him just as she brought her face to the guy's ear and said something as she took his hand and led him somewhere. The light hit her face just enough to let Niall know that the look in her eye was not a good one.

He didn't know what kind of game she was playing but the Edie he met five months ago, the girl who just two months ago was doing so much better than she had been, was not the same girl the last two months. Something was wrong and whatever she was doing was not safe. So he did what any good friend would do - he followed them.

He peeked around the corner they had turned down but saw no one. He slowly walked past the first door, it was open, but no one was in there. He heard a thud from the room behind him. The door was slightly ajar. Niall peeked in and saw Edie pinned against the wall with her legs wrapped around the guy's waist, making out. He heard the sound of a zipper and Niall knew what she was about to let happen she would later regret. He pushed the door open and Edie's eyes opened to meet his.

"What the fuck?!" She screamed which sent the guy with his dick hanging out to turn his head.

"Hey, buddy, a little privacy please," he said, annoyed that he had been interrupted.

"Edie, what the fuck are you doing?"

"Edie?" The guy asked, "I think you've got the wrong girl, buddy. Now beat it!"

And then instinct, perhaps even jealousy, took over. Niall ran in and pulled the guy off of her while she was pleading with him to stop. "Stay the fuck away from her!"

"Niall, stop it!" She screamed as she pushed him back against the wall.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Niall asked her, trying to grab a hold of her.

"That's none of your damn business. What are you doing here? I told you to stay the fuck away from here!"

The guy she had come back here with had gotten back up on his feet and was zipping his pants back up. "Fuck this. You can have her, dude. Just a warning for ya, that pussy might feel good wrapped around your dick but something ain't right in the head with her. Stupid bitch." And he walked out, slamming the door.

Edie picked up the closest thing she could find, a roll of toilet paper, and threw it at the door with an aggravated scream. She adjusted her dress and then looked up at him, shooting daggers from her eyes.

"I told you to stay away from here," she said in a tone he had never heard before.

"So, then what are you doing here?"

"That's none of your business," she spat, turning away from him.

Despite the sound of the blasting music ten feet and one closed door away from them, the room they were in became deathly silent. The tension became unbearable, so Niall had to say something.

"What were you doing, Edie?" He asked softly. "The girl I've gotten to know these last few months would never do this. And I don't think she ever did it before either."

She remained silent, her back to him. He tried to reach out for her but as soon as he touched her shoulder she flinched and whirled around, knocking his arm away from her. "Stay away from me, Niall."

She opened the door and was about to leave but Niall wasn't having it this time. He was going to find out what the fuck was going on. He grabbed her arm and yanked her out the back door.

"No. Not this time. You don't get to walk away and act like I'm the bad guy. Not this time. What is going on?"

"Let go of me!" She said as she yanked her arm away from him. "And leave me alone. You don't want anything to do with me."

"That's not true."

"Yes, it is. From the very beginning. Remember? 'Fake it til we make it'?"

"That was then. That was when we both were being stubborn idiots. But then we got to know each other. And it all changed. C'mon, Edie, something happened that night you were at my house letting me read those reports; letting me in and trusting me to help you. And then you fucking snapped! And now you're here randomly fucking some dude you probably met ten minutes ago!"

"What do you care what I do? Or who I fuck?"

"It's not about that. It's about how the girl I know wouldn't do that!"

"You don't know anything about me."

"Bullshit. That's a damn lie and you fucking know it!" Niall stopped for a moment to catch his breath and regain his composure. He then had a horrid thought come to mind. He rubbed his eyes and ran his hands through his hair before looking back at her. Calmly and quietly he asked, "How often are you here?" She had been looking at the ground and her head shot up at his question.

"What difference does it make to you?"

"Would you stop being so goddamn stubborn! You can say it all you want, doesn't change the fact that I do care about you. So, answer me! How often are you here? Is this what you've been doing the last two months? Are you coming here, slutting it up and finding random guys to fuck you in a back room?"

At that comment, she lunged towards him and slapped him, hard. "Fuck you!"

Niall brought his hand to his cheek. He deserved it, he knew that. But he wasn't going to relent. "That's a dangerous came you're playing, Edie. Especially when you have someone who wants to help you. What if you start toying with the wrong guy? What if you had started something, freaked out, changed your mind, whatever, and he decide he wasn't done? Do you want to end up by that dumpster again? Perhaps, dead the next time around?"

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Edie looked up at him and then over to where he was pointing. In her anger, she hadn't realized where they were. She had been doing this for two months and not once had she been out here. She suddenly couldn't breathe and reached out for the wall to hold her upright. Niall noticed and stepped forward to hold her up. She tried to push him away as she felt herself breaking again. She needed to get away from here.

"Edie, just let me help you. You've done so much for me. Please, let me try," he whispered.

"I need to get out of here."

She pushed him away and started to walk towards the street but her feet only got her to the dumpster. She closed her eyes but her body wouldn't move. When she opened them, she found herself looking down at the ground where she had been left; discarded like the trash that now laid at her feet. She closed her eyes and it all came flooding back to her, once again.

She began to cry but she quickly wiped away her tears. "Not this time. You're not going to win this time," she whispered.

"What?" she heard Niall ask behind her.

She didn't answer. She picked up an empty liquor bottle and hurled it at the dumpster. She picked up another bottle and threw it. She picked up a piece of broken wood that she swung at the dumpster and the ground and the wall. All the while, she screamed. She didn't know if she was saying anything coherent or if she was just screaming. She kept swinging until the damn thing broke. She then picked up some rocks and hurled them.

When she ran out of things to throw, she stood there looking at what she had done. And then she screamed some more. She just kept screaming, for how long, she didn't know. All she knew is that at some point she felt arms pull her in, lace around her and hold her as tightly as they could. She heard his heartbeat pounding against her ear as his voice whispered over and over,

"I've got you. Sssshhh, I've got you. I've got you. Let's go home, okay," Niall said, softly.