Broken (a Niall Horan love story)

Chapter 28

***Navaeh's P.O.V.***

"You're actually going to go?" Niall groaned from his place on his couch. He was lounging around since he had just gotten back from recording for their next album, and I had been hanging out with him because I had gotten out of school a bit earlier due to some big event that was going on. I never really paid attention to the extracurricular stuff, though, and I had taken the opportunity to leave early as soon as they had offered it.

"Of course I'm going to go; I'm the one that suggested it," I shrugged while pulling my crop top over the tank top that I was wearing and then straightening it out. My hands went to my shorts as well; they weren't short, but I still felt the need to pull them down a little bit. You see, Niall's flat was unusually warm that day, and there was something wrong with his thermostat because he couldn't change the temperature in the house. So, our solution to the problem was to take off anything that made us too hot. That left Niall in only basketball shorts, and I in my shorts and tank top. It was nice, but I still would've liked it to be cooler in the flat.

"Yeah, but what about your arm and your stomach?" he questioned with a frown. He had been very helpful the night before when I had come to his flat to get away from my house. I felt bad for coming when the boys were staying over, but I couldn't stay in my house a second longer. Niall understood when I explained everything to him in the morning, and he insisted that I stay as long as I needed to. Now I was dreading going back to the house once again; my step father would be mad since I hadn't been there in the morning when he came back from his shift. I was in for a lot more hurt.

"It's fine, Niall, really," I insisted while I slipped into my shoes. I had actually chosen to wear heels that night; they weren't anything fancy or too high. I'd brought them over the night before because I knew that I would have to get dressed at Niall's place. Niall had shown his obvious distaste when I had shown them to him, though. It really didn't matter if he liked them; they weren't meant to impress him anyway.

"Yeah, but what if he hits your arm and it hurts really badly?" wow, he was very persistent with this.

I couldn't help but to laugh at that and put my hands on my hips as I looked at him. "Yeah, like you did an hour ago?" I shot back, though I was teasing him.

"That was an accident!" he protested in his defense. It was true; he had been going to put his arm around my shoulders and he misjudged how quickly his arm was stretching out. He ended up basically punching me in the arm on accident, and it had hurt for a while before the pain ebbed away. He'd been extremely apologetic about it, though; he was freaking out because I was close to tears due to the intense pain. I just shook my head at his words now, though; he knew that I was only teasing him because of the smile lining my lips.

His eyes looked me over for what seemed like the hundredth time that night and he let out a grunt. "Could you cover up a bit more at least?" he wondered.

"Gosh, the shorts are fingertip length, Niall!" I groaned in exasperation, and Niall rolled his eyes at the words. I figured that he would find anything to criticize just to stall me or keep me from leaving. He really didn't like the whole idea of this date, and I knew that it was because he didn't like Cody. He hadn't actually said anything bad about Cody yet, but I was sure that he would eventually.

"I'm sorry that I'm concerned about the boy getting ideas when you're dressed like that," Niall grumbled out while crossing his arms over his chest and looking much like a child who hadn't gotten the candy they wanted, "it's an hour and a half in a dark room, Navaeh."

"My God, you are such a drama queen," I laughed at him a little and it only caused his frown to deepen. There was even a pout starting to form on his lips, and it was hard to resist giggling at his silly expression. He was trying to get me to feel guilty about all of this, but he was really just entertaining me with it all. "Nothing is going to happen tonight," I assured him.