mine // h.s.

one.

"You sure you don't want to...-?"

"I'm sure, Ni."

I watched the blonde's lips slide closed in frustration as he let out a small huff of breath. His eyes roamed my face, searching in my expression for any hint of a lie - but he wouldn't find one.

Niall was my best friend - the two of us had been inseparable before we'd even known how to talk, according to my mother. We lived just down the street from each other, and practically lived at one another's houses every summer while school was out. I'd been there for him when his mother passed, and he'd helped me through losing my father - we'd seen one another at our best, and had certainly seen each other at our worst. I don't know where I'd be without his annoying little quips, and corny sense of humor.

"I don't get it, Jules, I really don't," Niall hummed as the both of us made our way around a curve, a few blocks away from our destination - Rosehill High School. "It's not that bad, y'know?"

I parted my lips to object, to tell him just how bad it really was, before he beat me to it.

"And it's the first day of senior year, your last year here before we have to try and decide what we want to do for the rest of our lives- I don't think it would hurt, do you? Being yourself, for once?"

"I'm not doing it, Niall, seriously. You should just drop it."

The boy's lips pulled into a frown, and his arm shifted where it was hooked with mine at the elbow. "I just wanna make sure you're happy. And I know you say that you have no interest in ever finding your destined-"

"I don't," again, I cut him off.

"-but that doesn't change the fact that he - or she, maybe - is out there. Trading out your band doesn't change the fact that you're a rarity, Jules, it only tricks people into thinking you're something you're not." For emphasis, he reached across me to pluck at the red band I wore a bit too snugly around my wrist.

"I mean. You really think a silly little band is gonna stop your destined from realizing who you are?" He scoffed, scuffing the toe of his shoe against the sidewalk as the two of us moved further along down the street.

"You know how I feel about all of it," I answered him with a small shrug, leaning into his arm beside mine, letting my gaze wander up to the cloudy sky overhead. It looked like it would rain before the day was out.

"I know, I know," Niall mumbled, before clearing his throat and shifting the octave of his voice. "I want to find true love, not love that's assigned to me," he continued on, obviously mocking me.

I nodded, playful smile on my face. "Exactly," I agreed. "And this silly little band is the only thing keeping every vampire inside those walls from tearing me apart. I mean - you're a rarity, you know what I'm talking about. You can hardly take two steps inside without vampires, guys or girls, trying to convince you to sneak into the bathrooms, or go home with them after."

Niall shot a wide, cheeky grin in my direction. "And that's a problem, because...?"

"Ugh," I groaned out with a roll of my eyes, swatting at his arm with my free hand and watching as he chuckled at my theatrics. "Because we're more than just pieces of meat, Ni."

"Says you," he went on in a teasing voice as we reached the front doors, and he released my arm to move forward and press the door open for me. "I'm perfectly fine being flirted with all day."

I didn't answer him as we headed inside, just shaking my head fondly - knowing that he was only half joking. Niall, like most other rarities, fit the role extremely well.