Niall's POV
Walking into school the next day felt rather different than usual. People were staring at me. No one smiled, they just looked at me curiously, which in turn made me feel confused.
As I walked through the crowded halls, I heard someone call to me from behind. I turned around, coming face to face with a girl that I knew to be in the year below me but I didn't know her name.
"Since when were you and Harry Styles a thing?" she asked, seemingly more interested in the idea of receiving gossip than being genuinely curious.
"What are you talking about? Harry and I aren't together," I frowned. I didn't know how anyone would have found out, considering I hadn't even looked at Harry at school without some hostile expression. Well, not in public.
"You used to date my cousin, Angie. She told me you were boyfriends," she replied, frowning a little bit.
Of course. I wasn't even slightly surprised. Angie always seemed to be bitter about our 'breakup' and perhaps her finding out about me and Harry at that dinner was good enough gossip to get revenge on me. I guess you should never tell something to someone who gossiped their way through high school.
As bad as it seemed, I was relieved that she believed us to be a real couple. Things would be so much worse if she knew it was all fake and I assumed she would have told my parents rather than the school. It wasn't that bad. If I could convince my parents that I was dating Harry, I could convince a bunch of people that I rarely spoke to.
I knew that convincing Harry to go along with it would be a struggle. If anything was important to Harry, it was his school reputation. It would be hard to get him to agree to this, as people would be convinced he liked me like that, but I had my ways of persuading people. Harry shouldn't be too hard to convince.
I was about to reply to the girl but she had already turned and walked off, clearly put off by my hesitance to tell her something she would deem interesting.
A small sigh left my lips as I shook my head and continued to walk to my locker. I knew I shouldn't worry about it, it was something that would blow over eventually. I opened my locker and pulled out the books that I needed for my first class, when I heard Louis' familiar voice behind me.
"So...you and Harry aren't together?" I turned to see him giving me a look that was both amused at the fact that I had contradicted myself and annoyed that I didn't tell him about it.
I knew Louis well enough to know that he was going to make fun of me for a while. Especially since this was pretty much what he had been saying ever since he knew of mine and Harry's hatred for one another.
"We're not," I rolled my eyes.
"So why did you tell your ex girlfriend that you were?" he asked, raising his eyebrow.
"Okay, I haven't been completely truthful to you. You can't tell anyone this, not even Liam," I told him.
"Relationships are built on trust, Niall. Is it that important that I have to break the most important rule of dating?" he asked, grinning at me smugly.
I rolled my eyes, seconds away from changing my mind and regretting my decision to even consider telling Louis.
"Harry and I are pretending to date," I admitted.
"What the fuck? Why?"
"How do you think my parents would react to us dating?" I raised an eyebrow, watching as his face morphed from an expression of shock and confusion to one of understanding.
"So you don't actually like him?" he questioned, the ghost of a smirk still present on his face.
I thought back to my conversation with Jade, before shaking my head. It would be better for both me and Harry if I didn't say anything to Louis.
Speaking of Harry, I had no idea what he thought about this. He didn't want anyone to know about us hooking up, I couldn't even imagine how he felt about people knowing we were 'together'.
"Of course not, I wouldn't waste my time on an asshole like that."
~
I was brought out of my daydream when I heard the bell ring, signalling that class was finally over.
Harry hadn't yet talked me about what had happened. I knew that he was aware of people knowing, considering the annoyed looks he had been giving me at any given opportunity. Once again, I was reminded of the reason why Harry Styles annoyed me so much.
Desperate to leave the curious stares from other students, I rushed out of class and headed straight towards my locker. Leigh-Anne happened to be in the classroom next to mine, so she caught up to me once she left the room.
"If you're going to talk to me about Harry, I don't want to hear it," I groaned.
"I wasn't going to. Calm down," she frowned.
"Sorry, Leigh. I've been getting people coming up to me all morning and everyone's staring at me," I said apologetically.
"Well to be fair, we aren't the only people who know about how you feel about Harry. People are probably just shocked about it, they'll forget about it soon enough. If it helps, I'm happy for you," she smiled.
"Thanks, Leigh," I tried to smile as genuinely as I possibly could, hoping she wouldn't see through me.
"Don't worry about it. As long as he's making you happy, that's all that really matters."
I decided not to tell Leigh-Anne about what was really going on, continuing to walk with her towards our lockers in silence.
~
"Hey, baby," I turned to see Harry was standing behind me.
"What?" I asked quietly, not wanting to draw attention to us. Not that it mattered, as several people around were already beginning to look at us curiously.
"I'll leave you guys alone," Leigh winked at me before walking off, leaving me alone with Harry.
He smiled softly and leaned in to whisper something in my ear.
"Bathroom. Now."
I sighed and slammed my locker shut, before following Harry to the bathroom.
"Why did you tell people we were dating?" he asked as soon as we were both alone in the bathroom. He turned to look at me, his expression reading both annoyed and angry, to which made me feel the exact same.
"I didn't tell anyone about this. Don't blame me," I hissed.
"It is your fault though, you probably just told people because you actually like me or something. You know that just because you tell people we're together, it won't make me develop actual feelings for you, right?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Get over yourself, Harry. The world doesn't revolve around you. Not everyone likes you, especially not me. This isn't my fault and I don't appreciate you insulting me like that," I glared.
"It was your ex girlfriend that told everyone, so it's more your fault than it is mine."
"Yeah, the girl I want nothing to do with. I'm aware that she's a bitch, Harry. And I have no control over what she says and does."
"So what do we do? Pretend to be together at school?" he asked.
"It's not a problem for you is it? I would hate to think that you're uncomfortable doing something you agreed to do," I said, causing him to roll his eyes.
"Well, how was I supposed to know your girlfriend was going to tell people about this? I didn't agree to telling the entire school that I'm in a relationship with you," he hissed.
"Don't worry. We can break up by the end of the year and you can be back with your precious little arse kissers, okay?" I muttered, frowning when I realised how jealous I unintentionally sounded.
"Fine, so what do we do now. Do you want me to walk you to your classes or something?"
"Well, yeah. But let's just keep it subtle for now. That means you can't piss me off, insult me or my friends or flirt with anyone else."
"Don't be so demanding. I could easily walk out of here and tell everyone your secret," he crossed his arms over his chest.
"Well, you won't. We have a deal. You agreed to help me. Besides, the school already think we're together and it's going to be practically impossible to convince them otherwise," I told him.
He paused, seemingly thinking about what I had just said. He finally sighed and silently nodded, muttering an agreement under his breath.
~
I didn't see Harry for the rest of the day, not until our English class last period. For some odd reason, he arrived before the teacher, when only me and several other students were here. What was even more weird was the fact that he didn't go and sit in the back where he usually sat with his friends, but rather coming straight into the middle row and taking a seat beside me.
"What are you doing?" I asked quietly, aware of the eyes that shifted to look at me as people realised Harry was sitting next to me.
"I was going to walk you to class but you're always early, so I decided this was the next best thing," he replied.
"Why are you sitting here? Don't you have other people to sit with?" I hissed.
"They won't care. They know that I would rather sit with my boyfriend," he smirked. "This is what you wanted, isn't it? You want me to act like your boyfriend."
"I also wanted you to not piss me off and you're pretty close to doing that," I replied, narrowing my eyes at him.
He just laughed, giving me a fake fond look, one I had become quite familiar with since this whole thing had started, before kissing my cheek softly. I was thankful that I didn't share this class with anyone that I was close friends with, as I would become even more flustered if they saw me sitting so close to Harry.
Harry's POV
"So...you and Niall?" Liam asked, slamming his locker shut.
I thought back to mine and Niall's conversation in the bathroom. I knew that Niall had never said anything against telling Liam but I knew that telling Liam the truth would require me to explain why I agreed to help and I didn't even know the real reason myself.
"Uh, yeah," I said, smiling at him in hopes of convincing him that Niall and I were that perfect couple that you would find in movies.
"Since when were you guys a thing? I thought that you would've told me about it," he frowned.
"Not long. A couple of months now. He kind of wanted to keep it low key," I lied, focusing on the floor.
"I seriously thought you hated him. You're a better actor than I thought."
You have no idea, Liam.
"I did but...I've been feeling bad for everything I've done to him and I apologised. We've been friends for a little while now but things just got more serious and I didn't know how to bring it up to you," I shrugged, trying to sound apologetic.
Liam smiled at me softly.
"It's okay, Harry. I can't say it's much of a surprise, to be perfectly honest."
What was that supposed to mean?
"I'm going to go find Louis, I'll see you later," he said before walking off, leaving me standing alone. I wanted to question him about his previous comment but he had disappeared before I could form any sound, sending me a smile as he left.
Shaking my head, I decided to go find Niall. This would be one of the only times that I willingly searched for him but he wanted me to be his loving boyfriend, so that was what I was going to do. I immediately thought of going towards his locker until I realised that he would already be in class by then, so I figured the next best thing would be to go into class and sit next to him.
I wasn't sure if I was doing it to annoy him, or if I secretly wanted to be with him.
Niall's POV
Class drifted by as it normally did. Surprisingly, Harry didn't make it unbearable to concentrate, he just stayed quiet and would occasionally place his hand on my thigh or kiss my cheek. Annoying, but not overall distracting.
As soon as we were dismissed, I exited the room and headed off towards my locker, not giving Harry the opportunity to say or do anything else to me.
I groaned when I saw a small group of people surrounding my locker, recognising that they were the people that often crowded around Harry.
"You're such a slut," one of the boys said, narrowing his eyes at me. His glare grew more harsh when I didn't reply.
"Why would Harry go for a nerd like you?" he scoffed.
"Because I'm not completely brainless like you," I finally replied, rolling my eyes.
Honestly, I didn't want to hurt them in any way. I just wanted to get them to leave me alone. I was already confused about my feelings towards Harry and I didn't want to let a group of people try to hurt my feelings.
"You're a disgusting faggot," a girl glared, clearly annoyed at the fact I wasn't showing any trace of emotion at the use of their insults.
"Well, since Harry lets me suck his dick, I guess he's one too," I shrugged, pushing past them.
I kind of liked that they were getting jealous, that they now saw Harry as something they could no longer reach. I couldn't help but let out a groan. I was doing it again. I was thinking about Harry as if I was in love with him or something. He may not be as bad as I originally thought he was, but that didn't mean I could think of him as a friend, or anything more.
This little infatuation with Harry was just a phase and I would be over it soon.