Niall's POV
I awoke the next morning without a trace of a hangover, considering I barely drank anything at that party, this made perfect sense. Jade however, was going to feel like absolute shit whenever she decided to wake up. That is, if she ever did. I knew that she slept until the late hours of morning as it was, so I didn't have the slightest clue what time she was going to wake up in the state she would be in.
I assumed that my parents weren't at home yet again, as I heard the absence of any noise coming from downstairs. I was thankful for that, I really didn't want to see them. More so now than usual.
Shaking my thoughts away, I got out of the bed and grabbed some clean clothes, before slowly making my way into the bathroom. I tried to shower as quickly as I could. For some reason, the almost scalding hot water didn't feel as nice as it usually did. Perhaps it was because I was thinking way too hard for the morning, regardless of the shower being the best place to think.
Why was I suddenly being so nice to Harry? Why was Harry suddenly being so nice to me? The shift in our behaviour was strange, we weren't supposed to start being nice to each other for no reason. Though I had no idea if Harry had motives for no longer treating me like shit or not, considering I couldn't exactly ask him or read his mind.
Sighing, I reached up to turn off the water, shivering at the sudden wave of cold air that hit me as soon as the hot water disappeared.
I got dressed in the clothes I had brought into the bathroom and brushing the blond hair away from my eyes, realising that it was in need of a re-dye, the brown roots were becoming a little too noticeable for my liking.
I walked back into my room, rolling my eyes at the sight of Jade, who was still passed out on my bed. I made my way downstairs to find painkillers, not really knowing how Jade would react to the hangover.
Once I had located the pills, I grabbed a couple and a glass of water, walking back upstairs to my room. I made my way over to Jade, placing the glass of water and pills on the nightstand and gently shook her in attempts to waking her up. When she didn't even stir, I rolled my eyes and more forcefully tried to wake her.
Eventually, she groaned loudly and opened her eyes. She looked up at me, holding onto her head and glaring through her half closed eyes.
"What is wrong with you?" she muttered angrily, sitting up in an attempt to seem more intimidating.
"Not my fault you decided to drink so much," I shrugged, motioning towards the painkillers on the nightstand.
"Dick," she groaned again, reaching for the two pills and taking them, letting out a sigh as soon as she had finished the water.
"How much did I drink, exactly?" she asked me, thankfully seeming to have calmed down from her initial annoyance.
"I don't know. One minute you were fine, next minute I got back to find you..." I trailed off, not knowing whether to tell her what I saw or not.
"Find me doing what? Niall, what did I do?" she asked, staring at me wide eyed.
"You were um, kissing someone. A girl," I admitted.
"Oh," she sighed, her usually tanned face had gone rather pale. She took her bottom lip between her teeth, seeming genuinely concerned.
"Jade...do you like girls?" I asked her.
"No. Maybe. I don't know. I just-- never really thought about it," she let out, her shoulders tensing as the words left her mouth.
"So then what happened last night?" I questioned.
"I don't know. This guy came up to me and offered me a drink. I was bored and at a party, so I accepted it and soon enough, I could barely even remember my name--"
"Wait...you bumped into this random guy and decided it would be a good idea to just accept a drink from him?" I interrupted, my eyes widening in shock.
"Okay, so maybe my judgement was a little clouded. Anyways, this girl came over to us and started being all protective and acting like we were friends and told the guy to leave me alone," she continued.
"So then all I could think of was that she was really attractive and I was thinking things that I didn't know I was capable of, and I know that I shouldn't have left you and your boyfriend--"
"He isn't my boyfriend," I cut her off, causing her to glare at me.
"But she was all concerned about how drunk I was and offered to take me outside. I was drunk and attracted to this girl, so I just let her lead me outside and I kissed her."
We both fell silent, though I could sense that there was something else that she wanted to say.
"How did you realise that you were gay?" she finally asked, looking at me.
"It's kind of hard to explain, really. I was never too interested in females but I never really questioned it until I was a little older. I didn't really understand what my feelings meant for a long time, being something my parents avoided to talk about. I just never felt interested in girls, boys just seemed more natural," I frowned.
Now that I was thinking about it, I realised that around the time of me discovering I liked boys, was the same time as when mine and Harry's friendship drifted apart. Not that he had anything to do with it.
"Ni, can I try something?" she asked, looking as though she was incredibly nervous.
"Depends on--"
I was cut off by her soft lips making contact with mine. Neither of us moved, my eyes were clenched shut. Neither of us dared to move our lips, my eyes were clenched shut and I could feel the lip gloss that wasn't completely removed from the night before.
She soon pulled away, her face expressionless as she let out a sigh.
"Did you feel anything?" I asked her, trying to remain calm. Funnily enough, she wasn't the first girl I had kissed. Thankfully, she wasn't the worst either.
"Nothing."
"So that probably means you have an attraction to girls."
"Not necessarily, maybe it's just you that I don't like. You're not the best kisser, Niall."
"Considering what happened last night, Harry happens to enjoy my kissing skills."
"Fake relationship," she scoffed, a clear giveaway that she didn't believe me.
"I think you should spend time with her whilst you're sober. If you do have feelings for her, that's the best way to find out."
"Um, I've met her once at a party. I was also wasted, so I wasn't exactly thinking of getting her number or anything."
"Lucky for you, she happens to be friends with my fake boyfriend."
"He won't be fake for much longer," she muttered.
"Jade," I whined.
"Calm down, Niall. I don't see what the big deal is. I remember what he looks like. If I were you, it wouldn't be a fake relationship for that long," she smirked.
"You're an asshole."
"Takes one to know one, sweetie," she winked.
~
"Honestly, you're both driving me crazy," I said to the two brunettes sitting opposite me. Although Jesy was much less intrusive than Jade was, the two of them were terrible when it came to the topic of whatever Harry and I were.
"Oh, get over it, Niall. We're friends, we can talk about this," Jade countered.
"This whole thing is stressing you out. The least we can do is listen to you. I know I won't judge you," Jesy said, looking at Jade and rolling her eyes.
"Look, I'm fine. Harry has no emotional attachment to me and I'm fine with that," I told them.
"If you've seen what he looks like, you would know he's lying," Jade muttered.
"Let me see him," Jesy said. "Show me a photo."
"I don't have one," I replied.
"Not any that are appropriate for your innocent eyes," Jade let out, causing me to roll my eyes.
Without another word, I looked up his Instagram and picked out a relatively recent photo of him. Jade was right, I thought bitterly. He was so unfairly attractive that at this point, I didn't think anyone in their right mind could say that they weren't at least slightly attracted to him.
"I'm impressed," she said, grinning.
"Told you," Jade let out, her eyes flickering from my photo to look between the two of us.
I rolled my eyes at the expression on her face. I could tell that she knew what I was thinking. Well, unfortunately for her, I wasn't going to jump into a relationship with someone just because they were nice to look at. Even if they looked like Harry Styles.
"I know looks don't mean a whole lot but if I were you I would do whatever I could to sort things out with someone like that," Jesy spoke up, effectively cutting the silence we had created as she passed me my phone back.
"It's just complicated. Things would just be a whole lot easier if they stayed physical. That way nothing gets awkward," I shrugged.
"So you pushing your feelings away isn't making you uncomfortable in any way?" Jesy raised her eyebrow.
"Well, maybe a little. But I can't do anything about that. It's either this or he's not in my life anymore. I don't want to sound cheesy but I kind of want him in my life."
"That won't really work for long. Things will get weird if you just sweep it all under the rug. Eventually you're just going to blow up at each other cause you're tense from hiding your emotions."
"I--"
"You need to work things out with him. Take it slow, just try hanging out with him without it leading to anything physical, let him know you want to be around him for other things and see how it goes from there."
~
"Oh, sorry," I murmured, as my shoulder bumped into someone else, though it wasn't harsh enough to cause damage.
"It's alright, Niall," I heard a deep, yet still feminine voice reply. Perrie. Her bright blue eyes scanning my body in slight interest.
"How's your friend doing?" she asked, a grin appearing on her face and I noticed the way her eyes seemed to sparkle as she spoke. It didn't take a genius to figure out that she was talking about Jade.
"She's good," I shrugged.
"Can you do me a favour and give her this the next time you see her?" she asked, handing me a strip of paper with what I assumed to be her phone number written on it. "We were a little preoccupied last time."
"Sure," I replied, smiling at her.
"See you around, Niall," she smiled and headed off towards where I assumed to be her locker.
Harry's POV
I pulled up outside of Niall's house, the blond getting into my car as soon as it stopped in front of him. I was confused when I saw Niall's text. It wasn't written in the same way that they usually were, not even slightly demanding. He almost seemed upset.
"What's wrong?" I asked him, noticing that he did in fact seem rather tense.
"My parents are just being annoying. Don't worry about it," he shook his head.
"Okay, so what do you want to do?" I questioned. Normally, I would assume that we would be doing something sexual, yet I could tell that Niall was not in the mood. And upon seeing the way he was acting, I wasn't really in the mood either.
"Is it okay if we don't-- you know...have sex? I just don't really feel like it right now," he asked me, seeming incredibly hesitant.
Niall and I hadn't hung around each other without having sex since we were kids. I wondered why he wanted to spend time with me of all people if he didn't intend for it to lead to anything more, but I felt as if I needed to be with him at that moment
"I-- yeah, that's fine. Did you want to do something in particular?" I asked, causing him to shrug.
"I don't mind. We could hang out at yours, I guess. I just-- I need to get away from here for a bit," he motioned towards his house.
I nodded and started the car, driving off in the direction of my house. Niall didn't say anything on the way, he was mindlessly humming along to whatever song was playing on the radio, staring out of the window with a blank look on his face.
I wasn't really sure how this would turn out, seeing as the last time we spent time together outside of school without fucking was at that dinner and I wasn't sure how it would turn out. I was convinced that things would get awkward, as I wasn't sure if Niall and I were capable of spending time alone together without it leading to anything.
Saying that, I wasn't going to force Niall to have sex with me because no matter how much I seemingly disliked him, I really didn't want to overstep boundaries with him.
~
Niall followed me inside my house and although he had been here many times, I couldn't help but feel awkward. We were both silent as we sat down on the couches in my living room and I found myself turning the TV in order to fill the silence.
It seemed ridiculous that I was hesitant to talk to him, considering we had seen each other naked many times, we had fucked many times, talking to him should be easy. Though it wasn't. It seemed so much more awkward, particularly when I felt Niall's icy blue eyes looking right at me, void of any emotion.
"Are you-- you're okay, right?" I asked, clearing my throat awkwardly.
He let out a sigh, running his hand through his hair and nodded his head softly.
"I'm fine. It wouldn't be the first time they insult me. I should be used to it by now, they've only been criticising me for seventeen years," he remarked bitterly.
"You don't believe what they say, do you? Because whatever it was that they said about you is wrong."
What the fuck was I saying?
It wouldn't be the first time I said something nice to him, and much like the other times I did, I couldn't control it. Though what was strange was that it felt good to say that to Niall.
"No. After a while you just learn to ignore their comments," he frowned.
Sometime between the second Niall and I walked into my house and this conversation, I didn't dislike Niall anywhere near as much as I used to.