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@ niall.ymnn @ olivia.ymnn @ jake.ymnn @ zara.ymnn
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Gif of Olivia.
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Previously in chapter 14:
"Franklin must be drunk." I said.
"No, he's completely sober. He's driving your dad's car tonight."
"Okay, repeat exactly what my brother told you about Niall."
"They were on the same football team, right?"
I nodded.
"And apparently guys share some stuff in the locker room. Franklin said this was around January, and he was on his way out when he heard Niall telling a friend he had slept with this Cassi girl during winter break, even though he was seeing you."
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March 17, 2019
The next morning I left the flat before Zara and Marcus woke up. I was heading to Niall's flat because the thought of him cheating on me had kept me up all night. Marcus slept the entire night with one arm around my waist.
I was planning on paying Niall a quick visit to confront him about this Cassi girl.
It was around nine in the morning when I knocked on his door. A couple of minutes later he opened it, wearing only a pair of sweatpants.
"Olivia?" He mumbled, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
I threw his leather jacket in his face and took a step inside.
"Okay, what's wrong? Why are you at my place this early?"
I turned around and crossed my arms, staring at him.
"Did you sleep with some girl called Cassi Tillman when we were together?"
He just stared at me for a few seconds before laughing right in my face.
"Cassi and I go way back."
"Just answer the damn question, Niall. I'm not in the mood."
"Who even told you that?"
My heart stung.
"So it's true?"
He sighed, hanging his jacket on a hook on the wall.
"Technically we weren't together at the time, so you can't be mad at me. I didn't cheat."
"Oh my god."
I turned my back towards him and felt tears building up behind my eyelids.
"When?" I mumbled without turning back.
"Late in December... a couple of days before New Years."
I quickly turned back to him.
"A couple of days before you told me you loved me?" I exclaimed. "How can you not call that cheating?"
He sighed again, walking past me to sit down on his bed.
"It's not my one of my proudest moments, okay? I freaked out because you were in love with me, and I didn't except you to fall for me. So I panicked and did some stuff I regret."
"Were you lying to me on New Years then? Because if you actually loved me, you wouldn't have been freaked out by mutual feelings!"
"Of course I didn't lie when I said I love you on New Years! How stupid do you think I am?"
"Stupid enough for letting me fall for you, and not being ready to catch me."
"Do you wanna talk about our relationship? Fine." He got up from the bed and approached me.
"I made a bet with the guys about you, because I was a complete jerk back then. I'm not even denying it. But you turned out to be the best damn thing that has ever happened to me. And even though I did everything for you, yet you found new ways to doubt me. I threw you a surprise party for your birthday, I used all of my money to pay for a hotel room for you and I confronted your friends for leaving you. As soon as you found out about the bet, you thought it was all a part of the act. If it were, I wouldn't have done all that for you. So hate me all you want for sleeping with Cassi, but don't doubt my feelings for you ever again."
"Fine, you loved me, so what?"
"So stop blaming me for our break up. Remember that I tried to fix it, but you wouldn't even let me explain? I was a huge reason for it, yes, but you weren't so damn innocent yourself!"
"And what the hell did I do?"
"I don't know, I just..." He tugged at his hair. "You were so selfish! We could still be together if we–"
"You don't even believe in love!" I cut him off. "And three months ago you told me you were done with us. Now I'm done."
I turned around to leave.
"I can't believe I actually thought..." I trailed off, and he grabbed my hips from behind and spun me around.
"Thought what?"
"That you were worth a second chance."
We just stared at each other for a few seconds, and I saw his eyes drifting down to my lips.
"You wanna bet?"
"Wh-you...are you serious?" His question startled me.
"Let's make a bet, a bet including you this time. Just between you and me."
I frowned, not understanding where he was going with this.
"I bet you five pounds that you're gonna fall for me –again– within two months." He cockily said, holding out his hand for me to shake as an agreement.
"And what makes you think I'd fall for you?"
He gave me a sceptical look.
"Let's be real. It's just a matter of time."
I stared at him for a while, wanting to smack that grin off his face. Then I grabbed onto his hand.
"It's on, Horan."
"Good. The rules are simple; the first one to fall, loses."
I let go of his hand and stomped over to the door.
"Oh, and Olivia?" He said as I was about to head outside.
I glared at him over my shoulder.
"Happy birthday." He grinned.
I rolled my eyes and slammed the door shut.
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March 25, 2019
It was time for our spring break. Ever since New Years we've been talking about going away on a trip and I was lucky enough to bring all of my friends. After a lot of arguments about it, we booked a four days vacation to Paris. That gave me three more days off before I need to get back to class, and I was planning on visiting my mom two out of three of those days.
It was Monday around noon and we were on our way to Heathrow airport to meet up with the others. Unfortunately not everyone from my old group of friends could come with us on the trip. Josephine is about four-five months pregnant, so she and Miles decided to stay in England to save money. Brooke and Caleb couldn't make it either and backed out just a week ago.
When Zara and I arrived at the airport, I felt my heart drop. Niall and Jake were standing outside, and Niall was having a smoke as usual.
"What the hell are you two doing here?" I exclaimed and hurried up to them, dragging my suitcase behind.
"I couldn't let you leave without saying goodbye." Niall said, grinning to me.
"And you need a suitcase for that?" I asked angrily. "How did you even know I'd be here?"
"Had a feeling." He shrugged, chuckling with Jake and threw his cigarette on the ground, stomping on it.
Zara placed her hand on my shoulder, bringing me back a little.
"We had two spots available since Brooke and Caleb backed out." She whispered to me.
"And they couldn't just cancel the booking?" I harshly whispered back.
"It was too late to cancel one week before we leave. So Jake suggested he and Niall could tag along instead."
"Out of all people?" I asked, slightly raising my voice.
"Oh come on, it's just four days. You don't have to hang out with them if you don't want."
"You were the one telling Niall to back off, and now you invited him to go on a vacation with us? You could have at least talked to me first." I muttered and grabbed onto my suitcase.
I walked past Niall and Jake and into the airport. My anger washed off when I laid my eyes on all of my friends, including Marcus.
Maddie and Katelyn pulled me into a hug, even though we saw each other two weeks ago and been talking a lot lately about this trip. Casper hugged me too, telling me that Lucas would be here any second.
Chloe, Vicky and Alex were sitting on a bench, talking and Marcus made his way towards me.
"Hi babe." He said, kissing me quickly on the lips.
"Did you know Niall and Jake was joining us, instead of Brooke and Caleb?"
"Yeah, Chloe told me when I came here. It's cool though. Doesn't bother me."
"It doesn't?" I asked, raising my eyebrows. "You're cool with my ex coming with us?"
Marcus nodded and looked behind me. I looked over my shoulder, seeing Zara walking towards us with Jake and Niall closely following and Lucas was with them too.
I hugged him, glaring at Niall one more time and he just laughed.
"Okay, everyone's here. Let's go!" Katelyn called out, and we were off.
An hour later we were sitting outside the gate. The plane was taking off in 70 minutes, which gave us a little more than an hour to kill.
Marcus was sitting next to me, scrolling around on his phone with his right hand, and holding my hand with his left. Across from me sat Casper, Lucas and Vicky. Katelyn, Maddie, Zara and Chloe sat by the windows. Alex was asleep next to Marcus. Niall and Jake were sitting a bit further away because Jake needed to charge his phone.
"I'm going to go buy some coffee. Do you want anything from the shop?" Marcus asked me, nodding towards a small shop behind me.
"No, I'm good." I told him.
He smiled, gave me a kiss on the lips and got up from his seat.
Within seconds Niall was sitting next to me. I saw him open his mouth to say something, but I beat him to it.
"You can't afford to buy me something for my birthday, but you can afford a trip to Paris?"
"I just came over here to tell you that this was all Jake's idea." He muttered. "And if you must know, I had to ask my dad for money."
"I thought you were closer to your mom."
"She's getting married in a few weeks, and therefore there were no use in asking her. But I can leave if it bothers you that much that I'm here."
I sighed. "I guess there's no harm in travelling together. I should be able to be around you for four days without strangling you."
"You know, I was kind of surprised when Zara agreed to letting us come with you to Paris. Jake was only joking, but Zara said you had two spots left that needed to be filled up before the trip."
"And you're just taking one for the team or what?" I muttered.
Niall leaned closer to me.
"Have you listened to the song?" He mumbled.
"What song?"
"The one I wrote, recorded and put on a demo for your birthday."
"No, I have not and you should go back your seat before Marcus comes back."
"What, is he jealous?"
"He has no reason to be." I said, crossing my arms. "You're going to lose this 'bet' you came up with."
"Don't be so sure, princess."
Niall got up from the chair and walked back to Jake, just when Marcus came back.
Thank god I had window seat and Marcus next to me on the plane.
The flight would take about 1,5h, which wasn't that bad. But I was still anxious about going to Paris with my current boyfriend and my ex boyfriend. I mean wasn't it enough that we now lived in the same city after three years of being apart? Now he had to come with me on my spring break.
He was sitting behind me, along with Jake and Katelyn.
"What are we doing when we land?" I asked, turning my head to Marcus who was looking through a magazine.
"Well, first we need to get our luggage." He grinned. "Then find our way to the hotel."
"I meant after that."
"Maybe grab something to eat?" He suggested.
"I could eat!" I heard Jake saying from his seat, and I rolled my eyes.
"I suggest we have a look around the area, maybe decide what we should do tomorrow after breakfast." I said.
"Sounds great." Marcus smiled, giving me a quick kiss on the lips before returning to his magazine.
I leaned my head against his shoulder and closed my eyes. But my attempt of taking a nap was ruined when someone tugged at my hair from behind. I crawled up so I had my knees in the seat, looking at Niall over my chair. He was looking out the window to pretend he was innocent.
"What are you, five?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." He said, biting back a smirk.
"I'm already annoyed that you're here. Don't make it worse." I warned him.
"You're not fooling anyone, Olivia. You're on cloud nine."
"Was that supposed to be some kind of joke?" Jake cut in. "I mean we're literally on clouds."
Niall looked at his friend for a few seconds before smacking him on the arm.
"My point is you're thrilled that I'm here." Niall said, looking at me again.
"You wish." I muttered and sat back down in my seat.
After we had landed and got our luggage, we split up to take cabs to the hotel. I shared one with Marcus and Alex, Zara went with Chloe and Vicky, Niall and Jake shared a cab with Katelyn and last but not least, Casper, Lucas and Maddie took one together.
Alex was sitting in the front with the taxi driver, and I kept complaining to Marcus about how Niall and Jake were here.
"Olivia, baby." He eventually said with a chuckle, grabbing onto my hands. "When are you going to realise that it's fine that two more of your old friends joined us? We'll only be here for four days, so try and be nice, okay?"
"I don't consider Niall my friend. We used to date. You know, kissing each other, spending the night, having sex...." I trailed off in a hushed tone, trying to make a point. "You should be jealous and furious over the fact that my ex is in Paris with us."
"You're going to have to do a little more than that to make me jealous." He chuckled.
I stared at him.
"The person I claimed to be the love of my life is in the world's most romantic city with us, and you're not the tiniest bit jealous and upset?"
"Do I have a reason to be jealous?" He asked in an annoyed tone, and I finally got some reaction from him.
"I've always thought jealousy was a sign of caring for the one you love." I muttered and crossed my arms.
"I do care about you, Olivia. But I don't care that your ex is here. You're over him. I don't see the point in making it into a big deal, when it's not."
"I just..." I sighed.
I don't deserve someone like Marcus
"Most guys would throw a fit in this situation, and you don't even care that Niall is here. I'm just surprised, I guess, that you're so cool with it."
He took my hand again.
"I'm not like most guys. I'd like to believe you would never cheat on me, so please, don't give me a reason to think otherwise."
"I won't."
"Good." He smiled, kissing me softly. "And this will also give me the chance to get to know him."
I groaned and placed my head on his shoulder.
"Don't be friends with my ex. It's weird." I told him.
"Hey, you just tried to start a fight over him. I want to see if he really is that annoying that he's worth fighting over."
"He's not worth fighting over, trust me."
But what if he's worth fighting for?
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