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Falling for a Lie ~ Chapter 13.
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“Good morning Niall.”
“I want to talk about yesterday.”
“About the… kiss.”
“I like you more than a friend… But I’m not sure about anything more than that, so maybe we could take it slowly?”
Liam sighed and put his head against the mirror. He took a deep breath, straightened up and started again.
“Hey Niall, what’s up?”
His reflection stared back at him.
“Oh, I was also thinking about last night… Do you want to talk about it?”
He shook his head and sat down on the toilet lid. Seriously, practicing in front of the mirror? Worst advice Google had ever given him!
“Maybe something more impulsive…” he mumbled to himself and stood up. He quickly walked close to the mirror and smashed his lips against the smooth surface. He pretended that he was kissing Niall instead of his own reflection and imagined his reaction. He backed away from the mirror.
“No, that’s stupid…” with those words he exited the bathroom and made his way downstairs. He began to put on his jacket and a scarf.
“Liam, did you kiss the mirror?!” his sister called from upstairs when he was tying his shoelaces.
“No!” he yelled back, but before she could point out the evidence he walked out of the door and made his way towards school. It was barely a half an hour walk, but it could be tiring sometimes. Today on the other hand, he was more than happy for the distance because it would give him some more time to think things through.
The sun was caressing his face, but the air was a bit chilly. It was only March after all. Liam took a deep breath - life was good right now, why change and complicate things? Maybe he should just act as if the little kiss never occurred or tell Niall that it was a mistake? No, that would be wrong. And it would be a lie. And why would he lie to Niall when Niall always was so honest with him? That’s something he really liked about Niall; that he was so honest.
When he was about ten minutes away from the school Louis joined him, like he usually did when he had been sleeping at his own house (instead of Harry’s or Zayn’s).
“Hey buddy.” He greeted Liam.
“Good morning.” Liam’s voice was a bit dry from the nervousness that had settled in when he got this close to school, this close to Niall.
“So, how do you feel?”
“Nervous, scared… Excited.” Liam shrugged.
“What are you gonna tell him?” Louis asked, and Liam scratched the back of his head absentmindedly.
“Uh… Something about that I like him but I want to take it slowly… Should I tell him about Nina? Shit… What should I tell Nina?! I told her that I was falling for her!”
Louis furrowed his eyebrows together. “Why on earth did you tell her that?”
“Because I was - I am!” Liam sighed. “I haven’t even thought about this…”
“Why would you even think about that?” Louis asked, his dislike for Nina showing in his voice.
“Because I like her!” Louis sighed and rolled his eyes at Liam’s outburst. “I mean, I like Niall but that doesn’t mean that my feelings for her just disappear.” Liam explained.
“But compare them, Liam!” Louis snapped. He had enough of this Nina-girl who always stood in the way of his matchmaking skills. “You have a nice, beautiful boy right here; are you just going to give him up for a stranger in Ireland who can’t even show her face?! For as long as I have known you, you have always said that honesty is something you appreciate in a partner. Niall is honest, Nina is not. Simple as that.”
Liam thought about this for a moment before he nodded.
“Have you told Harry about this?” He asked instead, since he knew about Louis’ habit of telling his boyfriend everything. Damn, they had grown close the past few months.
“No, I figured Niall probably wanted to call him and Zayn to gush about last night.” Louis said with a wink and a smile that made Liam’s cheeks heat up.
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Niall hadn’t called Harry and Zayn. He had went straight to bed when he got home, happy because of that little peck on his cheek. He thought about what he would do about the Nina-situation and decided that ‘she’ would slowly but safely slip out of Liam’s life until Liam forgot about her. It didn’t seem so hard: just to make their conversations boring and not answer so quickly, eventually not answer at all.
Niall walked to school with bouncy steps, he was too exited to walk normally. He was nervous too, of course, especially since he had math first lesson: which meant he would be sitting next to Liam.
Due to his excitement, Niall had left his house extra early which resulted in arriving to school extra early. None of his best friends were there yet, and he didn’t feel like being friendly toward his other friends (he had other things on his mind, you see) so he simply grabbed his math books and sat down in the classroom. Soon enough his phone beeped with a new message.
Harry: Where are you mate?
‘I’m already in the classroom’ he answered. In that moment he, Zayn, Louis and Liam stepped into the room. Liam caught his eye and smiled at him, a smile that he returned. Louis nudged Liam in the side before he went to sit down with Harry and Zayn. Liam made his way to his usual place beside Niall.
“Hey.” He said when he sat down.
“Hi.” Niall answered dryly and tried to swallow the nervousness.
They didn’t make it further in their conversation before the teacher arrived and started up the lesson.
After a while, Liam leaned a little towards Niall so he could whisper in his ear.
“Last night was fun.” He said and his insides were doing some sort of circus show. He could see Niall blush slightly and he was suddenly afraid that Niall might not want him, despite Louis assurance.
“It was,” Niall said and turned his head so he could smile at Liam, “but you probably wished that we had watched Toy Story instead, don’t you?” His tone was teasing.
“What do you mean?” Liam asked suspiciously.
“You know, it’s your favorite movie.” Niall kept smiling, but Liam’s smile was long gone.
“How do you know that?” He demanded, because as far as he knew he had only told Nina about that.
“You told me.” Niall said as if it was the most normal thing ever and shrugged.
“No, I… I didn’t tell YOU” Liam said and Niall’s insides went cold. Then he remembered; Liam had told Nina about this, not him.
“I-I-I…!” Niall stuttered, but no words would form. Suddenly everything clicked for Liam; how Nina had cared about Niall, how they had been unavailable at the same time, how Niall had known certain things that Liam couldn’t remember telling him, how they both were blonde and Irish…
“You’re… You’re her, aren’t you?” Liam asked quietly, because he could barely believe it himself. Niall knew he was fucked, so he just nodded as an answer.
“What the FUCK?!” Liam suddenly yelled as everything ran through his mind a second time. Niall flinched a little, because of the yelling and the fact that Liam hardly ever cursed. Liam raised from his seat, he didn’t want to be here anymore. Everyone’s eyes were on him and Niall now.
“No, Liam, let me explain!” Niall sounded desperate, but Liam didn’t care.
“You LIED to me!” He said and stared down at the blonde.
“I only lied about my name and gender, everything else was true, I promise!”
“You said you were from Ireland!” Liam’s blood was basically boiling from the hot anger he felt.
“I am from Ireland!” Niall shouted, his accent thickening with the statement. Liam shook his head and quickly walked out of the classroom, slamming the door after him. He didn’t care if he made a scene; the one person he trusted and had appreciated for his honesty had lied to him for months!
He leaned again the wall and felt the tears starting to fall; no beautiful, slow tears. There tears were hot and violent, angry. The door opened and Liam was ready to punch Niall if it were him. It wasn’t, it was Louis.
“Liam, what happened?” he asked. Liam didn’t cry very often, and he never caused scenes like that.
“It was him all the time!” Liam sobbed and tried to wipe the tears away. “Niall is Nina!”
“What?!” Louis asked in shock, then he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Liam. “I’m so sorry.”
“I always thought he was honest and he lied to me all this time… God, why did I even trust him? He’s just a… a…” Liam had to take a deep breath to keep his shaky rant going. “He’s an idiot.” He said and hugged Louis back.
“I know.” Louis whispered into his shoulder. “You know what I think you should do? I think you should skip the rest of the day, go home and rest, calm down a little. You and Niall can work this out later, okay?” Liam nodded. “Alright, I’m gonna get into class again, but do you make it on your own for now?”
“I’m not a baby Lou” he said with a small, sad chuckle. “Go back to class, I’ll talk to you later.”
Liam went to his locker to get his stuff before he exited the school building and Louis re-entered the classroom. He looked over at Niall, who was grabbing the corner of the table hard enough to make his knuckles white. He was biting his bottom lip to fight the tears that were shining in his eyes. Louis took his seat beside his boyfriend and the teacher continued the lesson like nothing had happened.
“What was that all about?” Harry asked him and Louis sighed.
“Liam have been texting this girl for months and now it turns out it was Niall the whole time.” Louis glared at the Irishman before he looked back at Harry and Zayn. They didn’t look surprised thought, more like guilty.
“Did you know about this?” He asked and they looked guiltier.
“That is so low.” he told them before he grabbed his books and took a seat at the other side of the room. Harry cursed under his breath and Niall shot him and apologetic look. Harry just nodded to confirm the apology while Zayn patted his back to comfort him. Niall had really fucked up this time.
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Liam entered his house and prayed that no one would be home. No such luck; his mother came out of the living room as soon as he had closed the door behind him.
“Liam! What are you doing home?” She asked, but Liam just sniffed and went for the stairs and his room. His mother followed. Liam wiped away the tears that were still falling, seriously, how many did he have?
“Please, I need to be alone.” he said and motioned for his mother to step out of his room.
“What happened?” she asked concerned, and Liam just wanted to scream. He had been stabbed in the back, that’s what happened.
“Niall is an asshole.” He mumbled instead.
“What did he do?” Her eyes was curious and worried.
“Please mom, just leave me alone.” he begged and she nodded, stepping out of the room. Liam closed the door and then laid down on the bed. Yes, Niall really was an asshole. It didn’t stop Liam from being in love with him thought.