Harry:
First interview since the concert, I'm sure it's going to be all about you ;)
Niall:
You say that like it's a bad thing
Harry:
Definitely not...excited to share my world with you
Harry:
I love you Niall
Niall:
I love you too Harry <3 I'll be watching.
Harry:
Oi, making me even more nervous now!
Niall:
You'll do amazing as always babe. Xx Call me after?
Harry:
Wouldn't miss it for the world. Ttyl. xx
I smile down at my phone before placing it down next to me on the couch. I'm back in my flat in London. The lads and I finished up our wonderful vacation in the states with a lot more drinking, gambling, and laughs. I had a wonderful time but I have to admit that I am happy to finally be home.
After Harry's concert, there had been quite a few instances where fans would bombard my friends and I or the paparazzi would take pictures of us when we would go out to dinner or clubs.
I had reactivated my social media, only to find that I had millions of new followers. Hell, I even got verified. My comments were flooded with people complimenting me or asking me questions about Harry and my relationship. There were a few negative ones, but I tried my best to ignore them.
When I had returned to my flat I had spent hours and hours going through social media, reading the articles that people had written about our boy's trip. A lot of comments were about my friends as well, and boy did people seem to love them. I laughed at some of the comments about them, screenshotting the good ones and sending them to our group chat so we could all have a good laugh.
Overall, most of the pictures I found that the paparazzi had taken I thought looked pretty good. I kind of looked like a model in some of them. Seeing the ones with my mates and Harry surprised me. We all looked like we sort of belonged together.
Of course, Harry was always the better looking one in pictures of the two of us. I have always thought that though. If he knew what I was thinking then he would be disagreeing with me and scolding me, telling me that I look amazing in the pictures as well. But there's just something about Harry...he looks so graceful and comfortable next to a rather timid me. Maybe it's the clothes, Harry and my fashion choices are almost completely different from each other, making us look like a rather odd couple. I'll have to try to coordinate with him next time.
I pull my laptop into my lap and type in the website to the live interview that Harry will be doing. It's to start up in a few minutes, so I scroll through Twitter to pass the time.
Harry was right. A lot of the questions in the thirty minute interview were about me or our relationship. Harry has the biggest smile while he talks of me and it only makes my cheeks stretch up into a grin as well, seeing how happy my boyfriend is.
I can only laugh at some of the absurd questions that are being asked about our love life and I'm thankful that Harry has had so much practice at avoiding the wild ones. He doesn't delve too much into our relationship, probably because he wants to either keep it private or make sure that I'm okay with him saying certain things about us to the public. Either way I'm glad.
Harry calls me only a few minutes after he says goodbye to the interviewer and I answer on the first ring.
"Hello?"
"Hey babe," Harry's cheery voice speaks, "Did you watch?"
"Of course I did," I reply, rolling my eyes, "I told you I would."
"I know, I wish you could've been there."
I laugh, "Yeah to sit there with the reddest face on the Earth and stuttering out answers like a buffoon?"
"Nooooo," Harry draws out, "To hold my hand so I can show off the dime piece I call mine."
I bite back a grin and I'm glad that Harry can't see the blush that creeps up on my face.
"Either way you did great," I compliment.
"Thanks babe."
"What are you up to for the rest of the day?" I ask, playing with the hem of my shirt.
"Since I'm going to be in LA for a few more days I was thinking about going house hunting, maybe get some dinner with some friends," he responds and I can hear a car door shut behind him.
"House hunting?" I ask, confused. This is the first I'm hearing about Harry wanting to have a house in LA.
"Yeah, I'd like to split my time between London and LA," he says nonchalantly.
"Oh," I furrow my brows, thinking about the news.
"Bad idea?" he chuckles nervously into the phone.
I don't reply. I'm thinking that if Harry buys a place in LA and wants to spend a lot of time there then I won't be able to see him as often. It's hard for us now with the long distance, and only getting to see him for a few days every couple of months is hard for me.
Then I start thinking about what Louis had said in Las Vegas. If after I graduate I do start spending more time with Harry – which is what I want to do – and he lives in LA, then I'd have to be in LA. Which then means that I won't get to see my friends as often.
"Niall? You there?"
"Yeah," I respond quietly, "I'm here."
"You didn't answer me. What's up?" he asks, sounding more concerned.
I chew on my lip. I can't tell Harry my worries about this. I can't try to control him. He should be able to live his life the way that he wants to. I'm worried that if I say something, not only will his manager find a way to twist this so it is worse than it really is, but I don't want Harry to be down because of my feelings.
"Nothing, just tired from the trip and classes start up again tomorrow," I lie and my heart immediately stings.
"I'm sorry baby. You'll be graduating in no time though," Harry soothes.
"I know," I mumble, "I should probably get to bed then. It's late here."
"I'm sorry for keeping you up love," Harry says almost sadly into the phone, "I miss you Niall."
"I miss you too Harry," I say before I yawn loudly, causing him to laugh, "I miss you more than you know."
"I'll hear from you tomorrow, yeah?"
"Of course," I respond, walking towards my room and unbuttoning my jeans.
"I better," he says cheekily, "I love you."
"I love you too Harry, talk to you tomorrow."
"Bye babe."
_____________
"Hey Z," I say, tossing my backpack to the floor of his car and slipping into the passenger seat.
It's back to class today and to say I'm nervous is an understatement. It's the first day of me being outside of my flat without Harry since Vegas. There weren't many people out in front of my flat, which helped ease my mood.
"Hey Ni. You're looking good today," Zayn compliments and a blush stains my cheeks.
I've tried to dress better today and I've even done my hair up so that if people were taking pictures I'd at least look decent.
"Thanks," I respond. I buckle up and pull out my phone as Zayn pulls away from the curb.
I open Twitter and I notice all of the tags and mentions in my notifications. I guess this is the new normal for me. I sigh and click on the notifications button, scrolling aimlessly through them. It's hard to read every single one, so I decide to come back to them later. I check what's trending and to my surprise there's one about me.
"What's #whataboutNiall?"
Zayn takes a peek over at me, "What?"
"It's trending on Twitter," I say and my anxiety skyrockets. I don't even want to click on the hashtag at all, afraid of what I'll see.
"I don't know mate," Zayn responds before he pulls into a parking spot in the lot at school, "I haven't gotten on Twitter this morning."
I look at him with wide eyes and concern all over my face, "What if it's bad?"
"Calm down Ni," he places a reassuring hand over mine, but it doesn't ease the feeling one bit, "You sure you want to look right now?"
"If I don't it'll eat at me all day," I admit to him and he nods knowingly.
"I'm here if you need me."
I nod before returning my gaze to my phone. I take a deep breath and hold it in as I click the hashtag. My heart drops to my stomach as I'm met with tweet after tweet of Harry and his ex, Alexis. There's pictures of Harry with his arm around her shoulders walking in the street sometime last night. There's a few more, some with Harry's hand in hers, his head down, but his long curls are something that I could recognize anywhere.
"Ni?" Zayn places a hand on my cheek, wiping at a tear that I didn't know had escaped my eye, "What is it?"
I pass my phone over to him and bury my head in my hands. I try to keep calm. I pray that the tears stop and I take a few deep breaths.
There has to be an explanation for this. Harry wouldn't make up with me and tell the world we are together just to flaunt her around in my face. He wouldn't do that, would he?
"You're okay," I repeat to myself a few times over.
I shouldn't get worked up like this because I'm sure it's the first of many times that I will be seeing something about Harry that will try and wreck our relationship.
I wipe my red eyes and sigh once more, "I'm okay Z."
He looks like he doesn't believe me but I assure him that I'll be fine.
"Come on, we're going to be late."
"You sure? We don't have to go. I'll skip with you and we can go do something fun," he says and his genuine concern makes my heart swell, "Just me and you. Maybe we can let people get pictures of how much fun we're having to make him jealous."
I laugh at that. As amazing as that sounds, I can't be fighting fire with fire.
I shake my head, "Thanks Zayn, I appreciate it. I really do. But I can't let them win. I can't let them tear me down. I'll talk to Harry later, I'm sure it's nothing," but I find myself not being able to believe my own words.