Boyfriend. Of course she has a boyfriend! And of course her boyfriend is the complete opposite of me. Why the hell is this even bothering me? I knew she had a boyfriend last year. Did I expect him to just disappear? God! I’m a bloody idiot. And he’s such a jerk. She could do ten times better. She could have a guy that would treat her ten times better. I know I would. I would.
These were the thoughts running through my mind for the remainder of the day. As I made my way into the off-campus apartment I shared with my mate Harry, I tried to shake them away but it was useless.
When I walked into the flat, it was a complete mess. Harry was sitting in the middle of the living room floor in a flannel shirt surrounded by random pieces of wood and some tools. Okay so he had a screwdriver and some screws, but it was still something for Harry.
“What’re you doing, mate?” I asked, forgetting about my idiocy for a moment.
“Lou bet me that I couldn’t put together this shelf thing by tonight. To be quite honst I actually have no clue what I’m doin.”
“I can see that. You’ve got a Philip’s head screw driver but flat screws. Didya even look at them?”
“Look you’re better at this shit than I am. Just help me and you can get a cut in the winnings,” he gave me his most charming smile that would have most girls dropping their panties already.
“You can keep you’re winnings man. If I do this for you, you’ve gotta give me some information.”
“Why does that sound so shady?”
“Cause I know how you are about talking about sharing information about people.”
“I just don’t like talking about people. So sue me!”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just get the proper screwdriver for me and we could be done in 15 minutes.”
Harry ran off to get me the screwdriver while I surveyed the damage he’d done. This was a common occurrence in our flat. Harry wasn’t exactly the manliest man and his best friend Louis took the piss out of him for that which resulted in them making various bets for him to prove himself. It usually resulted in me coming home to a mess in the living room and depending on what time I got home I would wind up doing the work for him.
Fifteen minutes later, I was leaning back against the couch explaining just how I had put
the shelf together to Harry. It was so unbelievably simple, it made me worry about this kid a bit.
“Alright I got it now. So what do you want?” Harry asked.
“You know Reyna? We had a class with her last year.”
“How could I forget her. You basically drooled on yourself and all over me whenever she came into a room.”
“Fuck you, Styles. Have you seen her since this semester started yet?”
“Yeah. I bumped into her before classes this morning. Why?” he asked a bit skeptically.
“Why d’you need to sound like that? I’m not stalking her or anything.”
“You’ve been pining after her for a year. Anything could happen!”
“You make it seem way worse than it actually was.”
“Will you just tell me what you want to know, already?”
“What’s the story behind all the piercings and shit? She’s way different this year and you know everybody’s business so I figured you’d know.”
“I do NOT know everybody’s business!”
“Yeah you do mate. So talk.”
“Fine. I heard someone died… a friend or something, I don’t know. And apparently it’s her fault. She took it pretty hard, didn’t want to leave her house for the entire summer.”
“What’d you mean it was her fault?”
“I’m just telling you what I know. It’s the first day of the semester, I don’t have anything else for you.”
“That must really suck,” was all I said.
“Really? If my best friend died I’m sure I’d be all rainbows and butterflies too,” he replied sarcastically.
“Oh piss off. It’s just a little shocking, k. She seemed a bit off today, like I could tell she was trying to be her normal self but I definitely didn’t assume it was anything like that.”
“So you talked her eh? Finally got yourself a pair?”
“Yeah I did. She seemed so different, I kinda couldn’t help it.”
“Aaaand? Did she talk to you?”
I then launched into the story of my day prior to now. Harry seemed quite pleased up until I mentioned her boyfriend. Then he just looked sad for me.
“Man, I’m sorry about that.”
“It’s ok. I didn’t really even have a chance so nothing’s lost, right?”
At that Harry just gave me a look of pure sympathy. Before he could say anything, a knock at the door interrupted our conversation.
“Shit that’s Lou! Throw me the screwdriver and switch places with me.”
I got up to answer the door after I gave Harry the screwdriver and he crawled into my
spot, pretending that he was inspecting his work. I opened the door to find not only Louis but Liam as well. Louis was a bit shorter than me with dark brown hair and blue grey eyes, he had quite a few tattoos and was wearing a tank top, a beanie and was carrying a football in his hands. He was quite the opposite of Harry, who was tall and skinny, with a head full of brown curls and green eyes. Harry was anything but athletic, the common factor between the two were their multitude of tattoos. Liam was about the same height as harry, brown hair, brown eyes and did I mention he was built like a fucking tank? That may be a bit of an exaggeration but he was pretty big, especially in comparison to the rest of us.
“Well,well, well? You did it, mate!” Louis said loudly, barging into our home.
“Well hello to you too, Tommo,” I shouted at him as I closed the door.
“Oh! How’s it going Nialler?” he called back to me.
“Wonderful,” I replied sarcastically because he had already turned his attention back to Harry and his shelf.
As Louis surveyed Harry’s- my- handiwork, Liam and I sat down on the couch and
watched the two interact. Louis asked Harry all kind of shit, about precisely how long it had taken him to assemble it, how many screws there were. what type of screwdriver he used. It was quite amusing to watch Louis’ surprised expression when I knew the truth.
Eventually Liam and I got tired of that and struck up a conversation of our own.
“How’s the first day so far, Nialler?
“S’alright I suppose. Was really good until a couple hours ago. How’s yours been?”
“Mate, I don’t even know any more. I’m so numb to this shit by now.”
“I catch ya… So where’s Zayn?”
“Does anyone ever know?” Louis said over his shoulder.
“He’s painting something somewhere. That’s about as much as I know, really,” Liam said, ignoring Louis’ comment.
“Speaking of Malik… I’m assuming you don’t know, he’s throwing a party on Saturday,” Harry cut in.
“It’s gonna be massive! His parents and sisters are going away for the weekend so he’s having it at their house. Almost the whole campus is gonna be there!” Louis exclaimed excitedly.
Boy did these two love a party. It’s how they kept tabs on all the happenings around campus. They were well known and well liked, especially by the girls. Both Harry and Louis had somewhat interesting track records with the ladies and both were always eager to help Liam and I get a shag in. Zayn didn’t really need their help with that even though he was so shy, because to be quite honest… the boy was gorgeous. The fact that he always threw killer parties and usually had a supply of weed hidden somewhere helped too.
“How the hell do you two know everything all the time?” I asked them.
“Because we interact with people,” replied Louis dryly.
“Maybe you should invite Reyna, Niall?” Harry interrupted me just as I was going to reply to Louis with something incredibly witty that I hadn’t quite come up with yet.
“Reyna? As in the hottie with the body? The same one you were all puppy dog eyes and bonerful for last year?” Louis asked jokingly.
“Firstly, don’t say shit like that, it’s rude mate. Secondly, what does bonerful even me. And thirdly, is it the same girl?” Liam said, first to Louis and then to me.
“I’m sorry for insulting you’re lady Niall. And Liam, bonerful is consistently getting a boner due to one particular person. Allow me to use it in a sentence: Reyna makes Niall bonerful,” Louis replied dead-pan.
At that we all burst out laughing. The boy was hilarious.
“Yes it is the same Reyna. And what part of she has a boyfriend do you not understand?” I said.
“Wait wait wait… Have you actually spoken to her? Is little Nialler all grown up?” Louis said.
“Shut up Louis. But to answer your question, yes I have. We spoke earlier today. She even referred to me as her friend,” I said smugly.
“Yeah, when she was introducing him to her boyfriend,” Harry snickered.
Liam shot me a sad look, “Well I think you should definitely invite her then! As a friend.”
“I’m not going to invite her. I really don’t need to watch her make out with that ass all night,” I said sourly.
“Alright then mate. No need for the aggression,” said Harry.
With that they dropped the topic and started talking about an upcoming football game. Louis and Liam were both on the football team so Harry, Zayn and I were usually always present at the games. So was Reyna, I thought to myself.
Author's Note- OK so I know this chapter is a little boring but it was just a foundation chapter to give a little backstory on somethings and to introduce some new characters. Also I loved writing in Niall's POV. I hope I did justice to the boys' personalities. Feel free to tell me if you think I should tweak anything. Thank you for reading this! xx- Mara :)
