~I'll Be Right Here~

"I would probably tell Zayn all of this if he were here..but he's not. I wish he was here right now though."

After the hug outside the toilet, Niall brought me back to my house. The car ride was the most quiet ride I've had. I didn't feel like talking to him, and Niall is smart enough to know that. He sent me to my door, but he couldn't resist asking if I was fine.

"You don't have to tell me what happened. I know we're not close, and Zayn probably is the best person you can talk to. But just so you know, I'm right here if you need someone to talk to. But Zayn's not gonna be back till a few more days and I think you do need someone."

He smiled faintly and gave me a tight squeeze on the shoulder before turning to leave. I thought about it for a second, and realised that having Niall to talk to is better than crying myself to sleep. So before he could walk any further, I quickly grabbed his hand.

"Hey. I think I do need someone to talk to. If that's ok with you."

He was staring at our interlocked hands and didn't answer me for a few seconds. When he finally did, I brought him inside and made a cup of tea for both of us. I went on to tell the story, but avoided mentioning Liam's name. I was embarrassed for having a crush towards him and didn't want to tell anyone about it. Let it be a secret between me and Pixie. And maybe Zayn. When I finally finished letting it all out, I sighed waiting for a response from him. It definitely felt better talking it out. But I wasn't ready to be judged, especially by Niall.

He put his cup of tea down, and stared into my eyes. Beautiful blue eyes.
"In this type of situation, all you can really do is try to forget it. Maybe spend less time with him. Maybe he didn't realise that he's leading you on, and that's just how he talks to people, you know? So till you feel better, just give yourself some space away from him. There's other people.." he cut himself short.

I realised he was fidgeting his fingers, so I probed him,"There's other people what?"
He looked up and was struggling to find his words.
"There's always other people you can talk to..you know..like Zayn..and me," And he quickly returned to fidgeting his fingers again. I could barely catch the last 2 words he said. Why did he suddenly turn to being shy when he said that? There's nothing to be shy about talking to him.

"Hey, thank you." I hold his hand and looked at him. I felt his hand twitched a little when I placed my hand on his, and I swore I saw a slight smile at the side of his mouth. "Thank you for being there waiting for me to get out of the toilet just now and making sure I was fine. I thought I could handle it alone, but you definitely made it a whole lot easier. And yeah, I'm sorry if I've never really talk to you before. We can be close friends too, if you want to."

He immediately smiled like a child who'd just gotten free candy. I couldn't help but laugh at his excitement over what I said. He's just so adorable.