~Cry~

The small break was finally here! Everyone was pumped to enjoy some time with their own families back home. So everyone said their goodbyes at the airport before going their separate ways. I wanted to say goodbye to Niall before I leave but I got blocked by so many other people, I didn't get the chance to. That was a huge blow, especially since it's been 2 days that we didn't talk to each other. Things somehow gotten more awkward and tense between us, and I couldn't for the life of me figure it out.

So Zayn, Pixie and I set off for Bradford. I decided to put issues with Niall behind me as I try to enjoy my time with my loved ones. I've only got my Dad left, because my mom died when I was 14. That was one of the reasons why Zayn was my rock. I confided in him during that difficult time, and he was there for me throughout. Pixie helped a lot too, she became like a sister to me. Even though she's only a year older than me (she had to retain a year in school, that's why she ended up in the same class as me), and often acted like a wild teenager on the loose, she was a hardworking and responsible girl. She was the oldest among her 5 siblings and grew up having to take care of all of them regularly because her parents were rarely at home. So when my mom died, she took it upon herself to treat me as one of her family.

See, Pixie and I were similar in that way. We grew up having to tend to ourselves. My Dad was a fine man, but I've never been close to him. I know he means good whenever he tried to talk to me, but we both know that we just can't get along. He worked the night shift, so I rarely see him at home. I'll come home from school to an empty house, so I'll do all the chores myself. So when I met Zayn, I was interested in his family. His was the typical cheerful family, where everyone was close with each other and supported each other with minor arguments here and there. Pixie and I loved coming over his house, because we feel warm over there.

So to be able to come home after so many months away from them, it felt great. I get to hang out with my Dad, who I missed so much. For the first time, we actually enjoyed talking to each other, and there was so much to talk about. Then I visited Pixie's house, to spend time with her and her siblings before we head to Zayn's place to hang out, like the old days.

And just like that, a week had gone by. We had a few more days left, before we go up to meet the other boys. They had planned to have a little get-together before the tour resumes again. Honestly, the only thing I was looking forward to was getting to see Niall. We hadn't had contact throughout the week, and I just assumed that he was busy or just didn't want to bother me or something. I missed him though, even though we didn't leave each other in a good way. I tried contacting him too, but after a few tries and not getting an answer, I figured something was wrong my or his line. He was never online too. And I see Pixie forever chatting with Harry on the phone or Skype-ing, and I can't help feeling jealous and hurt.

Zayn and I definitely hung out more together, with Pixie busy with her siblings and Harry. It seemed like she could never catch a break but she loved being busy so we let her be. And with Zayn being back in town, the fans back home got even more excited and somehow, we were always being surrounded with fans asking him for pictures and autographs. Funny how those girls who used to hate us seemed to love us now. Zayn and I often joke about that.

We landed in London, and headed for Bloomsbury Bowling where the others were already at. We were competing in pairs, so Pixie went with Harry, Louis with Eleanor, and Liam with Danielle, which leaves me with Zayn and Niall. It was obvious I was going to end up with Zayn but I really wanted to be with Niall too because we still didn't have the opportunity to talk yet. And the rest of them didn't mind we being a threesome, so it seemed like nothing was amiss.

We had a lot of fun bowling and karaoke-ing. Obviously the boys did well with the latter, but I have a feeling some of them purposely sang their worst to make us girls feel better, which was thoughtful of them really. Zayn was into the games more than Niall, who for some reason seemed distracted and kind of distant. I tried to pull him into all the fun, but he didn't respond to my persuasion. I didn't even make it look like I'm flirting with him, just like in a friendly manner, but if I didn't know better he looked like he didn't want to be seen with me at all.

So when the rest were busy at the table joking around and all, and Niall went up to grab some more food, I took the opportunity to talk to him. The first thing I did was to grab hold of his hand. It was instinctive to me, to get his attention, to grab his hand. And again, to my dismay, he jumped and quickly pulled away, looking around the scene as if to check if anyone saw that I held his hand.

"Hey, what's up with you?" I exclaimed furiously. I was starting to lose my patience with him and I swore to myself if he ticked me off again with his immaturity, he's going to see the ugly side of me.

"Nothing,"he said sharply. He turned to walk away from me, but I wanted an answer.

"Niall James Horan, don't you dare walk away from me again!"I demanded.

I think I spoke too loud, and I saw from the side of my eyes, some heads turning towards us. But my eyes were kept straight at Niall. I didn't care who was looking. But Niall clearly did because he looked around and seeing that a lot of strangers were staring at us, he blushed, apologised to them profusely for I-don't-know-what reason, then grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me to follow him. I was still fuming, and was demanding him to let go of me all the way till he stopped outside the restroom area.

"Let me go!"I shouted.

"Why are acting like this?" he whispered angrily.

I couldn't believe my ears. "Me? I'm acting out? You're the one who's acting like a douche!" I continued shouting.

"Keep your voice down! We're in public, people can hear us!" he hissed.

I gasped in shock at what I was hearing. Was he still trying to ignore me? "You! You..what happened to you? Where's the guy I've grown to love, the one that cared about me so much? Huh? You know, it seemed like nowadays, I'm the only one in this freaking relationship, while you go off ignoring me and treating me like I'm invisible! I'm so sick of this!"

I put a lot of tension in that last sentence, and that kinda woke him up a bit. There was silence between us while I tried to control my anger at him.

"Lila..Lila, I'm sorry..I just don't want people to find out about us yet.."he finally spoke.

"So you decide to just ignore me like that? Just leave me cold out there? Is that your idea of a joke? Huh? To treat me like a princess one day, then suddenly treating me like I'm an old hag that you don't even want to lay eyes on?"

"Lila..it's just..these rumors are powerful, they might end up hurting you like it did to Pixie..I don't want that"

"Well yeah? Aren't you the one who pulled me into this relationship in the first place? Who's going to get hurt? Me isn't it? Do you see me chickening out yet? No haven't you? So why the hell are you?" I stared furiously at him.

"Because the rumors are already hurting me." He spoke softly.

"What?" I was confused.

"These rumors..about you and Zayn..about me stealing Zayn's girl..and I see how you are with him..and just yesterday there were so many photos of you and him in Bradford.."

"We were hanging out! We were back home, what do you expect? Are you jealous? Scared?" When he nodded guiltily, I softened down and asked him,"Don't you trust me?"

And when he didn't respond, I knew the answer. He didn't trust me. And I don't know what I feel about that. Angry, because he's being stupid not trusting me. Hurt, because I thought he understood me well enough to know that he's the only one in my heart right now. Tears started welling up, and I couldn't stop it from falling. I wiped them away quickly and turned to walk away from him. But I stopped, and turned back again to face him, but I didn't have the heart to look directly at him because I was still crying.

"You know..I finally opened up my heart to someone because I thought he loved me so much. I thought,'Hey he's different, give him a chance'. I thought he's gonna know me well enough to know that no other boy is gonna be in that special place in my heart besides him. And that includes Zayn. What's it gonna take for me to convince every freaking one that he and I just friends?"

I wiped my tears again, and continued, this time staring into his eyes,"I expected you out of all people, to trust me in that Niall. You know, if you like me to be with Zayn so much, maybe I should!"

I walked away from him, and joined Zayn at the table, faking a smile in front of him. A few minutes later, I saw Niall coming over, looking at me with his eyes a little red, signalling that he'd been crying back there. But I was too mad at him to look at him, so I just turned my attention to Zayn, faking a laughter to whatever he was saying.

A/N:

Hey hey, sorry didn't upload a chapter yesterday. My lil bro spend the whole day with my laptop, didn't have time.
And, this chapter is gonna be the last for a while, I'm gonna keep it hanging for a few days cos my school term starts again soon, and I haven't done any of my tutorials and study for my upcoming test, so I'm gonna be a bit busy this weekend.
BUT I'll try to write one if I have the time or feel like writing one:)

Thanks for the reviews:D It's been helpful: I'm gonna try to work on writing cliffhangers cos I've never wrote cliffhangers before..not really used to leaving my stories hanging, but I guess it's a good way to keep the readers coming back?

So till then, I hope you enjoy reading this chapter! :D Oh and HAPPY NEW YEAR! *sending rainbows and smiles to all my readers*

PS: Do I write too much in my A/N? Lol