Tuesday, June 19 2012
Los Angeles, CA

Niall sat down on one of the many couches on set that morning. He took a sip from his bottle of water and glanced around tiredly. For a video entitled ‘Up All Night,’ they sure were up early to shoot it.

There were a lot of people around; crew, extras, and a bunch of other people from management. Because of the sheer amount of people around, he and Harry had to try and act like things were normal and everything was okay. But it certainly didn’t feel that way to Niall.

Every time something silly would happen on set, he’d glance over at the others and laugh, but Harry’s smile wasn’t as bright as usual. He and Niall would make eye contact, and both of them would awkwardly stop laughing and move on to something else.

It didn’t make for a very energetic day. Which was unfortunate for a video akin to Katy Perry’s ‘Last Friday Night.’

“Niall, come over here,” Liam laughed, motioning towards where the rest of the group was standing. Niall sighed and stood up. A short moment to himself was all he was entitled to, there was no time for him to just sit around glumly when there was work to be done.

Really, all he wanted to do was go back to the hotel and spend time with Brittany. When it was just the two of them in the room, they could pretend that none of this was happening. That they were just a normal, happy couple. That they hadn’t caused a metric ton of drama and Niall’s best friend to hate him.

But there was no time to reflect on that now.

“What’s up?” Niall asked, joining them.

“Get on the table,” Louis laughed. “We decided that one of us is going to dance on it.”

Niall looked at them oddly. “If you lot have decided that, then why is it me that’s dancing on the table? I was sitting over there.”

Zayn shrugged. “We played the nose game. You lost. Because you were sitting over there,” he snickered.

Niall just shook his head. “There’s no way I’m getting on that table if you’re going to break it,” he said, referencing a lyric from the song. “I’m onto you.”

Zayn just laughed. “I’m not going to break it! There’s always that one guy who’s dancing on the table at house parties, and today you’re him.”

Niall just raised his eyebrows and looked at his friends. Well, three of his friends anyway. Harry remained silent and uninterested throughout this conversation.

“Come on Nialler,” Louis laughed. “Just do it. What’s the worst that could happen?”

Famous last words. Still, Niall figured he was right and so he climbed up on to the table. He was a fairly terrible dancer and hopped around awkwardly while the others cheered him on from below. He laughed, enjoying the moment a little.

Until one of the legs of the very unsteady table began to crack. Before Niall knew it he was falling to the ground. The table crashed and Niall fell face first right onto Harry.

The other three boys stifled giggles at both the hilarity and obvious awkwardness. Niall and Harry looked at each other in shock for a couple of moments. They were both too stunned to do or say anything.

So they both burst out into laughter.

“Oh my God,” Zayn laughed. “Did you see that? Please tell me you got that on video, because the table actually broke!”

“Yes we got it on video,” the director said irritably. “Are you guys okay?” he asked, looking down at Harry and Niall, who had yet to move from their ridiculous position.

Now that they’d had a moment to catch their breath and realize what was happening, the awkwardness between them set in once again. “Fine,” Harry said shortly, shoving Niall off of him. “We’re fine.” He stood up and walked over to the catering table.

Niall just sat up and sighed to himself. “Yeah, we’re fine.”

“Good,” the director said, walking back over to the camera. “Let’s take a couple of minutes to get this cleaned up and then we’ll start rolling again. And boys, try not to destroy any more props.”

Niall just nodded, but didn’t move from his spot on the floor.

“Sorry Nialler,” Zayn said, still wearing a slight smirk on his face. “I didn’t think the table would actually break.”

Niall waved him off. He couldn’t care less about that. “Don’t worry about it.”

Zayn leaned down slightly and gave Niall a pat on the back. “Hey, cheer up. You know that Harry’s gonna get over it. He’s upset right now, but he’ll learn from this, you both will, and your friendship will be stronger because of it.”

Niall glanced up at Zayn. He didn’t offer him advice very often, but when he did, Niall found it was worth listening to. “You really think so?”

“Yeah,” Zayn nodded confidently. “We’ve all been through too much together for him to just throw it away.”

“He said we were nothing,” Niall muttered.

“Well, yeah,” Zayn said with a shrug. “You did sorta steal his girlfriend.”

Niall couldn’t quite argue with that.

“But,” Zayn continued, giving Niall a reassuring look. “I do think he’ll get over it. It’s Harry. He’ll find another girlfriend eventually, and he won’t be so angry with you anymore. He probably won’t trust you alone with her though,” he joked a little.

Niall had to laugh at that. He had to admit that Zayn was probably right. Harry couldn’t stay angry with him forever, he had to get over it eventually, didn’t he?

It was hard for Niall to believe that as he looked over at Harry, who then shot him a glare and avoided his gaze.

***

“My poor baby,” Brittany cooed, brushing Niall’s hair away from his forehead a little. The two of them were sitting around in their hotel room that evening, avoiding everyone else just as they had the night before.

“I wasn’t really that hurt,” Niall sighed, though he enjoyed the way Brittany was fawning over him. “It was just a bit awkward when I fell on top of Haz. It was like things were normal again for a minute, and then he remembered that they weren’t.”

“Yeah,” Brittany said, as she continued to play with Niall’s hair. “But you know that means he still cares about you deep down, right? It means you’re not ‘nothing’ like he said you were.”

“I guess,” Niall muttered, still somewhat unconvinced. If that was the case, he really wished that Harry would just let him talk it out instead of insisting on being angry and shutting him out.

“It’ll be fine, you’ll see,” Brittany said, leaning upwards and giving him a soft kiss.

Niall wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her down on top of him. His tongue traced her lips until she finally opened her mouth and allowed him in. She looked at him lovingly as they kissed for a few minutes, not saying a word. Eventually, Niall pulled away and Brittany rested her head on his chest.

“God I love you,” Niall said softly, rubbing her back slightly. “You’re such a good distraction from all this.”

Brittany giggled a little bit and looked up at him. “Really? Well, what are you going to do for the next two days, then?” she asked him cheekily.

Niall gave her a confused and slightly worried look. “What?”

“I’m going to New York tomorrow morning for two days to do an album signing and some press… I thought you knew…”

Niall racked his brain for a moment. He was sure he would have remembered something like that. Then again, the last few days really were a blur to him. So much had happened, it would have been easy for something like that to slip through the cracks. “I’ll go with you,” he said quickly.

Brittany gave him a look. “You can’t go with me.”

“Sure I can,” Niall nodded, thinking it over in his head. “We shot the video today, and what are we doing the rest of the time we’re here? Nothing really. A little bit of press, they don’t need me for that.”

Brittany looked at him as though he was crazy. “Of course they need you for that!”

But Niall really didn’t think so. Besides, it wasn’t like any of the interviews would be special, if anything they’d be spectacularly boring on account of his fight with Harry. “No they don’t. They’ll ask the same old questions about how we feel about being called a boyband, while one of us is the biggest flirt, those kinds of things. They don’t need my help. Besides, I could stand to get away from here for a couple of days.”

Brittany bit her lip. She really did want Niall to go with her. After all, she didn’t exactly relish the thought of leaving him for two days right after she was finally able to be with him. “I guess… but what if someone sees us there together? Don’t you think the fans will notice. They notice everything, Niall.”

Niall nodded. That was a minor setback. “Yeah… they’ll probably notice, but we can make up some kind of excuse. We’ll just say I’m visiting a friend in New York or something. As long as they don’t catch us kissing, it’ll be fine.”

“Do you think Paul will actually let you go?”

Brittany had hit the nail on the head with the biggest obstacle in the plan.

“No,” Niall sighed. There was no way Paul would let him travel to the other side of the country with Brittany and without security. “But he’ll have to. I’ll convince him. Don’t worry.”

“Well…” Brittany said, moving upwards to kiss him again. “I really do want you to come with me.”

“Mmhmm,” was Niall’s only response as he kept kissing Brittany. There was no way he was going to let her to go New York without him. He would have to find some way to convince Paul to let him go.