Thursday, June 21 2012
New York, NY / Los Angeles, CA

Niall woke up late that morning. He rolled over and found the bed to be empty. Brittany was already gone for the day it seemed. That made sense, as she was there to do press.

He rubbed his eyes a little and sat up. He glanced around the room and had to admit that he enjoyed the quiet. For once, he was free to spend the day doing whatever he wanted. No security, no screaming fans, no dirty looks from the boys.

Unfortunately, no Brittany, but she would be back eventually.

He reached over to the bedside table and picked up his phone. There was only one unread text message and it was from Brittany. Nothing from Liam, Harry, Louis or Zayn. Niall sighed to himself, he should have expected that. What would they have to say to him?

Brittany Cooper: i had to leave early and didn’t want to wake you. I love you. See you tonight xo

Niall smiled to himself and typed out a quick reply to her… even if it was a few hours late.

Niall Horan: love u too xx

Then he opened up twitter, which was a mistake.

Love1D4ever: OMG did u guys see this picture of @NiallOfficial and @BrittCooperMusic? [View Photo]

1DUpToTheMinute: @NiallOfficial and @BrittCooperMusic having dinner last night. Look where his hand is! [View Photo]

Niall furrowed his eyebrows and clicked on the photo. Sure enough, there was him and Brittany, sitting at dinner looking quite happy. And for the split second he’d put his hand over top of hers, someone had managed to snap a photo.

But that didn’t mean anything, right? The fans wouldn’t catch on, would they?

Harrystylesbitch: @BrittCooperMusic @NiallOfficial wtf???? how could you do that to hazza!!

Uh oh.

NiallLovesNandos: @NiallOfficial…are you dating @BrittCooperMusic? What’s going on with you guys in nyc?

theonlydirection: guys @NiallOfficial isn’t dating @BrittCooperMusic. They’re just friends. Come on, do you think he’d actually do that to @Harry_Styles?

Niall shook his head at the last one. His fans clearly thought too highly of him.

And as he continued to scroll through twitter, reading a bunch of conflicting messages and speculations from fans, his phone buzzed with a new text message.

Harry Styles: Seen twitter? You’re fucked now. When they ask me in interviews today about Brittany, I’m going to tell them we broke up. And I’m going to tell them why.

Niall stared wide-eyed at his phone. He didn’t even know what the smart thing to do would be at this point, or if there even was one.

Obviously, the smart thing to do would have been not taking Brittany from Harry in the first place, but there was little he could do about that now.

He hastily typed a reply to Harry.

Niall Horan: Haz… please don’t.

Harry Styles: oh and why shouldnt i? This is your doing, nialler.

Niall raked his hands through his hair. He couldn’t think of a good reason why Harry shouldn’t tell the world the truth about what was going on. Other than the fact that it would hurt both of their careers. He sighed and texted Harry back. He tried to look on the bright side. At least Harry was communicating with him somewhat… even if it wasn’t especially nicely.

Niall Horan: it’ll just make both of us look bad…

He sat on the bed staring at his phone, anxiously awaiting Harry’s reply.

Harry Styles: really? Who do you think the fans will side with? me, who is everyone’s favourite? Or you, who stole my girlfriend and who the fans already ignore? They’ll just hate you more for hiding it! You know how much they hate it when we lie to them.

Niall rolled his eyes and tried not to let Harry’s comments get to him. He tried as hard as he could, but he knew Harry was right. The fans would side with him, and why shouldn’t they? Harry was the most popular, yes, but he also wasn’t in the wrong.

Still, Niall didn’t think the whole world needed to know about their drama.

Niall Horan: and what happened to keeping our private lives private?

Harry Styles: haha… you gave that up the moment you started dating the OPENING ACT. You deserve to have the world hate you after what you did. So keep lying… but soon the fans will know the truth.

Niall just stared at Harry’s last message. He read it over and over again. He knew what he’d done was wrong, but he didn’t think he deserved to be hated for it. At least not by everyone. And by scrolling through twitter, the fans were less than thrilled. They were confused, they didn’t know what was going on, and they wanted answers.

Niall really didn’t think he owed the fans anything, but he knew it also didn’t make him look good to try and hide it. Especially if Harry was going to come out and tell the world the truth. So, making yet another stupid decision, Niall hurriedly got dressed and left the hotel room. He quickly walked down the halls and stepped outside on his way to the Virgin Megastore where Brittany was doing her record signing.

He loved her and he wasn’t ashamed of that at all.

***

“What are you doing?” Liam asked, looking over at Harry who was intently staring at his phone and texting harshly every couple of minutes.

“Texting,” Harry muttered as they sat in the car on the way to another day of interviews.

Liam raised his eyebrow. “And who are you texting?”

Harry gave Liam a look. A look that told Liam it was quite obvious who he was texting.

“Are you guys working it out then?” Liam asked hopefully. “You know, I talked to him yesterday. He really is sorry. He feels awful about all this.”

Harry just continued to type angrily on his phone. He glared at the screen as a new message came in. “Yeah,” he said not looking up at Liam. “I’m sure he felt really bad while his dick was in her.”

Liam rolled his eyes. “He really loves her, Haz. I know you’re hurt and you can’t see that, but he really does love her. He hasn’t had a girlfriend in so long, and you and I both know it was because he was waiting for someone special.”

Harry sighed and finally looked up at Liam. “And that someone special just happened to be the girl I was with?”

Liam shrugged. “I know he didn’t go about it in the best way. He never meant to hurt you, and -” Liam glanced at Harry, who had gone back to texting. “Are you even listening to me?” he asked harshly.

“Not really,” Harry admitted. “I don’t care what you have to say about him. You’re always on his side.”

Liam shook his head. It was no use arguing with Harry anymore. He clearly didn’t care to listen to anything he had to say. Liam wondered if this was really about Brittany, or simply the fact that Harry’s pride and ego had been wounded. “What are you saying to him anyway?”

“I’m just telling him how it is,” Harry replied, still looking down at his phone and reading Niall’s most recent response. He shook his head angrily and typed out a long text as Liam watched.

“Telling him how it is? Really? You don’t think he already knows?” Liam asked angrily.

“He will,” Harry replied bitterly, and Liam snatched his phone away.

“Oi!” Harry shouted, but Liam was stronger than him and was able to hold him off while he read through the string of messages.

“Harry,” Liam said seriously when he handed his phone back. Harry quickly stuffed it into his pocket. “You can’t tell the press what’s been going on. Are you mad? What makes you think that would be a good idea? It won’t just make Niall look bad, it’ll make Brittany look bad and it’ll make you look really petty.”

Harry sighed. He knew that he couldn’t really tell the press. He didn’t think he was actually going to – he had just sort of wanted to make Niall think he was. “Yeah I know. I’m just really angry with him.”

“Beleive me Haz, I know you are. We all know you are. But this is not the way to go about it. You need to talk to him when he and Brittany get back tomorrow morning. Please. I’m sick of this.”

“Oh well, if you’re sick of it I’ll do it. Anything for you, Liam,” Harry said sarcastically.

“You know what I mean,” Liam said with a sigh. “Please just work it out with him. Like it or not, you guys are stuck in the band together. We’re not kicking him out so you’re going to have to learn to get along.”

Harry just shook his head angrily and shifted his gaze outside the car window. He had nothing more to say to Liam, and he definitely wasn’t ready to have any sort of forgiving conversation with Niall.

***

“Thanks so much for coming,” Brittany smiled brightly as she signed yet another copy of her album. She was surprised at how many fans had shown up, and was sure she’d be signing autographs all day. She tried her best to take time with everyone and thank them, even if security was rushing the line along.

“Hi!” Brittany looked up at the next two girls who were in the line. “What are your names?”

“I’m Angie and this is Rachel,” one of the girls said, pointing at her and her friend. “But we’re not really fans of yours.”

Brittany looked at the girls a little oddly. They had waited in line all this time to tell her that? “Um, okay…”

“We just wanted to know if it’s true that Niall is here in New York with you because you guys are dating and that you dumped Harry for him.”

Brittany was a bit taken aback by their question, but managed to keep her cool. “No, he’s just here visiting a friend. We came here together since we’re on the same tour, that’s all.”

“Really?” the girl who had called herself Angie, challenged. “How come you guys are sitting all lovey-dovey then?” She held out her phone and Brittany felt her blood run cold. There was a photo of her and Niall, sitting at the restaurant the night before with his hand on top of hers. With the way they were looking at each other, it was clear that they were in love.

“We were just eating,” Brittany shrugged, trying to play it off as though it wasn’t a big deal. “Do you guys have something you want signed?” she asked sweetly.

“No, we got everything we wanted,” they replied smugly, walking off.

Brittany tried her best not to roll her eyes, but inside, as she signed more autographs (for girls who were actually fans) she was bubbling with anger. She couldn’t believe the nerve of those girls to come up to her and ask her personal questions like that, especially at an event for fans such as this one.

She continued to sign autographs and smile for a few pictures, but her heart just wasn’t in it. All of the excitement she’d had over her meet and greet was now gone, and she found herself wishing she was back in the hotel room with Niall. She needed him to remind her that all the snide comments she was going to get from fans were worth it. That she loved him and nothing else mattered.

After about an hour, she felt a hand on her shoulder. The crowd of lined up teenage girls began to shriek. Brittany turned around couldn’t exactly say she was surprised at who she saw.

“Hey love,” Niall said softly, smiling at her.

Brittany was helpless against that smile of his. She knew she shouldn’t have, but after spending the entire day imagining doing so, she fell into his arms and hugged him tightly.

“Thank you,” she said quietly, leaning her head against his chest. “You don’t know how much I needed to see you,” she whispered.

“I needed to see you too,” he replied, kissing the top of her head. He didn’t care who saw – Harry was going to tell everyone everything anyway, so what was the point in hiding it?

“I still really need to do this though,” Brittany said, pulling away from him a little and biting her lip. She was making it completely obvious that her and Niall were together, but she really didn’t care. The fans were going to figure it out eventually. Though she did wonder what it was that made Niall show up in the first place. “Stay with me?”

He sat down beside her and grinned. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”

She loved him so much in that moment she could have melted. Confident in the fact that she’d made the right choice in being with Niall, she continued her autograph session in a much better mood. No fan said anything more to her – they were all far too shocked by his presence.

One thing was for sure though – the entire thing was all over twitter in a matter of minutes.