Saturday, June 23 2012
Dallas, TX

The buses pulled into the parking lot of the venue in Dallas shortly before noon. Niall hadn’t had an easy time of falling asleep the night before, but once he had he was completely dead to the world. Even the jerky movements of the bus parking weren’t enough to wake him.

Brittany, on the other hand, had been itching to leave the bus as soon as they’d crossed the state line. She had missed Niall terribly that night, especially after having spent two days with him all to herself in New York. As soon as the buses parked she darted off her own and headed straight to his.

“Morning boys,” she smiled brightly at Liam and Zayn as they crossed paths with her in the parking lot.

“Morning Brittany,” Liam nodded to her. “Going to wake Nialler up? You might have a tough time of it, he was tossing and turning the whole night.”

Brittany breathed a small sigh of relief. She wondered if Niall had managed to use the long trip to patch things up with the boys, as they seemed to be a lot more receptive to her than they had been before their trip. “He couldn’t sleep?”

Liam shrugged. “I don’t know what he was doing the whole night, but it wasn’t sleeping. Next time he gets the bottom bunk,” he winked and continued walking with Zayn.

Brittany giggled to herself and walked onto the One Direction bus, heading straight for Niall’s bunk. She pulled open the curtain and grinned. “I knew you couldn’t go the whole night without touching yourself. You kept poor Liam awake.”

“Liam’s full of it. I did that in the bathroom,” he muttered, opening his eyes halfway.

Brittany laughed and leaned over to kiss him on the forehead.

“And good morning to you too, by the way,” Niall said irritably. He figured he must have fallen asleep sometime around seven, as he’d still been awake when the sun had risen. Needless to say, he was not a morning person.

“Good morning,” Brittany said sweetly, running her fingers through his hair in an attempt to flatten it out. “I love you.”

“Love you too,” Niall mumbled, closing his eyes again.

As Brittany stood there with Niall, Harry came walking through the corridor. He glanced at them, but didn’t pay them any more attention.

“Morning Harry,” Brittany said, in an attempt to be friendly.

Harry rolled his eyes at her, but looked over at Niall. “I see you’ve made your choice,” he said bitterly as he continued walking.

Niall sighed and sat up, conceding to the fact that he was probably not going to be getting any more sleep.

Brittany frowned and looked over at Niall. “What was that about?”

Niall shook his head. He really didn’t want to get into explaining everything to Brittany, especially not this early in the morning. “Nothing.”

Brittany looked at him sympathetically. “Well, at least he’s sort of talking to you again,” she said with a shrug.

Niall hopped out of his bunk and went in search of his suitcase for something to wear for the day. Brittany followed quickly behind him. “He’s not really,” Niall said while pulling out some clothes. “Trust me, he’s not.”

“Well, didn’t you talk to him?”

Niall ran a hand through his hair. He was tired and not in the mood to deal with the drama at the moment. He didn’t care to get into the specifics of his chat with Harry – what would be the point? “Yeah, I did, but it didn’t change anything, so just drop it okay?”

Brittany was a little taken aback by his harsh tone, but she did as he asked. “Yeah, okay, whatever.”

Niall sighed. He knew he shouldn’t have snapped at her like that. “Sorry,” he said, leaning over and kissing her on the cheek. “I’m just tired, I had a long night. I’m just going to take a quick shower and then we can go get some lunch, okay?”

She nodded. “Yeah, okay.”

He shuffled into the tiny bus bathroom. He turned on the shower and tossed his tshirt and boxers into the corner. He sighed to himself as he stepped under the hot water. It did little to wake him up and he found himself still tired and worried about everything he’d been thinking about the night before.

Breaking up with Brittany wasn’t an option, and he had to find some way to get Harry to talk to him again without resorting to that.

***

Harry watched as Niall and Brittany walked hand in hand into the catering area. He sighed and forced himself to look away. Just seeing them together made him angry.

“You’re still not ready to forgive him? Or at least talk to him?” Louis asked, sitting down beside Harry.

“Nope,” Harry said simply, glancing back up at Brittany and Niall. They were sitting on the other end of the room, whispering to each other about something or other. He hated how adorable they were with each other, and he’d never seen Brittany look at him the way that she looked at Niall. And he supposed he’d never seen Niall look at anyone the way he looked at her.

Under any other circumstance, he would have been happy for his friend.

“Harry,” Louis said seriously. “Is it worth it? He knows what he did was wrong.”

“Does he?” Harry asked, motioning towards them. “He looks pretty happy with himself.”

Louis sighed. “I know. But you and I both know Niall. He’s just trying to make the best of a bad situation, and right now, the best part of the situation is that he’s with the girl he loves.”

“You mean he’s with the girl I love,” Harry said bitterly.

“Did you really love her, Hazza?” Louis questioned, raising his eyebrow. “I know you liked her, and that you guys were dating, but can you honestly tell me that you were in love with her?”

Harry thought about that for a moment. That was part of what bothered him the most. He was quite sure that Niall did love Brittany more than he ever had. The lengths that Niall had gone to get her only proved that. Niall rarely went after any girls – except for when he went through his groupie phase in the beginning stages of their fame. But to actually date them? He never did. Niall had always said he wanted to wait until he found a girl who was special – who would make having such a difficult long distance relationship worth it. And now it seemed he finally had.

But that wasn’t the point. If Niall had loved Brittany so much, Harry didn’t understand why Niall didn’t just tell him and why he kept it all to himself.

Or rather, to himself and Liam. Because Niall was never able to keep his mouth shut around Liam, and that sort of sicked Harry. Really, everything to do with Niall sickened him at the moment.

“I don’t know,” Harry said finally, shaking his head. “Does that matter? He went behind my back.”

“Yeah Harry, I know he did, and that was a really awful thing for him to do, no one’s saying he was right to go after Brittany like that,” Louis said with a nod. “But you know he feels bad about it. He did try to apologize to you, didn’t he?”

“Yeah,” Harry shrugged. He hadn’t really cared much for Niall’s attempt to explain things to him. The damage had already been done, and Harry firmly believed that if Niall really understood the magnitude of what he’d done, he wouldn’t have done it in the first place. “It doesn’t change anything.”

“What would change it?” Louis pressed. “What does he have to do?”

“Are you on his side or something?” Harry snapped suddenly, getting annoyed with Louis. “Did he send you over here?”

Louis rolled his eyes. “No, of course not. But I can tell it’s making you upset, and I think if you let it go and forgave him, you’d feel a lot better. I know you’re not admitting it, but you miss him too. You want it fixed just as much as he does.”

Harry didn’t say anything. He wanted it fixed, yes, but he didn’t want to just push it under the rug like everyone seemed to expect him to do.

“So I’ll ask you again, what would make it better?”

“I want him to get rid of her,” Harry said bluntly, as he watched Niall and Brittany continue to sit together and be the adorable couple that they were.

Louis gave Harry a look. “And do you honestly think that’s going to happen? Really now, Haz.”

As Harry once again glanced over at Niall, he knew Louis was right. There was no way he was ever going to break up with Brittany. He hated that Niall was so happy. The fact that Niall had been selfish and committed the worst friendship violation possible, and yet still came out the winner angered Harry to no end.

And with Brittany there as a constant reminder to that, he didn’t think he’d ever be able to forgive him.