𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐳𝐚 𝟐𝟓𝟖 [𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧]

𝟏𝟐. 𝐎𝐤 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧

The following day the breakfast was awful.

Zayn had left just before I arrived, leaving Liam and Niall, but even then it hadn't been as devastating as lunch. He didn't speak to anyone, neither to me nor to the others and every attempt by Liam to introduce a conversation was completely useless and it died after a few seconds.

The afternoon, although it was November and quite cold, I spent it in the garden with Niall. Liam had probably gone to talk to Zayn.

While I knew what the other two thought about me hanging out with Louis, Niall's opinion was totally unknown to me and it scared the shit out of me. I had already fought with Zayn, I didn't want to fight with him too; I knew he also didn't feel much sympathy towards Louis, but he had never shown as much hatred as Zayn, yet he still hadn't said anything to me and it only increased my anxiety.

"Niall..." I ventured "What do you think?"

"About what, the new vacuum cleaner the maids have to clean the stairs?"

"What? No no, I mean about me and Louis." Oh my gosh I was making it look uglier than it was! Even if just saying the words 'me and Louis' made a shiver run through my body.

I heard him sigh.

"I think you should stay away from him, but anyway I can't stop you, after all it's your life and if I walked away from you like Zayn did I couldn't protect you in any way." I was lightly reassured by that answer.

"Thanks Niall, but still you don't have to worry: nothing can happen to me."

"That's not true Harry, you don't know the..." I rolled my eyes and cut him off right away.

"Of course I know what happened and I also know it wasn't Louis' fault." Did they really think I still didn't know anything?

"W-what, you know? But how?"

"Of course I know, he told me himself!"

"Then who knows what he told you!"

That statement pissed me off. Not only did they keep accusing Louis of something that wasn't his fault, but now he called him a liar!

"What should he have told me? He told me exactly what he told you, which is the truth."

"Louis is a very good actor, Harry, he had the lead role in the school play for three years."

"Why? Is there an acting class in this school? Oh well, by the way you haven't seen him Niall... If you had, you would've never doubted his words."

"But Harry..."

"Niall he was fucking crying!"

I don't know if it was my words or the fact that I had yelled, but he suddenly fell silent, not sure what to say.

"W-was-he c-c-crying?"

I sighed. "Yes," I said almost in a whisper.

The silence between us lasted a long time, neither of us knew exactly how to respond, the situation was still quite tense.

"So?" I snapped, unable to bear the situation any longer.

"You just can't do without him?"

I shook my head firmly.

"Ok then."

"What do you mean?" I asked not understanding.

"Ok, if you really care I'll try to... Well I'm not saying that I believe him now, but I'll try to consider him from a neutral point of view. Who knows, maybe I'll try to talk to him too..."

I practically jumped on him.

"Thank you so much Niall, really thank you very much!" I heard him chuckle.

"I, Liam and Zayn were really that terrible as friends huh?" he answered me laughing.

"I wish it was that simple Niall." That sentence escaped my mouth. I shouldn't have said it and sadly for me I knew from the strange look Niall gave me that he had heard me and my guilty face seemed to aggravate the situation.

"What do you mean, Harry?"

I bit my bottom lip. How was I going to fix it now?

"Harry, you know you can trust me, right?" So I came up with the most improbable thing of all. The truth.

"I...Niall I think I'm in love."

"And with who? Louis?" He started to laugh out loud, but stopped slowly when he noticed that my hands were behind my back. I kept biting my lip and my gaze was fixed on the floor, intent on looking at the tips of my shoes colliding with each other. Suddenly he blanched.

"You're joking, right?" I shook my head shyly.

"But Harry, you can't be in love with Louis Tomlinson!" began to scream. I put a hand over his mouth.

"Lower your voice, idiot! Besides, I'm not even sure!"

"I just accepted that you're friends, you can't tell me such a thing!"

"Yeah I know, it's wrong, I'm wrong! I shouldn't like a guy and, Niall, I'm very confused because I never experienced something like that before. I know, now you're disgusted by me."

Niall gave me a bone crushing hug, but he didn't hurt me.

"Harry, I can't care less whether you like boys or not, that's not the problem. The problem is just who you like."

"It hurts to know he'll never reciprocate..." It was the first time I'd admitted those things to myself. I didn't feel better, but at least I was more aware.

"I just wish I could kiss him again..."

"Wait wait wait a second! What do you mean 'again'?"

"You have to promise me you won't tell anyone, Niall."

"Sure, as you wish... but now tell me everything properly."

And I did. I told him every detail of what had happened with Louis, especially in the city, especially about that kiss that had changed my life. Yes, because my life would never go back to what it used to be.