Dance With Me (Niall Horan)

Chapter Thirty-Five: Whispers in the Night

“How do you even deal with him over there and you left here?” I ask Perrie, we’d got through our first bottle of red wine between us, and were now getting down to the real reason that she was over here, because it hurt me to be away from him.

“You really think I deal with it?” Perrie questions, “I miss Zayn so much. You’ve just got to accept that whatever you’re feeling, he’ll be feeling too.”

“But what if Niall doesn’t miss me at all?” I question and Perrie snorts, taking out her phone and signalling for me to be quiet.

I hear a dialling tone and Perrie shows me that she’s phoning Zayn.

“Hey babe.” I hear Zayn answer,

“Hey, it’s me, I’m just round at Lennox’s.” She tells him, again lifting a finger up to her lips for me to be quiet.

“What are you doing over there?” He asks, sounding incredibly curious.

“She rang earlier, she’s really missing Niall and moping and being all depressed. She even thinks that he doesn’t miss her.” She says, and she rolls her eyes at me when Zayn laughs.

“You’re kidding. We can’t even miss Lennox because she’s brought into a conversation every five minutes. He’s got it bad Perrie, he keeps taking his shirt off as well to look at his tattoo and whining about how she’s tweeted but hasn’t texted her.”

“He sounds as bad as Lennox.” Perrie says, giving me a pointed look, and it's already made me feel incredibly better, knowing that Niall misses me like I miss him.

“You don’t have to live with him on tour.” Zayn retorts and Perrie laughs again.

“Well, I’d better be off-“ Perrie begins but then is silent when we can hear a shout that Louis has said.

“Hey Niall! Have you seen the video of Lennox singing with Ed Sheeran?” My mouth drops open, and Perrie raises her eyebrows at me.

“What was that?” Perrie asks and Zayn doesn’t reply. He must’ve put the phone on speaker, because now I can hear my own voice singing and Louis must’ve started playing it off his own phone.

This distance between us

My eyes well up, listening to a recording of what I had sang only hours previously. And by the time it plays into the second verse, the song is cut off, and there’s a deadly silence on the line, I can hardly breath as my lungs contract and my throat cuts me off. No one was supposed to see that. How did anyone get that? It was just for me and Niall.

“Did someone video this without her knowing?” Niall asks finally. “I want to go home.” He groans, and I smile that he misses me. Because it hurts thinking that he doesn't.

“We all do Niall.”

“No, you don’t. You’re all flying your girlfriends to Vegas for Valentines’ Day, and Tessa has already told me it’s impossible for Lennox to come over. We’re not going to see each other until we fly back for the Brit rehearsals. I’m not going to see my girlfriend until the middle of March! It’s a fucking joke. How am I meant to tell her?” The line is cut off, and I know that Zayn has hung up. Perhaps it's because Perrie wasn't supposed to know that, or maybe he had some idea that I had heard that. 

“I’m not going to see him for Valentines’ Day?” I whimper, looking up at Perrie who looks incredibly guilty. “What is so important that I can’t see my own boyfriend on the day that is supposed to be the day you spend with your loved one?” Perrie shrugs, rubbing my back soothingly. “And who would video that? I was crying the whole way through I sang it! They must’ve known that it was personal! Who would do that? And upload it so that everyone can see it? It’s humiliating!”