Playing Love Like A Game || L.S

Chapter 23 - It's none of your business

Song - Kiwi by Harry Styles

-

"I have a surprise for you but you have to come home." Niall says. I stare at him in disbelief. He's here, he's actually here. He came here for me and he's asking me to go home.

Home. What a weird word. Everyone uses it to refer to where they live, but I don't. My home is a person, the one person I've missed more than anything, and now he's here.

I walk up to Niall and pull him into a big hug. "I missed you." I whisper. He pulls away and stares at me for a few seconds. "You don't hate me?" He asks. "You don't hate me?" I repeat, laughing. "Never." Niall laughs.

"So how about we go home?" Maura asks. Niall and I both agree so we walk together to their car. "I'm gonna take my car, actually." I say, seeing it parked just down the road.

Niall follows me to my car. We both buckle up and he plugs his phone into the cord connected to my car. I jump at the song that suddenly starts blasting through the speaker of my car.

It's Take Me To Church by Hozier. I mumble the lyrics as we drive but when the chorus comes on, Niall and I scream the lyrics at the top of our lungs together. Just like old times.

When the song ends, we burst out laughing. "We really should've been the backup singers." Niall jokes. I look at Niall from the corner of my eye. He's happy, I'm happy. And we're friends again, I think.

I pull up in the driveway of our house. We walk together to the front door which is open. Maura is standing in the kitchen, already taking food out of the fridge to start cooking something to eat.

It's weird being in this house again. It hasn't been too long since I've been here but it feels like forever. Some things have changed, like the pictures up on the walls. No pictures have Bobby in them anymore, not a single one.

"I'm sorry, man." I whisper to Niall, who's standing beside me, as we look at one of the pictures. It's a picture of Mark, Maura and Charlotte. Mark is holding Charlotte with his arm around Maura, kissing her cheek.

Niall doesn't respond, he just walks away. He starts walking upstairs but I decide to talk to Maura more first. I quickly snatch the picture off the wall and walk to the kitchen. I throw the picture into my box sitting beside the bench. I think of confronting Maura and yelling at her for taking Niall's dad out of his life.

But I can't.

So instead, I turn around and head upstairs. A door opens as I walk by it and Charlotte walks out of the room. "Curly!!" She squeals, jumping onto me. I wrap my arms around her and hold her tight. "I missed you. I missed you so much, Curly!"

"What's going on here?" Niall asks, coming out of the room behind us. I face Niall, laughing since Charlotte is poking my face to make sure I'm real. Niall laughs, "I see."

I put Charlotte down and hold her hand. "Ready for the surprise?" Niall asks. "Always." I respond, preparing myself for whatever could possibly be behind our bedroom door. Niall takes a deep breath and puts his hand on the door handle, without opening the door yet.

Then he smiles at me and all I can do is smile back. Niall slowly opens the door and my jaw drops. I drop Charlotte's hand in shock, looking at Liam standing in front of me.

"You know, I've grown to like the name Harold." Liam states. An awkward smile grows on my face because I want to hug him and tell him I'm sorry but I don't know if I should. "I'm sorry, man." Liam apologises and that's when I pull him into a hug. Niall pats my shoulder and I can almost feel the smile on his face through his hand. I open my closed eyes and see a room I don't recognise.