Illicit [Harry Styles]

Chapter 39

My cheeks were aflame as I stared up at Niall, I was feeling absolutely awful and I was failing miserably at hiding it. Harry's hands were at his sides as he fidgeted awkwardly still underneath me, probably thinking of something to say. It was like all three of us were completely frozen in shock.

"Well?"

"Uhh... Niall, mate, it's n— it's not what it looks like," Harry stammered, scratching the back of his neck in a nervous gesture. Both Niall and I looked at him like he'd just said the most stupid thing in the world and he looked helplessly between us both.

"It's not what it looks like? What the fück else could it be?" Niall snapped and I felt a wave of embarrassment sweep over me.

"Niall, I—"

"Jess," he sighed exasperatedly and pinching the bridge of his nose as he spoke, "Get off— get... out of the car." I did as my brother said and climbed off Harry's lap in a not so graceful movement, which only made things worse in my eyes. This was honestly the most terrible thing ever — I was mortified. "Meet me inside," Niall said to me before turning to Harry and pointing angrily at him, "Not you."

"Nia—" before Harry could argue, Niall was storming off up the path and into the house with a loud slam of the front door.

"Don't worry, I'll handle this — I'll talk to him," I assured him, and he combed his fingers through his hair in distress.

"Fück, how could we be so stupid?" he mumbled more to himself than as a question directed at me.

"It's okay, you said yourself there doesn't have to be any sneaking around anymore! I'll tell him everything and maybe he'll understand."

"Yeah..." he breathed, his tone ambiguous. "You should go."

I nodded, and avoiding saying an uncomfortable goodbye, I just turned and headed for the house myself. I only ambled towards the door as if to stall and buy myself more time, because I really wasn't looking forward to this conversation one bit. In all honesty I had absolutely no idea how he was going to take it. Although he seemed angry now, he's usually quite laid back and I couldn't imagine him hating me for any of this, but I'd just have to wait and see.

Eventually I was inside, and Niall sat with his head in his hands on the sofa. It seemed quiet so I'm not sure that my mum was home; I didn't have time to take notice of whether her car was outside or not. I joined Niall, sitting opposite him on the sofa, giving him the opportunity to be the first to talk, but the silence was way too agonising and he wasn't even moving.

"Niall..."

"We need to talk, but I don't know what to say," he admitted, muttering into his hands. It was weird that he was so devastated by this, it didn't really concern him all that much but he was acting as though he'd just caught his girlfriend kissing his friend, not his sister.

"Why are you so upset?" I asked with confusion, voicing my thoughts aloud.

"Why am I— Why am I so upset?" he burst out, lifting his head suddenly to look at me with a frown. "Jess, I just caught you — my sister — going at it with one of my best mates in his car, behind one of my other best mates' back!"

"We weren't 'going at it'," I mumbled quietly before the rest of his sentence sunk in and I nearly leapt up off the sofa to defend myself, "And no, no! You have to listen to me, okay? Liam knows."

Niall furrowed his eyebrows even more, his face now showing both confusion and despair at the same time. "What do you mean he knows?"

"I broke up with Liam. Well, I told him something that brought us to an end, rather than I dumped him," I told him vaguely, knowing I definitely wasn't going to get away with a story lacking so much detail, but kind of praying that I would.