Not Happening

Chapter 16

Things go back to normal. Not the way they had been before the holidays, but the way they'd been during the first couple weeks of school. Zayn goes back to hating Liam for every single thing he does, and Liam goes back to hating every single thing Zayn does. Every time one of them opens their mouth in the room, the other snaps at them for it. Every time Liam's stuff crosses the halfway line in their room, Zayn throws a fit. Every time Zayn is in the room when Liam gets there, Liam sneers and walks back out.

And it's better this way.

"- see why he can't just clean up his fucking shit," Zayn grumbles. "Like, is it that hard to pick up a sock every once in a while?"

"Ask Louis." Harry smirks. "If he didn't have me, his room would be trashed."

"'s true," Louis agrees. "Harry's my guardian angel."

"Do you think I'm being unreasonable, though?" Zayn asks, ignoring them. "Like, isn't is completely within the line to get pissed off because he's a slob?"

"Depends," Louis answers. "Are you naggy about it? Or do you politely ask him to maybe clean his stuff up once in a while?" Zayn makes a face at him, the answer to that pretty fucking obvious. "Then you can't really blame him. And you realize he probably does it just to piss you off, right?"

"Yeah, I'm aware." Liam does a lot of shit just to piss him off. And vice versa.

"You've really made a mess of things," Louis tells him. "Haven't you?"

"Yeah, I'm aware."

Suddenly, without warning, Zayn has two pairs of arms wrapping around him. Louis squeezes him tightly, Harry's hand rubs at his back, and it's nice, even if he can't breathe. Warm and comforting. What did he do to deserve these two? He's really not sure.

"Zayn."

Both of them release him just as suddenly as they'd hugged him. Zayn looks up, frowning when he finds Niall standing in front of the couch the three of them are occupying. "Yeah?"

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" Niall has his hands stuffed deeply in the pockets of a sweater, and he's got a pinched look on his face. It's such a contrast to how he normally looks, all sunny smiles and bright openness. Now he's cold and closed off.

"Um." Zayn looks between Louis and Harry for a moment before shrugging. "Sure."

"Alone," Niall adds.

Zayn shrugs again and gets off the couch, following Niall through the common room, out into the stairwell. Niall leans against the wall, arms crossed over his chest, and Zayn stands there a little awkwardly. A girl from one of his classes hurries up the stairs, pausing when she passes them before continuing on her way.

"I like you," Niall says. "You know that, right? I think you're a good guy, Zayn."

"Uh, thank you." Zayn frowns and shifts a little awkwardly on his feet. "I like you too."

"So then maybe you could tell me what the fuck is going on with you and Liam," Niall says angrily. "Maybe. Because I'm pretty damn confused, and I hate seeing him upset."

Zayn takes a step back in surprise. "What?"

"Don't play dumb, okay? I know you two were sleeping together."

Zayn swallows. He told Louis and Harry, so it's no surprise that Liam told Niall. He had every right to, right? As much of a right as Zayn had telling his friends. "We're not anymore, though," Zayn says quickly.

"I know that." He can tell Niall's patience is wearing thin; he's tapping his foot impatiently against the ground, arms tightening around his middle. "What I wanna know is why. And what you did, because he won't talk to me about it, but he's been pretty fucked up the last couple weeks. Ever since we got back from break."