Lights (Niall Horan)

twenty-four

Anna Holden

I don't understand why Eleanor doesn't like Perrie that much.

Eleanor keeps giving her side glares, rolling her eyes at almost every comment Perrie chips in.

Maybe it's because she ignores rumors while El and Lou attempt (and fail) to shoot them down even before they begin.

It's almost like Perrie doesn't let anyone get in her way. And I admire that.

We return to the boys soon enough, having no extra time to chuckle over what the others will say to us by the time we get back.

"So? How was it?" Harry encourages cheekily, and my eyes widen when I take in the sight set before us.

In the time it took for Eleanor's dare, Harry has lost both his pants and his shirt and is currently walking around like it doesn't bother him at all.

Which, knowing Harry, it probably doesn't.

As for his rather enthusiastic question, I grin slyly at Niall before answering, he nods.

"Well... You really wanna know?"

As Zayn and Louis both began to state their own opinions, the person I had originally asked replies "Yes," so I decide to answer him truthfully.

"It was a lot of fun." I say casually, eyeing Louis's reaction closely. His eyebrows shoot up, making his blue-green eyes more visible than ever.

Harry smirks at Niall. "He's good at it, then?"

"Actually, he's terrible. I beat him."

"What?!" Zayn, Louis, and Liam ask simultaneously while Perrie, Danielle, and Eleanor giggle at the doorframe. I believe Perrie was actually recording the whole scenario on her phone.

That video would be priceless.

"We spent the last twenty minutes playing Monopoly," I tell them innocently. "What else would we be doing?"

The others, who were staring at us in disbelief a few seconds ago, suddenly throw the porch furniture pillows at the both of us, starting a hardcore pillow fight.

And it isn't one of the stupid ones shown on those Disney movies, either.

It results in Zayn being knocked into Danielle, Eleanor crashing into Liam, Harry knocking Louis onto the ground, and Perrie simply taping it all. But Niall and I manage to stay together, ducking under the picnic table to avoid the major blows.

Together.

Niall Horan

After coaxing both Anna and I to crawl out from under our hiding spot, the fighting ceases.

It turned out that everyone had missed their targets (us), Eleanor needed a bandaid, Zayn used an ice pack, and Louis's foot got squashed.

Other than that, it was completely harmless.

After the evil glares begin to fade, Anna and I begin to relax, completely at ease again with stable piece of minds.

"So, Anna, what's all this shit coming from your Twitter account saying you and Niall aren't together?" Louis asks, genuinely confused.

It takes more than a second to process his words.

They don't add up. Anna doesn't even have a Twitter.

Wait. Yes, she does. Management made her one.

"What? I never said that." Anna grabs her phone back from Perrie before the realization hits her. "Oh. Right. Apparently Management made me a Twitter account, but I haven't looked at it yet."

All of them look at her with a mixture of panic and sympathy.

"You don't know what they're saying?"

"No..."

She worriedly accepts Harry's black iPhone to look at her own page, and what she sees drops her mouth wide open.

Anna looks adorable when she's shocked.

But that's not the point.

"Oh God."

Glancing over her shoulder, I am able to read most of what fills the screen.

I have been having to much time with her to tweet recently, not to mention even log onto Twitter.

Her tweets pretty much compose of a lot of made-up shit and a particularly odd one, "Relax, guys... @NiallOfficial and I are NOT dating! He's 19... I'm 17..."

This hurts her, I could tell.

Her face is struck with a mixture of shock and amazement, the worst kind.

I'm sure it's not even the haters commenting mean things, the supportive ones being disappointed, or the fact that Management put those words in her mouth, but the fact that Anna truly believes I can find a prettier, older girl that I'd like to love instead of her.

Which I now know is impossible. She's literally perfect for me in every single way, and I would never be able to find another girl better than her.

She is perfect, but not too perfect.

She is tall, but not too tall.

She is strong, but not too strong.

Anna just shakes her head, still stuck in a daze over what she had supposedly said.

Everything Management said made her seem perfectly lovely and likeable, but it isn't the real her.

She's a lot more fun, beautiful, and capable as they wrote her to be.

"Wow. Management even tweeted something hinting Larry is real. Who do they think they are, anyways?" Eleanor reads from her own iPhone, a pained look striking her face.

It's strange how people can seem as fragile as Eleanor but so strong at the same time. She has held it together so long for Louis but he hasn't a clue.

But this is one of the one times that Eleanor cracked, running into the small house and slamming the glass door behind her.

Louis immediately runs after her, and Anna leaves the comfort of my lap.

"I'm going to get something to drink... Anyone want one?" Anna offers, probably just for something to distract her. They all shake their heads, still studying Anna's fake account front-to-back for information they should know about themselves.

"Want me to come with you?" I ask her softly, she nods in response.

Anna and I lock eyes, hers filled with pity and sorrow.

We both know well enough that Louis and Eleanor are not having the happiest of times within that stone building, and she probably thinks it's all because of her.

I need to get to Anna and tell her the real truth behind her account, not just the made-up Management version.

"Why won't you just say that it's not true?" Eleanor's voice is shaking by the time we slip in, cold with annoyance.

"Eleanor, I can't. I've told you before." Louis's voice is patient, trying to work it out smoothly.

I can already tell it's not working.

"No. You just won't. What would happen if you did?"

"I'd-"

"Exactly. Nothing."

"El, I want to, more than anything. I want to tell the world the truth. But I CAN'T!"

Louis is yelling by now, hands clenched into fists but far out of harm's way.

Eleanor simply slams the door in his face as Anna and I watch, frozen, causing Louis to back away from the door slowly.

Anna grabs her water quietly from the kitchen and we slip from the house and return to the others just in time for an infuriated Louis to reappear, clutching a beer bottle and causing us all to gape at him with wide stares.

"Anna, you'll have access to all our Twitters to fix this." Louis offers softly, all shakiness aside. Everyone is dead silent. "Because only you can."