Clean // Niall Horan Fan Fiction

Chapter Three

Four days passed since Niall and Jillian saw one another. For Niall those days were spent partying, drinking, and enjoying the time that he didn't have to go work. There were times that Jillian did cross his mind, and he would usually send her a text- or three, that was the daily limit he set for himself- but she never answered so he stopped thinking about her, which was unsuccessful on his part.

When he woke up Wednesday morning, he was completely hung over. He lay in bed for the most part of the day, only getting up when he had to throw up, and even when he was in the bathroom he considered sleeping on the tile floor. After he finally decided that he needed to get out of bed, he took a shower, staying in there longer than usual to try and sober himself. By the time he got out he felt better, aside from a headache he couldn't seem to shake. Not that the cell phone lying on his nightstand ringing did anything to help that go away.

Niall grabbed the phone after hearing it ring for the fourth time, apparently they didn't know how to take a hint. He didn't even bother looking at the caller ID as he answered the phone, practically growling into the receiver saying hello. When her voice rang through the phone Niall's face fell, no way in hell was he wanting to face her today. The thought alone nearly had him wishing he was still throwing up.

"Did you hear me Niall?" She asked and Niall blinked. "We need to talk." She said and Niall sighed.

"Yeah, come by my place." He responded monotonously, already dreading having to see her.

"Alright, I'll be there in a few," And with that she quickly hung up. Niall hurriedly got dressed, looking for clothes that he hadn't slept in, thrown up in, or had a lingering smell of alcohol. Which cut basically anything on his floor out of his options. After finding a shirt and jeans he walked to the living room, shutting his bedroom door behind him, making a mental note not to invite her in.

Jillian sat in the big chair in the den, a book in hand. She had the book for months now, and was determined to start, and finish, it today. But as she sat there, eyes trailing down the page, she thought about how quiet it was in her house, no aunt, uncle, or Jess. It was completely quiet, and the house almost felt eerie to her. Letting out a sigh she turned her attention back to the book, rereading the words on the page for a third time. She almost set the book down seeing as she was losing motivation to read, when her phone went off causing her to jump. A frown etched her features as she grabbed her phone, seeing that she got a text from Niall. Rolling her eyes she read the message, she would've ignored the text if his words didn't sound urgent. He only said that he needed to talk to her, but she felt like this text was different from the ones that he had sent before. She quickly typed back asking him what he needed, when he didn't reply she set the phone down, picking her book up once more.

Thirty minutes later there was a knock on her door and she jumped. She set the book on the arm of the chair and walked to the door, opening it coming face to face with Niall. Her eyebrow raised and she turned her head out of habit to see if her uncle was watching over. "What are you doing here?" Jillian asked to which Niall laughed.

"Hello to you too beautiful." Jillian's nose wrinkled as Niall complimented her, the word taking her back to 'darker' times in her life, but Niall saying it didn't bring her the usual uneasy feeling, instead bringing her a strange feeling of comfort. Niall looked at her, pursuing his lips. He couldn't really explain why the first person that came into his mind was Jillian after earlier, but it did. He had other people he could go to, friends that he could talk to- only to quickly remember that all of his friends were mad at him because he was a prick. Quickly diverting his attention back to Jillian he raised his eyebrow, matching her facial expression. "You wear glasses?"

"Only when I'm out of contacts, yes." She nodded before clucking her tongue off of the roof of her mouth. "So is there a reason as to why you're here or am I supposed to guess?" Jillian asked, normally people would be happy to see him, especially one in the female population. The fact that Jillian wasn't caught him off guard, it was almost refreshing. He almost felt normal.

"I was bored." Niall said shrugging, "You doing anything?" She shook her head and he smiled. "Perfect, let's go somewhere." Jillian sighed before shutting the door in his face. For a minute he thought she wasn't going to come back out, but she returned, shoes on her feet and phone in hand.

"Where would you like to go?" Jillian asked as she climbed into Niall's Range Rover. He shrugged looking over at her.

"Somewhere quiet." Jillian thought for a moment before her eyes lit up. She began to give him directions, telling him to stop when they were close enough. Minutes later the pair was sitting on the side of a small deserted bridge that sat above a creek. Their feet dangling off the ledge as they watched the water rush past them.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?" Jillian asked looking over at him for a minute. Niall sighed inwardly, eyes fixated on the water.

"It's nothing really," Niall lied, chewing on the inside of his cheek as if she knew he wasn't telling the truth. Jillian remained silent from where she sat, looking at the trees that were rustling with the wind. He sighed after a minute and turned to face her. "It's my girlfriend, well ex-girlfriend now I guess." Niall said and Jillian looked at him.

"What," Jillian asked and Niall ran his fingers through his hair.

"We got into a fight a few weeks ago, and she came over today. I don't know, we just got into another argument, and now we're officially done." Niall explained and Jillian nodded understandably. "I thought I loved her, I thought she was the one." Niall felt so silly opening up to Jillian like this, if it were anybody else they would've punched him in the arm and told him he was mental.

"Well, I'm sorry, break ups suck. And you know she may have been the one, but there will be another one of those. Contrary to popular belief there is more than one of those." Jillian said but Niall remained silent, digesting her words.

"Tell me about yourself," Niall said after a while of silence. Jillian's eyes scrunched together as she thought of something to say.

"I'm not really sure what to say, there isn't much to tell-"

"Sure there is, start with the basics." Niall encouraged and Jillian pursued her lips.

"Well, I go to school for business management. That diner that you went to the other night, the owner, her name is Barbra, I think she's going to give me the place when I'm old enough." Jillian explained and Niall nodded.

"See, that's not boring at all." Niall stated and Jillian scoffed. His life seemed to be so amazing, extravagant, why would he be interested in her?

"Whatever," She laughed rolling her eyes. They talked for a while longer, and before they knew it, the sky was filling with pink and orange hues as the sun set. "I should probably get home." Jillian said and Niall nodded, they got off of the ledge and began walking back to Niall's car. As Jillian climbed in, she almost slipped and Niall let out a laugh, to which Jillian shot him a dirty look.

They drove to Jillian's house in silence, and when he pulled into the driveway he watched as she silently opened up the door. "I'll uh, see you later?" Jillian asked and Niall nodded. "Today was surprisingly fun." She nodded and he laughed.

"Are you implying that it was supposed to be awful?" Niall teased and Jillian shrugged before getting out of the car. She slammed the door shut and Niall cringed as she ran into the house. Once he knew she was inside he pulled out of the driveway, making his way into the main road.

The car was filled with music, but it would be a lie to say Niall was actually listening to it. His thoughts seemed to be clouded with Jillian, more so on the words that she said to him today. Telling him that there was more than one soul mate that a person could possess, was she right? Niall stopped at the red light, which, coincidentally, happened to be by a local pub. His head was caught in the direction of the bar, staring at it for a moment. Usually he would turn into the parking lot and then plan on drinking until he couldn't see straight, but tonight he decided not to. And though he didn't realize it, this was the first time in probably long time that he didn't feel the need to drink.