the roommate ➸ [horan au]

zero

P R O L O G U E 

- A b b y   J o n e s -

"Holly, come on!"

"I don't wanna hear it, Niall."

 "Holly please, stop!"

He stopped in his tracks as soon as she stopped and turned to face him and I stood in the hallway by the door in my robe, I was way too shocked to move a single muscle.

"How the hell would you be able to explain yourself now?" The girl running away from Niall shrieked, apparently not caring about our neighbours. "I wanted to check on how you were today and I walk in on a naked girl in your apartment!" She started waving her hands around and pointing at me.

I felt the need to intrude at that point. "Um, half naked, thank you very much." I responded to the comment about me being naked. I just got out of the shower, and I just put my underwear on, I planned on getting dressed in my room since Niall was out getting groceries. It was just a coincidence that she happened to walk in at the same time I happened to walk out. But, how much of a coincidence is it that Niall happened to arrive home only seconds later?

Niall glanced back at me and gave me a look that clearly said 'not now, Abby.' I didn't want to intrude so I walked back in and sat down on the couch as I listened in on their conversation.

"Okay, listen," Niall started explaining himself. "Abby is my best friend. We just live together. We're roommates. Nothing more, nothing less."

"Oh really? So you're telling me that you guys moved in for no reason whatsoever?"

"Yeah. We're just friends."

"Did you ever kiss her, sleep with her? You know, like the friends with benefits thing?"

WHAT!?

"What does that have to do with anything?" His voice shook nervously.

"Just tell me. Did you ever kiss her?" She rephrased her question more appropriately.

Yes.

"No, 'course not."

My chest tightened a bit at his words. Yes, we kissed a few years back because we were each others valentines for Valentine's day (we were both single and we didn't have anyone else), but we agreed to move on and stay friends. If we agreed to forget about it, then I shouldn't be upset, but for some reason I just was.

"Do you have feelings for her?"

"What, oh, I um-" He stopped for a second. "No."

He hesitated.

"You hesitated."

"N-no. Holly, I didn't. Hey! Come back!"

"Call me back when you move out!"

I heard Niall mutter a few swear words under his breath before he returned into our apartment.

"Jesus Christ..."

"Jesus Christ is right." I remarked. "What the hell was that about? Who was she?"

He nervously ran his hands through his hair as he walked into the kitchen. I could barely hear him say something like "Great, I dealt with one of them, now I have to deal with another one."

"Excuse me?" I called after him. I stood up and my made my way into the kitchen to find him leaned against the kitchen counter, a beer in his hand.

"Nothing." He took a sip of his beer.

"Well, she got her answers, now I want mine." I demanded.

Niall looked at me and his eyes softened. He looked like he could tell that I was upset about what he told that girl. Was he... pitying me!?

"Fine." He sighed. "Her name is Holly and she's... Well, she's my girlfriend."

A pang of hurt went through my chest. His girlfriend? And he never told me? Some best friend he was...

"Oh." I looked at the wall, I couldn't look at him because if I did, I might end up punching him. "Well thanks for telling me, best friend."

"Abs, I'm sorry." He tried apologizing. He placed his beer down onto the counter and reached out to grab my hands, but I flinched out at the last moment. Hurt was written all across his face.

"How long?"

"Abby..."

"How long, Niall?"

"Almost two months." He blushed as he looked down on his feet.

"Even better." I shook my head as I angrily walked out of the kitchen.

Somehow, Niall managed to catch up to me and grab my shoulder before I could enter my room. He spun me around to face him. "Abby, please I don't wanna lose you either."

I sighed. "Niall, you didn't lose Holly, I'll call her to let her know our situation, I'll tell her that we never kissed and that we're just friends."

At that, he grabbed both of my shoulders and pulled me into a tight hug as he spoke into my hair. "Thank you."

I chuckled slightly as I pulled away and looked at him seriously. "But I have one last question."

Niall smiled his gorgeous smile. "Shoot."

"Holly was right, you did hesitate when she asked if you.. you know." I shrugged shyly.

"Oh."

"Oh? That's all you have to say?"

"Well what do you want me to say? Jesus, Abby, we've been best friends for years. I'm a boy, you're a girl, why'd you think we-"

"Whoa, wait a flippin' second," I stopped him because frankly, I'm pretty sure he didn't have an idea where he was heading with this either. "Are you saying that you have feelings for me?"

"I...Well, uh.." He hesitated, again. "N-no."

"You not only hesitated this time, but you also stuttered." I pointed out.

"I don't know, Abby!"

"You asshole!" I punched his shoulder. "You're not supposed to fall in love with me! This isn't how this whole roommate thing works!"

"Well, it's kinda hard not to, Abby." He placed his face in his hands, like a child. "Fuck."

My heart started pounding furiously as reality hit me like a slap in the face. He had feelings for me, he actually did. Did I have feelings for him? Well, I was attracted to him. I mean, he was fucking hot. But, he also had a nice personality, he always put others before himself. How could you not like him? He was just so likable.

God damn it, Niall.

After a minute of silence, Niall slowly removed his hands from his face to look at me. "Oh God-" He stopped suddenly. "Abby? Why are you crying?"

I reached up to my face to feel the fresh tears streaming down my face. Fuck, I didn't even realize I was crying. "I, oh, um..-" My mind completely went blank, I didn't know what to say. "Goodnight Niall."

I caught him off guard as I quickly ran into my room and locked the door to it. I ignored Niall's pleas to open the door as I changed into my pyjamas and got under the covers of my bed.

After a couple of minutes, Niall stopped begging me to let him in and I could barely hear him whisper a "goodnight Abs" as he left.

How the hell am I gonna get outta this one?

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so, this is just the prologue lol