Redemption [h.s]

forty-four

Niall

"What are you doing here, Niall?" He asked getting up, a weird look on his face.

Sadness, maybe? Or maybe it was regret. I stared deep into his eyes. Yes, it definitely was regret.

"I could ask you the same thing."

I was starting to understand what was happening, I could feel it in the air, and in the way Zayn had closed his sketchbook, and was now looking at us curiously, almost detached from the entire situation, as if he had played no role in it.

Now the real question was, which one of us would've uncovered the truth first? Which one of us would've accepted to admit first, that our marriage was in fact broken, and that there was no way to save it?

The silence in the room was deep, and loud in my ears. Anyone's scream would've been quieter. My eyes moved to Zayn again, that was silently watching us, no trace of regret showing in his movements. I looked at Liam again. The silence was almost deafening, I could've heard a pin drop.

I wanted to say something, but I couldn't. For some weird reason, I wanted Liam to swallow his pride, and say it first. Just how I had done, only a few months before. Finally, Liam opened his mouth to speak.

"I'm sorry" he said.

He hadn't addressed it directly, but that "sorry" was way more eloquent than a thousand words. For me, at least.

Was it some kind of sick revenge? Had he really gone to the man that I thought I could've had a chance to love, smiling at me and planning his show when I turned around?

"Why?" Was my reply.

"I didn't know."

We both looked at Zayn. He was watching us, with the same level of enjoyment anyone would've had while watching a funny movie on the TV.

"Why?" I heard, but I wasn't the one who let the sound out.

"Look at you. You claimed to be so in love, but a single man could destroy that. The truth is that you were scared, like stupid rabbits, always hiding in their burrow not to meet anybody else, and preserve the appearance of a love that wasn't yours anymore." He looked at us, and snickered. He snickered.

And that's when the truth downed on me. He had played us.

All the times we laid on his bed, listening to music together, all the times we would just go around, in search of a beautiful landscape for him to draw, meant nothing to him. It was just a joke to him. A childish game he had started, just to prove that he could get anything he wanted.

"You guys are the quintessence of ridiculous."

"You played us" I said.

He smirked. "Yes I did, and it was one of the funniest things I've ever done. The sex was nice, though, I'll give you that."

"You disgust me" I spit.

He stood up. "Maybe you should disgust yourself, instead. You're married, and you both cheated on each other... With the same man. Now, what about you get out of my house? You must've a lot of things to talk about. You'll have to take him home, Niall. He didn't come here with his car."

I got out of the house, with nothing left to say.

"Ni..." I heard Liam say behind me.