Love Thy Neighbour *editing*

"Why is your brother dressed as a pimp?"

"Evie!" Niall shouted, hammering on the front door. "Evie, open the fucking door!"

It was the morning after the night before and I hadn't slept a wink. I was sitting at the top of the stairs, watching Niall through the frosted glass in the door. He's been trying to batter it down for the past fifteen minutes and Tommy was starting to get annoyed.

"Can't you just open it?" he moaned, appearing at my shoulder. I shook my head. I still didn't know what I wanted to say to him. Of course I wanted to know if what his dad had said was true but I wasn't prepared for him to say it was.

Tommy sighed and went down the stairs, reaching for the door handle.

"Tommy!" I hissed. He shot me one of his annoying little smiles and opened the front door. Thankfully, the way the ceiling was sloped, made it impossible for Niall to know I was there. He tried to push past Tommy, but Tommy kicked him.

"She doesn't want to see you," he said simply, as Niall grunted in pain. At that moment in time, I loved Tommy more than I ever had done in my life.

"I just need to explain," he groaned, peering through the house.

"Get it through your head, Niall," Tommy replied, folding his arms and standing his ground. "Evie doesn't want to see you."

"Tommy, c'mon," Niall pleaded. "I just really need to see your sister." Tommy turned and looked at me, his face questioning. I shook my head, waving my arms but Niall ducked his head, looking me in the eye as he did so.

Bugger.

I scrambled to my feet. I was now about to make a conscious decision; walk down the stairs and hear him out like a rational adult, or turn on my heel and barricade myself in my room. You know, the latter seemed more alluring.

"Evie, don't you dare," Niall called out after me. He must have got Tommy to let him in because he was now tearing up the stairs after me. I crossed the landing, trying hard not to break into a run. Niall grabbed my wrist and whirled me around so that I was facing him.

"Get the hell off of me," I snarled. It was a waste of breath; he had no inclination whatsoever to let go of my arm.

"What did he say to you?" he demanded, his teeth gritted. My face twisted at the memory but I said nothing.

"Evie, I need to know," he hissed. This was a side of Niall that I had never seen before. He was being pretty aggressive and his grip on my arm was beginning to hurt.

"Nothing I didn't already think," I snarled, wrenching my arm away from him. "Nothing that hadn't already crossed my mind; he was just reminding me of the score, okay?" I walked towards my room and was about to slam the door behind me but Niall took hold of it, wedging his foot in between said door and the doorframe. I glared at hm but I still curled up on my bed, drawing my legs up towards my chin as far as I could.

"Whatever he's said, it's absolute shite, Evie," Niall said, coming towards me. "I promise." Yeah, promises. They were just like words, weren't they? They were fucking meaningless unless they were carried out.

"I don't care," I muttered, refusing to look at him. "I don't care anymore." But it was obvious to both of us that I was lying. If I didn't care, I wouldn't be reacting like this and we wouldn't be having this conversation. If I didn't care, he wouldn't have been able to get under my skin so much. If I didn't care, there wouldn't be this horrible pain at the bottom of my stomach that had nothing to do with baby Peanut pressing down on my bladder.

"But I care, Evie," he murmured. Had this been any other time, I would have hit him for being so soppy. But the sadness in his voice made me turn slowly, licking my lips. He was standing there, his hands in his pockets, looking like he would like nothing more than the ground to swallow him up. I wanted to believe him, I did but there was something holding me back. Some reasonable and annoying part of my brain was telling me to be wary.