Should I Know You? -- A One Direction Fan Fiction

26. Road Trip, Day One

Niall

“Chloe?” I looked around the house, checking every room. Shit.

She was obviously gone, but where? I clumsily took my phone in my hands and dialled her number.

“Come on, Chloe... Come on.” Nothing. I sat down on the same sofa I'd slept the night before and rested my head on my palms. I breathed in and out slowly, thinking of what I could do.

A call came through and my phone vibrated.

“Liam?”

“Niall,” his voice was a mixture of relief and anger, something unusual for him, “disappearing mysteriously for one afternoon is fine, but what the heck? What are you doing in New York?”

I looked through the table, hoping something would catch my eye and give me a clue about Chloe's whereabouts.

“I... I came here to see Chloe, but--”

“Chloe? Niall, what's going on? I knew you fancied her but I hope you haven't done anything you regret.”

I looked under endless stacks of magazines and found a few crumpled gossip magazines.

“Oh, shit.” I hung up on Liam, my attention fully on the covers.

The One Direction Hoe, read the first one. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. There was a picture of us in Central Park, kissing.

I rang her again. She picked up this time at the third beep.

"Chloe! Where the hell are you?"

"Niall, I'm so sorry. I can't... I really can't deal with this. I'm okay, don't worry."

"Chloe, answer my question, where are you?"

Pause.

"I'm okay. Stop worrying."

"Chloe, we'll get through this, I promise. I promise."

"Bye Niall."

She hung up and the only thing I could do was swear loudly and sit down in the sofa. Stubborn girl, she was.

Laura

I knew it wasn't the right choice. Running away from your problems. But honestly, I couldn't cope with seeing Chloe that upset. When Niall had arrived early to surprise, he'd told me everything. About Harry and Louis and about his feelings for Chloe. Such a sweet lad. It really is sad when you find the right person at the wrong time. I knew it would kill him. But Chloe needed distraction.

"Alright, first stop?" I said, revving up the rental car.

"Hmm... we could stop at random towns or go straight to Boston."

"Boston. That's where we're going."

We drove for two hours straight, listening to one of my indie playlists. Passion Pit songs blasted with the windows down. Chloe looked out the window at the changed scenario, we were now surrounded by massive trees.

"Do you want to talk, Chlo?"

She continued looking out the window. Minutes later she stretched and looked at me.

"No."

She stared at the dashboard for a minute or two and then spoke up.

"I want to dye my hair, I want to go skinny dipping, eventually pour all my feelings out when we're drunk, meet new people who have no idea who I am and change my name." She said this plainly, as if it were normal conversation.

I chuckled, "What would you change it to?"

"Dunno, Maria or April."

"Sounds good. I'll call you that." She smiled back for the first time in a while.

"Thanks Laur." And I knew she meant much more than me calling her April.

The rest of the ride was silent with the exception of us singing along sometimes. Although Chloe had a strong character, I had to risk asking her this question.

"Do you love him?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Do you love him."

"Niall?" I nodded. Eyes on the road. Not because of safety. Just to avoid eye contact.

"Yes," she said finally, "and I think I love Harry too. But in a different way. I know I can trust Harry and tell him anything and he'll accept it and help me. But I think I'm in love with Niall. I love everything he says and does. He makes me happy, without even trying."

"You're a mess."

"Thanks, that really makes everything much better." And she laughed.

We reached Boston when the sky was in a darker hue of blue. The stars were shining brighter than I'd ever seen them and Coldplay lyrics occupied my mind. We drove around the city trying to find an affordable hotel. We found one next to a park that seemed cute enough. 70$ a night was okay and we asked for one simple room.

When we were unpacking, Chloe held up some purple dye.

"I dyed Niall's hair purple when we went out." She smiled, "Surprisingly, no one recognised him."

She locked herself in the bathroom for 15 minutes and I prayed she wasn't doing anything bad to herself. When she came out I found out it was much worse. Her whole hair was a vibrant purple and she had a childish smile plastered on her face.

After laughing consistently for an hour, I suggested we went clubbing. Chloe agreed immediately, changing into a dress in a split second. Little happened from then on. We danced all night and woke up with a hangover. Ready to go off to our next stop.

Harry

We were all a bit angry at Niall for leaving so suddenly, but I was furious. And not for the reasons that seemed obvious. I was mad because I was having trouble during the interviews. Whenever "Larry Stylinson" was mentioned, Louis would step up and talk about how he's so happy with Eleanor and I'd just nod. Niall was the one who knew how to change topic or make it all a joke, as he did before. Lou was also getting on management's nerves. He teased me endlessly and we had trouble keeping it "low-key", as Modest! had suggested. It was hard to keep something so strong hidden away from the world. But I knew that I would and I could do anything for us. For Louis.

He came into my room then. He knew I wasn't feeling my best, so he didn't say anything. He just sat next to me and held me. And I held him. And we both held each other because we knew that we'd have to be strong to do this.

"Niall knows," he whispered. And I nodded, "he went to New York to see Chloe. And she's gone now."

"What?" He breathed out heavily and skipped to his Twitter feed.

@niallslover5558: @Louis_Tomlinson thoughts on the 1d hoe?? ur not sleepin with her are you?

@harrysmybabyy: @Louis_Tomlinson @Harry_Styles @zaynmalik @TheRealLiamPayne @NiallOfficial chloe is disgusting. I thought you were better than this.

Tweets like these continued for ages. I was a bit confused, though, as to why. Louis knew before I even asked and he searched "chliall" on Google. There they were in Central Park, kissing. What I felt was a wave of relief and betrayal. Relief because I knew that I wasn't hurting Chloe that much by being with Louis and betrayal because we had been together for five months. But I shook the last one off. I sighed.

"Poor Chloe." was all that I said and the room was silent for 10 minutes. Then I decided I should do something about it. I dialled her number but Louis stopped me.

"We're going to America soon, fix it there. She'll appreciate it more." I nodded and smiled and leaned in to kiss my boyfriend. My boyfriend.