Another World

Chapter 5

"What the hell, Niall! You're moving to England?" Trish's blue eyes pierces into mine with her deadliest look. 

I wish that I would have taken the seat next to her, instead in front of her. Then it would be easier to avoid eye contact. I feel a drop of sweat running down my temple as a frantically search for the right words to say. I am totally caught of guard.

"Ehm..Uhm..." Is the only sounds that make it from my lips.

Trish shoots me one last angry stare, stands up and leaves. I knew she would react like this, she has always been very dramatic. I turn to Liam again and he looks panicked. I feel a little bad for him, he do not know Trish like I do. 

"Sorry, Liam." I say and stand up. "I have to go after her and explain.."

"Yeah go, go!" He hurries to say.

I give him a apologetic smile and hurries of after Trish.

 The cool night air hits my face as I get outside. Late august might be warm during the days, but the nights is not. I look around and spot the blond girl sitting on the curb, about 20 meters down the street. It seems like the chill air have cooled her temper a bit, but I'm sure she is still pretty mad.

I sit down next to her and wraps my arms around my legs. The pavement is cold and a little bit damp. I can still hear the sound of loud voices, laughs and songs from Clarke's. A Group of very drunk men stumbles out of the door and out in the night. It's pretty dark, but the street lamps lights up the streets pretty good. 

Trish do not say anything, clearly waiting for me to start explaining myself. She is staring straight forward, without as much as a glance my way.

"Trish..." I begin very gently, not completely sure how to continue. "What Liam said, about me moving... nothing's decided, okay." I swallow and rub my neck.

Trish stays silent.

"Uhm.." I can not tell her that working with music is my long lost dream, because she will feel even more betrayed by that. I have not told her about that, actually Liam is the only one that knows about that.

"Liam's got a job in London...and I haven't been to England since I finished school, you know." I decide to leave out the part about him offering to get me a job there. "I'm not moving there really." I assure her.

"You're not?" She finally breaks her silence and looks at me.

"Na, Trish. Liam just needs a roomie, you know. And I can stay with him until he finds one." I say, trying to read her face.

That is not a lie. He actually needs a room mate, and he will probably have to get another one eventually. I am not telling her the whole truth, but I am not lying.

"I'm not even sure if I'm going." I add, and feel courageous enough to lay my hand on her knee.

"I'm sorry I freaked out." She says with a small smile. "I was just caught off guard."

Well, you and me both.

"I'm just surprised you didn't tell me." She adds and turns her head forward again.

"I've haven't had the time yet. We just talked about it earlier today." I explain and she seems to accept it.

We sit in silence for a little while. She did not yell at me as I was afraid she would, and now that we have cleared the air I can relax a bit. A cold breeze makes me shiver and I wrap my arms around my torso. The warm, fuzzy feeling from the beers is all gone. I stand up and offer her my hand to help her of the curb.

"I'm kinda tired." Trish says after she wipes off the back of her jeans. "You wanna go back to my place?" She asks.

"I better get back inside, I don't wanna leave Liam all alone." I say and look over to the pub.

"Yeah, okay." She says. "Call me tomorrow?" Her blue eyes giving me a meaningful look.

"Sure, yeah." I say and lean in to plant a small kiss on her cheek before we part ways.

---

When I find the others in the crowded pub, they are all standing around the pool table. Liam and Michaela are leaning into each other, watching Sophie play against Conor. Across from them are Paddy and Brian in a heated argument about the best type of beer. The atmosphere inside is warm and joyful, very different from the one out on the cold curb. If feel that I am going to need a few beers to get back in the good mood I was in before.  

Liam spots me and meets my eyes with a concerned look. I give him a small  reassuring smile to tell him that I am fine. 

"Trish left, yeah?" Conor asks me, as Sophie gets one of his pool balls down. "Shit." He curses.

"Yeah." I say, and watch Conor fail to hit a ball with the white one. "She was a bit tired, ya know."

"Too bad." Paddy says sarcastically, earning a stomach punch from Brian. 

I know the boys are not crazy about Trish, this is not the first time she has stormed out in anger. Sophie and Michaela have been friends with Trish since middle school, but not even they have the energy to deal with her drama sometimes. 

"I could really use a beer right now." I say with a sigh. "Anyone else?" 

Everyone nods with agreement, even the ones with almost full glasses.

"I'll help you carry." Liam says and walks over to me. 

We head over to the bar where the bartenders are working hard to provide the costumers with drinks. At this time of night people get drunker, volume gets higher and tables get messier. People are bumping into each other, spilling their drinks, laughing and singing. I hear something that sounds like a chair breaking under too much pressure and then even more laughing. And it is warm, very warm. I feel sweat building up on my forehead as we wait for it to be our turn to order.

"Hey, man I'm so sorry about what happened before." Liam says after a while, clearly still feeling bad about spilling the news about London to Trish.

"Liam, it's fine. Really. She didn't even get that mad actually." I assure him again.

"Yeah?" He says, not totally convinced yet.

"We talked about it outside, and.." I start. I was going to say that I explained everything to her, but I didn't explain anything really. "We made up." I say instead.

"Alright, that's good to hear." Liam says and looks a bit more relaxed. 

It's finally our turn to order and this time we simply get two jugs of beer to fill up our glasses with. I pay and then we get one jug each and make our way over to the rest of the group. By the time we get back, they have found a empty couch next to the pool tables. I sit down next to Brian and pour myself a big glass of beer and shug it all down. 

"Alright, Niall!" Conor exclaims and claps his hands.

I pour a new one and shugs that down too. I need the alcohol to get into my veins as soon as possible and soothe my mind and body. This has been such a long day, and a roller coaster of emotions. What I need right now is to let all of that go for a while, just enjoy the last night with Liam here. If I don't get the job in London, I have no idea when I will be seeing him again.

Soon I feel the familiar burn on my cheeks and I am much more relaxed. The beer is washing away all my worries and I forget about my fight with Trish. We spend the rest of the night on that couch talking, laughing and drinking. Paddy and Brian comes up with a little dance, and Liam and Michaela spend a lot of the time snugging. We end up closing the pub, not leaving until Joe basically forces us out the door, into the night.