Talk Is Cheap

The dinner was a disaster, to say the least. Nicole chewed on her lip, biting hard enough to draw blood. Her olive eyes stared down at her plate as she pushed the food around with her fork. She was sitting between Niall and Zayn, and Harry was directly across from her. She didn’t dare look at him. Her body was still going through shock that the green-eyed bloke from her past was having dinner in the same restaurant, and at the same table as her. Niall seemed just as disturbed as Nicole, fidgeting nervously in his seat while shoveling as much food as possible in his mouth. He was obviously a stress eater.

No one really said much. The adults sat at one end of the table while the boys and their girlfriends sat at the other. Everyone could feel the tension in the room without knowing many details. Harry had simply told everyone him and Nicole ‘went to school together, and had been mates’. It was utter bullshit, and everyone could tell there was something more to the story. Nicole knew damn well if Harry wasn’t willing to tell his mates the truth, she wasn’t going to say anything. She hardly knew Niall, let alone the other lads in ‘One Direction’, so she didn’t have any desire to share one of her most horrific memories with them.

“How’s your food,” Niall muttered, and everyone turned to look at him. It was the first words he’d said since ordering his food. Nicole turned to face him, letting her brown hair fall around her face, creating a curtain between her and Harry. The minute her eyes met his, a small grin appeared on his lips. He felt like he’d royally screwed the night up. He should have told her about the band earlier, maybe things would have gone better.

“Good,’ she lied; she hadn’t taken a bite yet. She wasn’t hungry in the slightest. In reality, the minute she’d heard his name her appetite had disappeared.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled, and she offered him a warm smile. She reached to grab his hand from under the table, and hoped he’d stop being so hard on himself. He didn’t know about her rocky past with Harry, she’d purposely left that detail of her life out of their conversations, just like he hadn’t told her about ‘One Direction’. There are just some things you don’t tell people, especially not over the first few dates.

“Don’t worry about it,” she said, leaning closer to him and pressing her lips to his neck. He began tracing shapes with his thumb over the back of her hand, beginning to feel more comfortable with the situation. He still couldn’t bring himself to look at Harry. Nicole and Harry obviously had a past, and Niall couldn’t help but wonder about the details. He really liked Nicole, and hoped to God her relationship with Harry (or lack thereof) wouldn’t affect their budding relationship.

“So, Nicole,” Louis’ high voice popped into the conversation. He was sitting beside Harry, and Nicole did her best to look at the blue-eyed boy without paying any attention to the green-eyes piercing her porcelain skin. “How long have you known Niall?”

“Um, not long.” she muttered, her voice rough. It was hard for her to speak loudly, especially when she thought everyone was judging her, itching to know the personal details of her life. “A week, I guess.”

“Fair enough,” Louis replied, his gaze still fixed on the brunette girl. He leaned forward, running his tongue over his bottom lip. “and Harry?”

Niall coughed loudly beside her, and Harry shot Louis an anxious look, but no one said anything. It was obvious Louis was prying, and everyone thought he was being rude, but they were all too curious to tell the boy to mind his own bloody business.

“For a while, we went to school together after all.” Nicole said, sighing deeply to help calm her nerves and steady her voice.

“How long did you two date?” Nicole’s skin felt like it was on fire. No one had muttered a word about them dating, of course she imagined people had their assumptions, but it completely shocked her that Louis dared to ask her such a personal question when it seemed obvious neither her or Harry wanted to talk about it.

“Louis,” Eleanor shrieked, but he paid her no attention. His blue eyes darted from Harry to Nicole, waiting impatiently for a reply.

For the first time all night, Nicole focused on her gaze on Harry, taking sharp breaths through her nostrils. She knitted her eyebrows and glared at him with dark eyes, wondering if he was going to say anything. She suspected he didn’t even know the answer, he’d forgotten their one-year anniversary after all.

Harry peered at the beautiful, brunette girl through his eyelashes, taking in her appearance. She looked slightly different than he remembered. She looked older, more mature, and incredibly fit. She no longer had clumps of acne along her hairline, the chip in her front tooth had been fixed, and she’d finally grown reasonably sized breasts. Her lips looked the same though; pink and full, and he speculated if they still tasted like strawberries. There was still a small wrinkle in her nose when she giggled, and he wondered if she still snorted when she laughed really hard. Also, her eyes still grew wide when she was overthinking something, and he couldn’t help but contemplate what she was thinking about at that exact moment.

They held each other’s gaze for at least half a minute until Niall coughed loudly again, causing both pairs of eyes to fall to their shoes. Finally, Harry lifted his head and looked at his mate through the corner of his eye.

“One year, one month, and 26 days.” Harry finally answered and everyone looked at him with surprised expressions and mouths slightly ajar.

Nicole couldn’t believe he knew that. She didn’t even know that. She knew they’d dated roughly over one year, but he knew the exact amount of time. Confusion swept over her as she tried to come to terms with the situation. She couldn’t help but think there was some sort of significance behind his words.

“You’ve must’ve have dated before ‘X-Factor’, yeah?” Louis asked another question, and Nicole had the sudden urge to jump across the table and strangle him. He’d definitely earned a spot on her bad side, joining his stupid, curly-haired, cheeky-ass mother fucking mate.

“No,” Harry mumbled, and Nicole’s body filled with anger. None of these boys knew who she was. They’d dated all during boot-camp, the day they were made into a band, and the week they spent at Harry’s step-dad’s place, but he hadn’t mentioned her once. She pictured him running off to the ‘loo’ whenever he called her at night and hiding his phone in his hoodie when he texted her. He’d kept their relationship a secret from the four lads he claimed to be his best mates. He probably hadn’t cared about her at all, it was all a lie. She sat at home, telling her mates and family all the wonderful things her boyfriend was doing, and he was somewhere in London, pretending she didn’t exist. Nicole suddenly had a new found, stronger hatred for Harry Styles, if that was even possible.

“You never mentioned me, Harry?” Nicole spat, each word dripping in pure disgust. She knew she sounded immature, and like a crazy ex-girlfriend, but she didn’t care—she couldn’t keep the words from leaving her lips.

Harry opened his mouth to speak, but quickly snapped it shut, pressing his lips in a tight line. His eyes fell to the floor, he was clearly embarrassed. It wasn’t like he didn’t want to tell the lads about his lovey girlfriend back in Cheshire, it was just complicated.

“Let’s talk about something else,” Eleanor offered, noticeably upset with her boyfriend. Louis was leaning back in his chair, his hands resting behind his head and a smug expression on his lips. He was quite pleased with himself, he’d asked all the questions everyone else was to pussy to ask, and he’d gotten the answers everyone had been dying to hear.

“How was everyone’s day?” Zayn asked smoothly, causing a few giggles and the tension ease. The conversation started to pick up, and people started to forget the weirdness between Harry and Nicole.

Nicole remained silent for the rest of dinner. She forced herself to swallow a couple bites of food, feeling guilty for ordering such an expensive meal and not being able to finish half of it. Niall tried to make eyes with her several times, but she never looked up from her plate. She liked Niall, she really did, but his close relationship with Harry worried her. She wanted to keep seeing him, but she didn’t know how many more encounters with Harry she could handle.

After everyone finished eating, the boys’ management took turns giving small speeches and congratulating the boys on finishing their first leg, of three, on their world tour. Nicole tried to keep a happy look on her face, fighting back the tears welling up in her eyes. She didn’t want to cause a scene; she didn’t want to be that girl that gets invited to fancy dinner with a popular boy band and ends the night with an emotional break-down.

Nicole had never been so relieved when Niall announced they were leaving. She stood up quickly; pushing her chair back harshly and it almost toppled over. Immediately, she clung to Niall, hiding her face in his chest so she could hopefully avoid the eye-contact with as many people as possible. She wearily waved good-bye to Zayn, Liam, and Danielle before following Louis and Eleanor out of the restaurant.

Harry watched Nicole as she left with Niall. He was holding her closely, similar to the way he used to. He was resting his face against the top of her head, placing kisses in her wavy, brown hair causing several memories to flash through Harry’s head. He remember several summer nights, holding her in his arms, coating her hair with his kisses until she fell asleep. He hadn’t had much time to think about Nicole Wood since joining ‘One Direction’. Sure, he remembered her. He was sure he’d always remember her, but her face rarely crossed his mind. He distracted his self to make sure she rarely appeared when his mind wandered. Harry Styles hadn’t given the girl he dated in secondary girl much thought at all over the last two years, but seeing her tonight, he realized the thing he feared most, he missed her. Now, there was no forgetting her.

Nicole did her best to pretend she wasn’t mentally decapitating Louis as they drove back to her flat. She let Niall hold her hand, although she wasn’t sure how she wanted to approach their relationship after tonight. He kissed the back of her hand frequently; hoping his kisses would make everything okay. He felt terrible about how things turned out over dinner. He should have never brought her. He had rotten luck when it came to relationships.

Not nearly fast enough, Louis pulled into Nicole’s flat complex. She opened the door quickly, not in the mood to wait for Niall to do so despite his best efforts. She mumbled a quick ‘goodbye’ to Louis and Eleanor before linking her arm with Niall’s and walking towards her flat.

Neither of them said a word during the entire walk to her flat up three flights of stairs. Nicole was still fighting back tears, and Niall didn’t have a clue what to say. He wanted more than anything to crack a stupid joke to get her to laugh, but felt she wouldn’t appreciate his humor very much after the awful night she had. Once arriving to her door, Niall peeled himself away from Nicole before stepping in front of her, eager to say something, anything to make things better before she went inside.

“Sorry I didn’t tell you about the lads before tonight-”

“Niall, its fine. Really.” Nicole interrupted him, hoping to get their goodbyes over with so she could go inside and tell Sage every horrible detail of the night as she cried for hours and pigged out on ice cream.

“Will I uh—can I see you again? Soon—please?”

“I’ll call you, okay?” Nicole said, not giving him a definite answer. She reached towards the door handle and kissed his quickly on the cheek before stumbling inside her flat. She slammed the door behind her, not really caring if she seemed rude. She couldn’t pretend she was okay any longer. She couldn’t pretend she wasn’t an emotional wreck after seeing her ex-boyfriend.

“Nick, you’re back early. How was dinner-” Sage stopped mid-sentence, appearing from the kitchen with a spoon hanging from her mouth and a jar of Nutella in her hand. Her grey eyes studied her best mate, sitting on the floor with her legs pressed against her chest, mascara running down her cheeks. “What happened?”

“Harry fucking Styles.”