My Gift Is My Curse

“Niall fucking Horan!” Screamed Harry, who ran from Louis’ side to Niall’s in less than five seconds. “You bloody prick!” He grabbed the collar of Niall’s blue polo and pulled the blonde boy towards him.

“Whoa, Harry!” Niall exclaimed, attempting to get out of the older boy’s grasp. But it was no use – Harry was stronger than him. Also taller than him, towering over the boy with a look of pure frustration on his face. “What are you doing, mate?!”

Harry laughed angrily. “What am I doing? Me? Oh, hm, I’m about to beat your fucking arse for touching my fucking cousin.”

Niall’s blue eyes widened and met Alice’s brown ones. She looked absolutely horrified. He was confused – she told Harry? After all of that time of them trying to keep the relationship a secret, she told Harry?

“Look at me you arse, don’t fucking look at her.” Harry spat. “I can’t believe you. Do you not remember our agreement back when I first was about to introduce her to you lot? Hmm? You were to stay away from her and I stay away from you? Well it appears you’ve broken the promise, then, Niall. Gone off and shagged her when I told you to piss off. Can’t believe you would do such a thing.”

If Alice thought she was panicking before, then she had no idea what to call what the hell she was doing just then. Her palms were sweaty and her heart was racing, while her mind was all over the place. What was she supposed to do? What would be the best thing to do? What the fuck was Harry going to do?

She silently thanked god for the fact that they were out in the parking lot then, in the back where no one would see them. In fact, there weren’t even any cars driving around back there.

It was only the five of them, and Alice was pretty sure she found that more intimidating.

“What are you talking about, Harry?” Niall asked, only to have Harry shake him by the collar.

“Don’t play dumb with me, Niall. You know what I’m talking about. You’ve been shagging my cousin for a little while, eh? Have you enjoyed keeping it a secret? Was the thrill the best part of it all? Hmm? C’mon Niall, speak up. I’d just love to hear what you have to say.”

But before Niall could even blink, Harry’s fist had already connected with his nose. He bent over in agony and clutched his face, blood seeping through the cracks of his fingers.

“Harry! Stop it!” Alice yelled, moving forwards, but Louis ran towards her and held her back.

He knew that a fight was going to break out, and they most certainly didn’t need Alice trying to break it up only to accidentally be elbowed in the face from one of the teenage boys who wasn’t thinking when they nonchalantly went to push her off.

Seconds later Niall lunged at Harry, punching him in the cheek, causing him to fall backwards. Without any hesitation Harry stood back up and had Niall on his knees by punching him in the stomach.

Alice watched in horror as the two boys broke out into a brawl, and barely understood Demi who was standing on the other side of her on the phone with somebody and telling them to come quickly.

Louis told them to stay back and stepped forward, trying to get between the two of the boys before any fists continued to assault the others’ bodies. But he stepped in too late, and Harry’s fist connected with Louis’ nose much like it had done to Niall’s.

“Oh, shit, Lou! I’m –” Harry’s words were cut off when Niall tackled him to the ground.

The blonde’s nose was still bleeding, and his hands were covered in a mixture of his own blood and Harry’s, as well as Harry’s hands were covered. Niall’s blue shirt also had red stains across it, although they looked more brown then red.

“You fucking cunt!” Niall yelled when Harry pinned his legs to the ground with his knees. Harry grabbed Niall’s arms and held them across the ground above Niall’s head, and he leaned down towards his face.

“Stay away from my cousin, Niall. Don’t ever touch her again you prat.” His nails dug into Niall’s pale flesh with every word he spoke.

The older boy flipped the pair over and had Harry pinned down much like he had been only seconds ago. “I’ll do whatever I want to and with Alice. You can’t stop me or her from this.”

Harry got out of Niall’s grip and stood up, the blonde following his actions. “Oh yeah, Niall? What game are you playing at here? You’re shagging my cousin and Demi at once, is that it? Out with Demi for lunch and shopping but you try and get us all to lie and say you guys have a radio interview? I can tell you care a lot about her, really. Great job, mate. You’re totally a keeper.” At the end of Harry’s sentence, he roughly pushed Niall’s shoulders, making the other boy fly backwards, but still staying on his feet.

The two had completely forgotten about Louis, who had been sitting down on the gravel with his head in his hands. Alice had made Louis take off his hoodie so that she could use one of the sleeves to cover his nose from bleeding more. He winced from the amount of pressure she was putting on his throbbing nose and grabbed onto the hoodie painfully.

“I’m so sorry, Lou.” Alice said. “This… it’s all my fault, you getting hit in the nose, them fighting… It’s all my fault.”

Louis shook his head, and his words were slightly muffled from the clothing placed across the bottom half of his face. “Nonsense, Alice. We had no idea Harry came into the coffee shop, it’s okay. I don’t blame you. But Paul and Preston need to hurry the fuck up because they’re beating the shit out of each other.”

Alice hadn’t even paid any attention to Demi, who was sitting on the other side of Louis and watching the fight quietly. She didn’t give a shit if Demi was freaked out about the two going at it or not.

She was absolutely livid. First of all, she was pissed off because Harry had attacked Niall and they were both acting like assholes, and second of all she was pissed off at her boyfriend genuinely being an asshole. He lied to her. And nobody said anything. She’d expressed how she felt to Louis in Starbucks not even half an hour ago, and he didn’t even tell her that she had a right to be scared Niall was lying.

“Harry! Niall! Cut the shit!” Two loud voices came from behind Louis and Alice, and they belonged to Paul and Preston.

Multiple pairs of feet made their way towards the scene, and seconds later the two guards were pulling the boys apart and Zayn and Liam were sitting with the other three.

“You fucking cunt! Don’t tell me what to fucking do! You’re the biggest hypocrite I’ve ever met, Harry! You cunt!”

“Shut the fuck up, Horan! You’re just a stupid fucking twat! Burn in hell you piece of shit!”

Paul pried at Harry’s body, grabbing his arms and forcing them to his sides. Niall lunged at Harry again, only to have Preston grab the blonde boy and yank him backwards.

Both of the boys were carried away to two separate cars, trying to kick out of the older men’s grasps and screaming words of anger towards each other. Their screams were muffled when the doors were shut and the SUV containing Paul and Harry drove away.

“What the fuck happened to you, Louis?” Zayn asked, and the older boy opened his tired eyes and sighed.

Alice answered for him. “He tried to break them apart but Harry accidentally punched him in the face. His nose was gushing blood. Worse than Niall’s.”

Liam spoke up. “Um, what was the reason for this entire thing anyways? What happened?”

Louis tapped Alice’s thigh and pulled the hoodie from his face. “I’ll chat with them, you go chat with Niall, yeah? See how he’s doing.”

Alice thankfully smiled at Louis and made her way towards the black SUV where Niall was sat with Preston. She could hear him still yelling from inside of the car, most likely venting to Paul about how pissed he was at Harry, considering the fact that all Alice could make out from his Irish gibberish was “Can’t stand him! Such a stupid cunt!”

The girl opened the door and got inside the car, sitting down next to Niall. Preston weakly smiled at her and opened the other door and got out, leaving them alone to talk.

Alice watched Niall with easy eyes as he went quiet. “Are… Are you, um, okay?”

“Are you fucking serious? Am I okay? What the bloody hell do you think?” Niall snapped.

The girl sighed. She knew it was a stupid question. She just didn’t know what else to say. Her mind was all over the place. She knew she was going to have to explain what happened to Niall, but she had to leave out the little bit about her saying she thought she was in love with him.

“How did he find out?” Niall asked, a softer tone to his voice this time. He had a towel clutched to his face. “Did you just decide you were pissed at me and told him or something?”

Alice shook her head and tentatively grabbed his free hand. “Lou and I were in Starbucks, we were talking about you and I… And well Harry heard part of the conversation, but we had no idea he was even in there, last we knew he was all the way upstairs. And then he freaked out, and then Lou suggested we leave so that we could talk about it somewhere else and not in Starbucks in the middle of a mall, and that’s when we ran into you. And Demi.”

Silence filled the car. An awkward silence at that. Niall knew she was going to ask, going to pry and find out why he was lying to her. But he didn’t want to explain. He was exhausted; he just got into a fight with his supposed best friend and his band mate. Simon wasn’t going to be pleased about it, and he knew that they had to come up with a lie so Alice wouldn’t get kicked off of the tour.

Although the couple had a feeling that Harry was going to try and do everything he could to get her kicked off of the tour.

Alice decided against asking right away. She wanted to have at least one night of peace with Niall, without arguing with him and dealing with him running away with Demi. Especially since she, and everyone else, knew that the next day was going to be hell for all of them.

--

“Niall?” Alice walked into the back lounge of the bus, where Niall was sat all alone. After they made their way to the hospital to see if there was any severe damage done to Harry and Niall, the blonde decided that he was going to hide in the back of the bus for the rest of the night.

He had an icepack over his nose, and he was sprawled across the couch. On the TV was John Tucker Must Die, a movie that Niall had always seemed to strangely love. He had an obsession with watching it at least once a month. Alice wasn’t sure why. It was weird as hell, but she went with it anyways.

“You feeling any better?” She asked, and sat down next to the boy, with the little space that there was on the couch.

He moved over and made more room for her, then put his arm around her as she snuggled into his side. “’M alright.” He sighed. “Exhausted and sore.”

She looked at him, “then go to bed, Ni. You look like shit.”

He grinned and shook his head. “I look like shit because your cousin hits like he’s a fucking boxer or something.” He closed his eyes and leaned his head onto hers. “I’m sorry.” He whispered.

Alice licked her lips. “Shh. We’ll talk about everything tomorrow. For now, you need to get to bed.”

Niall groaned. Moving his body hurt, Harry had punched him several times all around his stomach, and he was sure that there were going to be nasty bruises across his body when the next day came. He also knew that he’d be in a lot more pain come the next day.

Alice stood up and reached for Niall, who placed his hand in hers, and she tried pulling him up as best as he could. Each and every step to his bunk, Niall winced in pain. “You can sleep in mine tonight, Ni. It’s a lot lower than yours, so.”

He nodded and got in the bunk, but not before taking off his shirt and pants. When he was all settled into the bunk, Alice said goodnight and went to walk away. “Wait.” Niall said softly, causing her to turn around. “Where’s my goodnight kiss?” He asked, a smile on his lips.

The girl smiled back at him shyly and stepped forward, attempting to peck his lips, but being pulled forwards even more into a more passionate kiss. Until Niall winced in pain from her placing her palm on his cheek.

“Oh, Niall, I forgot, ugh. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.” She apologized, and Niall shook his head.

He kissed her cheek. “It’s alright, baby. But you look knackered, go to sleep. I’ll see you in the morning, beautiful.”

Alice grinned and crawled up to the bunk where Niall usually slept, and pulled out her phone. She looked between old texts between herself and Niall, back when everything was okay between them.

She couldn’t help but think about how funny it was that Niall was actually being nice again for once on the tour, now that he’d been caught in a lie.

But her stomach churned in fear that this could be the very last time that they’d even have the chance to be like this.

And she laid awake for hours wondering what the hell was going to happen to Harry and Niall now.