Loved You First

“Oh, my God. We’re finally here,” Niall said with a smile as he looked up at the beach house he hadn’t seen in a year. Everything still seemed to be the same, and he couldn’t help but look three houses down, knowing that the girl he loved and missed was so close to him.

And she would be for the whole summer.

“Niall and I get our own room!” Louis shouted as he grabbed his bag and jumped out of the car. He raced to the front door and once Zayn’s dad unlocked the door, he bounded inside and up the stairs.

Niall laughed to himself as he slid out of the car and made his way into the house, his suitcase in hand. He entered the cool, air conditioned house and smiled to himself. He was happy to be back in the Daytona Beach area, where he could go to the beach and see Mae every day.

He made his way up the stairs and into the room that belonged to Zayn and Louis last summer. He saw Louis unpacking his suitcase and attempting to find an outfit to wear for the evening. Niall tossed his suitcase down on the floor and sighed to himself as he sat down on the bed.

“You excited to be back?” he asked his best friend as he unzipped his suitcase to find a pair of jeans and a nicer shirt to wear.

“Yes,” Louis responded, excitement filling his voice. “We haven’t see Mae in one year. That’s such a long time, Niall. I can’t wait to see her.”

“Me either,” Niall said, mumbling the next statement to himself. “I miss her.”

“You stopped talking to her, though,” Louis stated, his voice now filled with confusion. “You broke up with her, Niall. But you’re still excited to see her? Don’t you think it’ll be awkward?”

“She understood why I ended it, Louis,” Niall commented. “And it’s not like I wanted it to happen. Honestly, I thought that it was best for the both of us. I was constantly worrying about her and if she would be bothered by what I was doing. I was always curious if she was meeting boys at school that she liked more than me,” he shrugged his shoulders. “It was just hard. And the day after we broke up I wanted to see if she would say anything to me, because we agreed to be friends.”

“And when she didn’t you just decided to give up?” Louis asked as he stared up at his friend.

“Yeah,” Niall answered quietly. “I guess I did.”

“You guys, we’re going to see Mae!” Doniya shouted as she bounded through the door of Niall and Louis’s room. “Let’s go!”

Louis slammed his bag shut and quickly changed his clothes, Niall doing the same. They both exited the bedroom and raced down the stairs with the rest of the guys, and once they got outside they all headed three houses down to where Mae was staying. Knots where tying in Niall’s stomach and the butterflies in his gut were going crazy, and he couldn’t wait to see Mae. He couldn’t wait to see her in person after being without her for so long, and he was hoping that they could fix everything between them that happened after the summer. He wanted to be with her again more than anything, and he wanted her to know that. He wanted to make her smile, laugh, and be the reason why she enjoyed the summer, just like last summer.

When they approached the front door of Mae’s house, Doniya knocked excitedly on the door, and didn’t stop until the door opened. Niall couldn’t hold back his smile as he looked at the beautiful girl that he fell in love with last summer. Even if everyone thought she looked the exact same, Niall thought she had never looked more perfect. The salmon colored top she was wearing complimented the light tan on her shoulders and arms, and her white shorts showed off the tanned legs that Niall couldn’t keep his eyes off of all of last summer (not that he would tell anyone that because he knew he sounded like a pig).

“Oh, my God!” Mae shouted as she hugged Doniya tightly. “I missed you so much!”

“I missed you too!” screamed Doniya, causing all of the guys to cringe at the high-pitched squeal that escaped her mouth. “We’re going to have such a great summer, you have no idea.”

Mae nodded in agreement, before she pulled away from Doniya and looked at all of the guys, a wide smile on her face. She hugged Zayn, Harry, Liam, and Louis, and then she looked at Niall. Niall stared back at her and smiled at her.

“Hi,” he said, feeling like he was falling in love all over again.

“Hi, Niall,” Mae said. A smile was on her face as she looked at the blonde boy with the crooked-tooth smile, the boy she fell in love with last summer and forced herself to get over. And even if she told herself she was over him, she couldn’t get over how cute he looked and how perfect he was standing there with his hands stuffed in the pockets of his jeans. She thought that when she saw him it would be like seeing an old friend, but deep down she knew that that was impossible because he was her first love, and her parents always told her that she would never completely get over her first love.

She walked over to Niall and wrapped her arms around him tightly. Niall wrapped his arms around Mae and squeezed her as he inhaled the strawberry scent of her hair that he missed so much over the past year. He missed feeling her body against his and he missed the way their bodies molded together perfectly.

“It’s good to see you,” she said quietly, before forcing herself to pull away from Niall.

Niall just nodded his head and smiled again, and his hands managed their way back down into his pockets. Mae stepped back into the house and motioned for everyone to come inside. After everyone went inside ahead of him, Niall entered the house and looked around at the familiar interior. Everything seemed to be just the same as it was when he last saw it, and he knew that he missed it way too much.

“I want you guys to meet Sean,” Mae said with a grin as she looked at her friends in front of her. “He’s in the family room.”

Niall felt his stomach drop at the sound of another guy’s name. He knew Mae didn’t have a brother, and she wasn’t close enough with her cousins to bring one of them along for the summer, especially a guy. She had never mentioned a friend by the name of Sean when they would talk about Mae’s friends last summer, and Niall knew that he would have remembered.

“Sean?” he choked out, as if his oxygen was totally cut off.

“Oh, I’m so excited,” Doniya giggled as she walked towards the family room with Mae and the rest of the guys. Niall followed behind everyone and he was beginning to feel numb inside. A thousand thoughts were running through his mind as to who “Sean” could be, and the lump in his throat and the emptiness in his stomach were making everything worse. The anticipation was killing Niall and the walk to the family room seemed to go in slow motion like a movie.

When he entered the family room he glanced over at the couch to see a guy about his age sitting down with Mae’s parents. He had dark hair and eyes and his complexion was a bit darker than Niall’s. The stranger smiled, revealing a set of straight, pearly whites, and he stood up. Niall glanced up at him, noting that the stranger was about four inches taller than him, and he looked like some bastard that came out of a GQ magazine.

“You guys, this is my boyfriend, Sean,” Niall heard Mae say as she introduced Tall, Dark and Handsome to everyone. Someone that Niall would never have pictured Mae with.

Niall looked down at his shoes as he tried to ignore the knots in his stomach and the hurt that filled his whole entire being. He felt betrayed, like Mae totally disregarded his feelings for her, and it hurt. It seemed like Mae just forgot about him and moved on without batting an eye and it honestly pissed Niall off. She had done to Niall what she thought he would do to her—find someone better. He looked up at Tall, Dark, and Handsome and forced himself to smile politely.

“These are my friends, Sean. This is Doniya,” Mae said as she pointed to Doniya, before she pointed to the rest of the guys. “And that’s Harry, Louis, Liam, Zayn, and Niall.”

“It’s nice to meet you guys,” Sean greeted as he smiled at everyone.

Niall just did a slight head-nod and sighed to himself. When Mae said his name it sounded like she had no special feelings for him. It just sounded like she was introducing a friend, and Niall thought that he was much more than that to her. Last summer he wasn’t one of Mae’s friends, he was her boyfriend. She would’ve never introduced him to someone as a friend and she would never have said his name so…so plainly. There was no excitement in her voice when she said Niall’s name and there was no obvious sign of romantic feeling.

And that hurt Niall more than anything, and it wasn’t just that. He was beginning to think that he made the biggest mistake three weeks after summer ended.