I'll Be Your Safety

Just a warning, the quote at the end will give you some major feels.

I had finally finished settling my mum into my room, and giving her a small tour around the slightly messy house. Sometimes I felt bad for Liv; it was hard living with three messy boys. We walked back down the long staircase and found Liv sitting on the couch, rocking Ethan back and forth in her arms. Her back was facing us, and the only noise to be heard was Ethan’s quiet banter.

“Liv? Were headed out for lunch, would you like to come along?” I walked up while my mum rifled through her purse in the kitchen. Liv turned to look up at me, and my breath caught in my throat. Her eyes were slightly red, as if she had been crying again. I took a seat beside her, slinging my arm around her shoulder.
“Did you and Harry-“

“Yeah. He’s just such a- such a-“ She covered Ethan’s ears protectively. “Asshole sometimes.”
She scoffed, “The nerve of him? To just waltz up to me and pretend like nothing happened, even though I know he was out sleeping with some sluts last night.” She squeezed her eyes shut tightly.

“He really doesn’t deserve to have you if he’s going to go out and drink if you guys get into a fight.” I sighed.

She paused. “You know what? Lunch sounds great right now. I need to get out of this house.” She laughed lightly, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. I took Ethan from her arms, and walked over to my mum.
“I’m just going to change him. I’ll be down in a moment.” I darted up the stairs and into Ethan’s room. I speedily changed him out of his zebra onesie into a pair of pants and a shirt. I smiled, blowing raspberries on his tummy before stuffing an extra onesie and some diapers into a diaper bag. I slung the bag over my shoulder, picked up Ethan and then walked back downstairs. When I made it downstairs my mum and Liv were talking silently, and Olivia’s eyes were cast on the ground. She glanced up when I walked in, and smiled.

“I can take that from you.” She offered, taking the heavy diaper bag off my shoulder.

“Thanks.”

“Well, Niall. At least you can dress your son better than you dress yourself.” My mum sighed.

“Hey! What do you mean?” I smirked.

“Well, lets just say he wasn’t the best dresser a kid.” My mum leaned over and told Liv “He used to match the most odd combinations together. Or course, I just had to go along with it; but the stares we got in the street. My gosh-“

“That’s enough story telling for one afternoon.” I interrupted, shooting her a look. “Let’s take my car.” I grabbed a keychain off the counter, and then marshaled the two women out the door and into the car.

By the time we got to the restaurant it was one o’clock. Like usual, it was pretty busy, and we waited for a few minutes before we got a table. But an old friend of mine owned the restaurant, so we managed to sneak in line in front of other waiting patrons.

“Here, just this way.” The waitress smiled. She led us through the long restaurant, placing our menus down on a small, secluded table that faced the water. Olivia got in first, picking the chair closest to the window. My mum sat across from her, and I sat myself beside Liv. I handed Ethan over to Olivia, picked up the menu, and started flipping through.

After we ordered our food, my friend, the head chef at the restaurant, walked up, a big smile on his face.
“Niall Horan, it’s been forever.” He bellowed. I stood up, gave him a hug, then sat back down.
“Yeah, how’ve you been?” I replied.

“Good, good. Everything’s bout the same as it’s always been.”

“Great. Jeff, this is my mum, Maura, and my friend, Olivia.”

“Nice to meet you.” Jeff grinned “And who’s this little guy?” He asked, crouching over to Ethan’s level.

“This is Ethan. Say hi buddy.” I bounced him slightly on my lap.

“Hello.” Ethan sang. His confidence always marveled me. He was never shy around new people, and was quick to warm up to someone.

“Is he- is he yours?” Jeff inquired.

“Yeah. He’s a year and a half now.”

“Well congrats man. Listen, I gotta go back into the kitchen, but shoot me a text or something, alright?”

“Okay, see ya ‘round.” I waved.

“He’s nice. How do you know him?” My mum asked after Jeff walked away.

“Oh, we met the first time I was in LA. He was a chef at our hotel and tried to teach the boys and I how to cook… as you can probably imagine it didn’t work out so well.”

“Yeah, especially since your ‘specialty’ food is cheerios.” Liv scoffed playfully.

“Hey! It took a long, long time to perfect the milk to cereal ratio.” I defended.

“Alright. I’ll just let you think that’s an accomplishment.” She laughed, and patted my arm.

-Olivia-

“So, Niall. Any girls been in your life lately?” Maura asked after the waiter cleared our plates.

“There was this one girl, but we didn’t work out.” Niall shrugged.

“Really? Why not?”

“I dunno. We just weren’t meant to be.” He sighed. Suddenly my phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out unsurely. Naturally, it was a text from Harry, asking where I was. I told him I was out for lunch with Maura and Niall, then placed my phone on the table beside me. I sighed, playing with a ring on my finger.

“What’s wrong?” Niall leaned down and whispered in my ear.

“What do you mean?”

“You look upset.” He replied. I bit my lip, debating on telling him about Harry or not. I decided not, for if I told him about his best friend’s persistent attitude, he would tell me to simply break up with him.

Well, it wasn’t that easy. I couldn’t just break up with Harry. For starters, I lived in the same house as him. If we went through an ugly breakup, it would mean complete awkwardness between the entire house. Also, there's the whole sleeping situation. If I were to sleep on the couch in the living room, he would make some kind of advancement on me, or bug me. But I couldn’t sleep in Niall’s room; it would be three years ago all over again. So, I had to keep this messy relationship going for as long as I could, until something bad happened. Not the ideal situation, I know; but it was the only one that worked out right not.

Don’t get me wrong; I love Harry. There will always be a small part of me that is attached to him. They say that no one ever gets over their first love, and for me, my first love was Harry Styles. But he’s changed since I first met him. I don’t know what it was that changed his attitude so quickly, but he just wasn’t himself. He was always either moody, cranky or overly demanding. I wished that there was something I could do to bring the sweet, caring, guy out of him, and if there was a way, I just hadn’t found it yet.

“So, have you made your mind up about moving yet?” Maura asked Niall. He suddenly looked uncomfortable, and mouthed ‘no’ and shook his head to his mom.

“Moving? What about moving?” I asked.

“Shit.” Niall mumbled under his breath. “I- uh. I was actually thinking of- er, moving out of the place were in now.”

“Oh really? Where would you move? Is it nearby?”

“Liv, I wanted to move back to London.” He said, turning and looking me in the eye.

“Oh” I breathed. “Does that mean you- would leave Ethan and I?”

“See-“ He glanced over at his mum briefly, then back to me “That’s where it gets a little- complicated.”

“You could come to London with me! You would have your own flat, just you and Ethan. But- there’s Harry.” He sighed, “Since he’s working on his career, he’s staying in LA. For sure. But for my work- well, I’ve just signed this band, they’re based out of England, which means I have to fly down there to meet with them. And also live out there.”

I felt all my breath leave my lungs. “Oh.” Was all I could say.

“Liv, trust me. The last thing I want to do right now is leave Ethan. But I- Shit Liv. You understand, right?”

I nodded, pulling Ethan closer to my chest. “When are you leaving?”

“In a few weeks.”

I frowned. This was it. This was the push I needed to let Harry go. I could move out of the house, find my own place again. Of course, I would need to get a job, but I could start working soon, then have enough time to accumulate some money. One side of me started rushing thought likes this through my head, but the other side thought about what it would be like just living the three of us, Harry, Ethan and I, together in the house.

“Well, let’s head back to the house.” Niall stood up, wrapped an arm around his mother, and started his way out of the restaurant. I slipped the diaper bag over my shoulder and followed the pair. I placed Ethan on the ground, letting him run after his dad instead of me attempting to hold him as he fussed and squirmed in my arms. My phone buzzed again, signaling another text from harry. I didn’t read it; I just replied that I was on my way home, and then walked out to the car.

Harry wasn’t home again until later that night. Maura was upstairs reading, and Ethan was in bed; so Niall and I sat watching a movie on the sofa. The first thing I heard was his car pull up in the driveway. I glanced over at Niall, who got the hint, and walked over to the kitchen. The last thing I needed was Harry accusing me of leaving him to hang out with Niall. The explanation wasn’t even worth it.

I heard the front door close, and his heavy footsteps that went straight past me and up the stairs. At the top of the stairs, I heard his bedroom door close, signaling where he had gone for the night.

“Well, I guess I’m sleeping on the couch tonight.” I muttered, shooting a glare in Harry’s direction. I decided to play it the safe way, and let Harry be alone for one night before a making up.

“We can have a little slumber party!” Niall cheered, jumping over the couch and landing on it with a flourish. I giggled at his sudden childishness, “Fine, call it a slumber party.”

“I’m just gonna go get changed.” He stood up, then started up the stairs.

“Wait.” I called out “Can you bring me some clothes to sleep in?”

“Sure.” He replied. Minutes later he reappeared, smirking childishly and holding something behind his back.

“It’s payback time.” He smirked. “Remember that time you made me show up to a meeting wearing a fuzzy bunny sweater? Well, it’s my turn to have some revenge.” He laughed, pulling out from behind his back a skimpy nightgown.

“Oh, what the hell, Niall. You expect me to put that tiny thing on?” I whined.

“Oh, yes I do.” He laughed, tossing the small garment towards me.

I held it up, inspecting it. “What are you hinting at here Mr. Horan?” I raised an eyebrow, getting the exact reaction I knew I would pull out of him. The tips of his ears turned red, and he stumbled over his words. “Hey, I’m just joking. Turn around.” I instructed. He did as I said, and I too turned my back on him as I began to take my shirt off.

“Wait, your just gonna change right here?” He asked nervously

“What? It’s not like you’ve never seen me like this before.” I replied calmly. I heard him clear his throat. “I meant like, a swimsuit of something… not uh- not that night.” I turned around, surprised to see him doing the same thing. We awkwardly met eye contact, and Niall fidgeted in his seat.

“Well, turn around.” I motioned with my finger. I resumed taking off my shirt and pants, slipping the silken nightgown over me.
“Well, this is sexual.” I announced, looking at myself in the reflection of the window.

“Well, I would offer to get you something more appropriate, but my mum’s already asleep.” Niall smirked, something new flashing through his blue eyes.

I yawned. “Well, I’m going to sleep now.” I announced, wrapping a long blue blanket around myself. “SHAWTY THE BIG COUCH!” I cried, booking it towards the long couch. We both made it there at the same time, and ended up falling over onto the couch.

“Move.” I mumbled from under him.

“Never.” He chimed, making a big show of wiggling his but around. I laughed, “move your big smelly bum.” I smacked his butt.

“Ouch.” He pouted, rubbing his bum. I managed to wedge my hand between him and the couch, and roll him off me. He landed on the floor with a thud and a groan.

“I’m off, I’m off.” He gasped, laughing. I covered my head with the blanket, waiting for him to move. I move the blanket slightly down, and noticed Niall was lying on the loveseat, his legs dangling off the edge of the couch. He was smirking over at me, and then covered his face.

“Someone likes to smirk today.” I teased.

“What are you talking about?” he retorted playfully.

“Whatever. Goodnight Smirky Mc. Smirkyton.” I chimed. I then turned my back to him, and, with a smile on my face, fell into a deep sleep.