Don't Wave No Goodbye

Darcy gets there first, ordering a strong black coffee and the unhealthiest pastry she can find on display before collapsing at a table near the back of the little bakery, picking at her food miserably. She expects Nick to flounce in, grinning and looking generally smug, but he shuffles into the store looking twitchy and falls into a seat opposite her immediately without even flirting with the hot young lad at the counter.

“Alright?” Darcy asks slowly, raising an eyebrow at her friend as he sighs.

“Quite dandy, thanks,” Nick deadpans before running a hand through his drooping quiff. “You?”

Darcy snorts. “It’s all peaches and cream with me. Hey, you’re looking real rough. What’s up?”

Nick groans, crossing his arms on the table in front of him before hiding his face in them. “God, I don’t even know if I want to talk about it.” He suddenly sits up, narrowing his eyes at Darcy. “And hang on, aren’t we here to talk about you?”

Smiling at the barrister who brings over her coffee, she gestures up at the counter. “You don’t want to order?”

“Don’t think I can stomach anything, really. Drank like a bloody teenager on their first binge, Christ,” Nick whines, before shaking his head at the thought. “Anyway, what did you get up to last night that has you in a fragile mental state?”

“You’re gonna laugh. Or say I told you so. Or anything of that variation,” Darcy moans, sipping at the bitter coffee and hating every second of it, but she drinks it anyway.

“I think you might do the same if I tell you what I did last night,” Nick grumbles, peaking Darcy’s interest as she looks on eagerly.

“What could you, Nick ‘no shame’ Grimshaw, have done that would have you be embarrassed by your actions? It’s gotta be something real juicy! Go on, tell, tell!”

Nick shakes his finger at her. “Not so fast, darling. I think you should go first!”

“Age before beauty, isn’t it?” Darcy grins.

“Oh, someone’s a tad sassy this morning!” Nick coos, but he’s smiling too. “And you’re not that far behind me, missy.”

“Please, three years is a century if you think about it,” Darcy teases before looking serious again. “Come on, just tell me. It’s me, I’m hardly going to judge you now, am I?”

“It’s not the judging I’m worried about it, it’s the questions and the look of shock you’ll have on your face and the ‘what the hell were you thinking’ expression you’ll try but fail to hold back,” Nick responds, looking hunched over and self-pitying.

“Just say it!” Darcy begs, reaching out to tug on Nick’s folded arms insistently.

“No, you first!”

“God, you are such a child. Okay, okay, at the same time?” Darcy bargains and Nick grins, nodding in agreement. There’s a moment of silence as they both stare at each other, waiting, and then they’re both speaking.

“I slept with Harry last night.”

“Louis kissed me, and I kissed him back.”

The words come out overlapped and rushed, but bold enough to be understood. Both Nick and Darcy move back in surprise, looking at each other in complete shock. Darcy opens and closes her mouth a few times in disbelief while Nick just sort of gasps like a fish out of water.

“You did what?” Nick accuses, looking completely bewildered.

“Me! What did you do? Oh my god,” Darcy stresses, trying to hide a smile but she can’t help it. “I thought you hated him! I thought he hated you! How does that equate to snogging?”

“I thought you were all okay with your Harry Styles lapse of judgement? Crawling into bed with him is not a viable solution, now or ever!” Nick shoots back, waving his hands around in panic.

Darcy pinches the bridge of her nose and breathes out slowly. “Okay, okay, so last night was not a good night for either of us.”

Nick huffs out a little laugh. “Worse for you, babe. A quick snog has nothing on a shag, let me tell you that.”

“Excuse you? At least I didn’t hate the bloke I was with. Macking on some dude you allegedly hate and refuse to say why is pretty up there, thank you very much,” Darcy responds, looking completely affronted.

“Don’t get me wrong, I still hate him and he hates me. He’s just, like, he’s got a great mouth and who am I to deny him the chance to use it, right?” Nick gives Darcy a lewd grin and she screws up her face, an expression of disgust and amusement.

“Oh Nicholas, no, stop!” Darcy pleads while Nick just laughs. “So how did this even happen? Did you slip and fall onto his face, or what?”

“It was a heat of the moment sort of thing, I guess? I don’t know, we were arguing and there was a lot of yelling and swearing and then suddenly things got all calm then he kissed me. And it was nice enough that I wanted to kiss him back.”

Both of Darcy’s eyebrows shoot up her forehead. “Angry tension kisses? Those are the best there is. Shit, what were you two even fighting about? Must’ve been something pretty important to get you both worked up like that!”

Nick shrugs. “Just why we hated each other, really. Turns out we both thought the other person was in love with Harry, neither of us are, and he thinks I’m a shitty person who Harry needs to be protected from.”

Darcy lets out a low whistle. “Wow. That is, that really is something. People make movies out of this type of story line, Grimshaw. I like that you’ve found the one person more dramatic than you to fool around with.”

“There’s no fooling around! It was just a kiss that led to a bit of making out, that’s all,” Nick stresses.

“Right, okay. What happened after, you know, once you’d removed your tongues from each other’s mouths?”

“He reminded me once again that he still hated me, I returned the sentiment again, and then he said he’d see me around, whatever that meant. Look, this doesn’t change anything, I still think he’s an annoying little twat, I just hate myself a bit more for making out with aforementioned annoying twat,” Nick explains, screwing his eyes up tight like he’s trying to forget everything that happened.

“The plot thickens!” Darcy cries, looking pleased at this information.

“You’re loving this, aren’t you?” Nick grumbles, glaring at her from across the table.

Darcy nods seriously, fighting back a grin. “Of course, because now I don’t have to sit alone at the Table of Bad Decisions. But also because I don’t know, I think you guys could be so great together. All snarky and banter-y but also just a really hot couple?”

“Whoa, who said anything about being a couple? Do you remember who you’re talking to?”

“Right, of course, yeah. But still, a girl can dream. So, I feel this question may be redundant, but he really is gay then? The leggy brunette he’s always with is just a hoax?”

“Mmm,” Nick hums absently. “Just someone management’s told him to hang around and kiss to keep the rumours of him. The selling point of that dumb band is to have five good looking boys that girls around the world want to marry, and in order to keep them throwing their money into the band’s lap, they need to have them as attainable as possible.”

“Yeah, it’s been that way forever. But the truth comes out eventually, and I’m pretty sure there’s been a gay member in every boy band that was popular in the nineties. History always repeats itself,” Darcy comments, finishing off her cooling coffee with a bit of a grimace.

“But wait, you and Harry! You little minx, hooking up with an eighteen year old popstar!” Nick calls out in excitement, his eyes lighting up now that they’d moved on from his mistakes and onto Darcy’s.

“I was drunk; I’m not taking responsibility for my non-sober actions!” Darcy replies firmly, pouting deeply and pulling apart her pastry to keep from seeing the smug glee written all over Nick’s face.

Nick smirks at this, nabbing a portion of Darcy’s pastry and chewing on it thoughtfully. “Well maybe, but everyone knows that what you do drunk is what you’re afraid to do sober. What was it like? Good? Gold star? Ten out of ten? Would do again?”

Darcy groans loudly at this. “You are absolutely horrid and I’m terminating my friendship with you right now.”

“Aww come on! What’s the point in being friends if we can’t laugh at each other’s terrible mistakes?”

“You’ve got a point. Okay, fine, he was brilliant in bed and I don’t get why because he’s eighteen! He should be awkward and unsure, not a freaking master of orgasms, that’s not fair!”

Nick grin turns almost evil at this while Darcy looks around embarrassed, only to find that the bakery is practically empty and she doesn’t need to worry about being overheard. She pushes her pastry away, suddenly losing her appetite.

“So maybe he has been with four hundred and ten women, you know, to get as good as you say he is.”

Darcy laughs, giving a little shrug. “Possibly. But I don’t think I’ve been that, well, satisfied, maybe ever. The little shit is good with his hands, mouth, and cock. Bastard.”

“Are you going to see him again?” Nick pries, trying to look innocent about it all.

“Ugh, see, this is where it all goes to shit. This morning was awkward as all hell and instead of just getting rid of him, I had to consider his feelings and be swayed by just how good he is in the sack. It’s a bunch of bullshit, why couldn’t I have been born without feelings.”

Nick nods sympathetically. “The curse of being human. What, did you try to kick him to the curb?”

“Well, maybe? Kind of? I thought he’d just leave in the morning, but he made a bloody pot of tea and wanted to sit around in the kitchen drinking it and exchanging pleasantries! Who does that?”

“Very thoughtful, young Harold is.”

Darcy narrows her eyes at Nick. “Not helpful. Anyway, I told him straight out that it was a one time thing and he looked all, I don’t know, put out? I felt like a total bitch even though it was the truth and I thought he knew that, so I maybe sort of suggested the whole fuck buddy thing to him?”

“I knew you would!” Nick cries out, his voice triumphant as he points a finger at Darcy in victory. “Called it, I so called it!”

“Would you be quiet?” Darcy hisses, looking around to meet the gaze of the barrister, causing her give him a polite smile and turn back to her loud-mouthed, bragging friend. “Okay, so yeah, maybe I hate myself for going against every morally conscious voice in my head but god, he was so great. And I like him and it feels nice to be wanted by someone like him. Surely, sleeping around with him isn’t the worst thing I could possibly do, right?”

“You’re consenting adults, you’re entitled to do whatever you want to do with each other naked in the private of your own home, as long as everyone’s clear of the rules,” Nick explains seriously and Darcy gives a little nod at this.

“Right. Right, yeah, I mean we’re both old enough to know what we want and who cares if it goes against society’s standards. No one has to know, no one has to get hurt, and there’s amazing sex up for grabs.”

“Exactly,” Nick says around a smirk. “God, look at you, living the life so many girls around the world only dream about. It’s gotta be a good feeling, yeah?”

Darcy rolls her eyes at this, reaching over to pinch Nick swiftly. “Don’t forget, you’re in the same position, Mr. ‘I hate Louis Tomlinson, but I also want to stick my tongue down his throat’ Grimshaw.”

“How did this become our lives?” Nick wonders out loud, and Darcy gives a little helpless shrug. She was already feeling better about the whole situation just by talking to Nick and letting him talk her into seeing things from his twisted point of view and so the two of them sit together in the little bakery, moving on to chat about Fearne’s baby and what they had planned for their shows tomorrow, enjoying the calm after the storm and hoping it lasts.