× Horan

Lynn and I haven't left the bed all day.

It was February 1st, three days since the stunt. In those three days, I've had millions of unknown callers try to reach me on my cell, more than likely reporters wanting the multiple new rumors floating around since our outing to be confirmed from the source. I ignored all of them.

The media was nothing but hungry dogs wanting the biggest scoop. The ideals of every aspect of public life was being bent - in this case, the newly exposed relationship of Lynn and I. The media had once been the shining outlet for journalism, but had been turned into a puppet show, anything for the ratings. Ratings meant money, lots of it, which also meant any kind of sympathy was out the window to the victims of the media.

I was the one to leave the room as I was the least likely to be hounded from the situation. I knew the moment Lynn would show her face, people would be all over her, slut-shaming and calling her awful names where I would be applauded and praised for the inside act we had committed.

Media was a monster in more than one way. They had opinions where opinions shouldn't have been placed. They give warped opinions to the people who read the articles or watch the news, not giving them the chance to form their own opinion on the subject. Which was why Lynn wasn't portrayed as the victim in all this, and instead as the perpetrator - the one and only reason why the London Lions had lost the game.

I knew all this because when I would leave the room to get us food or get the school work we had missed that day, I would grab the daily newspaper and read what was being said about us. Lynn didn't know this, however. She shouldn't be exposed to that kind of trash.

"Lynn," I said, walking over to the bed where she lay, grabbing her ankle to get her attention.

Her eyes shifted toward me slowly, like they were heavy and an effort to move. She looks at me like the fire in her eyes had been dowsed with ice water. I'm not used to it, it unnerved me. It's like she just crawled inside some invisible shell and no matter how hard I tried, she was unreachable. I wanted to crack my usual jokes but I knew she wouldn't laugh. I wanted to hold her and make her feel safe, but I knew she'd force me off.

I'm standing right next to her but she might as well be on the moon.

"I'm going to go get our assignments from today," I told her.

She blinked sluggishly at me and gave me a small nod. That had been the most reaction I've gotten out of her for the past two days.

I grabbed my jacket and car keys and walked out the room, making sure to lock the door behind me.

× × ×

I started at English because that was the closest building from my hall. My feet echoed off the marble floor as I walked through the corridors. It was after school hours and the building was deserted, but I knew Professor Lawtherd would be in his classroom. He was always in his classroom.

Sure enough, when I rounded the corner, I saw a streak of light coming from an ajar door at the end of the hall.

Walking into the room, I found him sitting at his desk, black wire rimmed glasses on the end of his nose and a thick book in his hands. Ever since Emily told me that he was her brother, it was hard to look at him the same. As I walked closer, the golden serif font of the title of the book stuck out against the black. Romeo and Juliet. From the tear of the binding and the ragged edges of the pages, I assumed it was one of his favorites.

"Professor Lawtherd," I said into the dense silence.

He didn't look at me or give me any acknowledgment that he had heard me as he continued to look down at the page he was reading.

Just when I was going to call his name again, he flipped the page and looked up at me from the top of his glasses. His dark, hazel eyes bore into mine, like he was scolding me for interrupting his peace and quiet.

"So," he started, closing the book and setting it down on his mahogany desk. "Look who finally decided to show up for class."

The last time I was in his class was four weeks ago. It started because I didn't want to see Lynn after she ripped my heart in pieces, and just this past week was because of the whole scandal ordeal that happened during our last game. Being away from his class was necessary, but I didn't see any reason to tell Professor Lawtherd that.

"I'm here to get mine and Lynn's assignment from this week," I deadpanned, not wanting to explain myself to him.

Lawtherd didn't make any move to get the assignments and instead stayed in his seat and looked at me from the top of his designer glasses like he was trying to light me on fire with his mind.

"That's it?" he asked.

"Yes."

He sighed and finally stood up, pushing his glasses up to the bridge of his nose. I watched as he walked to the filing cabinet in the corner of the room and opened a drawer, pulling out some papers before closing it again.

"I thought maybe you'd want to talk about what happened at your last game," Lawtherd finally said, handing me the papers.

I took them. "Why would I talk to you about that?"

He sat back down at his desk and picked up his book once again. "Sometimes it's nice to hear someone else's prospective on things."

"Thanks, but I don't-"

"I really don't know why modern society's demented obsession with romantic love and finding another person to be with is so glamorized," Lawtherd interrupted, picking up the book and looking at the cover. "I blame Shakespeare."

"With all due respect, Sir, I really don't want to hear your opinion. It's not your place to intervene."

"For every person, there comes a time when you fall in love with someone you're not supposed to," he continued like I didn't say anything at all. For whatever reason, I stayed there and listened, maybe it was out of hope - hope that he might say something useful and get me out of this mess. "You fall in love with them against all of the logic in the world. Against time, against reason, against choice. You know just how bad this is for you.

"But you want it bad enough that you will risk anything to have it. That tale goes further than Romeo and Juliet. But what people don't understand is that forbidden love just isn't worth it. Its uncharted waters, and it's way too deep and way too treacherous. You will get hurt, it's pretty much a given that you will get hurt. And in my opinion, it's a waste of time. Nothing good ever comes out of being in a relationship that's shunned. Forbidden love should not be nurtured, but should be forgotten."

"You don't know what you're talking about," I sneered through clenched teeth.

"No?" Professor Lawtherd questioned with a rise of his brow. "You think I haven't been in your position before? Because I have and let me tell you something, it ended in nothing but heartbreak. You may think you love Lynn Mercury, but it's simply just the feeling of-"

"Shut up," I snapped. "You know nothing about me."

"I know a lot about you, Niall. You're quite similar to me, remember?"

"You know nothing about me and my relationship with Lynn. You know jackshit about the two of us."

The professor gazed at me through his glasses, his obviously dyed, dark brown hair was falling out of its slick-back due and his frown lines seemed more obvious the longer I looked at him.

"I'm speaking from experience," he clarified like that made it all better. "I was in a relationship with someone I shouldn't have for over a year. My father had gotten remarried to this pretty, posh woman who just so happened to have a daughter a five years younger than me." He stopped and looked up. "You can probably fill in the pieces from there."

Emily.

She told me on the beach that she had an older step brother, but this!? Technically, there wasn't anything wrong with the relationship since they were step siblings, but I could see how it was frowned upon in society and definitely forbidden among the family.

"It was shortly after I graduated when we were exposed, and it tore us apart - it tore me apart," Lawtherd added. "My father was outraged and instantly kicked me out of the house to never return. He gave me nothing to live off and I had to find random jobs just to pay for a hotel room until I could afford something else. It must not have been enough because my dad managed to get me a teaching job here in London, and without another word... I was gone - literally outlawed from the family."

After Jason graduated from college, he moved to London to start new, picked up miscellaneous jobs, and eventually got a professor position. Emily had told me.

Before I could open my mouth to say something, he was talking again. "You're lucky this incident at your game happened when it did, because the longer this 'relationship' of yours lasted, the more hurt you will be. Actually, it's probably already happened, hasn't it? This exposure is going to break you two apart and pretty soon you're going to resent each other. You're going to wish your fate was like Romeo and Juliet's."

"You have it all wrong," I argued. "Lynn and I are stronger than ever because of this."

He looked at me sadly, like he was feeling pity toward me. That only made me angrier. "Are you sure?" he asked with a slight tilt of his head. "I know you don't want my advice, but I do recall you coming to me at the end of class a few months ago. What did you ask...? Oh, yes. You asked why we have desire to always want what we can't have. Do you remember what I said?"

I did remember, word-for-word. But I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction that I thought about it more than I should have.

"I said that longing for someone is an endless cycle of pain with no satisfaction. It has no romantic ending," he told me anyways. "Are you sure you two are stronger than ever? It's understandable to be blinded by what you wish were to happen than the reality that is unfolding. You're probably feeling it now - that unsatisfied numbness."

I opened my mouth to respond - to tell him that he was wrong about all his accusations - but then I decided against it. This professor wasn't worth the fight. All he knew was that I lived in a rich lifestyle. That's it. He can't possibly know what goes on outside this classroom and the thought of him thinking he knows everything makes me want to hit him with a brick.

But instead I closed my mouth and walked away and out of his room.

Once outside, I made my way to my car but before I had the chance to dig out my keys, something caught my attention. Or more accurately, someone.

Through the windows of the little coffee house next door of the English building, I spotted a blonde head with a name that had been ringing in my ears ever since Lynn uttered it two nights ago.

Without thinking, I marched over to the cafe and stepped inside, the bell above the door going off from my entrance. Chloe had taken a seat in the back corner where she had her laptop, probably the same damn laptop she recorded the video she showed to the world.

Lynn had explained that Chloe had to be the person that exposed us because of the angle the video was recorded from. It made sense, Chloe had been on her laptop when I walked into their room. If she had any suspicion that something was going on with us, then she knew that something was bound to happen once she left. We played right into her hands.

I had agreed with Lynn not to confront Chloe until she was ready - she wanted to make sure where she stood with Coach and what was going to happen when we finally talked to him first. But opportunity was knocking and I was damn well ready to answer it.

Chloe didn't notice me when I walked up to her table, or she did and just chose to ignore me. And with the latter, I got pissed.

Losing the patience I never had, I reached out and snapped her laptop closed.

She didn't say anything from my outburst and instead just looked up at me with hard eyes.

"Why did you do it?"

Chloe smiled cunningly. "I don't think you want to have this conversation here."

"Answer me."

The smile faded from her lips and she sat up straight. She didn't even try to deny what she did nor ask how we found out. Instead, she just continued to stare at me with her bright blue eyes like I would crack under the pressure and leave her alone. What she didn't understand, however, was that I literally had nothing to lose.

"How did you manage it?" I asked. "How did you overrule the technicians at the game to play the video in front of everyone?"

"Blackmail," she answered simply.

I didn't know Chloe very well, and maybe that was why I had no trouble believing she pulled all this off. Someone who had been friends with her for a while, like Abby for instance, might see this innocent, sweet girl. But being someone from the outside made it a hell of a lot easier to see the horns sticking out of her pretty little head.

"You do know that you didn't just hurt the two of us, right?" I sneered. "The school is in legal trouble because of you. They are going to have to answer some really-"

"Do you know who I am, Niall Horan?" Chloe asked suddenly, clearly not giving a shit about any of the backlash of her crime.

I could have called her a million names, everything between Bitch and the Devil himself, but I knew she was looking for a fight, and as much as I was willing to punch her in the face, I didn't give her the satisfaction.

"You're Lynn's roommate," I said through clamped teeth.

Chloe laughed then and it reminded me of a sound you might hear in a mental ward. "Not even close," she sneered back. "But I'm not surprised you don't remember."

"Stop with the enigmatic talk. Just tell me why you did it."

She paused and continued to look at me. "Alina Findlay," was all she said.

That name could stir storms inside me - hurricanes, tsunamis, lightning and tornadoes all mixing around to create one giant storm - but hearing it come out of Chloe's mouth set my blood on fire.

"How..." I started, but couldn't make myself continued.

"Alina and I go way back," she explained with a grin, clearly enjoying the idea that she held all of knowledge and I was willing to start bagging at for it at this point. "Do you recall her ever talking about a girl from Hampshire?"

Alina Findlay wasn't from Mullingar. She wasn't even born in Ireland. She was from a small country on the southern coast of England and had moved to the town I lived in when she was twelve. She liked telling me all about her time in Hampshire, everything from riding her bike to the local gas station to get free ice cream to the times she would go to the pound and play with the dogs. But she especially enjoyed talking about her best friend that she did all this with; the friend that had come up to visit Alina when we were dating for five months and insisted on meeting...

"We..." I started, still a little shocked on this new information "We met before. In Mullingar."

The grin on Chloe's face widened. "It really is a small world, Niall Horan."

She looked different now than when I met her in Ireland, which was probably why I never connected the dots until Chloe told me. She had dark, short hair when we met, and she had filled out her body from the time we met to now. She could have very well have been a different person if it wasn't for those cold, teal eyes of hers. Looking in them now, I saw it. That day in the neighborhood coffee house where we met, very much like the one we were in now, suddenly became very, very clear to me.

"You get it now, don't you?" Chloe asked. "Why I did it?"

I had a hunch, but I wanted to hear it from her mouth. "This isn't a good enough reason why you did what you did."

"Oh really? Because I think it is," she said, her eyes becoming dark as she leaned forward on the table in front of her. "You and my best friend were in love. I was so happy for her. You seemed genuine and just an all-around good guy and I approved of the relationship. It nearly killed me to know what happened to Alina, but I couldn't do much to fix it, now could I? But when I learned that you, the boy that was dating my best friend, was going to the same school I was attending? I thought maybe we could be friends, for Alina. But that was before I learned who exactly you were.

"You slept around. And at first it really pissed me off because you were in a solid, committed relationship with Alina... and then this? But I quickly got over it as I soon fell into the same habits as you. I figured you sleeping with anyone with a beating heart and boobs was better than loving someone else, right? It was better than replacing Alina, correct?"

I clenched my jaw, knowing exactly were this was going now. And I was ready to fight tooth-and-nail to set her straight.

"But then you stopped," she continued. "You stopped sleeping around and you settled, Niall. And you didn't just settle with anyone, oh no. It had to be Lynn. You replaced Alina with the girl you weren't even supposed to be with!"

"I didn't replace Alina!" I shouted, drawing the attention of the few people in the cafe. "Don't you think she would want me to move on?"

"Oh, shut up," Chloe sneered, starting to get angry now. "If it wasn't for James-

"James?" I asked, my curiosity picking up again. "What's he got to do with all this?"

Chloe smirked. "He's my right-hand man." She took a sip of her coffee and I had the fleeting thought to hit it out of her hand, but I pushed the thought away. "If it wasn't for him giving me inside information about you and Lynn during practices, I never would have come to the conclusion that you two were seeing each other."

The only thought I could process was: how long has this been going on? How long have they known?

"You're confused," Chloe observed. "Do you remember when you came to my hall looking for Lynn, only to find Abby instead? And then a few moments later James arrived angry and ready to fight? Well, that was no accident."

"You told James that I slept with Abby."

"Now you're getting it!" Chloe grinned liked the Cheshire Cat. "I needed someone from the inside to tell me the status so I can get my revenge. I've had my suspicion about you and Lynn for a while, but I needed to be sure and James was the perfect person to go to, being your ex-roommate and teammate who wanted just as much revenge as me.

I remembered that day perfectly. I remembered being confused that the two owners of the room weren't even inside, but had little time to question it before I was ambushed by a raging James.

"And then you and Lynn started being weird," Chloe continued. "Lynn was moody and you were nowhere to be found, and when you did show your face, you looked like you wanted to kill someone. I thought maybe the two of you had a fight, so that's were James came in. Do you remember when James started drilling you with questions after practice one day, about how you weren't committed to the team? It was a tactic to get information. It was to get under your skin; to use anything he had to make you snap... but it failed so I had to take it to another level.

"So I called Lynn from that party of Mac's and told her that I needed her to come bring me home. Like the good roommate she is, she came to my rescue only to fall into my trap and catch you with another girl. I knew that was what I needed to really put the knife between you two."

All the pieces of these past events were starting to finally click together, all the events I just assumed were coincidental. But apparently I was wrong. Everything was delicately placed only for the two of us to fall into.

"But then a few days later you showed up at our door, all happy and smiley. It honestly made me sick to the stomach. I was so fed up with the two of you that I knew I needed to get this done with. So I let fate decide and took the chance to turn on my webcam to see what you would give me. Thank you for that, by the way. Nothing in my life had been easier."

None of this made sense to me. I get that she was after me for "replacing" Alina, but what did all this have to do with Lynn? As far as I was concerned, she didn't do anything wrong, she was just caught in the cross fire.

"Why did you bring Lynn into this?" I finally asked.

The look on Chloe's face was a mix between defeat and anger, and maybe even a little bit of longing. "Because she's the one you love."