But in the end, they all drift away. // Even the ones who promised to stay.

"What are you talking about?" Tom managed to say after he just sat there, staring at Harrison for what felt like hours to him. His brain took a few minutes to realize what the blonde boy had just told him and it refused to believe the words that came out of Harrison's mouth.

"I said: The conversation was about (Y/N)'s feelings for you, Tom." Harrison repeated himself.

"What do you mean?"

"Bro, do I speak a foreign language or what? I said: (Y/N) told me that she was in love with you, you fucking idiot. I can't believe the reason you walked away was because you thought she was in love with me, seriously, how brainless are you? Have you ever heard about confronting someone?" Harrison groaned.

"She- She is in love with me?" Tom still couldn't find the right words. He felt like he was dreaming.

"Was - I said was, you fucked that one up yourself, mate."

"Why have you never told me, are you shitting me right now? It's been 3 years!" The boy realized that Harrison had known all that time and never thought about telling him about your feelings for him. He could've single handedly stopped Tom from walking away from you.

"Ohhhh no! No, you don't get to blame me for the shit you pulled. You never told me the reason why you were trying to delete her out of your life. Nah mate, you don't get to blame anyone else but you. That is not on me." Harrison laughed, shaking his head at his best friend next to him.

"You could've told me about her feelings, man. Fuck." Tom groaned as the realization of his stupid actions finally sank in. Why did he walk away?

"If you two fucking oblivious idiots would've just tried having a conversation about your feelings for once, maybe you would have already celebrated your fucking three years anniversary, fuck that, make that five years, you fucks. I swear, you're making me want to smash my own head against a wall. I never thought two people could be so stupid."

"Do you think she'd give me another chance?" Tom asked, making Harrison almost burst out with laughter. Tom couldn't think properly, he had just heard that you were in love with him at one point and he kind of avoided thinking about what could have happened if he would have just talked to you about his feelings.

"You're unbelievable. What do you wanna do? Walk over there, tell her you love her and then everything is back to love, peace, and harmony?"

"Nooo, ah fuck mate, I can't think right now. What do I do?" Tom groaned, burying his head in his hands. His head hurt and he felt like he was about to faint because his brain was still processing the new information he had just been given.

"How about you fucking try to be a nice guy for once? Start being there again, you dipshit."

"I'm pretty sure she doesn't want to talk to me anymore. You haven't seen her face when she told me to leave her alone. She hates me. She doesn't want anything to do with me anymore." Tom said as tears threatened to start falling from his eyes.

"Okay, first of all. You have been an absolute dick and I'm not going to tell you that everything is going to be alright, but how about you apologize? And it's (Y/N), she dislikes you at the moment, yes, but I don't think she's ever hated you, not even after you pulled all that shit. Make her trust you again and maybe, how about you try to not walk away this time, you-."

"-yeah, I get it, I'm an idiot. I know, I just... it ripped me apart whenever I heard her saying your name or whenever I saw the two of you texting, a piece of me fell apart. This sounds so fucking stupid, but I had to get away. It was destroying me."

"You should've talked to me about it, you know I'm here for you. I might call you a dick a few times in the process, but you know you can talk to me about that stuff, you know?" Harrison smiled, he had never seen Tom that vulnerable and it made him wish that he somehow could fix the situation between the two of you, but he also knew that there were only two people that could fix this. You and Tom. But a little push wouldn't hurt, right?

"I-I know, knowing what I know now, it's ridiculous, but, at that time, it seemed like the best option for all of us."

"It was never the best option."

"I know, but when I realized that it was already too late and I'm scared it is more than just too late right now." Tom was scared. He felt like he had just gotten a piece of you back and now you were back to not talking.

"It's never too late to start trying again, mate."

"But what if my feelings are going to come back? She's in a relationship and I'm not sure if I'm ready to go through all of that again." He thought he had gotten over you in the past three years, but even he knew he was lying to himself.

"First of all, was your life really better without her?" Harrison asked, making Tom shake his head, "So does it matter if she's in it as your friend or your girlfriend?" Tom shook his head again, realizing that having you by his side as a friend was still better than not having you in his life.

"Second of all, I'm like 99% sure, those feelings don't need to come back." Harrison laughed as he saw a light blush make its way onto Tom's face.

"And another thing, Jack's a fucking idiot. He's not going to be here for long, I can tell you that much, but just be there for her. Be the best friend she once had. Be Tom for fuck's sake. Enough of that 'I don't care about her'-attitude. It's annoying."

"Do you think she'll forgive me?"

"I don't know, bro. Forgive you, yes, but I think you're going to need to put in a hell of an effort for her to let you back into her life again." Harrison smiled at his best friend who was starting to cheer up a bit.

"Thanks." Tom rolled his eyes.

"What do you want me to tell you?" Harrison chuckled, "That you smile at her and then you can drop to your knee and propose? We both know that that is not how this is going to work. I'm being as honest as I can, but I also know that if the two of you really want this, we're on a good way back to where you ended. It may take a while, but it's still better than nothing, right?"

"I guess so."

"No, not I guess so. Say: Yes, it's better than nothing. Thank you Harrison. Thank you for being the nicest guy I know and thank you for being my best friend although I am a fucking idiot." Harrison grinned at his best friend who just smiled while shaking his head. At least he had managed to make Tom's smile come back.

"Thanks Harrison. You're the best." Tom mumbled, but also meaning every word. He was glad Harrison was there to put him in his place,

"You know what? I'll take it." Harrison laughed.

You had spent your day in bed as you avoided any social contact, wanting to suffer alone and in silence. Little did you know that trouble was only around the corner. You had forgotten about that little "party" your parents were hosting this afternoon. Something to do with their wedding anniversary or what not. Your parents were very social people and always loved to host a more or less small get-together, especially with the Hollands.

The Hollands - you knew that Tom's family would be there and you were excited to see them. You hadn't seen Harry and Sam in a few weeks and you always loved to catch up with the twins. Family parties had always been way too funny with these two.

"I wanna be a robber!" Harry shouted as you decided on who was going to be a cop and who was going to be a robber. It was your mother's birthday and of course the Hollands (and Harrison) joined your family for the day.

It took you quite a while to finally pick the different teams, but ended up with Harry, Sam, Paddy, your sister and you going in as robbers while Harrison and Tom had decided to be the cops in the first round. Tom and Harrison gave you three minutes to hide before they would come and look for you.

It always sucked not being on the same team as Tom, simply for the fact that he knew all your hiding spots and he would probably find you within five minutes. Your only hope was that one of the others was close enough to help you escape.

"We're coming!" You heard Harrison shout as you hid behind your shed in the garden. It was an obvious place for Tom to look for you, but it was also a place you could run away from easily. You heard Paddy screaming, assuming he had been found and was now running away from one of the boys.

"(Y/N), I know you're somewhere around here." You suddenly heard Harrison laughing, his voice coming from somewhere too close to your hiding spot. You didn't have time to think, because next thing you saw was Harrison jumping around the corner with a grin on his face.

"Gotcha." he grinned as he walked towards you, not even bothering to pick up his pace.

"Did you though?" You grinned as you walked backwards, keeping your eye contact with him.

"No, but I did, Darling." You screamed and jumped as Tom suddenly whispered in your ear from behind you before wrapping his arms around you. You felt him place a kiss on your shoulder, making your heart skip a beat as you placed your own hands over his, intertwining them with your own.

"You fucking asshole! Stop scaring me like that!" You laughed, not even fighting his grip around you. It wasn't like you didn't like being that close to him.

"Harry! A little help!" You shouted as Tom brought you towards the "prison". Harrison was back to looking for the rest, leaving you alone with Tom and you knew that if Harry was near he would immediately be on his way to try and help you.

You spun around in Tom's arms, facing him. You were finally able to look into your best friend's brown puppy eyes when you saw Harry sneak up behind him, signalling you to keep distracting his brother so he could tag you and help you escape.

"Told you I'd catch you, Love." He grinned, tugging your hair behind your ear with one hand.

"Oh Tommy, did you really though?" You giggled as you saw Harry run past, tagging you and pulling you away with Tom. From the distance you saw Harrison running up to Tom who was standing there looking like Grumpy Cat because he let you distract him - again.

"Oh for fuck's sake Tom, this is like what? The 10th time this has happened? I'm never going to be on the same team with you again if (Y/N) isn't with us." You heard Harrison groan, earning a shrug from his best friend. Tom couldn't care less, at least he got a few minutes of alone time with you.

Something that made you feel a bit uneasy in the pit of your stomach was that Jack was also invited. It would be the first dinner with any of your family friends that he attended and you weren't so sure if you wanted to have him there today. He had texted you, asking if you could meet up and that he was sorry, but that was exactly the same he had texted you only a few weeks earlier and you weren't so sure if you wanted to forgive him or even be with him anymore.

Finally getting into the shower, you let the warm water run over your body, making you relax at least a little. Thought of last night came flying back into your brain as you were thinking about your relationship with Jack and your situation with Tom. You would be lying to yourself is you said that your thoughts about breaking up with Jack weren't influenced by Tom, because they definitely were. It's not like you wanted to be with Tom, but you had to sort out your feelings and fix yourself this time. It was stupid of you to think that another guy could just walk into your life and fix the broken pieces by just being with you. That wasn't how life worked, you had to fix yourself before you put yourself back out there.

Everyone was outside in the garden, talking to each other when you decided to join the party. You spotted Sam and Harry talking to your sister and Tom's parents talking to your mum. Jack was also there, having a conversation with your dad. You saw him excuse himself when he saw you stepping out the back door.

"Hey Baby." He greeted you, leaning in for a kiss as you turned your head to the side so his lips would only meet your cheek.

"Hey." You smiled at him as he gave you a confused look, the events of last night not even stuck in his brain anymore.

"Everything alright?" Your boyfriend asked, his green eyes watching you intensely. Truth was, you didn't want to kiss him - not in front of Tom's family. Just as the realization of what that meant hit you, you heard the doorbell of your front door ring.

You happily took the opportunity to free yourself from Jack's arm around you as you made your way to the front door, wondering who was joining you since you thought everyone was here already.

Little did you know that opening that door would be the start of a very eventful day.

"Tom..." You whispered, not believing your eyes as you saw the brunette boy standing in front of you. He sent a small smile your way before you were being pushed out of the way by your mother, who seemed to be very excited about the fact that Tom would be joining you today. Tom hadn't been at your house for three years and you never thought he'd set a foot in it again - and much to your surprise, it didn't bother you at all to have him joining you.

"If you want something really bad, you have to work for it and not only let the universe work its way."

Truth.