“What are you doing here?” Mae asked curiously as she led Louis into the family room. She took a seat on the couch, and motioned for Louis to sit next to her. “I thought you were spending the day with Niall.”

“Look, Mae,” Louis began as he scratched the back of his neck, unsure how to go about telling this poor girl that Niall was talking to his ex-girlfriend. “I want to tell you something.”

Mae felt her stomach drop slightly as she saw the unsure yet concerned look in Louis’s eyes. Her smile faded and she had a terrible feeling that Louis wanted to talk to her about Niall.

“Did Niall send you here to break up with me?” Mae asked, her voice quiet, hoping that Louis would tell her that he wasn’t there for that reason.

“No,” Louis said with a tiny smile. “Definitely not. Niall doesn’t even know I’m here. I left him out by the water so I could come talk to you.”

Feeling the tiniest bit better, Mae nodded her head. She set her hands in her lap and sighed to herself, knowing that whatever Louis was going to tell her wasn’t going to be good. He looked like he was hesitating with himself about what to say, and that just made Mae even more worried and impatient. She had no idea what was going on, and the only thing she could think of was that Niall didn’t want to be with her anymore.

“Uhm,” Louis said, before heaving a sigh. He glanced up at Mae. “Has Niall ever mentioned an ex-girlfriend to you? Her name is Stephanie? Well, or Steph?”

Mae slowly shook her head, her eyes full of confusion, and Louis felt terrible. He sighed once again and slumped back into the couch. “Well.”

“Please, Louis,” Mae blurted out, becoming extremely impatient. “Whatever it is you have to tell me, just say it. I’ll be able to handle it, I’m sure.”

Louis was taken aback by the tone of Mae’s voice, but he didn’t blame her because he was definitely trying to beat around the bush when he shouldn’t have. Shrugging his shoulders, Louis came out with it. “Niall is speaking to his ex-girlfriend again.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being friends with your ex’s,” Mae commented.

“No,” Louis shook his head. “They’ve been speaking on the phone quite regularly. Mae, right when he’s doing hanging out with you, he comes back to the house and usually talks to her for a couple hours before going to bed. I mean, he was with Steph for a year and she broke up with him right before he left for the summer.”

Mae’s heart sank and she felt like it was going to fall out of her ass at any moment. “Are you saying he used me to get over her?”

“I’m not saying that, Mae,” Louis said, his voice gentle and quiet. “I don’t think Niall would do that. You mean a lot to him, though, so I don’t understand why he’s speaking to his ex-girlfriend and having semi-serious conversations with her, from what he’s saying. And he has mentioned that his feelings may be coming back for her.”

Mae looked down at her lap and knotted her fingers together. She felt her eyes well with tears and she wasn’t sure what she should say. “Oh.”

“I’m so sorry, Mae,” Louis said, before reaching out and setting his hand on top of Mae’s. “I know it’s not my place to tell you, but he wasn’t going to tell you and I felt that that was just wrong.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Mae whispered, a tear rolling down her cheek. “I don’t even know why I’m crying; this is stupid. He’s leaving in three weeks anyway.”

“That doesn’t matter, and don’t act like you don’t want to be with him,” Louis said as he leaned his head down to look into Mae’s watering eyes. “Don’t just automatically hate him. He wants to be with you, and I want him to be with you too; I’ve never liked Steph, and I honestly don’t want to see them together again.”

“I don’t know what to do,” Mae commented, more tears rolling down her cheeks. “He’s just going to go back in three weeks and be with her again; he’ll forget all about me.”

“I know that would never happen, love,” Louis stated, before giving Mae a tight hug. “He thinks too much of you and about you to just forget about you. Trust me.”

Mae pulled away from Louis and she wiped her eyes. “Really?”

Louis nodded his head in confidence. “Really.”

+

That night, Louis walked into the Malik’s house and into the kitchen to see Niall getting himself a piece of pizza. Without saying a word to his friend, Louis reached up into the cabinet and got a plate before tossing a slice of pizza on it. Niall looked over at Louis.

“Where have you been all day?” he asked curiously.

“With Mae,” Louis said casually. “She wasn’t feeling too well.”

“What the hell did you tell her,” Niall asked through gritted teeth. He glared at his best friend. “Did you seriously tell her? What the hell were you thinking?!”

“I was thinking that I was letting her know what you were doing behind her back,” Louis said, before he turned on his heel and started up the stairs. “Don’t act like you didn’t know it was coming, Niall.”

Niall slammed the pizza box shut before following closely behind his friend, leaving his pizza on the counter, automatically losing his appetite (which didn’t happen often). His stomach sank as he thought about how hurt Mae’s feelings must’ve been when Louis told her, and it pissed him off that Louis gave him no warning, because if he would have, Niall would’ve been the one to tell her.

“I would’ve told her,” Niall said loudly as he followed Louis into his and Zayn’s room. “Why didn’t you tell me that you were going to tell her, Louis?”

“Oh, knock it off, Niall,” Louis replied, his voice becoming louder than Niall’s. “If you were going to tell her you would’ve told her two bloody weeks ago. I don’t want to hear it.”

Niall dropped his hands to his sides and glared at his best friend, who plopped down on his bed and took a bite out of his pizza, as if he had no care in the world. Shaking his head, Niall spun around and darted down the stairs and out the front door towards Mae’s house.

After sprinting down the sidewalk and up the porch stairs, Niall knocked loudly on the front door of Mae’s house. He waited for what seemed like three years, until Mae’s mom came to the door.

“Hi, Niall,” she said with a smile, obviously not knowing anything that Louis had told her daughter. “Mae’s in the back; you can cut through the house.”

“Thank you,” Niall said breathlessly as he stepped inside and rushed towards the back door. He swung the door open to see Mae sitting on one of the porch chairs. Her knees were pulled up to her chest and her chin was resting on top of them. She was staring out towards the water and paid no attention to the sound of the back door opening or closing. Niall walked over to her and when she saw him, she shook her head.

“Don’t talk to me, Niall,” she said. Her voice was soft and quiet, and Niall could tell that that was all she could say before she started crying. And that made him feel awful.

“Mae,” he said quietly. “I’m so sorry. I should have told you, but I didn’t think I was doing anything wrong.”

Mae stood up from the chair and walked down the stairs towards the sand, and Niall followed right behind her. He was giving up that easy and he definitely wasn’t going to let Mae walk away from him; she meant too much to him.

“Mae,” Niall called. “Stop, seriously.”

Mae spun around to look at Niall. “Don’t ‘seriously’ me, Niall. You went behind my back for two weeks and you totally disregarded my feelings. I thought you were better than that. And you didn’t even tell me about her? And now you have feelings for her again? What’s gotten into you?”

“No—“ he began, before Mae cut him off.

“No. You listen to what I have to say,” she scolded. Niall had never seen Mae this upset and he never heard her raise her voice unless it was because she was excited. This was a whole new side of her, and it honestly scared Niall. It didn’t scare him in the terms of he had to ask himself why he was with her, but scared him in the terms of not wanting to interrupt her or piss her off any further.

“I know you’ve gone home early every time we saw each other for the past two weeks, but I thought you were just tired or wanted to spend time with your friends,” she commented. “You’ve ditched me four times since you apparently started speaking to her, and I didn’t think anything of it, even when your excuses were stupid as all hell. I didn’t know what had gotten into you, but I did detect a small change in you. Now I know what it is.”

“Can I please explain myself?” Niall pleaded.

Mae plopped down in the sand as if she couldn’t stand any longer. She wiped the tears that managed to fall from her eyes and she pulled her knees up to her chest. “Whatever.”

Niall sat down next to her, not daring to get too close or to touch her, knowing that that would piss her off. “I dated Steph before I left for the summer, and she broke up with me because I was leaving for three months. It was pretty hard for me because I didn’t think she was that shallow, and I didn’t think she had that little trust in me; it hurt.”

Mae was silent, her eyes set on some non-existent object in front of her.

“Then I met you,” he started, turning to look at his girlfriend. “You meant so much to me so quickly, and it was not because it helped me through the break up, trust me. You’re so much more different than her in the best way possible. You don’t make me feel like I always have to be on my best behavior when I’m with you, and you care about the little things.”

Refusing to smile at the compliments that she was just given, Mae continued to remain silent.

“I guess what I’m trying to say is that,” he said, before heaving a sigh. “Before I hurt your feelings I didn’t realize what I really had.”

Mae fought back her grin the best she could, because she was not letting Niall get off the hook that easy. She was never one to hold a grudge towards someone, but she definitely wasn’t going to act like nothing happened. Niall crushed her feelings and lost some of her trust, and his apology wasn’t going to make everything better in a matter of minutes.

“I understand, and thank you for explaining yourself,” she said, turning her gaze towards Niall, who smiled slightly at her. She stood up from where she sat on the sand, and after Niall stood up she looked up at him. “But I think I need some space from you for a few days.”

Mae turned around and started walking back towards her house, and Niall sighed to himself. “Mae.”

Looking back at him, Mae stuck her hands in the pockets of her jeans shorts. “What?”

“I’m sorry,” he said, the frown on his face uncontrollable as he stared at the girl who wanted nothing to do with him for God knows how long.

“I know you are,” Mae nodded, before she turned back around and started towards the house, leaving Niall on the beach, hurt, angry, and alone.