The second I got back from my house on Sunday, Niall knew about it.

Niall: Welcome back!

Katie: I haven’t even gotten out of my car…

Niall: There’s a party tonight in an hour. Wanna go?

Katie: Uh, duh.

I made my way up to my room, making sure to knock before I walked in on something awful again. “It’s safe!” Autumn yelled. I opened the door and saw her laying on her bed reading a book. “I’m sorry you walked in on that Friday…”

“It’s okay… it’s human nature. Whatever.” I shrugged. “Party tonight?”

“Sure, why not?” She shrugged and looked at me. “What time?”

“About an hour.” I said and grabbed some clothes. I quickly changed and did my makeup as Autumn got ready to go.

~*~

“Katie, the party started thirty minutes ago.” She groaned as I put my shoes on.

“I’m trying to make him sweat, Autumn.” I stated matter-of-factly. “Oh, and it seems to be working.” I smiled.

Niall: Where are you? :\

Katie: Leaving now :)

“Okay, I’m ready.” I smiled.

When we arrived, Niall was nowhere in sight. “I’m going to go look for Harry!” Autumn yelled over the loud music. I nodded and looked around for Niall.

“Hello, love.” An unfamiliar voice said in my ear. “Wanna dance?” I shrugged as he took me out to the dance floor. What was a little dancing gonna hurt?

Niall’s POV

I searched the room for Katie, but couldn’t find her anywhere. I walked past girls trying to dance with me as I looked for her. Finally I saw her on the dance floor… with another guy. My blood began to boil. She was mine. I marched over to her and shoved the guy away from her. “Back off, dick!” I yelled. Katie whipped around and pushed me away.

“What’s wrong with you? We were only dancing!” She yelled at me. I grabbed her hand and pulled her off the dance floor. “Let go of me!” Katie yanked her hand away from mine. “What the hell was that all about!?”

“You’re mine.” I growled. “I thought we agreed to that!”

“We weren’t doing anything but dancing!”

“I know him, and his intentions aren’t just a dance or two.”

“What, and yours are!? I wouldn’t have slept with him if he tried to get me to, Niall!”

“You thought the same about the night we hooked up, didn’t you!?” She rolled her eyes and took a shot from the bar, knocking it back. She walked away from me and back to the dick who she was dancing with earlier. I turned my back to her and ordered a pint. After my third, I turned around to see what everyone was cheering for. “What the hell?”

I walked to the group of people and stopped dead in my tracks when I saw the guy from earlier taking a shot between his teeth from her chest. He lowered his mouth down to hers and took the lime from her, kissing her lips as he did. No. She’s mine. Katie giggled as he put salt on her neck, another lime between her lips, and a shot between her breasts. As I watched him do it again, I pushed through the people crowded around them.

Katie’s POV

I crossed her arms when I saw him and cocked my hip to one side. “Yes, Niall?” He didn’t say a word. He grabbed a shot from the table and placed it in my cleavage, stuck a lime in my mouth, and poured some salt on my neck. I rolled my eyes and moved my head over to give him better access. His mouth came down onto my neck, and I gasped as he sucked the salt off, biting down gently and pushing me against the wall. Niall kissed all the way down to the shot and took it between his teeth, knocking it back then dropping the shot glass and taking the lime from my mouth, kissing me roughly as he did so.

“You’re. Mine.” He stated as his thumb was massaging my hip. I bit my bottom lip and nodded as he walked off. No. He wasn’t going to win this. I walked up to him and forced him to face me.

“I’m not anyone’s Niall. You agreed to the term ‘friends with benefits’. F-R-I-E-N-D-S. And I never agreed to your conditions, if you’ll remember correctly. I never even responded. So you can’t go around telling me ‘you’re mine’ because I’m not.” Niall tensed up and turned to face me.

“You’re right. Go fuck whoever you want. I don’t care.” I could hear the sarcasm in his voice.

“Fine.” His face went from anger to shock in less than a second. “I will.” I turned away and stormed out of the frat house. I marched to my room and slammed the door behind me. What the hell was Niall’s problem tonight? He never cared when I danced with other guys! I jumped up on my bed and laid on my back to stare at the ceiling. .

Right now Niall would be scoping out other girls, looking for a quick shag, probably to kick them out the next morning. I rolled onto my stomach and groaned. I was kind of looking forward to tonight. My phone buzzed, pilling me from my thoughts.

Niall: Look, sorry I blew up. It was the alcohol.

Katie: Whatever. I know you when you’re drunk and that wasn’t it. You were almost perfectly sober.

Niall: I just don’t want anyone else having sex with you… kissing you… even touching you the way I do.

Katie: I wasn’t going to sleep with him, Ni. Nobody comes close to you.

Niall didn’t answer after that, so I assumed he was either passed out somewhere, or he was with another girl. I jumped off the bed and changed into my pajamas. I raced to my bed when my phone buzzed, hoping it was Niall, only to be disappointed when I saw my best friend’s name instead.

Autumn: Staying with Haz tonight… love you loads! Xx

Great. I was going to be alone tonight.

I crawled under the covers of my bed and fell asleep instantly with my face buried in my pillow.

Niall’s POV

Katie: I wasn’t going to sleep with him, Ni. Nobody comes close to you.

I smiled at the text and looked up to see Autumn and Harry running up to his room hand in hand with the look on their faces. I smiled at their cute couple ways and shook the thought of Katie and I out of my mind. We had a special type of relationship (for a lack of better words), and I didn’t see it evolving into anything else… even if I did want it.

I looked around the room to see what the choices for tonight was, but no girl was good enough, I simply wasn’t in the mood, and none of them were Katie. I got up from the bar and dragged my feet behind me as I walked up the stairs to my room.

Around four in the morning, I got out of bed and threw a shirt on. I couldn’t sleep and this was getting ridiculous. I walked over to Katie’s dorms and went into her room. She really needed to lock the door when she slept. I went to wake her, but decided against it… she looked so peaceful in her sleep. I shook the thoughts out of my head and climbed up onto her bed with her, crawling under the covers behind her.

Katie stirred in her sleep and her eyes fluttered open. “I didn’t mean to wake you.” I whispered and she shrugged.

“It’s no problem.” She yawned and nuzzled her head into my chest and falling asleep almost instantly. I smiled and buried my nose in her hair, thankful for the comfortable and familiar smell. I moved her hair away from her neck and admired the small mark I had left underneath her ear, marking her as mine.

Maybe Katie was right. I couldn’t claim her as mine, but I wanted to. No. There was nothing more with Katie… there couldn’t be anything more with her. This is all we could have simply because what we had was good… right? Right.

I stopped arguing with myself and wrapped my arms around her tiny figure and shut my eyes to get a few hours of sleep before I would need to wake up for classes.