Niall Horan Imagines 2

Video Games (Request)

I don't really know how or when it started, but I sure knew where it, and we, ended up.

In the weeks -- maybe months? Yeah. Months -- leading up to that day, every time she would see me it would be a new question. It started off simple; what game console do you have? What games do you own? What's your gamertag? And then we progressed into five minute conversations before first period about release dates, bug fixes, and past games and consoles. We were both pretty into video games. I hadn't really touched my Xbox One for a few months, but in those next few months that she talked to me, it reminded me of how much I loved those games I had that were gathering dust.

To me, she was someone who really brightened my day. She got my thoughts off of geometry and onto warfare and strategy. I didn't like her more than a friend, but I certainly wanted to become better friends.

One day, she was talking about the bug she'd encountered with multiplayer on a certain game that hadn't been fixed yet. I was kind of impressed at how much research she'd done.

"You really know a lot, huh?" I chuckled, and she laughed loudly.

"Uh, no," she scoffed, shaking her head at me. I liked how familiar we'd become. "I only play occasionally since I've been through each game like five times." I nodded, knowing that feeling.

"I bought a new game last night, though, finally!" she grinned enthusiastically. I nodded, about to ask her which one when I looked over to see her face getting red. I furrowed my eyebrows, not having seen the more sensitive side of her. She'd always been 'get out of my way or I'll kill you' type of girl, mostly because of the video games. So to see her suddenly so small was shocking.

"Would you, uh, want to come over and p-play it with me today, maybe, I mean you don't have to if you don't want to but," she rambled stopping to push the hair that was falling from her ponytail behind her ear.

Is she really embarrassed about asking me over? I wondered, starting to panic when I felt my cheeks begin to redden as well. I really didn't know why I was blushing, but there were a lot of uncertain things in that moment.

"I mean," she spoke again, turning away from me slightly. "You seem like you'd be really good." I tried thinking about how good I was, but I couldn't stop thinking about my red face, and thinking about it only made me blush more. I pretended to fix my hair to cover my face as I spoke again.

"I'm free today," I let out, and I looked over at her just in time to see possibly the widest smile that would fit on her face. She nodded, beginning to walk towards the doors.

The heat in my cheeks faded as the wind beat against them. We walked down the front steps, and she cleared her voice to speak.

"My house is only a few minutes walk," she told me, and I nodded, pulling out my phone.

"I'm gonna text my parents and let them know, but lead the way," I said to her. I spent the next minute texting, and then we crossed the road.

For probably half a minute, I watched her nervously fiddle with her fingers, and I began to wonder why she was so anxious. The thought hit me that maybe she liked me, but that thought alone made me blush a little too hard, so once that was gone, I started a conversation to distract myself.

"So what game is it that you bought?" I asked, hoping erasing the abnormal silence between the two of us.

"Oh, it's Halo. I don't know I you've heard of it," she shrugged, and I looked over at her.

"The Master Chief Collection?" I questioned, and I immediately saw some of the anxiety leave from her body.

"Oh, my gosh, yeah," she smiled, exhaling. I couldn't help but smile, too, looking straight ahead again.