The Girlfriend Project

13: Chapter Thirteen.

Author's Note: Here is the last chapter of TGP! But not to worry, there's an epilogue coming too! :D

Dedicated to wayyfaring_ for supporting me on this story since the beginning, or as long as I can remember anyway.

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The Girlfriend Project

Chapter Thirteen

~Pepper's pov~

"Be my girlfriend." I let out a breath that I had seemed to be holding in; I had waited so long for Niall to say those words. It was everything I wanted, I didn't want to lie to myself, or anyone. I didn't want this moment to be anti-climatic. So instead, I made my answer short.

"Of course." I felt tears welling up in my eyes; Macy's own gaze hadn't left mine. She mouthed 'you okay?' and I smiled. I was far more than okay. Right now, everything was okay; everything was more than okay. I was fantastic. I shuffled my feet on the dusty hardwood. This was it; this was the moment it all came together. Niall Horan and Pepper Clarke: an official couple.

"What's with the silence?" Niall awkwardly stammered in my ear. He sounded nervous. I could tell he was smiling though. I could picture his sparkling blue eyes and straight teeth flashing.

"I'm just so incredibly happy!" I smiled, tears were filling my eyes but they're weren't bad tears by any means; they were happy tears.

* * *

I munched happily on my cotton candy. Sticky blue fuzz was all over my fingers but I didn't care. My parents allowed me to go out with Niall again but they weren't exactly happy about it, but I didn't care about that either. Instead, what I cared about, was the beaming blonde next to me. I looked up at Niall, he was grinning, and even though he was wearing dark shades, I could tell his eyes were grinning too.

My boyfriend was clad in a simple white tee and cargo shorts. He wanted to keep it basic as to not draw too much attention to himself while we were at the theme park. "I'm glad that Louis and Macy are back together." I laughed, picturing them fighting in my head again. The pair was always fighting. It was always over silly stuff too, like who got the last slice of pizza. But at the end of the day they loved each other. They were the perfect couple.

"Yeah they are for sure." Niall smiled down at me, a soda in his hand. He sipped it, the brown liquid making its way through the purple twisty straw. "You know there's been a lot of good reactions as to me tweetin' that we're together now ya know." He grinned even wider.

We had been together for a few weeks now, but even with the support of the fandom, the hate still got to me. I didn't know if Niall just didn't see the hate, or if he was oblivious to it, but I got lots of it. None of it was too bad though, so I didn't feel like I should bring it up.

As if he were reading my mind, Niall spoke, "I'll have a little tweet to tweet with them, don't worry." He flashed me a white-toothed grin.

"Thanks." I replied and hugged him, snuggling my face into his chest.

"You start school soon don't you?" Niall asked.

"Yeah, next week."

"Oh good, so you wouldn't mind if we went somewhere in this last week would you?" He gave me a cheeky, crooked grin.

"I just got ungrounded, and you want me to go somewhere with you so my parents can freak out and ground me again?" I gave a deep sigh.

"Nah, don't be silly Pep. I invited them too!" Niall grinned even bigger; I thought his face was close to cracking.

"You invited my parents to an unknown place before you even asked me if it was okay!?" I couldn't believe this. I buried my reddened face in my hand. This was embarrassing, I'm seventeen-years-old and my parents are escorting me on a date.

"What's the matter?" Niall frowned.

"I just...I can't believe it's come to them not trusting me so much that I have to be escorted on dates now."

"No, no! It's not a date!" Niall smiled again, but smaller so it wasn't threatening to break his face. "And for the record, we're on a date right now and we're not being escorted."

Oh right, he had a point there. "Then what is it?"

"Well let's go back to your house!"

* * *

When we got back to my house, suitcases lined the entryway. Niall put his hands on my shoulders and walked me to the island counter in the kitchen. On the counter were four plane tickets to New York City. One had my mom's name, another my dad's, another Niall's, and another was mine. "What, what is this for?" I felt my body shaking. New York City, the one place in the States that I've always wanted to go to, even though it was a cliché. I didn't mind though, the past few months just seemed cliché even. I turned to Niall, and he was grinning again, to the point where this time I was positive his face was going to break. "Oh, Niall. Thank you." I felt tears welling up in my eyes. He remembered. He remembered that that was where I wanted to go.

"Come on Pepper, we have to be at the airport by five, and Seattle isn't getting any closer to us." My mother was already standing at the front door, with her arms crossed.

"What about Ben?" My head tilted as I asked.

"He's staying with your grandparents. I'm surprised the first thing you didn't notice was the silence as you walked in here." My dad smiled. "We're very grateful to Niall, I can't remember the last time we had a vacation, do you Noal?" My mother shook her head, and grinned. My dad pulled his shades down over his eyes to hide the twinkle in them. I wanted to be like that, so in love I was still embarrassed, even years later.

Niall smiled down at me, and for a moment it seemed stupidly cinematic, as if time stopped. I closed my eyes and I felt him press his soft lips to my own, and I wrapped my arms around his neck.

Our kiss was broken apart when I heard my dad clear his throat and my mother chime in: "Remember. Seattle isn't getting any closer."

Niall laughed a bit and pulled away, and soon enough we were out the door.

In a matter of hours, we'd be in New York City.