In Other Words (Niall Fanfic)

Chapter Seventy-Four

In Other Words…Chapter Seventy-Four 

Roxy’s POV

Let’s go, babe!” Niall shouted. I sent a puff of air over my top lip, pushing the strand of hair that was already driving me nuts up out of the way as I worked my fingers through the carpet, searching on hands and knees for the back of my earring. Eventually, I gave up, swiping another from a seldom-used pair and snapping it on before flying down the stairs. “Where’s Ryan?” I said.

“Running on Ryan time. He’s gonna meet us there.” he said. I sat down on the bottom step to slip on my sandals and have a dig through the bottom of my bag, feeling for my Chapstick. “Come on.” He whined impatiently, which just made me move even slower out of spite. He just leaned against the door frame, tanned arms tucked across his chest, exuding irritation and yet smiling.

The boys had made arrangements with some dive bar so close up for the night so we could karaoke and have drinks. I loved these nights when we all got to pretend to be normal people; I loved it almost as much as Niall did. And it was much needed, since in just a few days I’d be loading his backpack full of plane snacks and saying my goodbyes, the second leg of the tour taking the five of them and their entire entourage to faraway places.

“We’re driving?” I asked as he closed the front door behind us. He jiggled his keys in response. I guess he isn’t planning on having too wild of a night, otherwise he would have just arranged a car. I shrugged and hopped into the passenger seat.

 I caught him smiling as he sang along softly to the radio. There was nothing better than a smile on that boy’s face. I stole his hand from the steering wheel and laced my fingers with his, really trying to remind myself to savor these little moments, and to tuck them away to a little box somewhere in my brain where I could find them for future use, when the quiet would turn inevitably sad.  “Love you, Ni.” I said.

“Oh yeah?” he said. “We’ll see about that.”

Niall’s POV

The summer sun had just barely begun to set, the view of the city from the top of this street quite breathtaking, if only for an instant. “Whoa.” She held a flat hand to her stomach. “That hill gave me butterflies.”

I had them too.

I hoped that word hadn’t already gotten out about our presence in this neighborhood tonight, and judging by the way Louis and Stan were joking around out front on the sidewalk with the two members of our security team that had offered to do this gig on the side, so far we were under the radar.

Harry’s car was taking up nearly two whole spots in the lot. “Look at this asshole.” Roxy muttered knowingly, her feet hitting the pavement, the door slamming quickly behind her. I busied myself in tucking all of the shit strewn about into the compartment between the seats. This neighborhood was a bit on the sketchy side, and I didn’t want to make my car any more appealing than it already was by leaving my brand-new iPod sitting on the dash. “Come on.” She whined, mocking me.  I locked the doors, two satisfying honks of the horn sounding before I tucked my keys away and took her by the hand, forcing my mind to focus on the fact that in a few hours we’d be climbing back into the car and heading home.

We hung around outside a few minutes, Zayn finishing up a cigarette while the girls caught up on God knows what. Louis lifted an eyebrow in my direction, but I didn’t acknowledge it, opting to strike up a conversation with some of the lads on the topic of Derby; my go-to.  The sign affixed to the door read Private Event Tonite – reopen tomorrow 11 am and the burly guys were busy checking names off of the list as we breezed by. “Could have gone with the code-word system.” Louis huffed, earning a synchronized eye-roll from myself and Roxy.  He’d decided for Liam’s last birthday that instead of making a guest list we should just spread around a password that would be used at the door to gain entry. Perhaps it was a poor choice in the word itself (I mean, what the fuck is a mugwump?) but needless to say it was more of a hassle than the tried and true method.