i still do || n.h au

three

the trip

Niall is leaving for New York in 24 hours and he's... nervous. Excited, but also nervous. He's more than aware that his nervousness has nothing to do with the eight hours flight he'll have to endure but more with the person who will be with him for the rest of the trip. Not that it matters, though, because Astrid told him yesterday that Leo might be joining them so chances are, he won't even see her much during this trip except when they have to go to GearUp's event— even then he'll probably not see much of her.

Which is fine by him.

Astrid deserves to spend more time with her boyfriend, especially since both she and Leo have been busy with work and they could hardly make time for each other. So this trip is a perfect opportunity for the both of them to get away from work.

But the fact of the matter is this: ever since Niall found out that Leo will be joining them, his excitement dims a little. He is upset that his and Astrid's plan to explore New York together has been thrown out the window. He'll have to explore New York alone and he's okay with that. He is.

"Something on your mind?" Adriana's voice brings Niall back to reality.

Niall blinks his eyes once, twice, before they zero in on Adriana's face. She shoots him a smile and he feels bad for zoning out on her. So he apologises but she brushes it off with a wave of her hand. She even apologises for boring him.

Picking up her drink, Adriana swirls the glass her hand whilst keeping her eyes fixed on him. Niall has known her long enough (technically, it has only been a few months but sometimes, you just click and it feels like you've known each other forever, and that's the case with Niall and Adriana) to know that she's trying to read him.

"You know you can talk to me about anything, yeah?"

"Yeah, of course," Niall says with a nod of his head. "But nothing's on my mind."

Adriana doesn't believe him, that much is obvious. But he can't exactly tell her what's bothering him, can he? Because if he were to do that, he'd have to admit that he's not too happy about Leo being thrown into the equation in the last minute and he doesn't want to admit that. Especially out loud.

"Is this about your trip to New York?" Adriana questions, still on to him.

Niall looks at Adriana and he sees a face of someone that he can fully trust. He doesn't feel that way with many people. In fact, the only people that has his trust are Oscar, Matt and his parents. Oh, and Astrid back when they were inseparable.

Perhaps it won't be such a bad thing to talk to Adriana. Get this burden off of his chest. Because he knows he can't talk to Oscar or Matt about this (doesn't mean he trusts them any less, though). Otherwise, they'll give him shit -- that's not what he needs right now. Not when his mind is giving him enough shit already.

"Is that it?" Adriana presses when she sees a slight change on Niall's expression -- there's a crack on his poker face.

"I--Yeah." Niall replies. He releases some of the tension in his shoulders and hunches forward, curling his fingers around his nearly empty glass of beer.

"Are you scared of flying?"

"What? No, no I'm not. It's more about, erm, the person I'll be flying with." Adriana kinks an eyebrow at him. When he doesn't continue, she makes a gesture for him to go on with his story and he starts to play with his glass even more. It's a nervous habit. One that's replacing his habit of biting his nails. "GearUp's creative director, Astrid, she's... She's a friend of mine. Someone that I've known for a long time and--"