Small Talk (Niall Horan)

Chapter 10

It took me less than half an hour to cook some lunch. His kitchen was really organized and stocked with everything, I was honestly surprised. After searching through his pantry and fridge, I finally settled on pasta with chicken and shrimp. Yes, he even had shrimp! I mean, who has shrimp just laying around? My mom only buys it on special occasions, and when she knows she'll need it for a dish, not just to have it there stored. It smelled really good, and I was so proud of myself. Pasta is one of the few dishes that I can cook without help, so that's why I decided to cook that. I didn't want to poison my host.

"Mmm, what's that smell?" I heard Niall's sleepy voice walking towards me. I looked up and he was now standing in front of me, rubbing his eyes. Clearly he'd just woken up from his power nap. I finished setting the placemats and cutlery and turned back around to the stove.

"I made us pasta!" I exclaimed excitedly as I grabbed some plates and started serving our food.

"Wow, it looks and smells delicious." He spoke as he inhaled and waved his hand, supposedly to make the smell go into his nose. So cute. "Thank you so much." He continued as I set his plate right in front of his.

"No problem. So what do you usually drink?" I asked him.

"Umm, I have some lemonade in the fridge. Let me get it." He spoke and started to stand up. I put my hand in front of him to stop him. 

"Don't worry. I'll get it." I walked to the fridge and poured two glasses of lemonade before sitting next to him to eat our lunch.

"Thanks Soph." He told me before he started devouring the pasta. "Holy shit, this tastes amazing." He said after he tasted it. "You're an amazing cook, you should be my chef."

"Really? You seriously liked it?" I asked incredulous. I mean it was good, but I wouldn't call myself an 'amazing cook'.

"Yes, I mean it. This is one of the best pastas I have ever tried." He spoke between bites.

"Well in that case, thank you so much."

"No, thank you Soph. I haven't had someone cook a meal for me in a while."

"No problem at all. You're stuck with me for the next 2 and a half weeks so there'll be plenty of cooking."

"Thank god for that." Niall smiled at me before turning back to his plate to continue eating.

Not 10 minutes had passed before we were both done eating. I'm a super fast eater, and apparently so is Niall, and I was really glad for that. I hate when I have to eat slowly when I'm with people, I like to devour my food the second it's put in my plate so that it doesn't get cold. One of my ex boyfriends ate super slow and I actually hated it, because then I had to eat slow so he wouldn't think I was a cow or starving or something. I was so glad Niall wasn't like him. But wait, why am I comparing Niall to him? I have to stop with this stupid thoughts, Niall will never fall for a girl like me, I've got to put my feelings aside. Stop it Sofia.

"So what do you want to do today?" Niall asked me as I was clearing the 'table', because we were actually eating in the kitchen's peninsula. He'd offered to help, but it would just make it more difficult and slow to wash the dishes between the two of us, so I declined his offer.

"Umm, I don't know. Whatever you'd like I guess." I answered because honestly, I didn't know if he was tired or not. Whenever I land from a long flight, all I want to do is stay in my house and rest, but I don't know what Niall usually does.

"I'm actually pretty tired. Would you mind if we'd stayed in today? I promise we'll go out tomorrow."

"Not at all. I was actually going to suggest that. We could watch a movie or something."

"Yes! Let's watch a movie. I'll make popcorn." He spoke as he stood up, looking for popcorn I presumed.

"Popcorn? But we just ate Niall!" 

"You can never be too full to have popcorn and besides, you can't watch a movie without having popcorn." And well, he had a point. 

"Well, you're right. Make popcorn!" I exclaimed excitedly as I finished washing the dishes.

"Perfect."

5 minutes later we were in his upstairs family room, sitting down on couch and debating on which movie we should watch. Niall being Niall wanted to watch an action movie, and of course, me being me, wanted a romantic comedy. 

"Please Niall let's watch this movie, it's my favorite movie of all times." I pleaded one final time, making puppy eyes at him, hoping he'd finally cave. I even grabbed his hand for extra effect and stared right into his eyes. 

"Fine, fine. But then we'll watch the one I wanted." Yes! He finally caved!

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I exclaimed and before I even had time to think what I was doing I pecked his cheek. Fuck, play it cool Sofia. Make it seem like it's the most normal thing in the world, like you go around kissing boys' cheeks all the time. "You'll love the movie, I swear." I continued pretending that nothing had happened as I grabbed the remote and pressed play. I stole a quickly glance at Niall, and I could've sworn that he was blushing, but I knew it was just my imagination messing with me. 

"If you say so." Niall finally spoke in a playful tone and looked at me with his sweet smile. Thank god he wasn't mad at me for kissing his cheek. 

"I do say so. Love Rosie is the best movie out there."

"Okay, let's see how right you are." Niall said before turning to face his big ass screen. 

I was so into the movie, reciting every single line to myself, because let's face it, I had watched this movie at least 50 times, no joke. That's how much I loved it. 

"Are you liking it?" I asked Niall halfway into the movie. 

"It's not bad actually." 

"Oh shut up, you like it. You just don't want to admit it." I lightly punched his arm playfully.

"Fine, fine, it's good." He finally surrendered.

"Thank you, I knew you'd like it." I smiled. I hadn't even noticed that Niall had scooted closer to me, our legs were almost touching. If it wasn't for the popcorn bucket, they'd be touching. I reached for popcorn one more time. Niall had decided to make 2 bags instead of 1 like any normal human being would, so we had plenty of popcorn left. Suddenly my hand brushed against skin in the bucket, and that made me look away from the movie and turn my gaze to the bucket. It was Niall's hand, and again, that now familiar bolt of electricity came rushing through my body once again. I didn't know what to do because Niall wasn't moving his hand, it was as if he was petrified as well, and I didn't want to be the first one to move. I slowly turned to face him, don't even ask me why and I caught him staring at me with a sheepish grin. I couldn't help it and I smiled back at him, god, I was falling for this man, and I was falling hard.

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Author's Note:

Hey there guys! How are you enjoying the story so far? So Niall's tour got cancelled and I have been processing the news. Sorry for not uploading this weekend, but I just didn't feel like I could write given the circumstances. I'm really hoping you enjoy it and any suggestions and/or grammar corrections are more than welcome. Don't forget to follow me, vote and comment, it really helps me out and I'd love to hear your thoughts!