I Notice (Niall Horan) (FINISHED!)

Ch. 16: Layin' it on the line at Olive Garden

          “How are you doing?” Liam asked genuinely concerned

“I’m doing fine,” I said with a smile

“Really?” he said with raised eyebrows and a tone of disbelief

“Well…I’m almost fine. I just…am not used to it. Like I’m hardly used to strangers looking at me, so it takes some time to accept the fact that I’m friends with famous people and there are things that come with that,”

“I understand,” he said nodding his head, “It was a big adjustment for all of us at the start. I don’t think you can ever really get used to it. The cameras following you everywhere you go can get obnoxious sometimes,”

“I don’t know how you guys can deal with it,”

“Well, when we signed up for X Factor, we all wanted to make it big. We knew that giving up some of our privacy would be the cost, but I don’t think any of us realized how big this was going to turn out and how much of our privacy we would lose,”

“Yeah, people have your supposed blood types, finger prints, and penis sizes,” I said amused at Liam’s reaction to the last one.

“They what? How can they…? What am I?” he said dumbfounded

“I don’t know, you tell me!” I laughed

“You know what I mean!” he replied, glad to see a smile on my face

I held up all 8 fingers and my two thumbs.

“THAT’S WHAT PEOPLE MEAN WHEN THEY SAY THINGS ABOUT 10 INCHES TO ME?!” he exclaimed, making everyone in the can look at him.

“Don’t tell me you’ve just now figured that out, Li,” Louis said

“No…” Liam responded unconvincingly, making Zayn laugh at him.

          I noticed Niall didn’t look up from watching things pass by out of the window. He didn’t even laugh, and I feel like on any other occasion he would have been laughing as hard as Zayn. I felt a pang of guilt, and Harry turned around and put a hand on my shoulder.

“Don’t worry,” he mouthed, moving his eyes to Niall and back at me. I nodded and smiled a little and soon enough we came to the restaurant. There was a crowd waiting for us and Emily asked, “How do they know where you guys will be?”

“It’s scary isn’t it!” Louis replied dramatically.

We all got out and I saw it was Olive Garden we had come to, and now that I was thinking about it, some salad and breadsticks sounded amazing right now. As we passed the crowd, Paul stayed close to the boys and another guard stayed close with us. I kept my head down and when we got in the restaurant I noticed the guys were still outside signing things.

“One Direction party, I’m assuming?” asked the waiter from behind the podium. The guard nodded his head and we were lead to the middle of the empty restaurant to long table with some walls around it. This was where people would be seated if they were celebrating a birthday party or something. Before turning the corner, I looked out the window to see two girls, maybe about fifteen, holding a sign that read in big blue bubble letters, “WE LOVE NIZY!” They waved and jumped up and down as I looked at them and smiled, waving back shyly.

          “See, things may not be so bad after all, Suzy,” Emily stated with a smile.

“Maybe…” I said feel a little hope. That is, if Niall isn’t mad at me and still wants to talk to me. He hardly looked at me in the car…

“So if people know something is up with me and Niall, they must know about you and Harry, right?” I asked her as we sat at the far end of the table.