Party Of 1 (A Niall Horan Fanfic)

Chapter 4: Dirt And Grime

By the time Niall had dropped Rory off at her hotel it was getting dark, and she could see the sunset just over the top of a tree line miles away. 

Once she opened the door to her and Sydney's shared room she was practically attacked by her best friend. 

"RORY! WHAT HAPPENED!" Sydney shouted, placing her hands on Rory's shoulders. Rory stared at her, her mouth opened. 

She shook her head, shoving Sydney's hands off her shoulders. Sydney looked at her confused, she expected Rory to be screaming or jumping up and down, or both. 

"Rory?" Sydney was worried. Rory was never not talking, and she almost always had to tell her to shut the hell up; in a nice way, of course. 

Rory trudged over to her bed, flopping onto it. She could smell the detergent on the pillow and it was making her feel sick. She had too many emotions engulfing her and she didn't know how to feel, honestly. 

She was excited because she had just met Niall Horan, and she had eaten dinner with Niall Horan, and she ridden in Niall Horan's car, and Niall Horan talked to her.

And then she had met two iconic bands, and had pictures to prove it, had seen them live, which she had been excited about ever since her mother finally told her yes, she could go to the concert as an early Christmas present. 

She was conflicted whether she should scream or cry. She chose to scream. 

As soon as it left Rory's mouth, Sydney nearly jumped out of her skin; she'd never been more terrified of a blood-curdling scream than she was now. Normally in horror movies she would just laugh it off but Rory's scream about made her shit her pants.

"WOAH! Rory! This is not a Ghost In The Stalls Episode and you are not Olan Rogers!" Sydney yelled. She held her hand to her chest in a mock attempt to have a heart attack. "Care to explain?"

Rory sighed, flipping over so she was facing Sydney. She propped her head on her hand, her elbow resting on the bed. Some of her long, blonde hair fell in her face so she pushed it behind her ear. 

"So tell me all about it," Sydney said, laying down and propping her head on her hands like a little school girl waiting to hear drama; which, is sort of true. 

"Basically we didn't talk much because the drive was short and he was asking me questions but of course, me being stupid, I kept drifting off, so let's add that to the Most Embarrassing List of Things Rory Will Ever Do," Rory admits, dropping her hand so her head falls back on the bed, her previous attempt at controlling her hair gone as most of it falls in her face. 

"Hey, at least you got to hang out with him," Sydney scoffs, sitting up and getting off the bed to grab a snack.

"That's not the point, Syd," Rory begins, "It's I made an idiot of myself and now he'll never talk to me again, and even if I wanted to tell like, anybody, they would just say I'm lying, which doesn't even matter to me. Who would I tell? My mom? Why do I have to have the personality of a dust mite?"

"You calling me a dust mite? Because they usually clump together. And if you are, I will attack you, again," Sydney calls, poking her head up from the fridge. There isn't anything in there, but Sydney was checking to make sure nothing had magically appeared. Instead she just went to her purse, which Rory had so rudely called huge earlier, and took out a bag of chips. 

Rory shook her head when Sydney came back to her bed; Sydney was practically shoving them into her mouth. 

"You just ate weirdo," Rory says, checking her twitter on her phone. As she read the tweets on her time line, she came across one and gasped, causing Sydney to look up from her delicious bag of heaven, or at least she thought it was. 

"What?"

"Look," Rory tossed Sydney her phone, and she sucked the flavoring off her pointer finger, wiping it on her jeans as she lightly tapped the screen.

"What? I don't get i- Oh."

She read the tweet out loud: @NiallHoranOfficial: had a really great time tonite with you ! you know who you are ! x

Rory didn't know what to think; this tweet wasn't, couldn't have been about her, right? Niall must have gone to a party of some sort after he'd dropped her off; it's the only possible explanation. 

He probably hooked up with some chick, Rory thought.

But she scolded herself because Niall isn't like that. Not a womanizer. But she didn't want to admit the uneasiness she felt when she thought he was talking about her; she's Rory Harper. Junior in high school and nothing but an embarrassment when it came to being social; a expert in spending her afternoons doing nothing but reading fan fictions and eating chocolate ice cream because she thought nothing tasted better in the world. 

She quickly ran into the bathroom, locking the door and shedding her clothes off her before turning on the shower and stepping in. 

Shower's always seemed to calm her down. She laid her head on the tile wall, letting the water run down her face. 

It also bothered her that she could physically see the dirt and grime in the grout between the shower's tiles and she wanted nothing more to scrub it until her hands turned red. It was like she could feel the bacteria manifesting right in front of her eyes and everywhere around her. Her breathing became faster and she needed to sit down. She need to sit down or she would pass out. 

If she sat down, she would stop freaking out, she would be ok. But as she sat down she thought she felt even more dirty because how of many people had stepped in this shower and how many maids had not cleaned properly; that even though they couldn't see the bacteria and dirt and grime it was still there and it was yelling at Rory. 

It was telling her she was dirty and gross and how can anyone look at someone who repels everyone?

And then it was laughing at her, telling her she was pathetic and worthless, and she's lucky that Niall Horan, in general a boy, looked at her. And it was laughing at her, making fun of everything she's ever done; throwing any accomplishment -though very few- away like it was nothing other than trash. It was laughing at her and saying that she would never do anything with her life and she would never do anything worth living for. 

"SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP!" Rory tried to tell them, but they just wouldn't shut the hell up! She just wanted them to be quiet because if they said anything else she would just, she would just- she didn't know what she would do. She would have a breakdown, and she hated having them when Sydney was right there. 

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry," she repeated. 

"RORY! RORY" Rory heard loud banging on the door but it didn't stop the yelling, it didn't stop the tears from spilling out of her eyes, it didn't stop her from pulling at her hair, and it didn't stop the constant back and forth rocking motion of her body. 

It didn't stop her from what she thought was being tired and falling asleep.