Who Do You Think You Are

Chapter 9 - You're all I've ever wanted

Stacy was at the store getting a few groceries when her phone rang. Niall's face appeared on the screen.

"Hey Nialler. How are you?" she greeted, relieved to finally hear from him.

"Hey Stacy. How ya doing?"

"Better now that you called. I was worried about you. You didn't even say goodbye to me yesterday."

"I'm sorry about that, babe. I was just feeling a little...under the weather."

"Well I'm glad to hear that you're okay now." 'wait, did he jus call me babe? That was a first,' she thought to herself.

"Yeah. Stace, I was wonderin if you could meet me today."

"Uhm yeah, sure. Is something up?"

"No, no. Everything's great. I just wanted to talk to you, that's all."

"Oh, alright. I'm at the store at the moment, but I'll be done soon so...we can meet in like an hour?."

"Perfect." he sounded excited.

"Where'd ya wanna meet?"

"I was thinkin the park would be good."

"Are you sure? I could come over there if you want. I'm gonna have to go home to drop all these stuff off anyway," she said, looking down at her trolley.

"Nahh, it'll probably be better if we meet at the Memorial Park."

"Okay then. The Memorial Park is. I'll see you there in a bit."

"Okay babe. Great. I'll see you then."

"Cool. Oh and Niall..."

"Yeah"

"It's good to hear you so cheery again."

"Haha. You know me," he laughed, causing her to laugh too.

Harry P.O.V.

I just didn’t have the heart to tell him. What happened between Stace and I was best kept a secret. I couldn’t risk Niall knowing. He was so excited about all of this and I just couldn’t burst his bubble – not again. The boys looked at me with straight faces as I told them my decision.

I was going to back off.

Niall was crazy about Stacy. I hadn’t noticed it before, but now I could see it in his eyes. I wasn’t gonna come between that. She needed a good guy who would care for her and be there for her, and I had no doubt in my mind that Niall would do exactly that. At least the guy knew better than to disturb her beauty sleep; he was gonna wait until later to call her.

“So his going to ask her out?” Louis confirmed.

“Sounded like he has everything figured out in his head.”

The wiser part of me had already decided that it would be better not to tell Niall about the kiss (or maybe it was just the part of me that wanted to take the easy way out – the truth is, there was no easy way). I mean I wouldn't want a mate of mine to walk in a little while before I asked a girl out and tell me that he'd snogged her the day before. "I just want to protect Niall, and not upset him any more." I tried to explain to them.

"I must admit it was pretty good to see him happy again today," Louis agreed.

Liam spoke up too. "Well I'm not gonna tell you what to do, mate. That's pretty much up to you. But if you think this is the best thing to do, then..."

"Then you've gotda do whad you've gotda do." Zayn completed.

Stacy’s P.O.V.

I hung up and made my way to the cashiers' station, glad that it wasn't busy. I paid and drove back home to off-load the groceries before I left for the park. I got there a bit early, since the roads were quite so I sat in my car and waited for Niall to arrive. He was a bit protective and I knew he'd get all 'older brother' on me if he saw me wondering around the park alone. I didn't have to wait for very long before I saw Niall's car pulling up a few parking spots away. It was unmistakeable. I could see his guitar in the back seat - typical Nialler.

I instinctively hugged Niall the moment I got to him. For the first time, I noticed how perfectly I fit in his arms. It was weird. He gave me a gentle squeeze and a smile spread across my face. Hannah's words popped into my head. 'A twinkle in my eye? Was it true? I pushed the thought aside. Hannah was crazy. I mean, she was the girl who was convinced that her neighbours were in the black-market just 'cause she never saw them during the day. She had no idea what she was talking about. Niall was beaming as he gestured towards a bench and we sat down. He probably needed some girl advice and Lou wasn't around to provide it. I was glad he'd come to me. It made me feel good about our friendship, about myself to be honest. But that's just what Niall had always done. He was never aloof or out of reach. Being around him always made me feel better about myself.