Try Hard

“Still…” I replied pathetically. “Um…well. You sort of have me there.”

I moved closer to the edge of the bed, still not looking at Louis, but at my lap instead.

“Care to talk about it?” he asked.

“Ah…okay.”

Louis sat down next to me and laid flat on the bed. I joined him, so that we were both staring at the ceiling instead of each other. I felt that it would be easier that way.

“So there’s this girl that I met a couple weeks ago, when we went to the amusement park. We got sat together on the rollercoaster and I got sort of scared, so I held onto her the whole ride.”

“Wimp,” Louis mumbled.

“Don’t remind me,” I responded. “Anyway, she was laughing the whole time, but in a nice way…I think. But she disappeared after the ride and I really wanted to apologize so I ran around the park looking for her. And she made it into a game, so at every location I would find her at, she’d give me a new piece of information about herself.”

“Sounds fun,” Louis said.

“It was,” I said. “But then I couldn’t find her anymore and at that point we had to go back to the hotel, so all I had was her name, a picture of her, and other not-so-major things.”

“So that’s why you stalked the internet for her?”

“Well, yes, sort of.”

“Well, how did all of -” Louis gestured to all the clothes on the floor I had just revamped, “-this, come along?”

“Um,” I answered, “You see, after that day she kept showing up everywhere. She was at the kiddy park, the big fountain in the north-side, and even near the building where we had the meeting with management.”

“Ah, I see. So you didn’t mean to stalk her, she showed up and you followed her.”

“Pretty much.”

“But what makes this girl so special, Niall? There are tons out there that would love to be with you.”

“That’s just it,” I replied, “She doesn’t even know my name. All she knows is my face, and if she recognized me she hadn’t said anything about it. I feel normal with her, you know? She dresses really casual, has a rose tattoo on her right bicep, black and red hair, and apparently she’s into drummers.”

“That’s…different. But you still didn’t answer my question from before.”

“Which one?”

“Why do you keep changing yourself?”

I let a lot of air out through my nose, making my nostrils flare. “Because she has a bad first impression of me. I’m the guy who nearly pissed myself on a rollercoaster while holding onto her – a stranger – and she probably thinks I’m a weirdo now because it seems like I’m stalking her. So if I make myself look cooler in her eyes, all her thoughts of me will be changed for the better.”

We were quiet for a few moments, Louis just letting the information sink in.

“You really like her, don’t you?” Louis asked.

I nodded, even though he most likely couldn’t see it since I was lying down. Louis sighed before sitting up, turning around to fully face me again.

“But Niall – don’t you think you’re trying to hard?”

I shrugged. “Well…a bit.”

Louis scoffed. “A bit? Niall, you changed nearly you’re whole wardrobe, started wearing guyliner, of all things, already selected a huge tattoo for your neck, and now you want a fucking lip piercing! That’s not a bit at all!”

“Okay, more like a lot,” I fretted, “But I seriously don’t know what else to do! How else am I supposed to get her attention and change her impression?”

Louis shrugged. “I don’t know, Niall. But it’s pretty obvious that she’s out of reach if she makes you feel that you’re trying too hard.”

“I shouldn’t be?” I sighed, standing up from the bed.

He shook his head. “You shouldn’t be.”

I nodded my head solemnly. Well, everything just seemed like a waste. I’d done all that for nothing?

“C’mon Horan, let’s go get dinner. We ordered lasagna.”

I immediately brightened up, racing out of the room. Louis laughed, quickly following me from behind. He already knew I loved lasagna – we all did.

Rushing down the hall of the hotel room and into the kitchen, I slid to a stop and inhaled the good smell of the lasagna.

“Took you two long enough,” Zayn chided. “It was tough to keep your plates warm.”

I chuckled before sitting next to him, picking up my fork.

“What was going on?” Liam asked, clearly concerned. Louis shrugged. “Niall was having a problem with his phone and I was helping him.”

“But you’re shit at those type of things,” Harry reminded. Louis glared at him and hit his arm, making Harry yelp in pain and drop his forkful of Lasagna.

Zayn snickered at the two of them before speaking up. “Oh yeah, Niall! You got mail.”

“Who’s it from?” I asked, putting my fork back down on my plate.

Zayn shrugged and picked up the letter from the table, handing it to me. “Check for yourself, mate.”

I glanced at the name written neatly on the envelope, and a smile immediately grew on my face. No way. I quickly tore open the letter, scanning through its contents before spotting ten unique digits at the bottom of the page.

“Yes!” I fist pumped the air, jumping up from my chair and running out the kitchen.

“The fuck?” Harry muttered behind me, but I was already halfway there. “Leave him,” I heard Louis say, and I could tell he was smiling while doing so.

I got to my room and shut the door, picked my phone up from my desktop and fumbled with it, getting to the messages app and typing a new message.

You’re so out of reach, and it’s getting me down cuz you make me feel like I’m trying too hard!

I sent the message and waited impatiently, playing with my fingers until my phone vibrated with a reply.

No need to ;) I fell for the guy that hung onto me on a roller coaster ride, and that followed me around the park for the rest of the day. So I followed you just so I could find out more.

That’s how you did it? :D

Pretty much!

You had me so confused  :/

Sorry :) But I’m glad you found my letter, because there’s something I need to tell you.

What’s that?

You don’t need to change yourself, because I like you for who you are.

I slowly put my phone down, the biggest smile ever possible stretched across my face. I felt the presence of someone else in the room, because when I turned around Louis was leaning against the closed door.

“So?” he asked, smiling.

I shook my head at him, still grinning. “You were right, and you were wrong.”

Louis raised an eyebrow at me. “Oh?”

I nodded. “Mhm hm. I was trying too hard, but she isn’t out of my reach anymore.”

Louis realized what I was talking about, because his smile grew even wider and he gave me two thumbs up.

“Good job, mate,” he said.

Guess I never needed to try hard :)