Climbing the Walls (a Niall Horan love story)

Chapter 14

"I'm Niall!" Liam piped. "I like food, and Haley, and food..." I giggled, probably more amused than I should've been by that joke. I blushed too, seeing as how I hadn't told Dani about my relationship with Niall yet... I wasn't sure how to tell her, but I figured it would slip soon enough.

"Nice to meet you, Liam," Dani smiled back, shaking his hand. I smiled at that, too. Dani was too much of a Directioner for them to pull that one. Liam shook his head.

"Fudgecakes!" He snapped his fingers. "You know who I am." Dani smiled.

"He's talking shit!" Niall interjected in his adorable announcer voice. "I'm the real deal!" Dani and I both giggled as she shook his hand.

"I'm Zayn!" the Bradford Bad Boi said, stepping in. "I like mirrors, and combs, and Liam, and Haley... But I don't like Haley as much as Niall does." I blushed again as Dani giggled and shook Zayn's hand. Then she shot Niall a quizzical look.

"You seem to like Haley quite a bit, don't you Niall?" she asked playfully. Niall just looked at me questioningly. Guess I was telling her now.

"Oh right," I began, rocking on my heels. "Niall and I are kind of going out..." I confessed, blushing. I was smiling madly; you know that smile you get when you talk about the boy you love to your best friend? It really is one of the best kind of smiles. Niall smiled too, and Dani gasped. I braced myself for her flip out.

"Kind of going out?" Niall questioned playfully. But Dani cut him off at the end.

"WHAT?" she squealed excitedly, grabbing my shoulders and jumping up and down. "Oh my god, that is too cute! How long? When were you planning on telling me?" she questioned me. Before I could answer even one of her questions, she turned to Niall. "How did you do it? Did you sing to her? Eee, stand next to each other!" We both blushed but obeyed. I rolled my eyes. This is just like seventh grade, I thought. "Ahh, you guys are so cute together!"

"Gee, thanks!" I screamed obnoxiously, obviously trying to shut her up. I should've known this would happen; it's a best friend's job to embarrass her best friend in front of her boyfriend. She just smiled at me.

"Awww!" she exclaimed. "You haven't smiled like that since seventh grade!" I blushed and flicked her in the forehead. "Oh," she replied in a weird voice, backing away. That always made me crack up. She laughed along with me. I was always jealous of her laugh, it was so cute. "Fiesty." I winked at her, causing us both to giggle again.

"Well, we just made pancakes," Harry cut in, smiling at Dani. "Would you like to join us?" he invited her, green eyes sparkling. She accepted, and we all walked inside the house, Derek and Zayn talking to each other and entering behind us. Looks like we've got some new besties! I thought, mentally giggling. A familiar hand took mine, and I smiled up at Niall.

"So I take it you just told her?" he asked with a smile. I blushed.

"Yeah, sorry about her by the way. You might have to put up with a lot of that... I'll try to mute her when I can," I promised apologetically. He just laughed in response, pulling out a chair for me. I smiled. He was such a gentleman. He took the seat to my right, Dani sitting to my left. Harry sat next to her, which didn't surprise me. I actually found it kind of cute. Zayn sat across from Harry, Derek next to him across from Dani, Louis across from me and Liam across from Niall. I surveyed the seating arrangement, hoping we'd have plenty of meals seated like this. I was among pretty much all of my favorite people right now. If only Julia, Megan, and Sydney were here.

"So it's just you two?" Harry asked as we all passed around the syrup and dug into our breakfast.

"Yup," Derek answered. "I just graduated, and thought England would be a nice place to go. When I told Dani that, she made me move near Haley." I smiled, but I knew he was making parts of that story up. I remembered that Derek would've graduated in about a week. Just one more week and he could have his day. But he wouldn't wait; he cared about Dani too much. He was always protecting Dani, making sure he did whatever he could to make sure she didn't get hurt. I didn't blame him for lying to those boys. Maybe they'd find out eventually.