Downhill // Niall Horan

Chapter 3

"You're not a stripper, are you?"

Niall asked, the frightened look still in his eyes.

Jenny was taken aback by his words. She simply blinked at him for a moment, and then finally replied. "What?"

Niall looked down at his hands, before looking back up at Jenny. "Who are you? Are you a stripper?"

She just stared at him blankly. "I am not a stripper," she stated firmly, still surprised at his words.

"Phew!" Niall breathed out, and then let out a laugh, "I thought you were goin' to - to give me a lap dance or somethin'!"

"Um, no," Jenny laughed lightly and a bit uncertainly, tucking a stray strand of her brown hair behind her ear. She rubbed the sole of her right shoe against the side of her left shoe nervously and bit her lip as Niall laughed, and a little too hard, at that.

"Are you okay?" Jenny asked after a moment. She could tell by the way Niall was laughing, way too hard at something that wasn't necessarily that funny, that he was definitely not okay at all.

"Fine!" He laughed, finally calming down.

"It wasn't that funny," Jenny mumbled, naturally taking her left wrist into the grip of her right hand. She wasn't sure exactly why she did that - maybe it was that she wanted to be able to have her two fingers touch as they were wrapped around her wrist so that she could feel somewhat skinny.

"It was hilarious!" Niall insisted, a small laugh mingling in with his words as he did so.

"Okay," she said quietly, having an urge to leave, seeing as she felt very awkward.

It was silent for a moment.

"Who are you, anyways?" Niall asked finally after clearing his throat, staying in his seat and watching Jenny curiously.

"I'm Jenny," she replied after a moment, sending Niall a weak smile.

Niall blinked at her for a moment, looking distant, but then he snapped out of it. Jenny took notice of how his eyes no longer held the cheeriness that was in them when he had laughed just moments ago. He stood up, and held out his hand for Jenny to shake.

"Nice to meet ya, Jennifer," he spoke, his voice deeper than usual. He cleared his throat. Jenny cringed at him calling her by her full name. No one ever called her by that, and she didn't like it at all when anyone did.

She found herself wishing there was a longer version of 'Niall', so that she could call him it in return. There clearly wasn't a longer version of his name, though.

"You too, Niall Horan," she replied, hoping he too might cringe at being called that.

He didn't cringe, though. He just seemed saddened by it.

"What do you want, anyway?" He asked a bit harshly, after being silent for a moment.

"Oh. Well, uh," Jenny felt her throat go dry and a feeling of heat rush through her body, as it always did when she was nervous or unprepared for a question. What was she supposed to reply? "I wanted.. to - um, I wanted to talk to you?"

He looked at her questioningly. "You're either a fan or a therapist." He stated.

"No." Jenny said. "I'm neither."

Niall was surprised at her reply, but spoke up again a moment later. "Right, you want to try and make me not depressed or something like that? You want me to tell you what's wrong with me? I don't -" Niall cut himself off, looking to the right of Jenny. Jenny turned around confusedly to look to where Niall was looking, only to see nothing but the wall behind her.