When in London (One Direction Fan Fiction)

30

***

"Louis, pass the popcorn," Niall said, reaching his arm out as far as it would go.

All of the boys had decided to stay in with me that day, wanting to spend the last day we had together in the flat. Having the whole day to ourselves, we decided collectively that there was only one appropriate thing to spend our time doing.

Have a Harry Potter movie marathon.

So for the next fourteen hours we were all sat in the living room, each of us unmoving from our spots in front of the TV. We had made it all the way to Half Blood Prince before I finally started to feel myself dozing off.

"Just go make your own bowl," Louis replied, not moving from his spot on the couch across from us.

"I did, and now you're eating it," Niall stated blatantly. Louis just laughed before shoving another handful into his mouth, crunching loudly.

"I'll go make another one," I laughed, looking for an excuse to keep myself awake. I reached my arms out above my head to stretch the stiffness out of my muscles, my back arching away from the sofa. I felt Niall's hand rub up and down the back of my thigh before I lifted my legs off of his lap, making my way to the kitchen. I pulled out another package of kernels and popped it into the microwave, ready to wait another two minutes for a bowl that hopefully would not be stolen away from us this time.

I heard footsteps coming into the kitchen behind me, and I didn't need to turn around to know that it was Niall. His arms wrapped themselves around my waist and he hugged me tight against his chest, playfully biting the side of my neck. He pulled away slightly, kissing over the same spot before sighing.

"I can't believe you're leaving," he said softly.

"I could say the same to you," I replied, turning around to look at him. "I'm only moving out of this flat, you're leaving the damn country for a whole year."

"I was going to ask you to come with me, you know," Niall announced, dropping his gaze down to mine. "On tour, I mean. I was going to ask you to come."

"You... What?" I asked in shock, having been caught off guard. He wanted me to go with him? Since when?

"The first week you got here, I wanted to ask," he recalled, a smile crossing his lips. "You had just gotten here and already I didn't want to have to leave you. The only way would have been to have you come with me."

I watched him smile as he spoke, remembering a time that seemed years ago, but in reality was only a couple months past.

"But then you told me that the only reason you came here was because of school," he explained, his shoulders slumped, "and you were so excited about starting your life and... I couldn't do it. I couldn't ask you because I knew what you'd say."

"Niall..." I trailed, not knowing how to respond. This whole time, he had wanted to ask me to go with him, wanted to take me around the world with him for an entire year. Not once had he even mentioned it, and now he decided to bring it up?

He was right, though. He was right not to ask, because I would have said no, and we both knew it.

"And I realized it wouldn't be fair of me to ask you," he continued, "for me to put you in that position. To make you have to choose between me and your dreams. I didn't want to make you have to do that. So I shut up and shoved everything down, but now you're leaving and it was killing me not to say anything because I..." he paused, shaking his head in disbelief.