Friendzoned

13. Like

As I was walking out to the pool, I made accidental eye contact with Niall. He smiled and waved for me to come talk to him. Oh jeez. I dropped my stuff by the pool and walked to the fence, seeing a bunch of men sticking a swing set into his backyard. I frowned, bemused.

“Hey,” He chirped. Why is he all smiley? “How’re you?”

“Good,” I smiled. His good mood was rubbing off on me. “You? How’d initiation go?”

He snorted, “Great, I’m sure someone got a hard-on when I showed them this morning.” Okay, I didn’t ask for all that…

“Is seeing a girl sleeping a turn on?” He actually blushed as he shrugged.

“Anyway,” He cleared his throat. “I have some news.”

“News?”

“Yeah, um…Greg’s wife is coming over for a week.”

I arched an eyebrow, “Yeah?” I didn’t know he was married.

A big boyish crooked smile spread across his face. “And she’s coming with my cousin Ana on my Dad’s side. They’ll be here later today.” He looked so happy to be alive; it was making me smile too. “Wanna come to the airport with us to get them?”

“Me?”

He rolled his eyes, “No, Chip.”

“You don’t want Eileen to go?”

“Uh, no—I’ll see her tomorrow night. She’s never met Greg.” I raised my eyebrows. “Don’t think he’d like her to be fair.” Like the rest of us. “So, you coming?” I nodded with a small smile. “Denise’ll like you.”

I bit my lip, holding by a smile. “Why do you think that?” He only shrugged, blushing a little. Oh, he’s so cute when he blushes. “What’s with the swings?” He cleared his throat, jamming his hands in his pockets.

“Ana likes swings.” He said with a shrug. “So, I’ll see you later then?”

“Yeah,” He beamed, ducking in to kiss me on the cheek before disappearing into his house. My heart was pounding but I walked it off as I got to the pool. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to Niall being near me, let alone kissing me—in any way. I’ve never had a friend make me this weird, but I’m starting to like how he makes me weird.

I wonder if he makes Eileen weird. No, of course not. Eileen is so confident around him, like she knows he won’t smack her away like the annoying mosquito she is. Maybe the other way around? Probably not. If Eileen made Niall weird, he would probably blush a lot more around her instead of sighing and rolling his eyes.

Do I make Niall weird?

Now you’re getting ridiculous.

——

“Denise!” Greg called. I looked around for someone to respond. Greg waved but I didn’t even see anyone look in our direction. Where is she? Suddenly a little girl came running to Niall, latching on to his legs. Where did she even come from?

“Ana!” Niall shouted, picking her up and hugging her to his chest. “I missed you kiddo.” For some reason I thought Ana was our age. This explains the swings so much better. I smiled at the two of them, bubbling with happiness for them. Glancing at Greg I saw he was reunited with Denise, kissing and laughing and whispering to each other. Jeez, she’s pretty…

Incidentally, I felt out of place. I had no one to hug hello. I looked around awkwardly, giving them their time to catch up.

“Ana, you wanna meet someone?” I looked back at Niall, and shouldn’t have been surprised to see him staring at me. He flagged me over, “This is my friend Hunter.” He slung his arms around my shoulders as he smiled at me. “Hunter, my little cousin Ana.”