come closer || nh au

fifty

"Hey, what's up, Riley?", he asks, making me shiver.

"Hey, it's actually Violet. You said you have a Calculus class and I wanted to ask you if you can help me with studying for my final tomorrow", I ask, smiling nervously.

As he stays silent, I look at him. He's wearing no shirt and his tattooed arms and chest are visible for me. He got all of those in two years.

"Sure, maybe call me from your laptop in your room on my laptop. That might be easier for both of us. This might take a while", Niall smirks, hanging up.

Riley laughs, as she sees my confused expression.

"See, wasn't that hard", she mocks me.

I flip her off, laughing, as I gather my things and move it to my room. I shut the door behind me, Menchie staying outside with Riley. She'd only make me procrastinate. I take my laptop and sit down on my bed, opening the Facetime app and calling Niall on his laptop while I sort my textbooks. He takes the call, now wearing a shirt.

"So, where do we begin?", he asks, giving me a smug look.

He knows that I hate being tutored by him but it's really only when I'm being tutored by him. I mean, we had something going on between each other. We start doing some problems and Niall explains what I need to do. While I'm working on an assignment, Niall decides to start a conversation.

"How's it going with Zach?", he asks.

I smile a bit. Him and Zack actually get along. They behaved like best friends when we were meeting up as a whole friend group around Thanksgiving.

"It's going really well. We're actually going out one last time before Christmas break tomorrow. He's taking me to an Italian restaurant", I smile to myself, looking down at the task, solving it smoothly.

"That's really nice. Why don't you bring him to our New Years party? He'd get along great with everyone. I mean, Thanksgiving was so much fun with him and everyone else's partners."

I shrug, as I show him my results through the camera. He tells me that my results are correct.

"I can ask him but I can't promise anything. Are we at your place around New Years? You'd have to send me your adress again. I'm not really up to date anymore", I chuckle.

"Sure, I was going to send out an invitation to our friends anyway. Maybe you can help me plan everything. You'll be home around Christmas, won't you?", Niall asks, looking at me in a pleading manner.

"Yeah, sure. I'll help. Maybe, I can move Wesley to help aswell."

*****

"Oh god, we forgot the fireworks!", Niall exclaims, as we look around his apartment for the little rockets.

"I'm pretty sure that I bought some and put them in the kitchen yesterday", Riley squeaks from behind me.

I open the cabinet above the toaster. I only find different kinds of bread and Poptarts. Why would Riley put the fireworks in the kitchen?

"I found them!", I hear Lilian ahout from somewhere in the house.

She walks into the kitchen with the rockets under her arm. Her face shows us that she'd rather not tell us where they were. I glare at Riley, seeing that she's quite confused.

"Honestly, this describes our group pretty well", Mere suddenly laughs.

We all chime in. Zach lays a hand on my lower back, causing butterflies to dance in my stomach. His scent fills my nose, as I recover from laughing.

"We're so stupid", Jake exclaims, entering the kitchen, too.

I take a look at the clock, seeing it's 11:45pm. We should get going outside. Mia and Niall's girlfriend, Grace, start filling some champagne glasses for us to give a toast on the new year. We start piling out of the apartment, jackets tightly wrapped around our bodies and champagne glasses in our hands. Zach keeps his hand on my back the whole way down to the road of Niall's apartment. Many other people from the apartments also go down to the road. I feel quite happy. Niall actually saved my ass that night before the Calculus exam. My professor gave me a 96 on the test. He uploaded the results on Christmas day. He gave us each two points more as a small present.

"Okay, let's find a place to stand", Mere suggests, as we get down to the road.

There are no cars, only people are on the road. We decide to stand a little down the road by some other college students. They seem to be a little more drunk than we, even though we already played drinking games together. A few of us light themselves a cigarette. I actually quit smorking. I don't even smoke weed anymore. It makes me feel like a better person somehow.

"So, how are you feeling?", Zach whispers in my ear, as the others set up the first few rockets.

"I'm doing really good actually", I tell him, turning to look at him.

He smiles down at me, one hand on my hip, the other holding the champagne glass.

"Good."

"Ten", our friends start shouting, aswell as everyone on the road.

Zach bends down to me, our lips almost touching. As we count down quietly, our breaths mix. His body radiates warmth, making me feel secure.

"Three, Two, One! Happy New Year!", everyone shouts.

Zach finally connects our lips. A burst of emotions overwhelm me. Slowly, a smile forms on my lips. I love him. Just like I once loved Tobi. Just like I once loved Niall. We never said those three simple words to each other but it's time to say it. I know that it's time. I feel it.

"Happy New Year, Zach. I love you", I whisper, looking up into his eyes.

His eyes widen, looking shocked but happy. Again, he pulls me into a kiss.

"I love you", he whispers, as we part.

We stay silent a few moments before the loud fireworks separate us. I distance myself from him again. It's time to hug our friends. I go around, hugging everyone until I have Niall left. Our eyes meet, knowing the emotions the other person is feeling. We walk towards each other, arms out for an embrace. As my face meets his chest, I let out a sob. I'm so grateful for everything and everyone I have.

"Happy New Year, loser", he mumbles, remembering how my brother used to call me.

"Happy New Year, Horan."

"Stop crying, please", he whispers, looking down at my face.

I nod, trying to keep my shit together.

"I'm just so grateful for everything."

I don't know how I deserve this. Honestly, I have amazing friends, a healthy relationship and everything I always wanted. What more could I even want? I can only hope that we all come together closer and stay together forever.

The End.