plaid shirt days & nights (when you made me your own) // niall horan au

part i

It's not that she hasn't missed them—because she has, missed the simple moments of happiness and youthful freedom they shared before everything crashed over their heads and they had to grow up and move on—it's just that being back here in her small hometown is leaving her on edge.

Nothing good ever comes from revisiting the past.

"Zoe, oh my gosh!" comes Jade's voice as she ushers her over to the table. When Zoe's close enough, she rises from her seat to engulf her in a tight embrace, and when Perrie, Jesy, and Leigh-Ann follow suit and envelop her in a group hug, the wall she's put up comes crashing down to her feet and she returns the hug with just as much enthusiasm. "It's been so long!" is what Jade says when they all pull away.

Beside her, Jesy laughs, reaching out to run her fingers through Zoe's sleek ponytail before she throws her arm over her shoulders and leads her to a seat at their table. "You look exactly the same, Zo. Did you even age?" Zoe simply rolls her eyes in response, tossing a clean napkin at Jesy, and the gesture is so natural that it almost startles her. She can tell the girls are trying to find the flow they all had five years ago, and when Leigh-Ann starts hysterically laughing and tosses the cherry from the top of her milkshake at Perrie's face, Zoe finds herself laughing along as well, and soon enough, their entire table erupts into a roar of laughter.

She thinks they've just found their flow.

~
Zoe is on her third milkshake when she sees him.

The blond of his hair and the build of his shoulders are still unmistakable, even if she hasn't seen him in five years. He's at the counter making conversation with Bradley, the owner of Miss America, and she can see his shoulders shaking with a laugh, even from her seat. She immediately hates herself afterwards because even though she can't hear it with the resounding noise in the diner, she thinks: I really miss that laugh.

"Niall!" screeches Jade, and Zoe looks up with wide, petrified eyes only to see her waving him over. "Hi!"

She can't help the gasp that works its way through her throat, causing her to choke on the sip of the milkshake she's just taken. "Jade!" she hisses, and the atmosphere immediately stills. A multitude of cautious looks get thrown around the table, and Jade's eyes go impossibly wide once she's realized that she's unknowingly brought up the huge elephant in the room.

She's about to start apologizing when Niall approaches, dawning his megawatt smile and his bright, twinkling stars for eyes and Zoe feels like hurling the minute she really gets a good look at him. "Hi girls!" he greets, and he sounds so happy and confident and like Niall that Zoe starts panicking, her mind running wild with different ways to get out of this situation, and since she can't exactly melt into a puddle or run out of the nearest exit, there really is nothing she can do to escape this fateful meeting with the very person she was trying to avoid. Like he can hear everything she's thinking, Niall looks over with curious eyes, the bright blue darkening the slightest bit once the realization sets in.

It's a bit awkward for a few moments, and no one really knows what to do except give him the time to process what exactly is going on. The moment he snaps back to reality is the moment Zoe's been dreading about this whole trip, because she can see every wave of anger rippling through him with a flash of something else she can't quite comprehend flickering in his eyes. "You?" is what comes out of his mouth, and he spits out the word like it leaves a bad taste in his mouth, voice dripping with revulsion.

Zoe immediately grimaces. She doesn't know what to do or what to say so she settles for a nervous, pitchy chuckle that makes her flinch even more. "Uhm," she draws out, goosebumps rippling up her arms, "hi?"

She can tell he's trying to keep his cool and hold it together, but even she can't miss the way his lips curl slightly in distaste. He's glaring at her now and she has to wrap her arms over her stomach, partly out of self-consciousness, but also because she feels sick. "That's it?" Zoe thinks he's about two seconds away from sneering because she can see how the muscles in his face tense as he tries to keep his cool. "Five years of no contact and that's all you can say to me?"