"Do we really have to go?" I ask my mum. She wants to go to go shopping with me and normally I would love to do that, but I promised Amelia I would go to the cinema and watch that film she's been talking about for weeks. Amelia has been my best friend for as long as I can remember. We were paired together the first day of primary school and we've been inseparable ever since.
"Please? Just this one time, I promise." She tries to convince me.
"Thats the exact same thing you told me last week." I know I'm probably gonna give in like I always do. When River died, she completely lost herself and ever since then I find myself doing everything I can to make her happy now.
"I know, but I just want to spend as much time as possible with you before you go to university." She says.
"You still have eight months with me before I'm leaving, but fine, I'll go with you." I roll my eyes. I get off the couch and take my phone to text Amelia that I'm not gonna be able to make it. Once reach my room, I take off my hoodie and leggings and put on a ripped jean, a white crop top and a black and white plaid flannel. It's surprisingly warm outside for it to be the end of January. I put my long blonde hair in a ponytail and have one last check in the mirror before walking out of my room.
"I'm almost ready." I tell my mum who was waiting for me at the front door. I grab my shoes and try putting them on while walking but stop once I almost fall over. I sigh and bent down anyway to tie them. Once I'm ready my mom and I leave the house and get in the car.
...
"What about this sweater?" My mum said while she showed me a pink sweater with the words 'GIRLPOWER' written on them with glitter.
"It's nice", The smile on my face clearly fake, "for an eight-year-old." My smile drops.
She rols her eyes but puts the sweater back.
"Allison?" I hear a woman say. I turned around and see a woman around her forties with a boy around the same age as me, who I assume is her son, stand there. She has blonde hair up to her shoulders and the most beautiful blue eyes. The boy has dirty blond hair, but brown roots so he probably dies his hair, styled in a quiff. The boy has the same blue eyes as his mother with tinges of green and yellow in them. While looking at his eyes I notice he's also looking at me and immediately, I look down with a light blush forming on my face.
"Maura! Hi, it's great to see you! This is my daughter Harper. Sweetie, this is the woman I told you about. The one that moved in a couple blocks away." She explains the last part to me with this weird look on her face. She never told me about the woman so that's probably the reason she's doing that.
"Oh, hi it's nice to meet you. My mum has told me a lot about you." I save my mother and put my hand out for her to shake.
Why are you doing this Harper, she's a friend of your mum not your boss.
She takes my hand nonetheless with a chuckle.
"It's nice to meet you too. This is my son, Niall." She replies with an accent. I can't really hear where she's from, but it's certainly not from the UK.
We gave each other one of those awkward nods and I started smiling because I could feel he was just as embarrassed as I was.
"So, Harper and I are done here anyways. Are you up for a cup of coffee? We could just catch up and our kids here could get to know each other, maybe?" She cheerfully says.
"Sure, that sounds wonderful!" Maura agrees.
...
"So, where are you from? I heard an accent earlier." I ask and nipp my drink. We're at a table for two in the back while our mother are sitting at a table somewhere up front.
"I'm form Ireland." He said and copied my action.
"I'd love yo vist Ireland sometime. I've learned some pretty great stuff about it." I exitedly say. I've seen lots of pictures of it, but I've never been there.
"Yeah, I know. I really loved it there. I lived in a small town with lots of nature so it's going to take a while to get used to the big city." He says and looks a little sad all of the sudden. But who am I kidding, he just moved here and probably knows nobody here. I wouldn't be too happy either.
"Why did you move? If you loved it so much?" I let my curiosity get the best of me.
"My mum and I needed a new start." He explains and I nod. When he stayed silent, I understood that that was all I'm going to get from him on that topci today.
"So, what are you interested in?" He spoke first after a short silence.
"I'm into music. I play the piano and little bit of the guitar. I'm not a sports person but I like a good jog once a while." I told him and put a strand of hair that kept falling into my face behind my ear.
"Cool! I can play the guitar and the piano too. Who are your favourite artists?" He asks getting into the conversation. I can tell music was also one of his passions the way his beautiful eyes light up talking about it.
"I like that punk rock band 5 seconds of summer, Lewis Capaldi, Shawn Mendes, Billie Eilish, The artic monkeys and many more. But I'm always open for new artist. Who are yours?" I enumerate.
"I like everyone you do." He chuckles. "But my favourite band of all time is a band called 'The Eagles'. They are really good. You should check them out. I think you'd like them." He says smiling.
"I've heard of them but never really listened to them. I'll give it them a listen sometime." I grin and take another sip of my hot chocolate
...
We talked for about half an hour after that about everything and nothing. I found out he was going to the same school as me and this Monday was his first day. Then my mum came and said that we were going to leave. I was sitting in my mum's car while she was driving us home right now. I got my driver's license last month but my mum likes driving too much to let me drive when we were together. When we're almost home my mum starts talking.
"We're going to the Horan's tomorrow. Maura invited us for dinner." She says and turned down the radio.
"Okay." I reply shortly.
"You and Niall were getting on really well huh." She wiggles her eyebrows. You 'd think after what happened with Ashton, she 'd want me to never be in a relationship ever again, but my mum has always been a bit special.
"Mum please, we're just friends and I met him like an hour ago. And as I have told you many times before, I'm not ready for a relationship yet." What Ashton did to me left me with a lot of damage that I worked really hard on fixing. I'm not ready to put that side of me out in the open yet.
"There's one more thing I wanted to tell you." My mum says when she parks the car in front of our house. "Maura lives in Ashton's old house. Just thought it was better to tell you that so you could prepare yourself." She says and shuts down the car engine.
I swallow hard and nod before stepping out of the car. Ashton's passing was very hard on his parents. Living here was too hard with all the memories so they sold the house. I don't know how I'm going to react by being there but I'm glad my mother told me about it.
I go into my room and see that it's 5 pm on my phone. I call Amelia and after three rings she picks up.
"Hey, what's up?" She speaks.
"Hey, I'm really sorry for just bailing on you like that. My mum asked me to go to the mall and you know how I get with her." I apologize and fall backwards on my bed.
"It's no big deal. I couldn't go anyways I had to go to the stupid dentist for my stupid braces. You know Harper, sometimes I really hate you for having perfect teeth. You have no idea how lucky you are." I laughed at her stupidness and talked to her for a good hour. Niall completely slipped my mind for a second. Around six pm I hear my mum shouting from the kitchen that dinner is ready and say goodbye to Amelia. When I'm with her time seems to flow by and she always gets me in a better mood.
I stride over to the kitchen and sit down in front of my mum. She ordered pizzas about half an hour ago. Everyone who knows my mum knows that she's a horrendous cook. The only thing she can make is spaghetti, but that spaghetti is just heaven on a plate.
"I'm going to grandma's tonight. You can come if you want but I won't make you." My mum broke the silence. It's been a while since I've seen my grandparents so I will go with her.
"Yeah, I'll come." I spoke. We made small talk for the rest of the dinner and left the house at seven thirty.
...
When I'm finally in my bed my mind wanders back to Niall. He's a nice person and I see myself getting good friends with him. He also has a passion for music which is something Amelia doesn't have. Amelia always was more of a sports girl. She is an important player in the school's footie team. She's the only girl in the team but she's got everyone there wrapped around her finger. Amelia and I are completely opposite in almost everything but that's why it works.
And I feel like Niall and I are really similar. We both like music, both love 'FRIENDS', both have a relationship with food and our personalities are also quite the same. We're both kind of shy, more reserved and we have the same sense of humor.
After twenty minutes I finally fell asleep looking forward to seeing Niall again.
AN: How did you find my story? Was it on recommended? Someone's reading list? Let me know in the comments. All of the boys will be in this story as will Larry. I don't know when the next update will be, but it'll be as fast as possible. Thanks for reading! Lots of love -E
AN (older me): Okay, this chapter was not so bad. I totally forgot about the picture in the end and I snorted when I saw it. Don't judge me.