~A/N: This is the longest one shot I've written, I hope you guys like that, there will be a part two at some point! So, Project No Control! I love the song and I've just had it on repeat. Also, the guys had their first interview as a fourpiece :) I have exams now, and I think I failed my chemistry, but oh well. The song at the top is just one I'm obsessed with right now, it's different than 1D (MCR) but I listen to whatever I like. Hope you guys are fine <3 ~
Most people knew that I was hardly in need of popularity. Neither were my friends: Harry and Louis. Most people seemed to like us, and we generally liked them. We found that there was hardly any point in being mean to people simply because they didn't seem to be conventionally popular.
But there were some people we just simply didn't talk to. Not because they were unfriendly; they weren't. It just seemed as if it was better off that way.
There was one boy who never seemed to talk to anyone. I didn't know why, I didn't know him.
All I knew was that I had to make him fall in love with me. Or at least, that's what the dare said.
It was only a stupid game of 'truth or dare', however, Louis and Harry soon became disinterested in innocent little games. So Louis, being the sassy person he is, insisted that my next dare should be more challenging, more...'fun'.
In honesty, it seemed like a great idea at first. It was something to make our monotone school days a little more interesting, but this feeling of excitement deteriorated as I made my way to school the next day.
"Hey, Liam. Big day today." Louis smirked, throwing his arm around my shoulder.
"Ugh, I'm already regretting it."
"Well, no going back now!" Louis soon descended into the thick crowd swarming in the school corridor.
Just as I was about to turn a corner, I was pushed by someone behind me and my body ended up knocking into a locker, shutting it. My shoulder was aching from the impact as I tilted my head to look at the person beside me.
"Oh, Niall. Hi. Sorry for knocking into your locker, I didn't mean to."
I only received a small nod in response.
"Umm, well...I guess I'll see you around!" I smiled a stupid goofy grin.
Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
'I'll see you around!'. What was I thinking?
I face palmed, turning away from Niall.
I thought I heard a quiet giggle and saw a little grin from the corner of my eye as I walked away.
*
"Captain America is obviously hotter."
"Have you seen Thor?"
"Yeah, but have you seen Captain America." Louis answered with his usual tone of sass and sarcasm.
"Captain America is hotter!" My hands flew out to my sides, emphasising my point.
"Thor." Louis replied, waving his finger in the air and turning to look at the front of the classroom.
The rest of the lesson was monotone as always.
Until the end: "Right, guys. I'm sure you are aware that I need to give you a mark at the end of this term. This will depend on how you complete your project. The subject is the American Dream in The Great Gatsby, which we have been studying this term. You will get two weeks to complete this project, the brief is on this sheet." Our English teacher passed out a piece of paper to each student. "Oh. And you need a partner."
At this, Louis head snapped in my direction. He wore a smirk on his lips, his eyes glimmering with mischief.
"Oh no." I sighed.
"Oh yes." His smirk grew wider as he turned around to face the table behind us. "Hey, Niall!"
"Oh my God." I muttered under my breath, supporting my bowed head with my palm.
"Come over here." He beckoned the blond boy.
Students were now milling around the classroom, emitting quiet chatter.
Niall walked over to our table with his head ducked a little low, clutching his black bag with his fingers tightly, so his bones almost turned his pale skin white.
"Liam here is need of a partner, and I'm sure you'll fit perfectly." And with that, Louis briskly hopped away, winking in the process.
I sighed deeply. "Hi."
"Hello." A quiet mutter, but an answer nonetheless.
"So, uh, would you like to partner up?"
"Sure."
"Okay, well if you sit down, we can get started on some ideas."
He nodded, settling down on the chair next to me.
I took my piece of paper with the brief and read it through, as Niall did the same with his.
"Okay, doesn't seem to be too hard. What format shall we do?"
"We could do a Powerpoint." He suggested almost silently, shrugging his shoulders.
"Great. How about we write down some ideas?"
For the last ten minutes, Niall and I discussed our project.
Well, mainly I did, Niall just wrote down his thoughts, he didn't seem to be too keen on talking a lot.
"That's really good." I grinned, looking at our mind map.
His head tilted a little in my direction, away from the downwards position it was kept in for most of the time we spent together. A small smile made its way onto his pale face, a corner of his mouth turning up.
And I finally got a good luck at the boy that was Niall Horan.
His eyes were baby blue, bright and colourful compared to his pale complexion and blond hair. His nose was small, and his cheeks wore a permanent rosiness. Blond roots showed a little through blond tufts of hair formed into a quiff that seemed soft enough to brush your fingers through.
Charming?
Charming.
Which, in one way was lucky but in another, I was doomed.
This was just a dare.
A stupid, stupid dare.
*
"You're pathetic."
I heard a snigger as I walked out of school later that same day. Curiously, I rounded the corner where the noise was coming from and saw a tall boy towering over someone who was crouching on the ground. "Hey!"
The tall brunette whipped around.
I recognised his face from the school corridors, but wasn't aware of his name.
"What are you doing?" My eyes moved below him, to see Niall with his bag and it's contents scattered around him, a red gush of blood on his cheek.
"Go away while I deal with this idiot here." The violent brunette spat. He had dark eyes and a pale complexion, his lips were thin, in a straight line.
"Look, I don't know who you are, but leave Niall alone." I replied, as calmly as I could.
It wasn't that Niall was my friend, or anything. I just didn't see the need for violence, especially when Niall didn't seem like he'd done wrong. And his innocent face and shaking hands made it known to me that he was frightened. Obviously, if I wanted to complete the dare, I had to help him. If I backed out, I would never hear the end of it from Louis.
"No." The unknown stranger replied.
"Leave him alone, or you''ll be trouble, and not just with me."My voice was deeper now, a violent emotion of anger seeping through my throat.
"Fine." He walked past me, shoving my shoulder with his violently in the process. "But I'm not done yet."
I ignored his repulsive remark, rushing over to a victimized Niall on the ground.
"Are you okay?"
He nodded in the slightest.
"Of course you're not, that was a stupid question, sorry. That looks pretty bad." I frowned a little, pointing to Niall's cheek. "Do you have tissues?"
He pointed to an object beside my feet, a blue pack of white tissues. I was guessing it was one of the many things thrown out of Niall's bag by the vulgar stranger. I took a snow-white tissue, pressing it against Niall's cheek. "Can you hold it in place?"
Niall moved his hand up in response, holding the tissue to the damaged scar below his cheekbone.
I gathered all of his belongings, putting them in Niall's black bag before handing it to him.
I helped Niall up, supporting his body, as he thanked me quietly.
"That's okay. You looked like you needed help. Not in a bad way! It's just that the guy seemed like an absolute idiot, and from what I know of you, you don't deserve what he did."
"Thank you, nobody has ever done that for me." His voice was gentle, with a thick Irish accent.
"Well, they don't deserve your friendship!" I grinned.
"Yeah, looks like nobody does."
"We can be friends if you like."
Yes, good. I'd start with 'just friends' and soon enough, I'd have the dare done.
*
So that's what I did, for the next two weeks I made the most of my time with Niall. We worked on the English project, and he was talking more, which made me happy.
Because of the dare. Obviously.
We completed the project and were marked with an A after presenting it in front of our class.
Niall actually seemed like a great person. We shared some interests, which made conversation a lot easier.
I invited him to sit with us at lunch, to which he agreed.
Louis and Harry shared looks, which I knew were in response to Niall and I's blossoming 'relationship'.
We knew something Niall did. Something very important. And I really did feel terrible about the fact that this was a dare. Louis and Harry wouldn't let it rest, they were always talking about it, how Niall and I actually looked good together. And teasing me about my (as they called it) 'star-crossed' romance.
I was honestly getting fed up with all the concentration on the topic. The more we talked about it, the worse I felt about my actions towards Niall. But Louis refused to let it go.
There was something he didn't know though: a part of my heart, however small, seemed to be falling in love with a certain blond-haired, blue-eyed boy.