I drown the rest of my beer, feeling as though nothing in this world can fill the empty gap that Niall just ripped out of my heart and tore to shreds. I make my way out to the garage to throw the bottle into recycling when I see Niall at his car.
"Hi," I shyly greet while nervously approaching him, "what are you doing?"
"Just cleaning out my car real quick before we head out. Are you gonna be ready to go soon?"
"Niall I don't know if-"
"Pleaseeeee," he begs as he basically gets down on his knees.
I look down at him, feeling stupid for wanting to turn him down. But I'm in no mood to be cheered up. He puts on his best puppy dog face, causing me to smile at how much he wants to make it up to me. No guy has ever done that for me before. But Niall, he's..........he's special.
"Alright," I sigh, feeling as though I'm being forced to go.
"C'mon let's go!" He cheers as he leads me to the passengers side of the car.
I giggle at Niall's cuteness and then hop into the passengers seat. Niall jumps in and then speeds off.
"Do you have any idea where you're going?" I ask, not being able to stop smiling.
"Yes I do," he smiles.
"What are we doing?" I ask.
"You'll see," he smirks.
About an hour later, Niall pulls into a parking lot. I look out to see that we're at a park.......again.
"What are you hiding?" I ask.
"Nothing," he chuckles, "I just wanna make you happy."
"Well thank you for going to all this trouble," I blush.
I nervously get out of the car, unsure of what Niall has in store for me. He jumps out and races to his trunk, pulling out a soccer ball, a picnic basket, and a boom box. He eagerly carries the items down the sidewalk through the park and about a quarter mile later he finally stops and sets everything down.
"Niall," I giggle.
"I wanna make you feel special and I wanna show you how sorry I am for deleting those messages."
It's nice that Niall's willing to go to all this trouble and all, but I'm still upset because now whenever I feel sad, I won't be able to look at those messages to cheer me up. Niall glances up as he spreads out the picnic blanket, an excited smile plastered on his face.
*Niall's POV*
I hope she doesn't realize that my smile is fake. It's so hard to act like nothing's wrong around her now. I mean, she's the only one that doesn't know that Perrie's pregnant, and she never will find out, hopefully. I look up at Liz and smile, causing her to giggle.
"Would you mind giving me a hand?" I ask.
"Sure," she blushes as she gets down on her knees in the grass.
I thought coming to North Carolina would've resulted in me becoming a third wheel. Apparently I was wrong. Liz and Harry have had no problem with me crashing at their place and they've made me feel so welcome even though it's their honeymoon. I bet if I didn't show up nothing would've changed. They don't seem like that couple that has sex all the time, which I like because I don't exactly like finding out that Liz does it and then the next month later you find out she's pregnant. I hate lying to her. I mean look at her. She looks so happy today, not a single care in the world.
When we've mounted the picnic blanket down to guarantee that it'll stay in place, Liz sits down on it and begins digging through the contents of the picnic basket.
"Let's see what we have here," she smiles as she empties the basket, "some soda, potato chips, PB & J sandwiches, um............what's this?"
I remember the first time I took her to a park. It ended in a total bust.
"Niall?" She asks again as she holds up the tiny object, "what's this?"
I'm snapped out of my train of thought to see Liz holding up my guitar pick with an Irish flag on it that has my initials on it as well.
"Oh! That reminds me," I state as I point my right index finger in the air, "excuse me for a brief moment."
I get up from my spot and jog back over to my car. I pop the trunk open and pull out my tan guitar that I forgot to bring out. I carry it with me as I run back to Liz. The thought that I brought so much stuff to make this day special makes her smile. I love to see her smile because that means that I'm doing something right...........for once.
"Who brings a guitar to a park?" She asks with a smile on her face. She can't seem to stop smiling.
"I do," I chuckle as I gently set it down next to the blanket.
I press play on the boom box, which begins to play various songs that I have chosen. The first one that plays is Not A Love Song by Ross Lynch. I picked that song because I think it describes my relationship with Liz very well.
"Want some soda?" I ask as I pull out two red plastic cups.
"Sure," she mumbles.
"You OK?" I ask, noticing that she seems a bit off.
"Y-yeah. I'm fine."
It kills me to see her upset. And I hate lying to her. It's killing me not telling her but I know she's gonna hate me if I tell her that I may have gotten Perrie pregnant. I'm not ready for this. I'm not ready to be a father and take that kind of responsibility. I hope she isn't pregnant. And I'm the only one to blame for her getting knocked up..........
I pour some Crush soda into Liz's glass and hand it to her. She gladly takes the cup and takes a small sip of it. To me it honestly seems like something's bothering her.
"Are you sure you're OK?" I ask, not believing that she's fine.
"I'm fine. What makes you think something's wrong?"
"Nothing. It's just........." I begin, but then suddenly notice that I've captured her attention, "you know what? Nevermind......"
"Tell me."
"No. I just thought that you seemed upset about something."
"I'm just not really hungry," she mumbles.
"Oh," I sigh, "well do you wanna do something else? You wanna play some soccer?"
"OK," she smiles, suddenly cheering up.
I grab the ball from behind my back and run after her as she runs out into the field. I laugh and drop the ball, wanting to catch Liz. I finally catch up to her so I grab her by her waist and scoop her up into my arms, causing her to squeal. I laugh at how much fun we're having and then I lay her down in the grass. She slightly smiles, causing me to smirk at the thought that I'm making her really happy. I lay down next to her and we just look up at the clouds. I can't take it anymore. I have to tell her. The guilt is eating me alive right now. It's driving me crazy.
"Liz there's something you should know," I blurt as I sit up.
"What?" She asks as she leans up on her elbows.
I can't do this to her. I just can't. It'll break her heart. But now what am I gonna say because I basically cornered myself. Dammit.........
"I didn't make the sandwiches. Harry did," I semi-lie.
Harry did make the sandwiches, but that's not what I wanna tell her. God I'm screwed.......
"Oh........" Liz mumbles.
I run my hands through my hair, frustrated with myself. I watch Liz stand up and then freak out because I think she's leaving.
"Where are you going?" I ask.
"To get a drink. I'm thirsty," she calls as she continues walking.
"Wait up!" I yell as I quickly gather the soccer ball and get to my feet.
I finally catch up to her and then the two of us walk back to our nice little picnic area. I begin to hear music when I realize that I never turned the boom box off. Oh well.......
Liz takes a sip from her cup and then I sit down on the grass. I pull the guitar onto my lap and begin to tune it. Liz looks down and then sits across from me.
"Do you mind if I play you a song?" I ask.
"Of course not," she smiles when I notice her cheeks starting to turn red.
After I tune a few more strings, I look deep into her chocolate eyes and begin to sing and play softly.
"You'll never love yourself half as much as I love you, And you'll never treat yourself right, darling, but I want you to. If I let you know I'm here for you, Maybe you'll love yourself like I love you, oh."
I begin to continue playing but then I suddenly stop myself. I set the guitar to my side and Liz just hugs me unexpectedly. To my surprise, she gives me a long kiss on my cheek, causing me to turn bright red.
"Thank you," she smiles, "for, this wonderful day. No one has ever gone to this much trouble to make anything up to me."
She hugs me once more and I accidently fall backwards, taking her with me. I land on my back in the grass and she just rolls off of me. I wrap my arm around her neck, pulling her closer to me. She buries her face into my neck and then looks up, admiring the clouds. If only she knew how much it's hurting me, acting as though nothing's wrong........
"Liz Perrie's pregnant and I'm the father," I unexpectedly blurt.
I cover my mouth right after the words pour out of my mouth, immediately regretting what I just did. Shit......
"What?!?" She gasps, sitting up, not believing me.
Oh god what have I just done?!?
"Liz I......." I trail off when I see tears start to form in her eyes, "I can explain."
"You lied to me! So everyone knows but me?" She cries.
I blew it.........
"This whole time you've been hiding this. I thought you wanted to make it up to me-"
"I do!" I yell as I begin to try to hug her, begging for forgiveness.
"I don't believe you!" She gasps.
She gets to her feet, clearly disgusted to be near me. I quickly stand up after her. I wanted to tell her I just didn't wanna tell her this way...........But I didn't know how else to bring it up.
She storms off, too upset to even look at me. I chase after her and grab her hand, turning her around and revealing that she's basically crying like a river right now. I'm surprised she's this upset.
"How could you?!?" She screams as she continues crying, "I thought you were better than this!"
"I just.......I........We went out earlier and then we broke up and I just.........I couldn't help myself-"
"I hate you!!!" She yells.
Alright.......Now that hurt.......
She punches my arm and then I hold it, shocked by how hard she actually hit me. I begin to run after her again but then I realize that now I have to re-make up with her once more. How could I have been so stupid?!? That's the worst way to tell a girl something........
"Liz I'm sorry!" I yell.
What have I just done?!?