*important authors note at the end, make sure to read*
Drop comments and votes as you read! And I didn't get many votes on the last chapter, so if you haven't voted for chapter 24 yet, I would appreciate it if you'd go back and vote!
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"Nialler! Lia Though is in dire need of some fun!" Louis shouts, through the door of Niall's apartment instead of knocking.
To the left of the entrance, Niall sits at the counter of his kitchen, eating from a pile of more than six pancakes. Through a mouthful of pancake, Niall goes, "Yuh coulduh knaw'd!"
"What?" Louis says back, leading me to the kitchen before grabbing a pancake from the plate by the stove and shoving the whole thing into his mouth.
Niall swallows and takes a sip of his orange juice. "I said you could have knocked."
"Knocking is for whores," Louis states seriously after he swallows the pancake that was in his mouth.
"Exactly," Niall says with a laugh. Honestly, I can't tell if he's joking or if he's being serious.
"When are Holly and Lake going to show up?" I ask, speaking up for the first time. They'd separated from us when we left the dorms, claiming they had some business to attend to and that they'd meet up with us later.
Louis shrugs. "They'll show up when they show up."
"Wow," I deadpan, giving him a glare. "That was so helpful."
Louis raises his eyebrows and gestures to me while giving Niall a look. "See? You need to lighten up the mood of this sad human being. She's really casting a shadow on my happiness."
Louis' ringtone cuts off whatever Niall had opened his mouth to respond with and Louis holds out a finger for him to wait. Louis presses some buttons on his phone then holds it up to his ear.
"Yello." Silence. "Uh-huh.... Yeah... Magnificent." Louis hangs up on the call and sighs, giving me and Niall a grin.
"What—" I can't even get out a word before he runs past and out of the apartment slamming the door behind him.
I look towards Niall in confusion and he just shrugs before taking another huge bite of pancakes.
Not a second later does my phone ding with a text.
From: Louis
Don't worry, be happy!
P.S. You're stranded there for a few hours. I took the car. You might as well suck it up and let the Irish fellow cheer you up.
P.P.S. Holly said she'd stop by later to pick you up to get ready for Anne's wedding.
I scowl at my phone and send a short text back.
To: Louis
I despise you.
My phone immediately dings back, surprising me. Man, Louis is a fast texter.
From: Louis
You spelled love wrong ;)
Rolling my eyes, I lock my phone with a click and set it on the counter. After a few moments of silence, my gaze shifts over to Niall who's shoveling the last bite of pancakes into his mouth.
He stares right back while chomping the almost non-human sized bite, no shame on his face. Man, this guy loves his food.
"Soo..." I trail, feeling a bit awkward while standing in his kitchen and watching him eat. I haven't talked to the guy much, but I know he's probably a really cool guy from what I saw after church a few weeks ago at the little get together Holly's parents had.
Niall swallows his last bite and hops down from the stool with grace. "I've got to take a quick shower. Feel free to explore my apartment while you wait. I shouldn't take long."
I nod, finding it surprisingly easy to follow his Irish accent. Holly must be jealous of the accents the rest of her family has. I know I am.
Remembering Niall's statement, I nod, but it's a little late for that, seeing as he's already walking away.
I start my self-tour by glancing around his kitchen. Surprisingly, it's mostly clean other than the plate and cup he left on the counter. I grab them and give them a quick wash before searching the cabinets and drawers for the correct place to return them.
After the kitchen, I go straight for the living room area where I see a comfy looking tan couch and a dark coffee table placed in front of it. A generous size TV hangs along the opposite wall and below it is a fireplace. On the mantel is a few photos framed and placed strategically. I walk over and inspect each.
The first is of Niall, his parents, and some other guy who I assume is his brother, all smiling happily at the camera in front of... I can't make out the background. The second is of Niall, Louis and Holly when they were younger all playing in the mud. I smile at the cuteness of it and move onto the next one. The third one stumps me. It's not unusual in its entirety, as it is a picture of everyone at one of Holly's parents' get togethers that they have on Sundays. But there, smack dab in the middle is Harry as a pre-teen, smiling widely with an arm around his mom's waist and his other around a girl who looks to be a few years older than him. He looks so happy that I stare at that photo longer than any other.
Finally, I rip my eyes away, confusion and curiosity taking the front thoughts in my mind and leave the living room, heading towards the hallway. There's only three doors and the first is a bathroom, the second is a guest room, so I assume the last is Niall's room.
Knowing I shouldn't snoop through the most personal part of his apartment, I turn to go back down the hallway, but a sound stops me.
I freeze in my tracks and hold my breath. I hear the sound again and it sounds a lot like singing. Turning, I narrow my eyes in the direction of his room and bite my lip. Obviously, I knew going into his room was wrong and maybe a bit creepy and stalkerish, but that singing...
Ignoring all of my thoughts that were morally sound and that told me to stop and turn back, I walk straight into his room, the sound getting louder as I went.
The sound is coming from his bathroom which is hooked onto his room. Slowly, I creep towards the door until I'm right up to it, then lean my ear against it.
Niall's singing drifts through the door as he sings some Bruno Mars song I don't know the name of. My mouth drops open in shock as I listen. How is it possible that Louis, Harry, and Niall all have amazing voices, yet they're all different?
Maybe I can understand Louis and Niall seeing as they're related, but Harry too? All I need is for Lake, Ben, or Liam to be amazing singers as well!
I'm too lost in my thoughts and in Niall's hypnotic, melodic singing that I don't notice the shower turn off until it's almost too late.
When the doorknob jiggles, I almost let out a startled cry. As quickly as I can, I rush towards the hallway, but only make it to Niall's bed before the door swings open.
"Liana?" Niall asks, from behind me.
I grit my teeth together, cursing myself for not listening to the thoughts that warned me about coming in here and turn around slowly.
But I my eyes snag on the sight of Niall in only a towel. My eyes widen and I fight the blush I know is trying to force its way onto my face.
"What are you doing in here?" Niall asks, almost nervously. Good to know he's almost as comfortable standing in front of me in only a towel as I am looking at him.
Not like it's a bad sight... let's just say that for the amount of food he eats, he's surprisingly fit.
Feigning innocence, I manage to answer Niall's question with a small smile. "Sorry. I-I was done with looking around a-and I heard your singing."
Smooth, Liana. I think the stutters really pulled it off.
Niall nods slowly, a blush coming to his own cheeks. "Oh. You heard that? That's embarrassing."
"Why?" I ask, incredulously. "You're amazing."
Niall shrugs, his cheeks still pink. "I'm in music production. I help the singers make a track for their song. I'm not a singer myself."
"But you could be," I insist. "Music production can be the start that sticks your foot in the door. Once you get successful, all you have to do is sing and-- BAM! You'll have a record deal."
Niall's lips twitch into a smile. "I don't necessarily think that's how it works."
I shrug. "Okay I may be a little uninformed on the music industry, but I know for sure you can get places with that voice of yours."
Niall shrugs again, looking a little uncomfortable talking about his singing. Or maybe it's the fact that he's still standing in front of me in only a towel, I suddenly realize.
"Oh! Sorry, you're--I'll just let you get dressed." I stammer and quickly exit the room.
I take a seat on the couch in his living room, my cheeks burning as I wait for him.
I just had a whole conversation with a guy wearing only a towel.
It's not long before Niall comes in, wearing a pair of dark grey sweats and a plain white t-shirt. He smiles with a bit more confidence now that he's covered and plops down on the couch beside me.
"So, why the bad mood?" He asks.
"Well, you remember Harry? From the get together at Holly's?" Niall nods. "Well I've been stuck rooming with him. So I guess you could say he's the source of all my bad moods recently."
I purposely avoided telling Niall the whole story about the dare and how I woke up beside Harry. It's not like I don't trust him, I just don't think I know him well enough to tell him that personal of a story.
"Oh! Speaking of Harry, his mom is getting married today. Holly, Lake, and Louis were invited. Were you invited as well?"
Niall nods. "Yeah, I'm going. Anne is very good friends with the Tomlinson family, so of course Holly and Louis were invited. And I'm related to them, so the invitation was just extended."
"Anne's not very good friends with the Horan family?"
"Well, we've lived in Ireland, so we couldn't attend the get togethers often. We made a few here and there."
"So this last time was just lucky that you were here and I met you guys?"
"No, I was moving from Ireland into this apartment a few weeks ago, so my parents came down to help. On Sunday we just decided to attend the get together for old times' sake."
"Oh. I think I'm starting to understand your confusing family little by little. But you guys come from so many different places. The U.K., Ireland, and North Dakota."
Niall laughs and it's a magical sound. "Yeah I guess it's kind of hard to grasp if you're new to us."
"Kind of?"
Niall snorts. "Okay, it's really hard to grasp."
"Much better."
Niall grins at me, then looks away, towards the TV. His grin widens even more and he turns to me. "Wanna play some Mario Kart?"
"Hell yes."
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*THE AUTHOR'S NOTE BELOW IS IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!*
A/N: I just remembered that way back, in one of the author's notes, I mentioned an "Ask the author/character" segment in which you all would comment questions to ask me or either a character in the story as many questions as you want and I would answer them for fun in an update. I was asked to do this by a lovely reader a while back. Would you be up for it? Details on the "Ask the Author/Character" Segment-- The next update will be the form. You will comment your all questions there (there are no limits to the questions) and after a while, I will answer all of them in a following update. This is your chance to find out more about characters and me (but no story spoilers) and it's supposed to be really fun for the both of us so the more people who participate, the better!
Anyway, this took me a while to write because I had camp, vacation, and I ran out of pre-planned chapters so I had to plan out the rest-- AND LEMME TELL YOU, planning out chapters is hard work! But you won't be disappointed! A ton of drama and progress is coming with Harry and Liana!
PS sorry for typos, I typed this on my phone. Feel free to point them out so I can fix them.
QOTC: Is Niall cute or what? ;)
And for the closing of my really long (sorry) author's note, please don't be afraid to vote, comment, share, and add to your reading list! Thanks for reading!
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