Here is the second chapter! I really hope that you liked the last one, and this one. All feedback is welcome and would be greatly appreciated.
5 votes for the next chapter.
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My dark brown hair covered my face in knots when I woke up the next morning still dressed in the same clothes from the night before. I lifted my hand to shield my blue eyes from the strip of light shining in my bedroom window. Slowly, I dragged myself out of bed and attempted to pull my hairbrush through my hair. When I was satisfied that all of the knots were gone I changed into a pair of black leggings and a white t-shirt before making my way to the kitchen to get some breakfast.
“And finally she has risen!” Sam announced when I stepped into the kitchen.
“I take it the party was good. I went to check on you this morning and you were wearing a guy’s hoodie,” Josh laughed.
“It wasn’t like that,” I groaned, “I hit my head and passed out so this guy was nice enough to lend me his jumper to wear home because it was cold.” I left out the part about it being Niall Horan.
“Are you okay?” Alice jumped up from the couch over to me to make sure I was okay, her blonde ponytail flicking Sam in the face as she did so.
“Yeah I’m fine now,” I said as Alice moved my head around to examine it.
“Did anyone happen to leave me something for breakfast?” I questioned, turning my attention to the boys.
“There are a few pancakes on a plate for you in the fridge,” Josh replied, pouring me a cup of coffee and passing it to me.
“Thanks,” I took a sip and opened the fridge to reveal three pancakes on a plate, “Good, I’m starving!”
“What’s the plan for today?” Josh asked sitting down with me at the table.
“Not sure. What are you guys up to?” I turned to Alice and Sam who were cuddling on the couch.
“I was thinking of just having a lazy day in,” Sam replied, “Maybe watch a few movies.”
“Sounds good,” Josh said as he made his way over to the TV cabinet to pick out some movies.
“I think I might go to the gym and for a run,” I decided and began stuffing my face with pancakes.
Josh, Alice and Sam picked out two movies to watch while I went to go and brush my teeth and get ready to go to the gym. I had decided that what I was wearing was suitable so I put on some socks and my sneakers and pulled my long hair up into a ponytail. Standing looking in my mirror, I noticed Niall’s green jumper hanging over the end of my bed and without even thinking I went and put it on and did the zip halfway up. It was a bit big on me so I had to fold up the sleeves to use be able to use my hands. I grabbed my ATM card and bus ticket and shoved them in my pocket before plugging my headphones into my phone and started playing my exercise playlist.
“I’ll be home in a couple of hours,” I waved to my roommates on my way out the front door.
The sky was cloudy and the air was slightly chilly when I stepped outside but there was no wind; perfect weather for a run. I turned my music up louder to block out the sounds of light traffic passing me as I jogged along the footpath. After half an hour I found myself on the other side of town. Conveniently, it was the side of town that Niall lived on. I pulled his jacket that I was wearing around me tighter as a quick cold breeze passed by. It had that ‘man smell’ that clothes have when guys wear them a lot, and I realised that I wasn’t ready to give it back just yet. Taking in the empty street, I decided to take a detour and run by his house, just to see what it looked like during the day.
When I got to his street, I slowed down to a walk and pulled one headphone of my ear to take in the silence around me. He probably bought this house because it was on such a quiet street, no disturbances. It didn’t even look like any fans knew that he lived here, I definitely didn’t before the party. As I walked past his house, I tried to unsubtly walked slower and take it in. Through one of the front windows I could see some streamers taped to the ceiling and on the side fence someone had put red plastic cups upside down on the prongs sticking up at the top. Obviously Niall, or his cleaning service or whoever it was that cleaned his house had not gotten around to cleaning up from the party. After a minute of taking in the house I realised that I was stood right at the front gate and that if anyone saw me it would look pretty suspicious so I decided just to continue on my way.
I put my headphones back in and start jogging away from the house. I had gone about 20 metres when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I gasped, ripped out my headphones, and turned around ready to hit anyone that was going to attack me. When I faced the person that tapped me I sighed with relief, realising that it was Niall dressed in a pair of jeans and a grey t-shirt with a dark pair of glasses covering his eyes, presumably to hide his identity.
I put my hand over my heart trying to get my breath back after the fright, “You scared me! I thought you were some stranger that was going to attack me and drag me back to your house.”
“Well if that’s what you’re into, my house it just over there,” he laughed at my reaction and took off his glasses, “I was just getting home and I thought it was you but obviously you couldn’t hear me calling your name.”
“Sorry, I have it up loud when I run to get in the zone and tune everything else out,” I replied when I could finally breathe properly.
“Well my running after you gets my exercise for the day over and done with,” Niall said before taking in my appearance, “I see you’ve taken a liking to my jacket.”
I blushed, “It was a bit cold when I left. Don’t worry I’ll wash it before I give it back to you.”
“Oh good, so that confirms that I am going to see you again after this,” he asked, smiling.
“Yeah, unless you want it back now of course,” I began unzipping it.
“No it is cold, leave it on,” he stopped me, “Do you want to come in and have a drink?”
I looked up into his eyes and smiled before remembering that management had told me that I had to make sure that our relationship progressed publicly and my smile faltered a bit.
“Are you going to say no?” he sighed disappointedly.
“No, it’s just that I’ve just been running and I’m all sweaty and disgusting and I noticed that your house was still messy from the party. Do you want to go and grab a coffee in town? We can stop by my house so I can get changed.”
That bright smile reappeared on his face and he nodded, “Sounds great. Lead the way.”
He put his sunglasses back on and I wrapped my headphones around my phone and put it in my pocket. We continued on the path that I intended to take home, just walking slowly and talking. He asked me about what I was studying at university and what I wanted to do afterwards and I explained that I was doing a maths course and taking French because I had started learning it at school and wanted to know the language, and that after I had finished at university I wanted to travel and work somewhere that I could make a lot of money to support myself. At first he was shocked that I was taking such a hard course because he hadn’t known any girls at school who had chosen that pathway. When we were done talking about me he said that it was my turn to interrogate him, and so I did.
“Best thing about being in a band?”
“The boys are like my brothers so I’ve always got someone there to talk to.”
“What’s the weirdest thing that a fan has said to you?”
“I’ve gotten a few marriage proposals.”
“Worst thing about being famous?”
“You don’t know if people want to know you because you’re famous or they actually like you and genuinely want to get to know you.”
The questions continued on like this until we reached my house. Compared to Niall’s house, mine probably looked like a peasant’s home.
“It’s obviously not as grand as your palace, but there are four of us living here who split rent and it is affordable,” I explained.
“Are your roommates home?” Niall asked with a slightly worried look on his face.
“Yeah they are having a movie day in the lounge,” I replied, “Do you want me to sneak you in?”
He nodded, “If that’s okay, yeah.”
“We’ll go around the back then,” I said, leading him down the pathway to the side gate. I opened the gate and let him in before shutting it behind us.
Slipping my shoes off, I tried to quietly open the back door but failed when it made a loud squeak.
“Well that failed,” I gave up on subtlety and just pushed the door open so that we could both enter.
I picked up my shoes and led Niall into the house and to my bedroom.
“Just wait here a second,” I whispered, making sure that Josh, Alice and Sam could not hear me.
Closing the door behind me, I went into the lounge to greet my roommates. They were in exactly the same place as they were when I left them.
“I’m back. Movies still going?” I asked.
“Hey Vi, why did you come in the back?” Josh asked.
“My shoes were dirty and I didn’t want to walk it through the house,” I lied. They seemed to accept my answer so I continued, “I’m just letting you know that I’m going out again and I’m not sure when I’ll be home.”
Alice nodded to acknowledge that she heard me but kept her gaze fixed on the TV while Sam didn’t make any motion that he heard me.
Noticing that they were too preoccupied with their movie, I left them to return to Niall. When I got back to my room he was sitting on my bed flicking through the pages of a girly magazine that I must have left lying on the floor.
I shot an odd look at him before speaking, “I’m going to have a quick shower so just stay here.”
Rummaging in my draws I found a pair of clean black leggings and a grey vee-neck t-shirt which I knew belonged to Alice but decided to wear it anyway. I pulled the clothes out and grabbed my hairbrush from the dresser and slipped out of the room to go and shower.
The water was refreshing but I knew that I couldn’t leave Niall waiting in my room for long so I quickly lathered my body in shower gel and washed my hair. The air was freezing on my wet skin when I jumped out of the shower so I quickly used a towel to dry myself off so that I could get dressed. After trying to dry my hair a little bit I started pulled the brush through my hair to get rid of the knots. When I was satisfied that my hair was knot-free, I wrapped it up in the towel to stop it from dripping on my shirt.
Niall was still on bed when I got back to my room but had moved from sitting to lying down, still browsing through the pages of the magazine.
“I’m almost ready,” I said, throwing my dirty clothes into a pile in corner but keep Niall’s jacket in my hand because it still contained my phone, card and bus ticket.
Pulling the towel off of my head, I started drying it again and then brushed so that I would dry straight. I then grabbed a bottle of moisturiser from my dresser and applied to my face.
“Is it okay if I wear your jacket again?” I asked while sliding on the pair of black flats with the bows that I wore to the party.
“Yeah, you already seem to be attached to it,” Niall said, closing the magazine and putting it back where he found it.
“It’s warm and it’s comfy and I like it,” I justified as I pulled it on, folded the sleeves up and left it unzipped, “Let’s go.”
Checking that the hallway was clear first, I yelled out a quick goodbye to my roommates before sneaking back out the back door with Niall in tow.
“So where’s this coffee shop that we’re going to?” Niall asked when we got to the footpath out the front.
“It’s only a five minute walk but it shouldn’t be very busy so no one will recognise you,” I explained. Although it was true, I really hoped that there would be some teenage girls there with phones to take photos and make people think that Niall and I were on a date. I smiled at the thought.
The two of us walked in silence for a bit, both obviously not knowing what to say as we had only known each other for a day.
“How long are you on break for?” I broke the silence.
“A couple of weeks, and then the tour will start again,” Niall replied.
“Where is it next?” I asked, hoping that it wouldn’t be too far away. I would be hard to maintain a relationship in the public eye if we were thousands of kilometres away from each other while he was on tour.
“Australia,” he replied casually, “Our support act, 5 Seconds of Summer is from there.”
“I was at the show a couple of day ago, they were awesome. What you and the rest of One Direction have done for then, bringing them on tour and all, has really kick-started their career.”
“They’re great lads to have on tour with us,” Niall said.
“We’re here,” I smiled when the coffee shop came into view a few metres in front of us.
“Looks pretty quiet,” he stated happily.
I nodded in agreement, a bit disappointed at that fact.
Niall took a seat at a table with two seats near the back so that we were a bit further away from the other customers while I ordered out drinks.
“I hope your date goes well, he’s cute,” the 16 year-old girl serving me smiled, obviously not realising who my ‘date’ was.
“Thanks,” I replied, not bothering to correct her on the fact that we weren’t on a date. I took the two coffees over to the table and sat down opposite Niall.
“That girl thinks we’re here on a date,” I laughed and Niall smirked.
“Did you set her straight?” he asked curiously.
“Of course,” I lied.
We sat and talked in the coffee shop for a nearly an hour before Niall checked the time on his phone and said that he had to go soon because he and the other boys had a meeting. The two of us finished our coffees and put the paper cups in the bin on our way out. We walked home side-by-side taking the same route we had used to get to the coffee shop.
“I know this is kind of random and you can say no, but can I have your number?” I asked when we stopped outside my house, “Just so I can call you instead of going all the way to your house and standing outside like a stalker if I decide to return you jacket.”
I used the jacket as an excuse when really I was just trying to make more progress with Step 2: Get to Know Him.
“Or I could give you my number so that we could hang out?” Niall suggested laughing.
“So you did actually enjoy our walk and coffee not-date?” I smirked.
He nodded, “I did.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and extended a hand out to me waiting for me to give him mine. I reached into the jacket pocket and we switched phones so we could put our numbers into each other’s. Niall took a picture of himself of my phone to save with his number so copied him and did the same.
“I’ll see you later then?” I said hopefully, making it sound like a question as we switched our phones back.
“Yeah, definitely,” he replied.
“Have fun at your meeting,” I smiled and then laughed when he made a disgruntled face to show that he probably wouldn’t enjoy it.
We said goodbye and he surprised me by hugging me before he left and continued on his way home.
Step 2 was definitely getting there. When we started talking about the tour and he told me that he would be going to Australia in a few weeks, I realised that I had a deadline. Management said that I had to become his girlfriend all in the public eye, but how was I supposed to do that when I was home and he was in Australia? I had to become good enough friends with him, and maybe also the rest of One Direction, so that he would invite me on the tour with them. Yes! That was perfect. Niall already said that he wanted to hang out again so all I had to do was get closer to him, get him to introduce me to his friends and then befriend them as well. I just had to hope that he called me first or I would seem desperate and that would be a definite turn-off.
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