We arrived at the hotel in Los Angeles around 7pm. After parking the car and grabbing our bags, we made our way to the lobby.
"Hi, I've booked a room for the weekend." Niall said once we were inside by the disk.
The hotel was small and cosy, just the way I liked it. It felt more real and home that way.
"Name?" The man behind the disk asked, smiling at us.
"Niall Horan."
"A room for two until Sunday, is that correct?"
"That seems about right." Niall nodded.
"I just need you to sign a few papers, for security reasons. Your girlfriend can sit down in the couch over there. This will only take a few minutes."
"Actually, I'm not his gi-"
"Sure." Niall said, interrupting me. "I'll sign whatever."
I looked up at him, but didn't say anything. Instead I took my bag and walked over to the couch the man had pointed out. While Niall signed some papers I checked my phone. Alex had been texting me ever since I left, asking why Niall picked me up and stuff.
I sighed to myself and just decided to tell her the truth.
S: "Okay, I'm sorry I lied. Niall is taking me to LA for a concert, not my brother. It were supposed to be a secret"
A: "WHAT? Niall brought you to LA for your birthday? Man, he's crushing"
S: "And we'd like to keep it a secret too"
"Ready to go?"
I looked up from my phone. Niall was standing in front of me with his bag in his hand, and waved with a key in the air.
A couple of minutes later we stepped into the room.
"I guess sharing a bed won't be a problem." Niall grinned, pointing at the double bed and placed his car keys and cell phone on the little table by the wall.
"I'm sleeping on the right side." I told him and dropped my bag on the floor. "So, what are the plans for tonight? We have a couple of hours left to kill before I'll be tired enough to go to sleep."
"Look in the drawer on the bedside table. There should be a card with the password for the Wi-Fi."
I obeyed and showed him the little card I found. Both of us connected our phones to the hotel's Internet and then Niall laid down on his back on the bed.
"Okay, let's look up some restaurants in the area."
I laid down on my stomach, crawling over to him to look at his phone screen as well.
"There's a pizzeria at the corner of this street. Maybe we can grab something to eat and then go for a walk? A girl like you probably wants to see the big city." He smirked at me.
"Ah, how you know me." I smirked back. "And, that pizzeria sounds great."
So, thirty minutes later we got escorted to a table in the pizzeria. The waiter gave us two menus and said he'd be back in a few to take our order.
"Do you think I can order a beer here without them asking for my age?"
"Well, you do look kind of old." I teased, causing him to kick my shin under the table. "But I was actually hoping we'd stay sober tonight."
"Why?" He groaned.
I shrugged. "It's easier to talk to you when you haven't been drinking."
"And it's easier for me to talk to you when I have."
I rolled my eyes and skimmed through the menu again.
The waiter greeted us once again and Niall asked for a beer. The waiter didn't even bother to ask for an ID and just turned his attention to me.
"Um, coke." I said.
"And what would you like to eat?"
"I'll have the pineapple pizza, please." I said, folding my menu.
"Really?" Niall seemed surprised. "Pepperoni pizza for me." He added, looking up at the waiter.
"Thank you." The waiter smiled and took our menus before walking off.
"Can I ask you something?"
"You just did." I grinned, earning myself another kick in the skin.
"Why did it bother you so much that I was texting Danielle?"
I shrugged.
"It bothers you whenever I'm with Jesse, doesn't it?"
"You know how much it bothers me." He nodded.
"Do you remember calling me last weekend?" I asked, and he frowned.
"I called you?"
"Well, yeah, you were pretty drunk. And you started telling me you sleep better with me around and stuff."
"That might be true." He smirked.
"And you kind of asked me if I'd be jealous if you slept with someone else that night."
He tilted his head a little, still smirking at me.
"And what did you say?"
I looked away and he chuckled.
"See, I'm not the only one feeling jealous. And in my defence, you have no reason to be."
"And you have?" I asked.
"Um, yeah? You clearly like Jesse and I'm just your rebound. And all those girls I sleep with... doesn't mean anything to me."
"I like Jesse, that's true." I said, slowly nodding as I saw the waiter approach with our drinks. "But just in case you didn't know, I like you more."
"Time for a serious question." I asked when we had left the pizzeria and were walking down the street. "Have you ever had a girlfriend, like, have you been in a serious relationship before?"
"Yeah, twice actually." Niall said. "A third one too, if kindergarten counts."
"Tell me about them."
"The first one, Becky. We dated for a few months in sophomore year in high school. I wasn't in love with her or anything and we were completely different persons. The second girlfriend I've had was called Megan. She was a junior in college when I was a senior in high school. We dated for a while, and she was friends with the guys the frat. That's how I got in contact with them in the first place. Then one night I walked in on her sucking off a guy."
"Wait, she cheated on you?"
"Were you expecting the opposite?" He chuckled.
"Do you really want me to answer that?"
"Fair enough. Well, I confronted her and she laughed in my face, saying that I was too young for her anyway and that she didn't see us becoming anything serious. That's when I realised that you should never be in a relationship, because someone will always find a way to fuck it up. And someone will always end up getting hurt."
"So this Megan girl broke your heart?"
"I was only eighteen back then and didn't knew better. So yeah, I was the one getting hurt and it sucked. I decided to turn off the emotions and only keep it casual when it came to girls. That way I wouldn't get hurt again."
I don't think Maya knows about this
"What about you?" He asked. "Any old boyfriends that did some stupid shit you'd like to tell me about, just so I don't make the same mistake as them?"
"They didn't do anything actually. We just didn't click."
"But you're such a drama queen! There must have been some dramatic break up with a huge fight or something?"
"Not really." I laughed. "I'm not that much of a drama queen."
He gave me a sceptical look and I smacked him on the arm.
"Okay, I need more booze."
"And how do you plan on getting any?" I asked.
"First I'll just go in to a store and see what they say. And if that doesn't work out, I'll just ask someone on the street to buy it for me." He shrugged, like it was thing he usually do.
Ten minutes later, he came out from a store with a six-pack of beer, and a proud grin on his lips.
"They didn't even hesitate to let me buy it."
I shook my head, laughing a little. Then he held out his arm, offering me to hold it.
"Where to, Miss?" He asked once I wrapped my arm around his elbow.
That's a quote from Titanic
"To the stars." I quoted back.
Niall nodded and started walking down the street. We found our way to a park and went up to a grass hill, with an incredible view over Los Angeles. It was dark outside, but the city was bright and beautiful.
"I hope this will do." He said and looked up.
I looked up too, only to see the dark sky be filled with stars.
We sat down on the ground and he offered me a bottle of beer, which I accepted. He opened them with the help of his key chain and wanted to make a toast.
"To... us."
I smiled when he said that, and brought our bottles together.
"I have a question." He said after taking the first sip. "Have you talked to Harry recently?"
"Not really. He kind of ignores me."
"But have you, like, talked to him about... someone special?"
"And by someone special, you mean Louis?" I asked with a chuckle.
"Well, yeah. Louis came to talk to me the other day, telling me that he thinks you know about them. And it freaks him out."
"Why?" I frowned.
"Okay, you didn't hear this from me, but he also told me that he might be bisexual. He has never considered himself that until he met your curly friend."
"Harry hasn't really talked about his sexuality, only that he has a small crush on Louis."
"So they both like each other." Niall stated, taking another sip from his beer before continuing. "I mean Louis and I fooled around like two years ago, before I moved in. It was totally meaningless and it made me realise that I'm made for girls."
I ignored his grin.
"We were just exploring, you know? So I don't blame Harry for wanting the same thing. But obviously this isn't as meaningless as it was for Louis and me. This might actually be going somewhere."
"And you're okay with that? That your roommate might be into guys."
He gave me a look.
"Of course. This doesn't change anything. Louis is still the same idiot I knew years ago. The only thing that might change is the fact that he won't bring girls into our room anymore."
"Wait, didn't you say he was only bisexual? He can still take home girls."
"True." He said, looking out on the city. "But they write fucking love songs together. One is about being in a secret and casual relationship or some shit."
"Have you ever written a love song?"
"No." He shook his head. "It's hard to write one when I've never been in love."
I slowly nodded.
"How do you even know when you're in love?" I asked, taking a sip from my bottle.
He turned to look at me.
"You've never been in love either?"
I shook my head.
"Well, I've heard about it. Something about wanting to be with that person 24/7, getting butterflies, be annoyingly happy, thinking and dreaming about them often and never getting tired of kissing them."
"That's love?" I snorted. "I think I can go an entire lifetime without it in that case."
"I thought girls wanted their own Prince Charming."
"Some girls want that."
"And what do you want?" He asked.
I glanced at him.
"I don't know. I'll tell you that once I found someone I never get tired of kissing."
He smiled a little, and changed subject to tomorrow's concert instead.
About an hour later I were lying on the ground with my head in his lap. He kept sharing embarrassing stories with me, and I found myself laughing a bit too hard. With alcohol in my system, his normal boring stories were hilarious.
I placed my hand over my mouth to stop another laugh from coming out.
"Stop doing that."
"What?" I frowned, looking up at him.
"Stop hiding your laugh. I happen to like it."
"You like my laugh?"
He nodded, bringing his third – or fourth – bottle of beer to his lips.
"It's cute." He then said.
I just looked at him for a few seconds before crawling up on my feet.
"What are you doing?" He asked and looked up at me.
"We should probably get back to the hotel. I'm starting to get tired."
"But I haven't finished my beers yet."
I sighed.
"You have one bottle left. You can drink it in our room."
"Fine." He gave in and stood up from the ground too. "Fuck, my ass is completely numb."
I was about to cover my laugh again, which he noticed and glared at me.
"I thought I told you to stop that."
"And last time I checked you weren't in charge over me." I fought back.
He rolled his eyes annoyed and picked up the empty bottles to throw them away. I stayed and watched the city for a while. Then I felt two hands gripping onto my hips from behind, yanking me backwards and the next thing I knew, Niall had me pinned up against a tree.
"You better do as I say this weekend if you want to go see that precious band of yours tomorrow."
"A little too late to back out now, don't you think?" I teased him.
"I could just drive us back to campus. No one is stopping me."
Then he leaned in and kissed me quickly, but lingered upon my lips.
"You're beautiful." He whispered, making my heart skip a beat.
"And you're drunk." I told him.
"Yes I'm drunk, and you're beautiful. Tomorrow morning I'll be sober, and you'll still be beautiful."