"Niall! Thank god! We've been looking for you everywhere!" Zayn exclaims. I sit up in bed and look at Zayn in confusion. Why is he in my bedroom? He gestures next to me. I look over and gasp. Niall is sitting up next to me. Did Niall spend the night? Oh dear. We must have fallen asleep while we were talking last night.
"Morning, love," Niall says tiredly. I just look at him, speechless. He yawns and it's probably the most adorable thing I have ever seen in my entire life. "What? Not going say anything back? Whatever."
"No! I'm just... I, uh... good morning," I say, hating myself for being so awkward.
"Anyways!" Zayn says loudly. "You need to get back to your room. You're gonna get a lecture from Paul, so be prepared."
"Bye, love. I'll see you in a little bit," Niall says, kissing my forehead and then leaving. I sit in my bed, shocked at myself.
"You look a little spooked. What did Niall do?" Oh. I forgot Zayn was still here.
"Oh, uh, he didn't do anything. I'm just thrown off by the fact that I just spent the night with him and I just met him four days ago. I've never slept in the same bed as a guy before," I admit. Zayn looks surprised.
"Are you serious?" he asks. I nod. "No offense, but you look like the kind of girl that's been around a bit." I sigh, not offended at all.
"I get that a lot, but I'm really not. I haven't even liked a guy, I mean besides Niall obviously, since I graduated. I've only even been out on like five dates since then, and it's been like two years."
"Wow. Well, I just want to make sure you know that Niall really likes you. He's never been in a serious relationship, so we've been worried about him," Zayn says carefully. I raise an eyebrow.
"What exactly are you saying?" I ask.
"I'm just saying, that if you guys do get serious, don't break his heart. He's never liked someone this much, and I don't think me and the guys would be able to watch if his heart got broken. He's too fragile. Just don't hurt him," Zayn says, walking away. I hear the door to the room close and I fall back onto my pillows, bewildered. I never really thought about the fact that Niall's never been in a real relationship. He's gone on a few dates with a few girls, but there's never been any real action. I mean, on New Year's 2014, he hugged a Victoria's Secret model at midnight. If you're only hugging a VS model, you've got some underlying issues.
"Did Niall seriously spend the night?" I look up and Lindsey is walking into my room. She sits down on my bed, looking at me expectantly. I sigh.
"I definitely did not plan it, but yes. We were talking, and we must have fallen asleep-"
"Okay don't even go there. I could hear you guys making out," she says. I blush.
"Okay, yeah, we did make out for a bit, but then we were just talking, I swear. You can even ask Niall when we see them later," I say desperately. I really don't want Lindsey thinking we did anything we didn't. Lindsey just rolls her eyes.
"So tell me. What was making out with the Niall Horan like?"
"It was amazing. He's an excellent kisser and knows how to sweet talk," I say. Lindsey swoons.
"I really wish I could just kiss Harry at least once," she says with a sigh. I see movement out of the corner of my eye and look up to see Harry standing in my doorway, holding a finger up to his lips, wanting me to stay quiet. That's actually kind of creepy. I didn't even hear the door open. He silently walks up behind Lindsey and clears his throat. Lindsey whips around and while she's looking at Harry in shock, he kisses her.
"I accidentally took your phone last night," he says, giving her her phone and walking out the door. Lindsey looks at me in shock.
"So. That just happened," I say. Lindsey looks like a deer in headlights. After a minute she literally passes out. I sigh and go get a glass of water to dump on her. I make sure it's ice cold and then dump it on her face.
"What the heck was that for?" she yells, jumping up. I snicker.
"Harry kissed you and you passed out. I had to get you up somehow." Lindsey just glares at me and gets up to go change out of her now wet pajamas. I laugh and go to grab my phone from the nightstand. It's not there. Oh right. I slept in my clothes and my phone was in my pocket. I sigh and start digging through the sheets to find my phone. It doesn't take me long to find it, and when I do I see that I have a text from Niall. Last night was fun ;) we should do it again sometime :)
"Don't you dare call him," I hear Lindsey say. I look up and she's standing in my doorway. "I'm watching you."
"You're insane," I tell her. She grins and prances away.
"I know I am!"
I get out of bed and decide to make myself look presentable. We're going sightseeing with everybody today, so it will probably involve lots of pictures. I put on white shorts that show off my tan legs and a light blue blazer. I put my hair up in a ponytail and curl it to make it look like I didn't just get up and do the easiest thing I could with my hair.
Half an hour later, we're on our way to the Empire State Building. Louis and Eleanor are riding with me, Niall, and Lindsey, and it's kind of awkward for the first few minutes. None of us know what to talk about, so we just sit and try not to make eye contact with anyone. Louis is kind of grumpy because he's a little hungover, but after a while, he brings up last night.
"So I don't remember much of last night, but you guys made out, right?" he asks me and Niall. Lindsey snickers and I just nod. "You guys should be thankful I initiated that. I don't know if it would have happened if it weren't for me."
"Thank you, Louis," Niall and I say sarcastically in unison.
"Jinx!" I yell. I count to ten before Niall can say stop. "HA! You can't talk until I say your name!"
"I thought when you jinxed someone they just owed you a soda," Eleanor says.
"Would you rather just owe me a soda?" I ask Niall. He nods. "Okay I guess you can talk, Niall."
The rest of the afternoon is a blast. When we get to the top of the Empire State Building we all take pictures and are all tourist-y. I guess none of these guys have really had time to go sightseeing while they've been here, so it's everyone's first time here except for me. I came to NYC when I was eight. When we visit the Statue of Liberty, the guys are amazed by how big it is.
"I always knew it was big, but I didn't think it was that big," Harry says. I almost say 'that's what she said' but I don't know if British people say that, so I just keep my mouth shut.
When we're back at the hotel after seeing a bunch of different places, the guys ask what we want to do for dinner. No one really knows what they want, so we decide to just order room service.
"Elissa, grab your shoes," Niall says. I look at him, confused. "I'm taking you out to dinner."
"Why?"
"I owe you a soda, don't I?"
"Well, yeah, I guess, but you don't owe me a whole dinner," I say, surprised he even remembered getting jinxed.
"Well I wanted to take you out to dinner anyway, so let's go," he says happily. I smile. He's so sweet. I put my shoes on and we say goodbye to everyone.
"No security?" I ask Niall as we walk out of the hotel, alone. There are a few paparazzi, but not a lot, and not any crazy ones. Niall shakes his head.
"Paul says he thinks we'll be fine."
We walk a couple blocks, paparazzi right behind us, until Niall stops in front of a cute little cafe.
"This is it," he says, smiling. He holds the door open for me and we go inside. It's the cutest little cafe I have ever seen in my entire life. Niall makes me sit down at a table while he goes and orders.
"I'll order something for you you'll like, don't worry," Niall says. I sigh. I'm really picky, so it's usually hard for people to get stuff. He comes back to the table a few minutes later with our food, and I squeal in joy when I see he got me French Dip and some Coke.
"I love this stuff!" I say excitedly.
"I told you I would get something you liked," Niall says, giving me an 'I told you so' look. I don't know how he knew Coke is my favorite soda, but he knew. Maybe he asked Lindsey. Oh well, I don't even care how he knows. We talk over our dinners and I'm surprised to find out that Niall is a fan of volleyball.
"It's because of the spandex, isn't it?" I ask teasingly.
"Well maybe a little bit, but not really. I think it's an intriguing sport. The amount of teamwork that goes into it is insane, and the power that goes into serves and hits is mindblowing. I would love to learn the sport, but I never have time to do anything like that.
"Well maybe I could teach you sometime," I say. Niall looks at me, confused. "I play. I played in high school and I was going to play in college, but then I dropped out, so that didn't work out for me. My high school coach said I had Olympic potential, so I was super excited, but I love singing more, so I decided to follow that path rather than volleyball."
"Wow. You know, I think I would like to see you in those little shorts," Niall says, smirking. I reach across the table and smack his arm. "Whoa, just kidding. Just kidding."
After dinner we decide to go for a walk in Central Park. After we walk around for a bit we sit on a hill and watch the sun set. It's beautiful. The pinks and oranges blend and make just about the prettiest sunset I've ever seen.
"It's beautiful," I say with a sigh.
"Yeah, it is," Niall says. I look over at him, and he's not even looking at the sunset. He's looking at me. Uh no, he is not pulling this one on me.
"You're not even looking at it," I point out.
"I was talking about the sunset. You're a much more beautiful sight than the sun." I want to pass out. He really did pull that on me. I can't wait to tell Lindsey.
After the park we walk back to the hotel and talk more about Niall visiting me in LA. He wants to stay at mine and Lindsey's place, and I tell him it's probably fine as long as Lindsey is okay with it. He wants to take me to the beach and says if I want I could teach him how to play volleyball while we're there. I tell him I would love to.
We get back to the hotel and when we go into my room, no one is there. I go check in Lindsey's room, and I'm shocked to find her in her bed, making out with Harry. I clear my throat and Lindsey pushes Harry off of her and looks at me, her guilt obvious.
"Well it looks like I'll be going then," Harry says, getting up. Niall blocks the doorway.
"No. You're staying. What was that?" I ask, incredulous.
"Well after this morning, uh, we-"
"Harry put his number in my phone so I texted him and he wanted to kiss me again, so he stayed after everybody else left after dinner," Lindsey says, cutting Harry off. Harry nods in confirmation.
"Harry, can I talk to you for a minute?" I ask. He nods, looking guilty. Good. He should feel guilty. I take him out into the living room and lecture him.
"Listen up. I know 100% that you don't give a crap about how Lindsey feels about you. You were just looking for some girl to hook up with, and Lindsey, being obsessed, was an obvious choice because you knew she would do just about anything to be with you. I swear to god if you break her heart, or even mislead her the smallest bit again, you will wish you were never born. You're not going to use my best friend as a toy. Do you know how hurt she would be if she found out this was fake? You know what? Maybe I'll tell her myself. She deserves to know that the guy she is in love with was just playing with her. I think I will tell her. Have fun feeling guilty," I say sharply, heading back to Lindsey's room. Harry grabs my arm and spins me around.
"Please don't tell her. At least until after you guys leave. I wouldn't want to ruin the rest of the trip for her," he says. By now, he doesn't look guilty at all. He knows everything I said is true. I never thought that I would actually accuse Harry of being a womanizer, but here I am.
"I won't. But I would block her number as soon as we say our last goodbyes because she will blow up your phone with texts when she finds out. I would go back to your room if I were you," I say. Harry leaves and I go back into Lindsey's room.
"Where's Harry?" she asks immediately.
"He left. I told him we had some super secret girl stuff to talk about," I tell her. "Niall, I'll be done in a minute, if you want to wait outside or in my room." Niall leaves us alone and I turn to Lindsey.
"I'm really sorry I didn't tell you about Harry. I guess I was still kind of mad about you not telling me about Niall, but you had a valid excuse for waiting to tell me. I didn't," she says guiltily.
"Oh you're fine. It was just surprising, that's all. So tell me how making out with the Harry Styles was. Was it just amazing?" I ask, feeling bad for lying to her and making her excited about this when I'm just going to tell her about Harry in a couple days.
"He is so sexy. Oh my gosh it was just so amazing! At first he was all gentle like he was afraid of hurting me, but I wanted to see dark Harry, so I told him to stop being so nice. It was even more amazing after that. He got rough and it was just so... I don't know... electrifying!" I try not to gag. I do not need to hear about Lindsey making out with someone and it being "electrifying." She tells me all about "how much Harry likes her" for a couple more minutes, but when she yawns I tell her to go to bed. I tell her goodnight and go join Niall in my room.
"I swear if Lindsey hadn't been right there I would have ripped Harry's head off," I fume, sitting down on my bed next to Niall. "I mean, seriously! How does he think it's even the slightest bit okay to toy with girls like that? It's disrespectful! To think he had the nerve to fake out on my best friend just makes me so mad!"
"Elissa, it's just what he does. The media doesn't even come close to how much of a womanizer he actually is, to be honest. He brings a different girl back to the hotel at least once in almost every city we're ever in. How he manages to sneak them in, I don't know, but he does, and somehow the media doesn't know. I get that you're mad because it's your best friend he tried it on this time, but you can't change someone like that," Niall says, rubbing my back.
"I just hope that I at least put a tiny bit of sense in that tiny little brain of his."
"To be honest, no one has ever chewed him out like that. I wouldn't be surprised if he stopped for at least a little while. I'll talk to him about it and see how he's reacted to you. He's not used to being lectured by girls; they're always just yelling at him and telling him to fuck them."
"Let's hope," is all I have to say to that. Niall tries to talk me out of my anger, but even his sweet-talking just isn't working right now. After a few minutes he says goodnight and leaves me with a short kiss. When he's gone I let out a huge sigh. I hope that little anger spasm didn't scare Niall away. He has to understand that I'm just protecting my best friend. If a girl was playing Harry and he was totally in love with her, I'm sure Niall and the other guys would do the same thing.
What are friends for, right?
________________________
I promise I'm not trying to slam Harry, because I actually like Harry and don't think he's a womanizer. Just don't get all up in my face about it.