CHAPTER FOUR
For Niall and Diana's next date they have a picnic near a river that Niall found when going for a jog. He just so happened to have been jogging near her house in hopes of her seeing him and inviting him over or asking to hang out. No such thing happened, but he did find this lovely river quite close to her house with a bridge and trees covered in different coloured flowers.
Niall picked her up from her house and walked with her to the river, talking about anything they've missed out on each other's lives since their last date two weeks prior. They set up a blanket with the food and bottle of wine that Niall stole from his mum. Diana talked about her family and friends from the library and Niall smiled, listening to every word she said and memorising every detail of not only the words she spoke, but the definition in her face as well.
After they ate, they just laid on the blanket, looking at the sky and continuing to talk. Diana told Niall about how the first fight her second eldest brother got into he had hospitalised a guy in his grade by bashing him with a cricket back. ("He already had the cricket bat in hand when the guy ran up behind him and knocked him across the head.") It was marked off as self defense.
She told him about how when she was little, the first time she ever had to sign up for anything online they asked for her email address and she typed it in. And then the next question asked her to confirm her email address and she simply typed in yes that's my email address. Niall was in stitches from laughing at that, leaning against one arm and holding his stomach.
Diana spoke about how her eldest brother is getting married in a few months and how growing up she was always trying to get as close to both her brothers as possible, considering they were only one year apart from each while she was five years younger than the second eldest. "My mum said that they adored me when I was a toddler," she said, smiling to herself. "I adored them too. If they ever did something stupid that could get themselves injured I would cry and beg them to not do it. It's not just because they're my brothers; I just genuinely care about them, as if they were my friends."
It was somewhere through those few sentences that Niall realised how lonely she must be. Her brothers moved out two years prior and they must've been the only friends she had. He doesn't know what happened at her previous school but he figures that it must be quite similar to what is happening to her at this school for her to feel so lonely even before she came to this school.
It was then that Niall decided he was going to be the best friend Diana has ever had. Although he already had made the decision to make her feel wanted and as if she had a friend, he was going to make her feel so much more than that. He's going to love her and make her feel as if she has never been bullied before and that she is the only girl on this planet. He'll be her everything, and she'll be his. He's going to do it.
The pair took their time walking back to Diana's house, stopping just outside the white picket fence. Staring at each other, unsure what to do, Niall was about to ask her if he could kiss her, afraid that she wouldn't appreciate it if he just swooped down and did it without permission. It's stupid to worry about that, really, but he doesn't want to upset Diana.
He didn't get a chance, however, but he did get asked if he wanted to come inside. He asked about her parents and she said that they weren't home and even if they were she'd still ask him. He smiled and nodded.
And that's how he ended up standing in her living room at this moment.
She's getting him some water, even though he said he was fine. Niall's had two glasses of wine today, but it's still not enough to make him tipsy, while Diana had only had one because she claims that she is a ridiculous lightweight.
He's looking at some framed pictures of her family members sitting on a cabinet in the living room when she returns with his water. He smiles at her and takes the glass, sipping at the water while he observes the pictures.
There's on of her and her parents. Her mother is a bigger woman with golden brown hair and her father has a bit of a beer gut with grey hairs. Diana has lighter blonde hair than she does now, not nearly as long, without her eyebrows waxed or any makeup on. She must be about thirteen in this picture.
The other picture is of her and what Niall presumes to be her brothers. They both have ash brown hair with bright blue eyes. Diana has her longer hair in this, several shades of blonde twisting around each other in curls. Her eyes also happen to be blue, which is weird because Niall could've sworn that when they first met they were green.
"Your eyes are blue in this," he states.
"They change between blue and green," she says.
He stares at her, as if waiting for them to change to blue at this very second. "That's amazing."
"You probably will never get to see it happen. I don't think anyone has."
"How come you're the only blonde in the family?" he asks next.
"Both my parents and my brothers were all born with blonde hair, and so was I, but my mum used to dye her hair a lot when she was a teenager because she was a hair model so it never went back to blonde," she explains. "My dad's hair and brother's hair just happened to get darker as they grew up. I stayed blonde, although it was a lot fairer when I was a child."
"Why is it dark now?" Niall wants to know everything about her.
"I temporarily dyed it red twice and purple once so I think the red stained it and kept it darker. I don't mind it though. There's a lot of shades."
"And it's naturally curly?"
She shakes her head. "Straight. I still straighten over it quickly though because it gets a little frizzy."
He nods before they move to the couch to sit down. She takes his empty glass to the kitchen before returning to sit with him. They continue to talk there, this time Niall talking about his life - about his mum and dad and brother, Greg, and Louis, Harry, Liam, Zayn, and even Perrie and Eleanor. Diana sits and listens quietly, smiling and laughing at the appropriate times.
When it starts to get late Niall decides it's about time to leave because he has to walk back due to his mum working late. Diana walks him to the door, where he stops on the porch to turn and face her.
"Thank you for today, Niall," she says. "You've been lovely company."
"It's my pleasure," Niall says, grinning. "I've loved getting to know you, Diana."
"Same for you."
They stare at each other, eyes sparkling and lips pulled back in smiles, before Niall says, "Alright, I better go. I'll see you at school on Monday."
She nods. "You will."
"Alright, bye." He turns around and slowly starts walking off the porch. No noise has come from behind him so he guesses that she is still standing in the doorway. He suddenly decides that he doesn't want to leave without feeling her lips against his. In a quick moment of courage, he turns around, starts walking back to her, saying, "Fuck it," before grabbing her and placing his lips to hers.
It's amazing. It's soft yet at the same time not and she has her hands in his hair and his are on her waist and it's everything he's ever dreamt about. She's a little inexperienced, so Niall guides her lips with his, but it's amazing nonetheless and he can't get enough.
Niall always imagined that his first kiss with Diana would be slow and really soft and it would be only a few seconds long, which is just as good, but this isn't like that. It's a kiss that makes Diana seem like the complete opposite to the way she actually is and Niall loves it.
"You can definitely do that more often," Diana whispers when they pull back.
Niall chuckles. "I've wanted to do that since we first talked."
She bites her lip and glances at the ground before meeting his eyes again. "I want you to keep doing it."
"I plan on it." He pecks her nose before stepping back. "Time for me to go. Bye, Diana."
"Bye, Niall."
He can't keep the grin off his face
▲▼▲
Diana's being picked on again.
And of course Niall expects it, considering Tessa isn't the type of person to bully someone for ages and then just suddenly leave them alone. But it's not just Tessa this time. She's there, of course, calling names with the three other girls that hang out with her, only they have a guy named Brock involved now, and he is happy to call Diana names as well.
Diana has her head hung low, walking ahead of Niall, considering she hasn't seen him yet. He's subtly following her with Harry and Liam so that he can step in if the teasing gets too much. (And really, it was too much from he moment it started, but he's meaning if Brock decides to do something stupid. If Tessa were a dude he would have beat the shit out of her ages ago.)
The blonde leaves her head down as she approaches Tessa and Brock. Well, she's merely just planning on just brushing past them to get to class, because Niall knows there is no way Diana would confront four girls by herself, otherwise she would have done it a while ago.
Tessa isn't stopping at just the name calling this time though. She tugs Brock down by the shoulder and whispers something in his ear with a smirk. Niall watches on, with Liam and Harry talking behind him, oblivious to the situation.
As Diana passes the group, Brock puts his foot out at the last second, causing Diana to trip up and fall over, dropping her text book in the process. Brock and Tessa are laughing with the other three girls (Niall still hasn't figured out their names and is never going to).
"Hey!" Niall calls, rushing over. Harry and Liam look confused but follow him nonetheless.
When Niall gets to Diana, he crouches down to grab her elbow and waist. "Hey, hey," he says softly. "You're alright. Let's get you up, okay?" She nods and lets him pull her to her feet. He hands her textbook to her before spinning to face Brock, ears red hot and fists clenched at his sides. Harry and Liam have caught on to what is going on and are helping Diana get back, knowing exactly what's about to happen.
"Hey, Niall," Tessa says, smiling innocently at him. "We were just taking the trash out."
He ignores her, eyes only on Brock. "You should really watch where you put your feet," he warns.
Brock laughs. "You shouldn't tell me what to do." He takes a step towards Niall. Niall's been taught to only fight if the other touches you first, so he plans on making Brock angry enough to at least push Niall.
"Oh, I plan on telling you exactly what to do. You had no right to trip her up like that."
"It was what Tessa wanted."
"Do you always listen to Tessa?" Niall smirks.
Brock scoffs. "No."
"Oh really? Because I bet you do everything she says."
Diana is able to get away from Liam and Harry to stand beside Niall. "Niall, just leave it. Please. Don't worry about it. This isn't your fight."
Niall's eyes soften momentarily as he turns to face Diana. "No, Diana, he has no right to do that to you. Go back to Liam and Harry please." She looks at him for a few more seconds before doing as she's told.
"Yeah, you listen to him like the little bitch you are," Brock spits to her.
Niall glowers at him. "Last time I checked you just listened to Tessa's orders. I bet if Tessa wanted you to get on your hands and knees and wear a collar you would." Niall can tell Brock is getting angry. He steps forward, their nosees almost touching, before spitting, "Diana's not the little bitch. You are."
It all happens so fast. Brock pushes Niall and Niall's best retaliation is to grab him by the shirt and punch him in the face. Brock isn't much bigger than Niall and Niall has developed a lot of muscle in the past year, so he knows he can take him on.
Brock manages to punch Niall in the nose, which hurts, but the thought of Brock calling Diana a bitch is in his mind so he only fights back harder, kneeing him in the gut. Brock doubles over before Niall straightens him back up to push him against the lockers, throwing another punch to his face. Brock tries to fight back but Niall's injured him enough to weaken him, so he throws another punch. He gets one more in before Liam, Louis, Harry and Zayn, who must've come from somewhere in the crowd around them, all step in to get Niall back, knowing that when Niall is angry he can be murderous.
It takes at least half a minute to get Niall off of Brock, even with the four of his friends helping. Brock drops to the ground, coughing up with blood pouring from his nose.
"You touch her again and I'll do more than give you more than a broken nose," Niall threatens. "In fact, don't ever say another thing to her."
"Niall, stop," Harry says, arm across his chest to hold him back. "You're scaring Diana."
Niall turns to look at Diana, all anger washed from him face when he sees her, standing off to the side with wide eyes. He rushes over to her, relieved when she doesn't flinch when he touches her face or step away from him in freight.
"I'm sorry you had to see that," he says softly.
"It's alright," she says. "Thank you."
"I would kiss you but I have a bloody nose," he whispers.
She chuckles. "You didn't have to do that."
"Yes I did. No one touches my girlfriend."
"I'm your girlfriend?"
"Of course. I don't just go around kissing anyone, do I?"
She laughs, shrugging her shoulders. He smiles wide, even when the two boys are taken to the nurse to clean up. The principal confronts them there, demanding to know what happened, and Brock doesn't even deny his actions, most likely in fear of having his head smashed in by Niall.
They both get suspended for three days - Brock for starting the fight and Niall for the severity of Brock's injuries, although Niall could've done much more work to him. Their parents are called and Brock's parents pick him up while Niall's mum gives permission for Niall to leave and walk home by himself.
Niall leaves with a smile still on his face, not too bothered by his suspension because it doesn't go on record and it was worth giving Brock what he deserved.
It's lunch time by the time he gets out of the office to leave school, so he quickly goes to find Diana before he leaves. She's sitting where she usually sits, although she doesn't seem as vulnerable at the moment, and Niall likes to think it's because of him.
"Hey there," he says, sitting across from her.
She looks up from her sandwich, smiling. "Oh, hey you badass. What happened?"
"I got suspended, so I have to leave to walk home," he says. "But I wanted to come get you first."
"Come get me?" she asks, raising her eyebrows.
"I want to introduce you to some friends of mine." Niall stands and holds his hand out for her. She packs away her sandwich before standing and taking his hand, hesitant at first in most likely fear of meeting new people. He leads her over to his friends sitting under the tree. "Hey lads."
"Hey, there's Rocky Balboa," Louis comments, smiling up at this friend.
Niall laughs. "This is my girlfriend, Diana," Niall says, motioning to Diana, who waves nervously. "Diana, these are all my best friends. That's Louis, Eleanor, Liam, Zayn, Perrie and Harry. Eleanor is Louis' girlfriend and Perrie is Zayn's. They're great."
"Hi," Diana says, stepping closer to Niall.
The groups reply with some sort of greeting, smiling widely that shows how welcoming they are.
"I want you lads to take care of her please. I've been suspended so I have to leave but I wanted her to come with you guys." Niall turns to Diana. "You can trust these guys, alright? Sit with Perrie and Eleanor. They're great and I'm sure you'll love them."
Diana nods before allowing Niall to kiss her shortly before bidding everyone a goodbye and turning to leave.
And as soon as he has turned away he hears Louis mutter, "So, you and Niall, eh?"
▲▼▲
a.n.
I'm so in love with this short story and even though it isn't massively popular I'm quite proud of what I've written. :) Niall fighting is sexy af and all I can think about are his arms with that defined muscle he has there ugh someone stop me please.
Love Leticia x