April 2021 Update!! Just editing :)
Hello Everyone! Sorry, it's been a couple of days, I was just finishing up the last few things for school! But I am done now, so hopefully will be posting more regularly.
Here is a cheeky little Niall POV, not sure how many of these I will actually do in this story, but thought I would include at least one, just so see his perspective on the situation. I hope you enjoy it and I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy!
Thank you for reading!
Niall's POV:
I watch Charlotte look up at me from her phone and flash me a beautiful smile. Something about her just makes my heart melt. Either it's her gorgeous green eyes or cute personality, but over the past few days, its been hard stop myself from telling her how I feel. I don't want to ruin our relationship, but also if she wins, and something happens between us, I don't want things to be awkward.
Louis has been pushing me to tell her how I feel. Telling me, I will regret not expressing my feelings. I kinda agree with him. But I think that I always fall to fast for a girl and something ends up happening to ruin the relationship, and I am tired of it. At this moment, I am going to wait and see how things progress. My goal is to not rush into things, or put labels on anything until we are both confident.
We all just choose to chill on the couches in the living room for the afternoon watching TV and eating our body weight in chips and dip. It was getting near dinner time, I could hear my stomach grumbling, but there was no way I was going to have pizza for a third day in a row. I look around at everyone, "what are we doing tonight?" I ask, hoping for an opportunity to get to spend more time getting to know Charlotte.
"Since it's our last night in New York City, girls, was there anything that you wanted to do here?" Liam asks, looking between Charlotte and Mia for an answer.
"I was hoping to get to go walk around Times Square, but that's a bit hard for us, isn't it?" Charlotte replies, looking down at her twiddling thumbs.
Mia quickly snaps at her, "yes, we don't want them to get recognized," and I just see a frown appear across Charlotte's face. Seeing her face made me want to do whatever was in my power to make sure happy.
"Honestly, it's not that hard to dress in disguises and go for a little walk," Harry replies as the boys and I nod our heads, "Nothing we haven't done before."
"I can always just go by myself guys, it's okay I don't want to put you at any risk," Charlotte sighs, Mia really needs to learn to shut her mouth, or she's gonna get a slap. Obviously not from me, but from someone.
"No, Char, we want to come with you, right guys?" I say, standing up from my chair to grab my jacket. I watch all the guys do the same and Louis helps Charlotte up.
"Are you going to come, Mia?" Liam asks as I turn to see her still sitting on the couch, "We can grab something for dinner while we are out."
"Times Square is overrated, I am going to stay here. Are any of you going to keep me company?" She asks, giving me a little wink. Does this girl actually think I am going to stay with her after she completely sassed out Charlotte and made her feel bad for suggesting something? She's off her head.
"I guess I will stay," Liam says, taking one for the team, "Harry, wanna join us as well?" He says, desperately not wanting to stay here alone with her.
"Sure, Payno," He replies, sitting back down on the couch.
"Guess it's just me, you and Lou," I say, grabbing her hand and pulling her and Lou out the door. "Byeee!"
"And where do you three believe you are going?" Paul says as he catches us leaving the hotel room.
"For a wee walk," I reply, ready to book it if Paul says we weren't allowed to.
Paul hands me and Louis hats and sunglasses, "boys, you know better." He turns to Charlotte, "Carter, you better keep these two in line, they can get themselves into trouble."
"Yes sir," she says has her adorable laugh fills the halls.
She begins to walk down the hall towards the elevators, but Louis holds me back, "wingman mood activated," he whispers in my ear, and I shake my head and laugh, but inside I am terrified, I have no clue what he could be up to. He proceeds to skip down the hall towards Charlotte, and I just laugh following behind him.
10 minutes later, we have finally made it to Times Square, and I can tell Charlotte is in awe. Her big eyes are bouncing between signs and staring up at the tall buildings. I watch her eyes change colours depending on what sign she is looking at when I hear her say, "look who it is," as she points up at a billboard. I look up to see the boys and I smiling down at us.
"Soon, that will be one of the pictures you take of us," I comment, and I watch her cheeks turn pink.
"Anywhere specific, you want to visit or did you just wanna walk down here?" Louis asks, pulling us along like our child.
"No, I just wanted to admire the lights and the excitement that fills Times Square," she says, I find that adorable, here she is, in the big city, and all she wants is to walk around admiring things. It's the little things that matter most to her, I love that.
We continue to walk down the street and Louis and I are pointing out places we have been or stating exciting facts about NYC. I can tell she is really enjoying herself, she listens to everything we have to say and expresses her enthusiasm every time we mention something that she wants to learn more about.
This girl is making it fucking hard for me not to fall for her.
"Nandos!" she exclaims as she spots the big sign for the restaurant, "can we go?" she begs, "I have never been."
"Excuse me," I stop dead in my tracks, Louis and her look back at me, "you have not been to Nandos?" she slowly shakes her head, Louis begins to laugh, "Okay, we are going, come on," I say quickly taking her hand and ushering her into the restaurant.
"I will get a double-breasted chicken wrap, medium, with halloumi cheese and PERi-PERi fries with PERinaise," I order and look over at Charlotte, "what you want?" She stares at the menu and looks back at me with her green eyes staring into mine, shrugging her shoulders, "do you like spicy foods?" she shakes her head no. "She will get the chicken wrap, lemon herb, and PERi-PERi fries as well."
Louis orders for himself and we go sit down to wait for our food, "I'm just running to the washroom, I'll be right back," Charlotte says getting up and leaving the table.
I look up at Louis, and he is eyeing me, hard, "Take a picture, it will last longer," I comment sarcastically.
He laughs a bit, "I am going to take my food and head back to the hotel. You and Charlotte stay here and enjoy dinner together," he says winking at me, "tell her," he whispers as a girl brings our food over to us, he immediately takes his meal and leaves.
I sit there in confusion, staring at my food when I hear Charlotte come back from the loo, "You alright? Where'd Lou go?"
"He said he was going back to the hotel and for us to stay here and enjoy our food while it's warm and head back after," I reply, trying to wrap my head around what he just pulled on me. I mean it's not like I have not been alone with her, but the lad did me dirty.
She thought nothing of this, smiled and sat down in her seat. "This looks yummy, thank you again, Nialler," she states and begins to eat her dinner.
"It is my pleasure," I reply, pulling myself back to reality and beginning to enjoy myself.
I watch her face light up after every bite of the wrap she takes. The fact that she was so excited to try Nandos for the first time brings joy to my heart, especially since it is my favourite restaurant. I finally unwrap mine and begin to eat it. I watch her look up at me with her beautiful green eyes, "What do you honestly think of Mia?"
I think for a second, why is this so important to her? "Hmm, from the information I have gathered from you, and seeing how she acts in situations, honestly, not the biggest fan," I reply.
"Alright, that is what I thought I just wanted to make sure," she says smiling taking another bite of her wrap, and I go back to enjoying my wrap until she speaks again, "You know, you were always my favourite when I first started listening to your music back in 2011."
I flash her a big smile, and I feel my cheeks start to heat up, "Oh, really? Why's that?"
"I am not sure; something about your personality just resonated with me," she replied, taking the last bite of her wrap and beginning to eat her fries. "Oh, and your bleach blonde hair," she laughs.
I laugh along with her, "there is just something about frying your hair every month that just makes the girls go crazy," I joke and she just smiles and shakes her head.
I sit there for a second and just stare at her, she brought this up for a reason. Either she is hinting that she has feelings for me too, or I am really overthinking this situation. But Louis is right, I will regret it if I do not express to her my feelings. I take a deep breath, what do I say. How do I say it? How do you express to someone that you like them, but are too anxious to tell them because you don't want to fuck things up between you? She looks up from her fries and gives me a confused look, "You okay?" she asks, I had not noticed that I was staring off into the distance and not eating. "You've barely touched your wrap."
I just have to say it, if she doesn't have feelings for me, then I can move on and hopefully stay friends with her. I look at her and take a deep breath, "Yeah, sorry was just stuck in my head," I say, taking another bite. After I shallow, I smile at her, three, two, one, "So umm, we've really been spending quite a bit of time together over the last few days haven't we," I comment, and she looks up at me, and our eyes meet.
"Yeah! All you boys have been so amazing it seriously feels like I have just gained 4 incredible brothers," she replies, and my heart sinks, brother is that all she thinks of me. I break eye contact with her and sigh.
"Yea, but I was referring to just the two of us..." I begin trailing off and taking another bite of my wrap.
"Oh!" She says, has her cheeks turn red, "yea, I enjoy spending my time with you," she smiles, and my heart flutters back to life.
"I really enjoy spending time with you too, Charlotte," I reply, staring into her emerald green eyes. I take another deep breath, okay here goes nothing, just gonna come out and tell her, "I think I've actually developed some feelings for you..." I say, breaking our gaze again and looking down at my food.
I didn't see her reaction to my words, but the words I heard next made the butterflies in my stomach go crazy and my heart race, "Me too, Niall." I whip my head up and see her smiling at me.
We just stare and smile at each other for a while, until she begins to reach for my fries, "excuse me, miss, what do you think you are doing?" I ask, laughing.
"Oh nothing," she quickly pulls her hand away from my fries and smiles at me, all innocent.
"If you want a couple, it's okay," I say as I push the container closer to her, she just stares at me with her mouth open.
"Did Niall Horan just say that he would share food with me?" She whispers, so no one else hears her use my name.
I laugh and roll my eyes at her, but nod my head, "I did, surprise, surprise." She gets all happy, takes a fry and eats it with a smile on her face.
We finish eating head out back to the hotel. It is quite a bit darker now, so the lights were quite a bit brighter than they were earlier. Charlotte looked up at the lights in amazement and smiled. "I love the lights, but nothing beats a beautiful starry night sky," she comments, looking back down from the buildings.
"Yeah? Guess we will have to find a good spot to have a starry night picnic sometime," I comment, taking her hand in mine as we walk back towards the hotel.
My heart is pounding in my chest. I feel my cheeks get warmer, but I keep looking ahead of us. "I'd love that Nialler," she responds, and I smile to myself.
We walked in silence back to the hotel, said goodnight to Paul and walked into the hotel room. We were no longer holding hands but got good stares when we walked in.
"You two were gone a while," Mia points out, and I nod.
"They obviously were enjoying themselves," Louis says, giving me a cheeky grin.
"Yeah, it was beautiful outside, and dinner was amazing," Charlotte replies, walking to her room.
I sit down with everyone in the living room and the boys just stare at me, "What?" They just wink at me, "Nothing is going on between us, we are just good friends, calm yourselves." I try to explain but they saw right through my lie.
"Are you sure, buddy? You two seemed to be buzzing when you walked in the door," Harry pointed out and gave me a little nudge in the ribs.
"Yes, I am sure," I am horrible at lying, but Charlotte and I haven't talked about anything regarding our relationship yet. We just kinda confessed that we liked each other than both got scared to continue on the topic. "I am gonna head to my room, need to practice the songs for later this week."
"Nah, you're going to see what Charlotte is doing," I hear Liam call out as I leave the room, I roll my eyes but smile to myself because that was definitely what I was doing.
I knock on her door, when she opens it I find her in short shorts and a sports bra. "Oh, I am sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you," I say, going to close the door.
"No, no, you aren't disturbing me," she says, pulling on an oversized shirt. "What's up?"
"Can we talk..." I take a deep breath, "Can we talk about, you know, us?" I whisper, and she stands there silent for a second and sits down on the bed, I watch her take a deep breath. "Trust me, it scares me as much as it scares you," I say, closing the door behind me as I walk further into her room.
"I am just worried it's gonna affect something with the competition, or if something happens between us and we don't work out, but I win, then we are gonna be stuck together..." she explains, I sit next to her on the bed and turn to face her.
"I know love, but my feelings for you are going to get harder to hide from you if we continue to spend time with each other like we currently are," I say as I feel my cheeks warm up, blushing is a curse I tell you.
She turns to face me and crosses her legs, she gives me a smile, "I really do like you, Niall."
"I like you too, Charlotte," I reply, pulling her into my lap to give her a hug. "We can try to keep it a secret from the others if it makes you feel better, I don't mind, I completely understand, they can be crazy."
Charlotte smiles at me as she sits in my lap, sighing she says, "Louis would want to know everything, I'd be surprised if he wasn't standing outside my door right now," she whispers, and I laugh.
"You are so right," I say, shaking my head, "we can tell him and have him promise not to tell anyone." She nods her head in agreement. "Do you think this will affect the competition?"
"I don't remember exactly what the contract said, but I don't think anywhere it said that I wasn't allowed to get into a relationship with any of you," she replies.
"I mean, we don't have to put a label on us, until we are both certain we want to do this..." I say and wait to see what she says. I still was worried I was rushing into things, she is a wonderful girl and we certainly clicked the moment we met, but I am still worried I am going to ruin it somehow.
"I think that might be a good idea," she replies, looking down at her lap, "I do like you, quite a bit, I just don't want to rush into anything because we have not known each other that long," she explains, and I agree. My song Dear Patience from before the boys are I got back together keeps creeping into my mind. It is okay to wait and be patient with how things are going.
"I fall hard and fast for girls, so honestly probably a good idea we take things slow," I reply, and she laughs, it is such infections that I begin to laugh too. "What time is it?" She checks her phone and tells me its like 10pm, "Want to finish our movie we were watching last night?"
"I'd love to, but I am gonna go get snacks first," she says, getting out of my lap and skipping towards the door, "want anything?" I nod, and she skips out of the room towards the kitchen. God, she is adorable.
I quickly go get changed into my pyjamas, begin to get up the movie and connect her computer to the TV. I climb into her bed and make myself comfy. I hear her coming back down the hall, and she walks in and closes the door right away. "What ya get me?" I ask as she jumps into bed and throws the food at me. "Really an apple?"
"An apple a day keeps the doctor away, Mr. Horan; we don't need you getting sick now, do we," she replies, and I full-on belly laugh.
She crawls under the covers, and we begin to finish watching the movie. I put my arm around her, and she cuddles into my chest. God, I hope she can't hear my heart beating like crazy. She really just does something to me that I can not describe.
Eventually, the credits begin to roll, and I look down to find that she has fallen asleep, "Charlie?" I quietly say, shaking her a bit.
"Huh?" she replies, opening her eyes, "oh," she laughs, "I fell asleep, ops."
I laugh, "yeah, the movie just ended, I am gonna head back to my room to get some sleep," I say beginning to get up out of bed.
"Huh, no," she says, she's still half asleep, it is so cute, "stay, please."
"Are you sure?" She nods her head, and I get back into bed, getting comfortable again. She rolls over on her side, facing away from me, and I wrap my arms around her. I felt so at home with her. While my heart may still be racing, the rest of my body was relaxed. "Goodnight, love," I say, giving the back of her head a little kiss ad falling to sleep.