-Chapter 27-
Forty-five minutes later, and I was only a few blocks away from Niall's house. During the entire car journey I was practicing what I was going to say to him in my head.
"What happened to no strings attached?" No, too harsh. Even though I feel like I can't do this, I don't want to rush into things that I will probably will regret later on anyway.
"This is just so darn complicated, and I really hate complicated." That he knows, and there would be no point in repeating it.
"I feel like I don't know anything about you." As much as I would like to blame everything on this, we have only been together for two weeks, so I can't exactly expect to know him as well as I know Bradley, can I?
There it was.
The simple truth had been staring me in the face, but I had chosen to ignore it. Whether or not I did that on purpose I don't know, but all that matters is that I have.
I was comparing everything Niall and I have to what Bradley and I had.
Even after this long, Bradley's and I's relationship is still haunting me.
Of course my relationship with Niall is nothing like what I had with Brad. I'm older now, more mature. I don't sneak out at night to meet up with him at the park, I don't have trouble concentrating in lessons because his hand is on my thigh. I don't get the thrill of him holding my hand as he dropped me off at my classroom. The only thing I do get with Niall are the secret kisses behind closed doors.
There it is again, it's been waving a red flag trying to get my attention, but only now its efforts have worked.
Everything in my relationship with Bradley was so open, so public, everyone knew everything about what we did, and of course that hasn't been happening with Niall... Somehow I managed to convince myself that Niall's and my relationship is just an illusion.
I parked my car a block away from Niall's house, and walked the rest of the way with my head bowed. It was darkish, and I was hoping that my face wasn't visible, just in case there were any paparazzi lurking around the place.
I finally arrived in front of Niall's house, and opened the iron gate that separated his front garden from the pavement. I ran up the concrete steps and knocked on the red door.
Seconds later, the door opened, revealing a worried looking Niall Horan.
He didn't say anything as he gestured for me to enter. I mentally sighed, I had him worried sick. As I walked past him, he grabbed my hand and squeezed it tight.
Niall shut the door, and before it had even closed properly, he had me up against it.
"Please don't break up with me, Cora. You are too important to me, and I know that things are hard at the moment, but I swear that they will get better. I promise, it's only been two weeks, it will get easier and it will get better." Niall begged, sending me the best puppy eyes I have ever seen.
His lips were so close to mine as he spoke, occasionally brushing against mine as he spoke, and sending shivers down my spine.
"I'm not going to break up with you, Niall." I concluded.
That was one thing I was sure I would never do; I would never break up with him.
"Really? Oh, thank God." He sighed, his Irish accent sending chills down my back.
"Really." I confirmed, nibbling my lip.
Niall smiled softly and pressed his forehead against mine. He took both of my hands in his and laced his fingers with mine.
"What you said about us having a date earlier, I'm sorry how I reacted." I apologised softly.
"It's okay, but you were right. We can't have a proper date." Niall sighed.
"But we can." I smiled. "People don't always go out to dinner, they have home cooked meals. That counts as a date." I explained.
"I can order a pizza if you want." Niall suggested with a smile. He understood where I was going with this.
"I've got a better idea. I'm going to cook for you." I grinned.
"Can you cook?" Niall asked uncertainly.
I snorted and pushed myself away from the door. "Of course I can, now come with me." I ordered, tugging Niall behind me as I went into his kitchen.
---
Music was playing softly in the background and I had ordered Niall to set the table, so he wouldn't see what I was cooking. The truth is, I'm not a super cook. I can cook, but only the basic things like pasta or soup, and I can make chips and pizza... by make I mean put in the oven and make sure it doesn't burn.
But, luckily for me, Nialler had two big pots of Heinz spaghetti hoops in his cupboard and sliced bread.
After rummaging around his cupboards for a while, I finally pulled out a big pan. I turned the hob on and placed the pan on it. I then opened the tins of spaghetti hoops and poured the amazing food in to the pan. I then washed out the tins and put them in the recycling.
I took out six pieces of toast, and stuck them two by two in the toaster.
"Tables set. Mmm, that smells good." Niall said, walking in to the kitchen.
"No! You can't come in!" I shouted with a smile on my face as I ran over to where he was standing and pushed him out of the kitchen.
"Wait! Why?" He demanded.
"Because it's a surprise! Now go entertain yourself, I'm nearly done." I ordered, turning away from him and walking back into the kitchen.
I stirred the hoops and buttered four pieces of toast, leaving two unbuttered for me since I despise butter more than sprouts.
I found two big plates and put my two pieces of toast on one, and Niall's four pieces on another.
By the time I had done that, the hoops had finished cooking, so I turned off the hob and brought the pan over to the plates. I poured the amount of hoops I wanted (which is quite a lot) on my plate, and spooned out the rest for Niall. Thank god I had used both cans, there wouldn't have been enough otherwise.
I put the plates on a tray and opened Niall's fridge, taking out two bottles of beer. I put them on the tray as well, and walked into the dining room/living room.
Niall was sitting at the table staring down at his phone. I glanced over his shoulder and saw he was on twitter.
As soon as I put his plate down in front of him, he turned off his phone and a huge grin spread across his face.
I handed him his beer and put my plate of food down along with my beer. I put the tray down and sat down next to him.
Niall had made the table beautiful, putting a white table cloth on one corner, with red candles. Our chairs were next to each other since we were sat on the corner, so my knee was touching his.
"Wow Cora you shouldn't have, this must have taken forever." Niall smirked, his voiced laced with sarcasm.
"I can eat it if you want." I smiled, taking his plate away from him.
"No, no, no! It's okay, it's the gesture that counts." He grinned, snatching his plate away from me playfully.
I smiled and cut out a square of toast, loaded it with hoops and shovelled it into my mouth.
"Yum." I mumbled.
"This is the best spaghetti hoops on toast I have ever tasted." Niall moaned, swallowing his food.
---
The current time was half nine, and I had convinced Niall to watch Notting Hill with me. It was nearly finished, but I'm not sure Niall had watched a single second; he spent the whole of the film looking at me. I hadn't commented on it, but his gaze filled my body with a shining spark.
As the credits rolled across the screen, I stretched and turned my eyes to Niall.
Before I had time to do anything, he had thrown himself forwards. I shut my eyes, a natural reaction, but when I opened them again, I noticed he had placed his hands on either side of my body and was hovering over me with a big grin on his face.
"Can I help you?" I rolled my eyes, but a huge smile was plastered on my lips.
"Yes. Kiss me." He ordered.
I rolled my eyes again, but he didn't need to ask me twice.
Our lips connected, and suddenly, all the troubles and worries I had been feeling earlier disappeared in a blink of an eye.
Niall's hands went up to my face and cupped my cheeks gently. I pushed myself up and snaked my arms around his neck. I continued to lean forwards, until it was Niall lying flat on his back instead of me.
He grinned into the kiss and before I could brace myself, he flipped us over.
Breathless, he pulled away from my lips.
"Now, can you please tell me what is going on?" He whispered.
I sighed, and leant my head against one of the sofa's cushions. I wanted to say nothing, I didn't want to ruin the moment, but Niall's gazing down at me changed my mind.
If I ever wanted things to work out with this amazing man, I would just have to tell him the truth.
"I feel like what we have is an illusion." I confessed in a small voice.
Niall sighed, but instead of getting annoyed like I expected him to, he brought his hand down to my cheek and cupped it gently.
"I swear, Cora, this isn't an illusion. I've really got my heart out on my sleeve. You know there is magic between you and me, and if I'm certain of something, it has to be that you've really got me lifted on my feet." Niall said. "This is not an illusion to me."
"That sounds like a song." I grinned.
Niall grinned. "Oh, you know, it could be." He laughed.
"Really?! What's it called?!" I asked in excitement.
"It's called Illusion, and I wrote it for Liam. It's a song about him and Sophia." Niall explained.
"You wrote Liam's girlfriend a love song?" I asked uncertain of what his answer was going to be.
"Yes and no, but don't change the subject. Cora, I don't know how to convince you that this isn't an illusion, you really don't have to worry because I will never turn your heart into broken parts, okay." Niall said, tilting my chin so I was looking at him directly in the eyes.
"If you say so... It's just- no, never mind. I believe you, Niall." I said to convince myself more than him.
"Good. I know that this situation with Barbara is annoying, but believe me, I feel like we can last the four months. I swear on Harold's head that I will never give up on us." Niall said firmly.
"If you keep saying that, I will tell Harry, I'm not kidding." I laughed.
"Okay, I'll stop, but please, Cora. Tell me that you won't give up on us, either." Niall ordered softly.
I gulped.
But then, I nodded.
"I promise that we will always be together, so you really don't need to worry, Niall. I promise I will always try to be by your side." I forced my voice to be brave.
"You really don't know how much that means to me, Cora, now kiss me again." Niall smirked, and I obliged.
I wanted to tell him that I was nothing without him, and that I was falling deeply, madly in love with him, but we have only been together for 2 weeks, and I think what he said the other day was an accident. He never mentioned it again, so he probably doesn't even remember saying those three words. Those eight letters. Those three syllables. Those words that mean nothing, but everything all at the same time and anyway there was no way I could be falling for Niall, not yet, I wasn't read.
I wanted nothing more than for him to show me how much he wanted me, so he did and it was perfect.
-:-:-:-
I hope you all like this chapter!
Qu: What is your favourite song(s) from the 2nd Album Take me Home?
An: Mine are Little Things (duh), Over Again and They Don't Know About Us.... Oh and Rock Me!
Love you,
-LP
Xx
P.s: Illusions in media.
P.s.s: This chapter is dedicated to zaynster13. The next chapter dedication goes to the 5th voter (on this chap).
OP: 17Jan2015