Niall literally has his arms wrapped around me as I tell Niall all about the fight I had with my parents and how they blamed it on me. I like that Niall just listens and doesn’t give me the bullshit like “Oh, they didn’t mean it,” or “They’ll apologize.”

Because they did mean it, and they won’t apologize.

After I tell him about the fight, I can’t stop myself .I find myself telling him about how lonely school is, and how lonely home is. He seems to understand somehow though I’m sure he’s got friends where he goes to school. He just seems like the kind of person that would get all the girls and be a teachers favorite all at the same time.

“Luke?” Niall gains my attention quietly, squeezing my shoulder gently. I look up at him questioningly.

“Yeah?”

“There’s something that I really should tell you.” He sighs. He looks troubled, as if what he’s going to say is going to make me walk away from him. I don’t think I’d do that. Niall is the first and only person that accept me.

“Tell me,” I say, giving him an encouraging smile. He grimaces and stands up, pacing back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth. He’s making me nervous.

“Niall!” I yell suddenly, throwing my hands in the air. “Just stop pacing around and tell me!”

“I don’t know how I’m supposed to put this,” he hesitates, biting his lip. Oh, he looks good when he bites his lip.

“Just say it.” I giggle lightly. I guess my giggling makes him calmer because he squeezes him eyes shut and then opens them, preparing to speak.

“I’m kind of in a boy band.”

“Oh thank god,” I exhale. “I thought you were going to tell me that you have cancer or something.”

“No that’s not all,” he says in a rush. He walks towards me and grabs my hands. “Please.” He begs. “Don’t be mad at me for not telling you.”

“I won’t.” I say, though I’m not at all sure.

He inhales and exhales a few times before looking me straight in the eye. “I’m well, were famous.”

I burst out laughing and squeeze his hand. When you meet someone like Niall who knows how to make you laugh, you’ve got to keep them. I’m laughing so hard that I snort. It’s embarrassing and I cover my mouth while giggling.

“I’m serious, Luke.” Niall says. So he’s cute, funny, friendly and a great actor. Talk about all-rounded.

“Luke!” He frowns and sets both his hands on my knees. His eyes seem darker now and his expression is far from joking. “Listen to me. I’m in a band called One Direction. We’ve released three albums and have done two world tours. I swear. This isn’t a joke.”

“Prove it.” I smirk at him. He pulls away, sighing as if trying to think of a way to prove it.

‘Duh,” he exhales, speaking to himself. “Google.”

I watch as he pulls his phone out of his pocket. He opens the Google app and hands me the phone.

“Go on,” he says. “Type in ‘Niall Horan One Direction’.”

I squint at him for a good five seconds before looking down and typing it in. Almost as soon as is start typing Niall, results appear on the drop down bar.

Niall Horan girlfriend

Niall Horan X Factor Audition

Niall Horan twitter

Niall Horan facts


And when I finish typing in “Niall Horan One Direction”, pictures of Niall and four other boys pop up, along with pictures of Niall himself. Links to One Direction blogs and to official news websites appear as well.

For the past five days, I’ve been hanging out with a famous pop star.

Niall stands worriedly in front of me, biting his lip again. He staring at me, and I’m staring back at him. I don’t know what I’m feeling right now. It’s a mixture of shock, surprise, and anger. I hand his phone back to him without a word, my lips pressed tightly together. There’s to many things I want to say to him right now that my mouth won’t even function. I feel like punching him and kicking him and hugging him all at the same time. We continue to stare at each other until Niall sighs loudly and starts to back away.

“I get it,” he says.”You’re mad at me and probably never want to talk to me again because I’m such an idiot and I know that I should’ve told you earlier but I didn’t because I thought you would treat me differently. I would’ve told you if I didn’t care what you thought about me but I guess I do since your such a nice person and honestly, hanging out with you is such a huge relief from my life of paparazzi and screaming girls chasing me around. So, I’m really sorry, Luke.”

I think he’s about to cry. He’s a good twenty feet away now, and then turns his back to me.

“Niall wait,” I give in. I swear when he turns back around he’s smiling like a little kid getting five handfuls of candy on Halloween.

“Please say you’ll forgive me,” he says running back towards me.

“You’re a pop star,” I grin. “So sing.”

He hesitates shooting me a wry smile before opening his mouth to sing.

“Fly me to the moon, let me play among the stars. Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars…”

I can’t stop a grin from spreading across my lips. He just makes the song so much better. His eyes glitter, if that’s even possible, and his eyes and are smiling. When he finishes the song, he looks at me.

I clap and whistle because it was the best thing I have ever heard.

“What do you think?” he asks, walking towards me.

“I’m still mad at you.”

It’s funny to watch his face drop. In a way, I’m kind of happy that he cares what I think of him.

“Just kidding, Niall,” I laugh.”But you could’ve told me earlier. It wouldn’t have hurt.”

“Sorry,” he blushes, sitting beside me again.

“Oh, by the way,” I reach behind me and pull out the cans of Sprite I had been hiding. I hand one to him and he chuckles. “Cheers.”

We clank cans and pop open the tops, taking sips. Niall licks his lips in exaggeration, drinking up more. There’s silence until we here very familiar barking. Hotshot is running towards us at full speed. He jumps onto Niall’s lap and begins licking his face. Niall squeals like a girl and I burst into giggles. I really do love Hotshot now. Niall deserves it for not telling me he’s famous. Hotshot tries to lick Niall’s sprite can bout Niall pulls it away.

“No Sprite for you, Hottie,” Niall laughs, wiggling the Sprite can too high for Hotshot to reach. Hotshot whines and jumps into my arms, trying to get a lick at my Sprite. I laugh and lightly push him away. Niall looks and me with a large smile, and then down at Hotshot.

“You two really are great friends, aren’t you?” he notices, rubbing Hotshot’s fur. I nod and smile back at him. Hotshot gets off of me and barks a few times at Niall and I before running off further into the woods. I watch him go when I realize he may get himself lost.

“We should go after him,” Niall says, as if reading my mind. I nod and we’re up, running after Hotshot. Hotshot is leading us down a familiar path. Towards the waterfall.

When we reach the rushing waters, Niall and I are out of breath and Hotshot is splashing around in the water. He barks happily, shaking the water off him before plunging back in. He’s an odd dog, but I love him.

Niall shoots me a grin, crossing his arms over his chest. “You know, I think he’s trying to tell us something.”

“What is it?”

“He wants us to follow jump in.”

Niall is pulling my hand before I can even react, dragging me to the water. I scream, trying to pull away. He just laughs, because he knows he’s too strong for me to pull away. He throws me over his shoulder and pulls my shoes and socks off, tossing them onto a rock. The water hits my feet and soon it’s at mid-thigh. It’s surprisingly warm. Makes sense because the sun is shining right on the pond.

“I hate you!” I yell and jump on Niall’s back. I push his head down as he yells, dunking his head into the water. When he comes up, gasping for air, he leans back, throwing my off his back. I hit the water back first and sink in. It’s surprisingly clear underwater. I can see the rocks and Niall’s legs. I suddenly get an idea. Keeping my body fully underwater, I swim towards him and pinch his leg. He jumps.

I come up for air and laugh and Niall turns to me with a devilish grin.

“You shouldn’t have done that.”

“What are you going to do?” I challenge, though I find myself slowly backing away, towards the waterfall. Suddenly Niall lunges at me, picking me up and throwing me over his shoulder. I scream, hitting his back several times, commanding him to let me down. He laughs and runs through the water carrying me towards the waterfall. It starts to get a little deeper. The water reaches up to Niall’s chest.

“Time for a shower,” Niall sings. We stand under the waterfall as the water showers over us. It’s so beautiful, and the water is a little cooler. I close my eyes and let the water run over my body. I almost feel like taking off my shirt but Niall is here, so I don’t. I wish I would’ve found this place earlier with just Hotshot so that I could have swam freely.

And there I go again, pushing everyone away.

“What’re you thinking about?” Niall asks, backing against the rock of the waterfall. I turn and face him, joining him at the cool surface of the rock.

“Just about how amazing this is.” I gesture to the whole area.

“Your welcome from me throwing you in,” Niall laughs, dropping his left eye into a wink. I blush slightly and look away. His hair is wet, so it’s darker and drops onto his face. I try not to stare, but I can see the ab lines on his stomach from his the wet cloth of his shirt is clinging to his skin. It’s so hard to look away but I know if I don’t he’ll catch me.

We see Hotshot still splashing around in the shallow end. Normally, Hotshot hates water. He shakes the water off whenever I try to give him a bath, but right now, he just seems to be enjoying himself.

“I should get a dog,” Niall says to himself, watching Hotshot with a smile.

“Get a girl Yorkshire terrier.” I grin, wiping the water that’s dripping down my hair.

“Why?” Niall asks with a smirk. “So they can make babies?”

“What?” I shrug innocently. “Yorkie babies are adorable.”

I start to laugh and Niall joins. It’s another one of our laughing fests. We seem to have a lot of those. When we spot laughing, we’re still smiling at each other.

“I like you better when you’re smiling than when you’re crying.” He says softly. I smile.

“Me too.”

“I don’t understand,” Niall huffs, wiping water from his face. “How do people not like you? You’re funny, you have a great sense of humor, you’re friendly, nice, caring. You love dogs, I mean, who can’t love a person who loves dogs? You’re unique, and you don’t care other people think. You’re beautiful and you just seem so likeable, it’s hard to think that you’re not, because I know you are.”

I believe the only thing I got out of that was that Niall thinks I’m beautiful.

“Well I mean,” I struggle to find words after he tells me how amazing I apparently am. “You’re not too bad for a celebrity. Let’s face it, you’re too nice. I mean, you talk to me. I’m practically the quietest kid at school and I’m invisible-“

“Hold on a second,” Niall holds up his hand. “You are not quiet. You’re damn loud.”

It takes us a few seconds of silence to realize how his words could be interpreted.

“Perv,” I groan in disgust while he starts laughing.

“What? I never meant it in that way. You just thought of it like that.”

“You started laughing too!” I argued.

“Pervert.” We tell each other in unison. And once again, we have another famous stare down that ends with us laughing.

When we swim back to the shore area, Hotshot follows us out and shakes himself off. I squeeze the water out of my hair and Niall shakes his head like Hotshot. I nearly lose my breath when Niall pulls his shirt off and squeezes the water out of it.

“Don’t stare.” Niall looks up at me. I look away, my face flushing. I decide I’ll just walk back in wet clothes until I realize that my parents will freak if they see me like this.

“Niall, turn around,” I command suddenly. He looks at me, confused as if to ask why.

“I need to dry off my clothes,” I explain with a groan. He smirks but turns away.

I pull off my shirt, glad that I have a sports bra on instead of a normal one, and twist the water out of it. I then pull off my long sweats. I have black yoga shorts on underneath, so it isn’t as bad as it could be. Quickly as possible, I dry off my clothes and shake them a little to get more water out.

Niall turns around. “Are you done ye- whoa.”

“What the hell, Niall?” I yell, slapping a shirt to my chest. He turns back around and holds his hands up in surrender.

“Who freaking turns around and then asks if someone’s done changing?” I question. But I can’t help adding a giggle at the end. It was kind of funny. Only a bit. I pull my shirt back on and throw my pants over my shoulder.

‘I don’t think I should go back until my hair dried out,” I tell him. He stays with his back turned to me. I roll my eyes. “I’m done, Niall.”

He turns around and his eyes trail up from my toes to my face. I see his Adam’s apple move as he gulps. I’m blushing like mad, and rethink putting my pants on.

“Don’t stare,” I mock Niall wit h stupid grin on my face. He snorts and walks over to a rock, throwing me my shoes and socks. I shake my head and pull my socks on, then my shoes. He does the same. My hands are freezing and I try to blow on them to warm them up, but it doesn’t work. I try rubbing my hands against each other but it only leaves the warm for the period in which in rub the together. Niall walks up to me and takes his hands between mine, so mine are pressed together with his pressed against mine. He smiles at he and blows on our hands, then adds friction by rubbing our hands together. He does it a few times, and soon, my hands feel warmer.

Maybe it’s not just from Niall helping me.

We make small talk while heading back to my place. Niall picks up Hotshot halfway back when Hotshot starts to whine, claiming he’s tired. I’m glad that Hotshot likes Niall. I’ve had Hotshot for as long as I can remember and he never likes to warm up to anyone. He hated Callie at first sight, and would try to bite her toes, though it doesn’t hurt much at all.

When we get back to my place, Niall and I talk more about pointless things. We have light banter over what song artists are the best and what television shows are funniest. Really, they are the most pointless things. But thing is, I’m comfortable talking to Niall. I don’t feel hesitant, or have the urge to run away. He’s the only person I can really talk to.

Once my hair is decently dry, we both decide we should be getting home. Niall hugs me again the way he did yesterday, and I hug him back. He’s just as warm. We say goodbye and part ways.


I can’t wait to spend another day with him tomorrow.