little do you know // niall horan au

chapter 2; here we go

Mona couldn't help but notice that the train rides to her eight a.m. lectures had gotten awfully long.

Maybe it was because Harlow no longer took morning classes—the girl loved her beauty sleep—or maybe it was because Mona's thoughts were taking up more of her attention lately. Either way she was glad to see her stop was next, her slightly sleep-muddled mind snapping out of the daydream she seemed to have been stuck in.

The crisp breeze was cooling along the expanse of her back beneath her loose fitting v-neck when she stopped to cross the street, the thin layer of sweat that had formed from her brisk walk now a bit more bearable. She relished in the warm rays of the sun on her skin, but the smile quickly faded as a flash of home appeared behind her eyelids when she blinked. Mona didn't know why, but San Francisco had been on her mind since that phone call with Deepa, and following the memories were always sharp pangs of guilt and uncertainty in the pit of her stomach.

She shook her head.

Before long, campus was in sight, her building only a few ways ahead. She had a lecture on the introduction scientific computing that she couldn't afford to miss, and despite the fact that there was at least a good fifteen minutes left before it began, she sped towards the building, not even stopping to savor the air conditioned atmosphere before bustling towards the lecture hall.

When she took her seat—the one in the back corner near the wall—she pulled out her brand spanking new MacBook that she and Niall went to buy over the weekend. She'd spent the summer saving up for it and couldn't be prouder of herself for being able to divide her money between the important things and the items she wished to splurge on. Niall bought one as well, though he was a bit hesitant until Mona convinced him it was a great investment.

At the thought of Niall, she smiled. There was a definite shift in their relationship over the past few months, and despite how much Mona wanted to ignore it, it was there and she couldn't turn a blind eye to it forever. Still, Niall didn't seem to have a problem with anything. He didn't act weird around their friends when she'd stutter her way through asking if it was okay to scoot a little closer to him when they watched movies, and he only ever smiled at her when she'd struggle with differentiating between what type of contact was okay when they were around people and not holed up in one of their bedrooms.

In fact, he reached out for her, and when Mona was unsure of whether or not such behavior was "acceptable" in public, he'd only say "Whatever you want, Mo. I'll never do something you're uncomfortable with." He was calm and gentle with her in a way no one had ever been before—no one but her Dad, at least—and the thought baffled her, that someone would care enough to treat her the way Niall did.

He was her sunshine in the haze of thoughts in her head, and when they were together, he taught her how to be the moon, how to bounce back his light. He made her better.

Everyone noticed right away too, how when she and Niall were together they were two completely different people than they were when on their own. Mona didn't know how she felt about that.

She didn't get the chance to dwell on it, though, because her professor entered the hall in that moment, the sound of her heels on the hard floor filling the space of the room and snapping Mona from her thoughts.

With a shake of her head, Mona opened up the new app she downloaded to take her notes, wondering when the thought of Niall had managed to consume her every thought, distracting her from the most mundane of activities.

~

There was about ten minutes left of class before Mona's phone started buzzing, Niall's name flashing across her screen along with a string of messages.