Trouble. (niall horan au)

chapter 32 - family dinner

Preface: this chapter was written in it's entirety back in 2015 (???) by like 17 year-old-me (!!!) but was never edited, so I must have gotten busy and just never posted it, whoops. So here you go, back into the mind of my younger self. It's the last remaining writing of  the original Trouble story. I apologize for the cringe, I didn't change much of the writing so it's pretty wild 

Also damn! This chapter is soooooooo long, sorry. I think I'm going to write some sort of conclusion chapter? I hate leaving my characters hanging. Enjoy!

What was happening in the story before this chapter: Bill, a creepy weirdo dating  Abbey's mom, threatens to reveal their hidden relationship. He knows Niall somehow. Niall has no idea who Bill is. Zayn and Niall's dad both tell Abbey not to trust Niall too much. Zayn somehow knows who Bill is and tells Abbey to stay away from him. Niall's sisters birthday is coming up and he is filled with grief, still blaming himself for her death. Abbey decides to bring Niall to a family dinner party.

"Niall," I said into the phone, nervously drumming my hand along the steering wheel. I sat parked outside his apartment. "Can you come outside to my car for a second?"

"Sure," he replied, sounding suspicious, "I just got out of the shower. Let me get dressed and I'll be right out. What's the matter, sweetheart?"

I froze. Glancing at the clock, I realized that the dinner would be starting soon. I was not good at lying, but apparently I was good at manipulation. "Niall, I need your help. Now. Please."

There was a long pause, and suddenly he hung up. I stowed my phone away and contemplated whether or not I was a sociopath. Here was my issue: I was dating Niall, and we had been dating for months and months in secret, and sure it's fun and illicit to have a secret boyfriend with purple hair who smokes and has ice in his eyes and whose sly touch makes me want to turn inside out, but it'd also be fun to introduce him to my family so we don't have to keep sneaking out together at the crack of dawn.

I assumed that bringing him to a family dinner in sort of like a, "Surprise, I've actually been dating him all along" way, was fool proof. But Niall didn't even know he was going yet and my mom thought he was a criminal and Bill (my moms boyfriend) somehow knew that we had been dating the whole time and had been threatening to break us up.

"Abbey Farrell!" Niall shouted, suddenly yanking open my car door. I looked over in surprise as he sank down on one knee, grabbing my chin in his hands and forcing me to look at him. Turning my face experimentally, he checked for any signs indicating my apparent trouble.

"Is everything all right?" he asked, bracing himself alongside the car door frame. His hair was wet and shirt unbuttoned and he smelled like hot water.

"Ah," I said, momentarily forgetting why I was parked outside his apartment after being distracted by the deliciousness of his looks. "Right. Well. The problem is right here, in this passenger seat." I pointed blindly beside me. "I think somebody put a gun in the glove department. It must've been place there by some punks. It's definitely not mine," I added for clarification.

I had to respect the way he obliged just about everything I said. After climbing in the passenger seat and examining the glove department only to find (surprise, surprise) no gun, I clicked down the locks on the car and shot down the street, officially trapping him.

Niall stared blankly out the window for a moment before turning to me. I tried to look as casual as one could for their first kidnapping. There was a moment of painful silence.

"See the game last night?" I finally said, "Wow— what, um, athleticism."

Apparently he didn't enjoy my small talk. "Sweetheart, come on now, what are you doing?" He was buttoning up his shirt now and shaking the water out of his hair, all the while watching me with amusement.