Once In a Life Time * A One Direction Fanfiction *

* Chapter Six *

When I woke up, it was still dark outside. Ugh, I forgot. It was only about seven thirty when we went to sleep. This is going to mess up my internal clock like crazy. I was about to get up when I noticed that Niall had his arms wrapped around me. I'd have to wake him up to break free.

"Niall?"

Nothing.

"Niall, wake up."

Still nothing. I gave him a little shove.

"I have Nando's."

"Huh?" He woke up with a start, looking around. "Did someone say Nando's?"

I rolled my eyes. "Only to wake you up. I need to get up."

"Oh," he said, rubbing his eyes. "Ok. Sorry. What time is it?"

"That's what I'm going to find out." I pulled my phone out of my purse and turned it on. I noticed I had four missed calls, two voicemails, and five texts. Most were from my mom, but a few of the texts were from Zoie. I deleted them all without even looking at them. "It's about... four thirty."

"Wow. That was one long nap," Niall commented. "Well, I'm hungry. You want anything?"

"Sure." I walked with him to the kitchen. "What is there?"

"Um..." He looked around in the fridge and the cabinets. "Frozen waffles, some crackers, strawberries, cereal..." He grabbed crackers for himself. "No crackers, actually. These are mine now."

"I'll take the strawberries, then," I decided. We sat down at the small table, eating our snacks.

"We leave for Florida tomorrow," Niall stated as nonchalantly as possible.

"I'm sorry, what?" I almost choked on a strawberry.

"We leave. Tomorrow. To go to Florida." He said the words again, slower this time.

"Oh." I forgot about that. I mean, I knew it was inevitable. But when he said it, it became real. And it hurt. A lot.

"I don't want to," he assured me quickly. "I don't want to leave you. I dunno, it's just like... I'll never see you again."

"It's so bizarre," I thought out loud, completely out of context. "I can't believe this all even happened. Meeting you guys. I mean, look at me. I was just one of your fangirls. You didn't even realize I existed until you met me on the street a few nights ago." I let out a sigh. "I know I shouldn't even expect for you to ever think of me again after you leave."

"Payton." He was looking right into my eyes, the way he always does when he says something serious. "I think about you all the time, and you're right here. I don't even know what I'm going to do when we leave."

I looked down at the bowl of strawberries, picking one up. "You know it wouldn't work. The long distance relationship thing."

"I know," he groaned. "But that means we'd have to end what we have together. I don't want to do that!"

"Listen, Niall," I ordered, making him look at me again. "It's been great, really. But we both knew from the start this would never get serious."

"But it did!" he argued. "Well, at least it did for me. I don't know what this meant for you."

"I broke up with my boyfriend for you. You think this didn't mean anything for me?" I was shouting now, and I knew one of the boys would probably wake up because of it. "You are so wrong."

His eyes widened, and he didn't speak for a while. "So... it wasn't just because it was summer and you wanted to meet new people."

"Of course not. I'm too socially awkward to try to meet new people," I said, quieting my voice. He laughed, and I laughed too. "I'm not even joking. I usually freeze up in front of people."

"Ok, it's official. I refuse to lose someone like you."

"But how could this possibly work, Nialler? It won't."

He thought for a minute. "Come with us."

"What?" I shook my head. "You're crazy."

"What do you have here, anyway? It's a great opportunity. You can meet more famous people. Travel places. It's amazing, Pay. Come with us," he begged, grabbing my hand. "Please."

I sighed. How could I resist? He was right. I don't have anything in this town to keep me from going with them. "Alright. I'll ask my mom. Good luck getting her to say yes, though," I warned. "She probably won't even consider it without shooting me down."

"Don't worry about that," he assured me with a wink. "Harry can use his charm to persuade her. I'm sure of it." He pulled me into a hug and spun me around. "This is going to be so awesome. You can come back to Mullingar with me! And didn't you say you've never been to Nando's? That definitely needs to change. And you need to see London, and oh, I forgot! We'll be stopping at Disney World! And-"

I shut him up with a kiss. "You get too excited for your own good."

"You say that like it's a bad thing!"

Now, I would love to tell you that me and Niall had a deep conversation about the meaning of life, but in reality, I ended up falling asleep again until about nine thirty in the morning. Because I'm just lazy like that.

I was awakened by Louis throwing a frozen waffle at me.

"WAKE UP, PAYTON!"

I sat up, confused for a second as to why there was a waffle on my face. Then I saw Louis. I rolled out of bed – not kidding, literally rolled – and walked over to him, shoving the waffle in his hand. "Morning, Louis."

The boys were all in the kitchen, eating breakfast and talking. Liam looked at me and smiled.

"So, Niall tells us that you're coming with us on tour. That's great!"

"Um, well, maybe," I said uncomfortably, shooting Niall an 'I-thought-we-talked-about-this' look. "But I really don't think my mom is going to let me travel around with five older guys. Don't get me wrong, though, I'd love to go with you. I just... don't want to get any hopes up."

"Nonsense." Harry snorted. "I'll just work my magic and she'll say yes in no time. Trust me. It never fails."

"I dunno..."

"Payton. You're going with us. We're not taking no for an answer. Besides, we have cookies! And we're five attractive guys! And we sing! Girls love that stuff!" Louis exclaimed.

"You've got me there." I shrugged. "Well, if I really am going with you guys, I need to pack. Like, all my clothes. That is going to take almost the whole day, so... I should probably go now and talk to my mom."

"And we'll go with!" Harry said, standing up and grabbing his keys. "Hey, Pay... is your mom a MILF?"

"Oh my god, Harry."

"What? I'm just curious!"