Drowning || niall horan au

twenty

"It appears that you've been having a blast these past few weeks."

The smile Hannah had been wearing for weeks hadn't seemed to quite want to wash away from her face just yet. And with her brother reminding her about it, it now was impossible.

Since the month of June was flying by, Hannah felt it was right to pay a long overdue visit to Corey. She had just returned from her three days spent in Italy, and it was obvious that her tan from her time spent there was glowing. Corey still couldn't get over how happy she'd been and how he never wanted to see her depressed again.

"Oh, Corey, touring with them to only a few cities...it's breathtaking. It really is." She sipped on her iced tea and looked out to the small backyard of Corey's home. "He's literally making all of my dreams come true."

He chuckled. "It's great to hear not all famous musicians are the same. Or, I guess I should say it's comforting to know that there are celebrities out there with a good bone in their body."

"I never in my life imagined that I would ever date somebody famous. Being out in the public sort of haunted me, you know? I feared being identified by anybody, and now millions of people I don't even know...it's frightening really, but all in all, exciting."

Corey continued to laugh at all of her babbling. Hannah frowned slightly in a joking matter, remembering that this is what always happened between these two. He'd always made fun of her interests, and she'd always get mad at him for it. Now, it was almost comforting, almost as if they were going back to their old ways, forgetting all the bad that had happened in between then and now.

"Why are you laughing?" She slapped his arm, laughing herself.

"I don't know. This just all reminds me of you wishing you were some popular singer so that one blonde guy in the Backstreet Boys would notice you."

"Oh, my God. I can't believe you remember that!" Hannah looked at him, shocked. "His name was Nick, by the way."

"My mistake. I'm sorry I can't keep up with all of these blonde musicians whose name starts with an N." He said. "Is this some sort of trend?"

"Coincidence." She smirked, bringing the cup of iced tea to her lips.

The back door suddenly opened, tearing the siblings away from their conversation. Abby appeared in the doorway, holding some old jacket in her hands.

"I'm so sorry, I don't mean to be interrupting-"

Corey stood immediately, tensed. Hannah could sense his reaction to either his wife or the jacket she was holding meant it was something serious.

"No, you're not. What's wrong?"

"I was just cleaning out our closet, getting rid of the clothing that I don't wear. This was dusty, sitting on ground by my things, and I was wondering if you wanted to keep this?"

"Yeah, yeah. I completely forgot where I put that. Thank you. Just leave it out. I'll put it away."

His words were choppy, and Hannah didn't like that fact that it sounded like he was hiding something, whether it was from his wife or her.

"Is that a leather jacket?" Hannah stood from her seat, setting the tea down. "Corey, since when do you wear these?"

She took the jacket from Abby's hold on it, unfolding it and letting all the dust particles fly away. Her hand wiped away at any that stayed, but she paused after a short second. She glanced at Corey with wide, astonished eyes.