Niall's Girl

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

I spent the twenty-five (not fifteen) minutes Niall took to arrive browsing through the tv channels trying to find something decent to watch. I settled on a repeated episode of Jeremy Kyle that I'd already seen.

"Room service!" The Irish accent gave him away.

"Can't be bothered to get up!" I shouted back, and Niall opened the door holding a box of takeaway pizza in his hands. I had another surreal moment then - two of my favourite things (Niall and pizza) together in my hotel room. Wow.

He laughed at my starfished out position on the bed and jumped next to me, leaning against the headboard. I reluctantly budged up and sat next to him, immediately diving in to the BBQ chicken pizza.

"Nice choice." I praised him.

"You told me it was your favourite once I think," he shrugged and I raised my eyebrows, not even remembering that I had.

"God, I do not understand your obsession with this show!" Niall complained when we had stuffed ourselves full of greasy deliciousness. He was still sat up but my head was now in his lap as he played with my hair. It was so perfect, you could have murdered me and I would still be on cloud nine.

"It's entertaining!" I defended Jeremy.

"'Who stole my mobility scooter'," Niall read out, chuckling. "Seriously?"

"It turns out to be the creepy neighbour." I said casually, causing Niall to laugh even more.

He would never admit it, but he got really into the episode, booing with the onscreen crowd at the thieving neighbour. I laughed at him silently, enjoying the way his eyes lit up as he watched Jezza shout at the some poor victim.

Just after nine, there was a knock on my door.

"Emma! It's me!" Ben's voice sounded through the wood.

"Shit!" I shot up from Niall's lap. He looked at my panicked face with amusement so I slapped his leg, making him pout. "Hide in the bathroom!" I whisper yelled at him and he raised his eyebrows to say 'you serious?' But I pushed him off the bed so he reluctantly did.

"Coming!" I shouted to Ben to stall for a few moments.

I pushed the pizza box under the bed and sprayed some deodorant to mask the smell.

"Hey," I said breathlessly as I pulled open the door and stood in the doorway.

Ben eyed me suspiciously before pushing past me into the room.

"Emma, what's going on?" He stated plainly.

"I don't know what you mean," I said unconvincingly as I watched him survey the room, as if he were expecting to find some incriminating evidence or something.

"Em," he said, holding my gaze intimidatingly. "I know you. And when you're ill, all to do is whine and stick your head down the toilet. You are not ill. Also, I smell pizza."

And Niall, the brilliant, intelligent, funny, but stupid stupid boy, decided that that was the right moment for him to sneeze.

"AAACHOOO!"

Ben didn't waste a second before he sprinted over to the ensuite bathroom and ripped open the door. And there, sat on the closed toilet seat looking very sheepish, was Niall.

"A boy?" Ben said as he looked back and forth between Niall and I. "You have a boy in your room?" He repeated as if Niall were an alien.

Niall stood up and brushed off imaginary dirt from his jeans.