courage {Niall Horan}

VII

I woke up to the way too loud sound of my alarm and turned around with a grunt. My head was throbbing and I felt so sick.

I'm not going to drink too much tonight.

I failed on thatone. I don't remember much oflast night and I definitely don't remember how I got home and into my pyjamas in my bed. I turned off my alarm and trying to find my glasses on my nightstand before slowly getting out of bed. It has been three years since I had a hangover like this.

I walked to the kitchen to turn on the coffee machine before going back to the bathroom to take a shower. Having a hangover + teaching 9 year olds = the worst.

I was so tempted to call in sick. When I got in the badroom and saw my own reflection I let out a sigh. Ihad put a note on my mirror but it was almost unreadable.

'Car is at Niall's.'

It took me a while to figure thatone out. I took my phone and started typing a text to call in sick. There were no tests planned today or anything special so they would just join another class and have a fun day.

I went to my texts with Niall to see a long exchange of drunken texts after 3am as a new text came in.

Niall: I hope I'm not the only one with a terrible hangover.
Me: it's been 3 years since I felt this bad after drinking. I'm a lightweight when it comes to drinking so have you got any clue how much I drank?
Niall: last night is not very clear in my head but about 1/3th of what I drank.
Me: how did I get home?
Niall: we got in a cab, took us half an hour to find your appartment, I walked upstairs with you which was a disaster and then you ran into your appartment to lock the door before me. So I went home too.
Niall: other then that, last night is a big blur. I don't even know to which bar we went.
Me: neither do I. I somehow even put my pyjamas on and got into bed, but after our pizza, I don't remember anything.

I was stressing out a little due to the fact I didn't remember a thing. In a previous life I often drank way too much and drunk me wasn't the nerd that sober me is. Not even close to that to be honest.

Niall: are you working today?
Me: called in sick. I feel like a bus just hit me.
Niall: want to go out later?
Me: as long as it doesn't include alcohol or loud sounds.
Me: the sound of my phone buzzing hurts
Niall: we can go sight seeing? I could show you the not-alcohol-related places of Mullingar.
Me: I just have to stay as far away from school as possible.
Me: I hate to ask, but have you got any clue if I behaved last night? Drunk me can be a little crazy.
Niall: you were definitely crazy but you behaved. Memories are slowly coming back to me.

I sighed before going to my couch and laying down. I turned the tv on and put it on the softest.

Niall: I got your car keys so I will come to your place with your car. Is 12 alright?
Me: 12 is good. Please just text instead of ringing the bell, because that's freaking loud.

—

I had just gotten out of the shower when I heard my phone go off. I looked at my watch for the time and I still had 20 minutes. I put a towel around me and walked over to my phone that was charging on my nightstand.

'Mom (9 missed calls)'

I put my phone on silent before getting ready. I took out my navy dress and dried my hair quickly before outting it in a loose high ponytail. My phone was going off again so I almost ran over and picked it up.

"What?!" I almost screamed into the phone but the other side was dead silent for a while.

"I'm downstairs?" I heard him say.

"Fuck, sorry I thought you were someone else." I said before walking back to the bathroom to get my sunglasses.

"I'm glad I'm not that someone else." He said with a small nervous laugh.

"I will be downstairs in a minute." I said before hanging up. I put my phone and wallet in my purse before putting on shoes and taking my jacket incase is starts raining again. It was raining so hard yesterday and today the sun was shining and it was pretty hot.

I locked the door behind me with my spare key before hiding it again as Niall has my actual key and car keys.

"Hey" I said with a smile when I opened the door downstairs. "I'm so sorry for answering the phone like that. I should have checked who was calling first."

"You apologise way too much" He said with a smile. "Be glad that it wasn't your boss or a coworker calling you."

"I should really learn to always look at the contact first before answering." I said with a small laugh, I put on my sunglasses to protect me from the very bright light.

"Your keys." He said with a smile as he handed me my keys. He was holding them on my keychain with a small grin. "So you surf?"

"Possibly." I said with a smile before taking them from him. I think I've had that surfboard keychain since I got my car a few years ago.

"Oh c'mon, are you still not saying anything about yourself?"

"Hi, I'm Charlotte, 23 years old, currently living in Mullingar and I teach for a living." I said, he looked at me a little confused before getting in the car too. "Now I've told you 4 things about myself."

"But I already knew those." He said with a small pout. I turned on the car and smiled when I heard the radio playing very softly.

"The headache is unbearable." He said with a smile.

He was wearing sunglasses too and he had a navy cap in his hands. I wasn't sure if that was for the sun or just to make it atleast a little harder to recognise him. Because I'm sure that people who are actually a fan, can recognise him easily.

"I'm glad I'm not alone." I said with a small smile "So where are we going first?"

"The cathedral, because honestly, there isn't that much to see here."

"I was already surprised you suggested to go sight seeing." I said with a smile as I tried my best to remember the route to the cathedral. It wasn't that hard but my head made everything hard today.

"Let's play 20 questions." He said after we stayed silent for a while.

"Smart move, but fine if I get to pass up to 5 questions."

"Fine, 15 questions is better then not kknowing anything at all." He said as he watched me.

"You get the honours of going first."

"Where did you grow up?"

"Mullingar untill I was 3, but the other side of town, Belgium untill I was 11 and then Spain untill 15 and then we finally moved back to Ireland to Strandhill where I lived up untill 7 months ago." I said as I payed attention to the road. "Did you ever wish you still lived in Ireland instead of the US?" I was quick to ask him something, just so he couldn't comment on it.

"I miss home a lot, but I got a lot of my childhood friends with me in LA. I wouldn't be able to live this life from here and I love what I get to do daily and the way I get to make people happy." He said with a smile. I parked my car in the parking lot of the cathedral while he kept his eyes on me, trying to figure me out. "Which languages can you speak?"

"Spanish, dutch, english, irish and a little french and german." I said before getting out of the car. He got out of the car too and looked around before looking at me. We walked inside of the cathedral so we both shut up and respected the requested silence inside.

Like I said before, I'm a nerd. I love astronomy, history and anything like that. So I loved visiting places like this. I walked around with a small smile on my face. I could hear Niall walking closely behind me as I decided to just look at the paintings on the wall slowly.

"If you could change one thing about your life, what would it be?" I whispered without looking at him.

"Move my whole family and all my friends with me to LA, to have them close to me again." He whispered back. I nodded before walking on, "why did you leave everything behind?"

"Pass." I said, my mood changed within a second as he asked that.