under my skin || n.h. au

four: killing souls together

Niall has groaned exactly five times in the past twenty minutes. Yes, Brooklyn has been keeping count of how many times he lets out a groan because each time that irritating sound leaves his mouth, she would get distracted. He's got his earphones plucked into his ears so he can't hear her when she tells him to shut up.

When he groans again for the sixth time, Brooklyn picks out her least favourite pen from the penholder and aims for Niall's cheek. The pen hits his jaw, however, but that's good enough for her. The last time she tried to do that, she had aimed for his shoulder but it ended up going over his head – Niall had a good laugh out of that.

Niall removes his left earphone and kinks an eyebrow at her. "What?"

"Can you stop it?" It is more of a demand rather than a request as she says it with a frown between her brows.

"Stop what?" Niall asks, confused.

"Stop groaning," she tells him, annoyance lacing her tone. "It's annoying."

Niall leans forward as he takes off his right earphone. "I've been groaning?" He asks. Brooklyn nods. Looking around the office, he lowers his voice before saying, "Dean gave me this special assignment-"

"Why'd Mr Storm give you a special assignment?" She interrupts him with a question. The fact that she's not chosen puts a pout on her lips. She's certain that if he were to come to her and ask her to write something, she would take it seriously. Unlike Niall.

He scoffs and rolls his eyes. "That's beside the point," he replies before continuing, "I have to write a great review about this awful album by this new band."

Brooklyn crinkles her nose at him. She's sure it's not that awful. Niall is being biased and he's obviously exaggerating. So, she drags her chair to his desk and picks up his right earphone and shoves it into her ear. "Play one of their songs."

He looks at her like she's about to do something stupid. "Are you sure?"

She nods. "Yeah."

"Okay then."

He clicks the play button and immediately loud music starts invading her hearing sense. She can hardly hear the voice of the lead singer as it's drowned by the sound of the electric guitar and the bass and the drums and the... keyboard?

Brooklyn pulls out the earphone before the song can give her a headache. Niall is giving her that look – the I told you so look – and he clicks pause.

"That's... unpleasant to my eardrum," Brooklyn concludes, still trying to be nice even though it takes everything in her not to say words like bad, horrible, awful, the worst song she's ever heard this year.

"It's awful," he speaks the truth for her. Running a hand down his face, he lets out another groan. Now she gets it. She would've groaned every five minutes too if she has to listen to songs like that. "The worst part is that I can't be honest about this review."

"Why not?" Brooklyn asks. She knows how much he values honestly in an article – especially his.

"Dean knows the manager and he's promised to write a good review about this album to boost sales and all that," he explains. Dejection is written all over his face and Brooklyn feels bad for him. She's capable of feeling that for Niall, apparently.

Placing a hand on his shoulder, she gives it a squeeze. "You know you could just write an honest review, say it's, uh, awful." She suggests, to which he shoots her a glare. She knows he won't do that. Although he doesn't take most things seriously, he takes his work seriously, albeit the messing around.