under my skin || n.h. au

seventeen: you can hear it in the silence

"I can't believe you made me come to work early," Niall grumbles as he pushes the door open and steps aside to let Brooklyn walk into the building first. The weather has gone from tolerable to intolerable, and he looks forward to the warmth his office provides during this time of the year. He doesn't deal with the cold weather well, which Brooklyn finds to be weird because he's spent half of his life living in this city and yet he's still isn't used to it.

"You stayed over at my place so you gotta follow my rules," Brooklyn tells him whilst they make their way to the lift. Several people are waiting in line and she appreciates that they aren't crowding the door and making it difficult for the ones inside the lift to step out.

"So if we stay over at mine, would you—"

"No way," Brooklyn interrupts with a shake of her head, answering his question before he can even finish it because knows what he's going to ask – the smirk on his face gives it away. She doesn't understand his obsession with wanting to see her being unpunctual.

"Please? I'd love to see you come to work late."

"I... I have been to work late a few times," Brooklyn admits. It's like spilling a secret to an enemy so she expects mortification to wash over her, but the surprised look on Niall's face makes her chuckle instead. "Oh c'mon. Don't tell me you didn't know."

He continues to gape at her. "When did that happen? And more importantly, where was I when you sprinted from the lift to your desk?"

"I didn't sprint," Brooklyn counters and rolls her eyes. She did power-walk from the lift to her desk because she didn't want anyone to notice her.

Niall gives her a look that says he doesn't believe her so she tells him that the three times – only three, she makes sure to emphasise that – she was late to work, she was lucky enough to not have to deal with him making fun of her because he was late too, which explains why he didn't know about her unpunctuality.

"Damn it," he curses to himself.

His response makes Brooklyn laugh, but her laughter is cut short when a name that she hasn't seen on the screen of her phone appears out of nowhere, signalling a call from said person. Brooklyn's stomach sinks and everything around her fading away as she stares at the screen, unsure of what her next move should be.

"Bee?" Niall's soft voice brings her back to reality. She blinks her eyes several times before she looks at him. A concerned look touches his face as he wraps his fingers around her elbow and pulls her aside so other people could step into the lift. "Is everything alright?"

Brooklyn blinks again. She thought she's imagining it all but one glance at her phone confirms that it isn't a dream. After not contacting her for almost a year, her mother decides that now is the best time to do so. "Unbelievable," she mutters under her breath when the call ends before she gets to answer it, which is probably for the best because she doesn't know what will come out of her mouth had she answered it.

"Who is it?" Niall asks.

"It's... my mum," Brooklyn answers as she sends a text message to her siblings. She has a feeling that her mother has reached out to Oliver first because there's no way she'd call her unless Oliver didn't pick up. Her older brother has always been her favourite.

"And that's a bad thing?" Niall questions whilst his brows furrow in confusion.

Brooklyn forgets that he doesn't know much about her parents – all that he knows is that they're divorced and her father won the custody for her and her siblings. She doesn't like to talk about them and he knows that, which is why he never pushes her to talk about it and she appreciates that. But maybe now's the time to pull out that box and open it.