Stuck in The Moment with You [Niall Horan]

Chapter Nine

A few seconds after I realized Niall was standing there, Sarah came bounding around the corner, looking angry. “What?” She asked seeing me, then glancing at Niall. “Nothing…” I stepped away from the door to let her past. Niall and I both jumped when she slammed the door. “She’s lovely,” Niall said. I shook my head as I heard a few things slam around inside the room. “I gotta… See you later,” I said quickly going in my room. Sarah was stuffing clothes into her suitcase, angrily kicking things out of her way. “What are you doing?” I asked sitting down on my bed. “Someone made a complaint and I’m set to room with Anna and Laura now.” She slammed a few more things out of her way. “Why are you so mad?” I asked. “I didn’t do anything wrong, or make anyone mad, so I want to know who did it,” she said. I tried not to laugh or smile when she said that. Obviously it was Em who had a complaint. She grabbed a few more things and left. I waited till I was sure she was gone until I was sure she was gone and I took my medicine.

Brr, girlfriend, girlfriend, you could be my girlfriend—” I pulled my phone off the bedside table and answered it. “Hello?” I croaked as I sat up. “You really need to hurry your butt up, if you don’t get here within a half hour, Marie is going to stab you with her witch nails.” Em was completely serious. I looked at the clock beside me, saw it was 2pm, and then I was flying around the room trying to get dressed. “Where are you?” I asked Em as I braided my hair into a side braid and slipped on some flip flops. “When you get outside the hotel, go left, there’s a mall about two blocks over, grab the necklace off the table I left for you, show it to security when you get here, they’ll escort you to where we are,” she said. I hadn’t fallen asleep till 8am, Em said she’d tell Marie I wasn’t feeling well so I could stay in for a while. I was thankful to her, cause I didn’t want to go take pictures anyways. Lying awake all night came with good ideas. Like failing month one of this photography program so I would be sent home. That seemed like a really good plan, until I got to the signing and Niall wanted me to take pictures of everything he did.

“I wanna get a picture with the cardboard cut out of Katniss from The Hunger Games!” He screamed when we walked past the theatre in the mall. Usually Liam would take picture of him to post on twitter, but now that I was hear, every time Niall thought something was cool, he made me take a picture of himself with it. I had over 70 pictures by the time we went out for dinner. Hallie and Jacob had to come with us of course, since they’re our guardians, but they weren’t too happy about it, since they wanted to turn in early. 

“What are you doing?” I asked Niall, watching him set up menus on the table. “I’m making a shield,” he said. “Against what?” I asked, a bit confused. “I need to tell you something,” he whispered ducking his head behind the wall of menus. “Tell me,” I said and he shushed me, and motioned for me to duck down behind the menus. I shook my head. He grabbed my arm and pulled me forward. “What?” I asked. “Can I tell you a secret?” He asked. I slowly nodded, peeking over the top of the menu to see if anyone was watching. They weren’t. “Look at Zayn,” he whispered. I peeked back over the menu and looked at Zayn. He was sitting by Emma, having a conversation with her as he took a drink of his water. “Okay… So?” I asked, not getting the point. “Now look at Emma,” he said. “Which one?” I asked, not knowing if he knew which one we called which. “Emma! The one sitting beside Zayn,” he said. So he did know. I looked at Emma. “Niall… I don’t—” He elbowed me in the ribs. “Do you not see it?” He asked, peeking over the menu too. “No… I really don’t know what I’m supposed to be looking for,” I said, still watching Zayn and Emma. “Oh my God… Just watch them..” he said. 

They were having a normal conversation. Me and Niall were both watching, like creeps. I opened my mouth to say something to Niall again, but right when I did, I saw what he was talking about. They hadn’t really been having a conversation. Emma was talking pretty much the whole time, Zayn only leaned forward in his seat, watching intently to every hand gesture, and when she wasn’t moving her hands he was watching her lips. She said something then and her cheeks turned bright red, but he only grinned and shook his head. I was still watching them when I felt Niall nudge me. I turned my head and saw him looking at me, grinning. “What?” I asked, slightly embarrassed, as he smiled even bigger. “So you see it too?” He asked. I was about to reply when without warning, the waitress spoke beside me. “Are you guys ready to order?” She asked. I hadn’t even seen her walk up. The menus flew across the table and my elbow went sideways, causing my drink to spill across my front. Everyone at the table, and a few from others, were now looking at me and Niall. “I’m so sorry!” The young waitress said trying to grab some napkins from an empty table. “It’s fine, I’m just gonna go to the bathroom…” I said, awkwardly rising from my chair as Niall, wide eyed and red faced, tried not to laugh.

I grabbed one of the white towels that was folded on the counter and dabbed it on my shirt, before I heard the door open and close behind me. “Hey.” I turned around to see Nicole. “Hey,” I said, still trying to soak the Sprite out of my shirt. “You want my sweater?” She asked, watching me. “No.. That’s okay,” I said, and she laughed. “I have a shirt on under it, don’t worry,” she said, pulling off her purple sweater. Now she was wearing only a grey Ramones shirt, clearly it was Harry’s, since it was a bit big. She handed me the sweater. “Thanks..” I said taking it from her, “No problem. I’ll let you change.” She turned and left. I changed into Nicole’s sweater, and started to leave the bathroom. As the door slammed behind me Niall turned and looked at me. “What are you doing?” I asked, wondering why he was waiting outside the bathroom for me. “You okay?” He asked, his grin from a few minutes ago was replaced with seriousness. “I’m fine… Nicole gave me her sweater,” I said looking down at the purple sweater I was now wearing. I looked back up at him. Standing six inches from me had to be about the most beautiful boy on earth. After running around all day his hair was still perfectly tousled and sticking up in the front, even though he wasn’t smiling, his eyes were still lit up, and his arms were crossed, making his biceps look even bigger in his tight Turquoise polo. I met his eyes and he finally smiled.