This Town

Chapter Sixty

I waited for her call the next day. And the day after that. And the day after that. Nothing. I heard from David. He said he spoke with her when he went to pick his things up and nothing had changed. She was adamant.

I left for the States for a couple of weeks to put the final touches on my album and sort out a small tour before embarking on a larger tour the next year. All the plans were falling into place. I even had an amazing opening act for different legs of the tour.

Siobhan did eventually reach out to me to let me know she was doing okay. She was looking forward to hearing the full album. I personally sent her one before anyone else could hear it. She said she loved it.

Over the next few months, we slowly got back to being friends again. I didn't even bother to try to ask her out or figure out her feelings. That whole ordeal made me realize I can't force her to recognize and accept what I felt to be true. As much as I wanted to, I held myself together and decided to let her decide when she was ready.

In March, she came to my opening show in Ireland. She sat front row center and it made me the happiest person in the world to have her there, amongst my family, again. The show went amazing and afterwards we all went out to celebrate.

The celebratory drinks made the rounds, with each of us buying a round. The more I drank, the more I couldn't take my eyes off of her. She seemed to be more animate than she had been lately. And, while sitting there, I couldn't help but notice that she kept looking my way, too. Anytime either of us got caught looking at the other, we smiled. Greg, of course, noticed.

"She'll figure it out eventually," he said, snapping me out of my head.

"Huh?"

"Siobhan. She'll eventually come to her senses, Niall. You two are supposed to be together. You know it. She knows it. She just doesn't yet, you know what I mean?"

"Not really. I'm kind of toasted." I said, nearly falling out of my chair when I tried to sit up right. She looked over at me and laughed. I smiled at her. Greg smiled and slapped me on the back before walking off.

As the night wore on, we got more and more drunk. Siobhan got nearly every person there to dance with her. I was watching her the whole time, when Christian sat down next to me and said, "So she's your childhood best friend?"

I drunkenly smiled at him as I went back to watching her. "Yeah. She's also the girl I'm going to marry."

"What? You're dating?"

"We did. We broke up several years ago, now. The past year or so, we finally reconnected, as friends, at least. But, eventually, that stubborn-assed woman is going to stop denying she still loves me and when she does," I took a sip of my beer. "When she does, I'm grabbing her hand and I'm never letting her go again."

"She's lovely, Niall." And so there we sat, watching as she took everyone around the makeshift dance floor she had created. She even got my father and my brother to dance with her. Both of whom, clearly, said something to her because she kept looking back at me. I didn't even bother trying to fake out like I wasn't watching her.

At the end of night, we all parted ways. "Siobhan, wait a sec." I called to her. I got a thumbs up from Christian as he and the lads all went back to the hotel.

"What's up, buttercup?" she said to me, a smile spread across her face, her eyes glassy from the alcohol she had consumed.

"Take a walk with me?"

"I don't know if I can, but I'll try," she laughed as she started walking down the sidewalk. She looped an arm through mine to steady herself, but once she had, she didn't let go. She even rested her head on my shoulder. My heart was pounding out of my chest. She had to have felt it.

"The guys seem to have taken a liking to ya," I said, trying to make small talk.

"Well, of course. I'm the epitome of awesome!" She said, letting go of me to spin around and walk backwards as she looked at me. She stumbled a little but I caught her before she fell. We looked into each other's eyes for a moment, and I smiled, because I could see it in her eyes. But she let go before anything else could happen.

We walked a little ways when we came upon an old playground, where she suddenly sprinted across the street, without looking, and jumped onto the roundabout. "Come push me, Niall!" She shouted, drunkenly holding on to the bars.

I smiled as I made my way over there and proceeded to push the roundabout before jumping on myself, just like old times. She was laughing so hard, as she tried to maintain being upright. It didn't work and as the roundabout slowed down, we both fell off it and landed on our asses, dizzy and drunk.

She crawled over to me and put her head on my stomach. "I don't feel so good, Nialler."

I smiled at the nickname she had given me so many lifetimes ago. I laughed, remembering when we were in this same predicament as kids, "You remember when we got drunk after the school holiday party and we stupidly spun around on one of these things?"

"Yeah, I do. I remember everything."

"Do you ever wish we could go back to when life was easier? When we thought we had it all figured out? And, maybe, redo some of the things we messed up on?" I asked, as I began lightly stroking her hair.

She didn't respond. I felt her move away from me and get up off the ground, offering her hand to me, to help me up, which I took. We continued to walk around the town, despite the late hour. She began humming one of my songs when I had an idea pop into my head.

I grabbed her hand and dragged her out into the street. "What are you doing?" she asked, as she stumbled again off the pavement. I saved her from landing face first into the street and pulled her to me.

"I want to dance with you in the middle of this street."

She laughed at me, "Why on earth would you do that?"

"Because I said I would."

"What?"

"Don't ask, just dance." I twirled her around and pulled her back to me. I could see her eyelids getting heavy with sleep. I began to sing softly into her ear, "If the whole world was watching, I'd still dance with you; Drive highways and byways to be there with you. Over and over, the only truth: everything comes back to you."

She pulled away from me and looked at me. "Niall--"

"Siobhan, stop. Before you say anything, please let me say this first. I've been wanting to say this to you for I don't even know how long. And it's something I should've said a long, long time ago."

She let go of me and stepped back. She looked at me inquisitively before saying, "Okay."