Small Talk (Niall Horan)

Chapter 27

*Sofia's P.O.V.*

I tried to lower my gaze as soon as Niall came on stage. It would hurt a lot to see him performing so close to me when I knew we weren't together anymore.

"Hi, how's it going?" I heard him speak through the microphone.

"Oh my god, he's here. So close to us!" Vic shrieked as she squeezed my arm in excitement.

"I know, I know. I can't believe it." I spoke, masking my sadness with my overly enthusiastic voice.

"I'm going to perform a few songs, this one is Everywhere. Hope you like it." I heard Niall announce. As he started to sing I couldn't help but put on a fake smile for the sake of my friend, I didn't want her to ask me what was wrong. And I even swayed to the rhythm of the song, it was quite catchy to be honest. Even if I was still a little mad at Nialler I couldn't help but dance to his music, it was really good.

"Oh my god, he keeps staring at you!" Victoria squeezed my arm once again, she was beyond thrilled.

"No he doesn't." I tried brushing it off, but I did catch him staring at me several times.

"Yes he does!" She shrieked at me. "You're so lucky." Oh yeah, I'm really really lucky, you have no idea how much.

When Niall got to the last chorus he stared right at me, I of course, lowered my gaze as soon as I saw him staring. I couldn't look him in the eyes, it hurt so much. When he was singing 'When I think I'm all alone' I looked up once again, and he was still staring at me. This time, I caved and started right back at his gorgeous blue eyes. I had really missed staring into them, and I could actually see that he was hurting as well. Just staring into his eyes made me realize how much I love him and how much I miss him. It made me realize that I want to try and make things work with him, no matter how much he hurt me. I could see that he felt awful for doing it. He went through a lot of trouble just to get me to be here, that had to give him some points. I unconsciously started smiling, not a big smile, but a smile nonetheless, and it was the first time in quite a few days that I genuinely smiled. Maybe it was time to forgive him.

"Okay, now you can't deny it, he was definitely staring at you when he sang the last chorus." Victoria hissed right to my ear, since Niall was right in front of us.

"Fine, fine. I won't deny it." I finally agreed with her. There was no point in trying to deny it, he had made it pretty clear that he was staring at me.

"OMG! I'm so happy for you!" Vic told me. Gosh, she was such a good friend, not everyone gets this happy and excited for someone else, that's why she was my best friend.

"Now I'm going to sing a song from my previous album, I have to save some of the newer songs for the actual concert." Niall declared before chuckling. God, I had missed hearing his chuckle in real life, his laugh was the most amazing laugh. It was quite contagious and I loved that. He started playing the chords to Flicker and then started singing it, while walking around the stage. I had never seen him perform live by himself, and it was actually quite nice. I could see how much he enjoyed it, even if it was only soundcheck.

He sang 3 more songs: Seeing Blind, On The Loose and Too Much To Ask. I smiled all along and caught him staring at me a few times, though not as much as in the first song. I could see that he was trying to make it less obvious that he knew me and I could see that he was trying not to stare at me. It was quite funny actually, but I appreciated the gesture, this was clearly not how I wanted Vic to find out we knew each other.

"Thank you so much for coming, and I can't wait to see you all later tonight during the concert!" Niall spoke one final time after answering a few questions from the crowd. He waved goodbye and took one final look at me before exiting the stage.