Small Talk (Niall Horan)

Chapter 63

*Niall's P.O.V.*

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Dublin Airport. Local time is 1:30 pm and the temperature is 5º degrees." I heard the flight attendant call through the speaker system a minute after we landed. Soph had fallen asleep the whole flight, and given how stressed she was over the video, I didn't want to wake her up.

"Soph, babe... we're here." I whispered in her ear as I lightly shook her shoulder, so I wouldn't startle her. 

"Huh? What?" She groggily answered in a sleepy voice, not opening her eyes yet.

"We're already in Dublin." 

"I slept through the whole flight?" She opened her eyes suddenly as she spoke.

"Yeah." I chuckled.

"Wow, I've never slept through a whole flight."

"Let's gather our belongings, they're opening the door now." I spoke as I started putting away my headphones and iPad.

A few minutes later we got off the plane and went straight through customs and to collect our luggage. I was very familiar with this airport, given the fact that I've landed here a lot of times since I first started traveling with the boys. 

"I rented a car." I spoke as Soph followed me through the airport.It was quite busy and I was surprised, I tried to hide my face as much as I could using my snapback and keeping my head down.

"You did?"

"Yeah, so I can show you around."

"Wow! That would be great!" Soph replied excitedly as we got to the car rental area. 15 minutes later we were set to go. "So, are you going to call your publicist?" She inquired as soon as we were inside the car.

"Yeah. I'll call him right now, before we hit the road." I told her, and I was so no looking forward to having that conversation with him. I already knew what she was going to tell me and Sofia wouldn't like it.

"Thank you Nialler." She smiled at me as I got out of the car to call her. Knowing Soph she'll keep interrupting me and ask me what she's saying, so that's why I got out of the car to call her.

"Hey Simon." I spoke as soon as he answered the call. And no, it's not Simon Cowel, it's Simon Jones, he has been our publicist since our One Direction days and Louis and I stuck with him during our solo careers.

"Niall...I'm guessing you're calling about the video that's been going around."

"Yeah."

"So, who is it?"

"Me girlfriend."

"I didn't know you had a girlfriend."

"We've been keeping it on the down low."

"I see, I see."

"So, what do you think I should do?"

"You've got to come forward and explain the situation, maybe even tell them that you have a girlfriend and that it was her in the video. Otherwise they're going to start saying that you've derailed and started picking up fights with random people, they're going to say you have anger issues. You know how the media likes to twist things. And it doesn't help the fact that you were fighting with a girl, if it had been a guy we could've just brushed it off as if you were fighting with a friend, but you know how harsh the media is when it comes to woman."

"I know, I know. But to be fair we weren't even fighting."

"It sure seems as if you were."

"We weren't, fucking Ellie just recorded it from an angle that made it seem as if we were."