Crooked

jesus, niall. [chapter eighteen]

A few days had passed since Niall decided to seduce me, which was a bad choice, by the way. Not only was I having very bad dreams about him, he was threatening to ruin the professionalism I wanted to keep by making me want to kiss him. And that wasn’t going to happen. No way.

The boys were lucky enough to have a night off, so it was decided that we were going to go out for dinner, we as in the boys, Paul, me and Angie, Lou Teasdale – the boys’ stylist whom they were all very close to, her husband Tom and their baby girl, Lux. Lux was the cutest kid I’d ever laid eyes on, and it was very easy to see how much the boys – especially Harry, I noticed – seemed to love her also. We ended up going to a high end restaurant with some stupid French name but with the usual fancy steaks and fish and all that jazz. I tried to not sit next to Niall, not trusting myself when I was technically off duty, but Angie made sure that when everyone sat down, the only seat available was the one between Harry and Niall.

I wasn’t sure whether to be pleased or annoyed.

Also at Angie’s assistance was that she was going to ‘doll’ me up. I was going to protest before I realised that nothing I was going to say was going to get me out of the situation so I went along with it; also I was too tired to fight back with her. Running after the boys constantly every time they decided to cause havoc on the staff – which was often – was tiring, as well as being their personal assistant and bossing them around when I needed to – which was also often. Most of the time, the job itself was fun, but it also took a lot of energy out of me. Even though I was working hard, I knew the boys had it harder – the almost nightly concerts, countless morning interviews (which I also had to be up for), appearing on TV shows, signings, promoting themselves and their music as much as they could, while also keeping their seemingly ‘good boy’ appearance. It was humbling to know that they took all of it very seriously and still managed to be smiling every day.

After dinner, there were no plans to do anything together as a group, I knew Louis and Zayn were keen on going clubbing, Liam was planning another Skype date with Danielle and Harry was going to babysit Lux as Tom and Lou were going to have a rare night spent together. Tom wasn’t on tour with us, but he and Lux tried to visit the boys and Lou as much as he could.

I planned to either sleep or watch a movie with Angie, but I was half hoping Niall would ask me to do something with him. Angie had promised me that the sight of what I was wearing would convince Niall in a heartbeat to ask me out, but nothing had happened, not even a compliment had escaped the Irish boy’s lips. Us girls were in fancy dresses and the boys in blazers and shirts, and I even let Angie put more make up on me than usual, but it seemed like nothing was working.

I tried to not let that get to me, because as far as I was concerned, I didn’t care. At least, I wasn’t supposed to.

“Are you okay?” A rush of shivers went up my spine as Niall’s breath grazed my ear gently. If I turned my head to look at him, my lips would be too close to his and I couldn’t handle that right now.

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. Why didn’t I fight harder to not sit next to Niall!

“Dinner is served,” a cheesy, obviously French waiter greeted us as several waiters surrounded the table and handed our food. Most of the boys had ordered steak, except for Niall who’d ordered chicken and a serve of fries and salad on the side. I swear that boy could eat for years and still not gain a pound. It was so unfair.

Angie and I had both ordered some fancy pasta dish, and once the food was served we both got straight into it. Well, at least I did. Angie was the neat eater, very polite and careful not to have a mouthful when she talked. I, on the other hand, when hungry just stuffed my face, not ever taking notice of those around me. Angie had warned me before that I had better be on my best behaviour but of course, when I’d been hungry all day and it was just served in front of me, how could I resist?

Only ten minutes had passed until Niall and I were the first ones to finish our food, while the rest of the group were taking their time, chatting as they did so.

“You’ve got quite an appetite there,” Niall muttered with a grin on his face.

I shrugged, turning to face him. “Can’t blame me, I’ve been hungry all day. When was the last time you ate?”

“An hour or two ago?” Niall scrunched up his nose in thought, and it struck me as cute, the way he did it. 

 I rolled my eyes at him. “Jesus, Niall.”

He shrugged and wiped his face with the serviette. “I’m hungry, give me a break.”

“Yeah Cass,” Harry mocked from the other side of me. “Give ‘im a break, he has a hard life.”

I stuck my tongue out at him in response.

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After a fun filled dinner complete with Louis chatting to all of us about the new girl he was interested in, Eleanor, Harry, Angie and Zayn playfully arguing about the best looking older women in the restaurant and Liam chiding Niall not to eat so much and Niall waving him off saying he was fine, we all split up to do our own thing after dinner. Angie said she was going to sleep early but I wasn’t tired yet, so I lounged in front of the TV with some Ben and Jerry’s, content to pig out and order a movie.

A knock on the door interrupted me from my movie picking and I got up to answer the door, secretly happy and surprised to see Niall outside, grinning sheepishly at me and holding a pizza box in his hand. He wore simple grey track pants and a t-shirt, but he looked as handsome as ever.

“Mind if I join you?” He asked, looking at me so intently I couldn’t bear to say no. So I shook my head and moved out of the way, letting him come in.

“I was about to order a movie,” I informed him. “Any preferences?”

“Whatever you want.” He sat on the couch and pulled me down next to him, liking the way his fingers felt on my arms and his warmth radiating from his body. I flicked through a couple of channels, landing on a classic Disney movie, The Lion King.

“Is this okay?” I asked Niall, glad that I had laid two spoons out in case Angie joined me for the ice-cream. I opened the tub and took a mouthful of chocolate chip, not caring one bit that Niall was watching me. Well, I cared a little bit but he didn’t have to know that. Niall took one of the spoons and the tub from me, shovelling the ice-cream into his mouth like no tomorrow.

“Best movie,” he said between mouths and I chuckled at the sight of him, a lovely ice-cream moustache had formed on his upper lip. I was tempted to reach over and kiss it off, but I somehow managed to keep my hormones intact.

“What’s wrong? Somethin’ on my face?” Niall set the ice-cream down and proceeded to rub his cheeks.

I giggled. “You have an ice-cream moustache,” I replied. “Very attractive.”

“Well,” Niall murmured, wrapping an arm around my shoulder and pulling me into him. “I guess you better get it off then, huh?”

“What do you mean?” I started to protest but got what Niall meant when he leaned over and kissed me. And not just a peck, a proper tongues included, lips grazing, my hands in Niall’s hair as I found myself bringing him closer to me and his arms wrapped around my waist kind of kiss. The kind of kiss that could leave a girl breathless, and the kind of kiss I definitely was not going to pull away from any time soon.

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Yeah. I know I suck at updating. After getting this chapter out I'm ready to redraft my plan for this story and update weekly, at least. AND I can update my other stories too, thank God. Tell me what you think of this chapter and let me tell you, the ending was unexpected for me too ;)