Crooked

"Thanks for meeting me," I stuttered nervously, toying with the white gem ring that was worn on my right hand. I didn't know why I was nervous; the sight of Crook - I mean, Niall - didn't usually have an effect on me.

Although this was the first time I was seeing him alone, without Louis or anyone else that may be there.

I hadn't been waiting for him long. After I called him and asked if he could meet up with me, Niall replied instantly, telling me he was planning to go out to grab a bite at Nando's. Currently, we were sitting in a booth away from prying eyes as he ordered what seemed like half the menu. I had a medium size of peri-peri chips, which Niall graciously offered to pay for. Instead of protesting like I generally would have, I simply accepted it, mainly because I had a limited amount of money on me.

"How are you doing?" Niall asked me, politely I might add. He was very nice and polite; making it harder for me to be rude. "Done anything worthy enough to land yourself in jail?”

Not only was he polite, he was funny too. I bit my lip to keep myself from laughing. I was a sucker for bad jokes.

"Actually," I started, "I wanted to thank you. For paying for my bail, I mean. I don't know why you did it because you don't even know me but it was really nice of you and-" I stopped abruptly, feeling Niall's warm hand over mine. His touch made me shiver, and inwardly I cursed for allowing myself to feel such things towards Niall. He had paid for my bail, and nothing else.

If only I could tell that to my hormones.

"I did it because you looked like you needed it," Niall interrupted, "when I saw you sitting in the cell with Louis you seemed upset and -" he paused, shyly smiling, "I don't like seeing pretty girls upset."

It was a cliché` line, but it didn't stop the imploding fireworks in my heart go off. I willed my brain to make it stop, but they kept exploding as the blood rushed to my cheeks. I pulled my hand away from Niall's and gave him a half-smile, attempting to control myself.

"Thank you then," I mumbled.

We sat in a comfortable silence for a while; eating our food. Well, I was eating it and Niall was scoffing it down. I watched him for a moment as he took a bite of his cheeseburger and slurped on his drink simultaneously.

When he noticed me staring, he blushed. "Sorry," he muttered, sending me another crooked smile. Damn that smile, it was doing things to me I didn't want to happen. "I don't usually eat so pig-like. I'm pretty hungry."

"Liar," we both looked up to see Louis, who sent an attractive grin down my way. Standing next to him was a curly haired guy, who looked a little younger than Louis and had the cutest dimples I had ever seen in my life.

"Niall's a pig," Louis informed me, as he slid next to me in the booth. I blushed when his thigh touched mine briefly. "Eats like this all the time. You get used to it after a while."

I grinned; this was the perfect opening to announce my idea. Before I could speak up, the dimpled boy spoke. "Hello, I'm Harry, nice to meet you." He flashed me a smile and to my relief, he had a beautiful smile with shockingly white teeth. His dimples were more pronounced as he grinned at me.

"Cassidy," I introduced myself, "Cassie for short. Just call me Cassie."

"So we finally learn the jail girl's name," Louis announced, resting his arm around my shoulder. "I'd been trying to figure out your name in the last few days."

I raised an eyebrow. "What did you come up with?"

"Horrible names," Harry replied, smiling again. I couldn't shake the feeling that I'd seen him before, but I shook the thought out of my head. "Marnee, Christine, Roberta..."

"Quinesha, Maria, Jordan, Lucy," Niall spoke again in his thick Irish accent. "I don't know where that first one came from; it sounds a bit African if you ask me."

I giggled, enjoying the attention of three very handsome males around me. It almost made me forget why I called Niall in the first place, besides thanking him for the bail of course.

"How much did bail cost?" I questioned Niall, as Louis stole a few of my peri-peri chips with a wink and shared them with Harry.

"Don't worry about paying me back," he assured me. "It's fine."

"You don't have to pay us back with money, of course," Louis smiled at me and wiggled his eyebrows. "There are other ways you could do that."

An opening. Perfect.

"That's what I was thinking, actually," I started, "you see, I'm in a bit of a pickle at home and my friend has invited me to live in England with her for a month or two. I'd love to stay with her but my parents isn’t going to let me borrow money from them unless it's for a legit excuse, so do you think it'd be possible if I worked for you guys or something?"

Harry frowned in concentration. "So you want us to hire you, in exchange you get to go to England and live with your friend. You need an excuse to get out of the country, am I correct?"

I nodded. "I'll do anything. Cook, clean, be a groupie, I'll do it."

"I like the sound of the groupie idea..." Louis trailed off and winked. I rolled my eyes.

Niall chewed on his food thoughtfully. "We don't personally need anything," he started, "but Simon is looking for an assistant for us. Liam told me about it."

"An assistant?" Harry answered. "Cool!" He fist bumped with Louis and I couldn't help but let out a little chuckle.

"I could do that," I replied, thinking about it in my head. If there was one thing I was good at, it was getting people to do shit for me. This job was going to be easy.

"Wait," I paused, "Why would you need an assistant?"

Before any of the boys could reply, I heard a teenage girl squeal and run up to our table. "Hi! I don't mean to bother you, but could you please sign this?" She held out a poster and the boys smiled at her, all graciously signing the poster.

I frowned. They couldn't have been drug dealers if a teenage girl knew them. I thought about my other ideas of who they were. A professional bull-fighter, actors, maybe they were singers.

I had no clue.

"Sorry about that," Harry apologised after the girl left the table.

"It's cool," I told him. Looking around at all three of them I asked, "So. Why would you need an assistant and why did that girl ask for your autograph?"

Louis' eyebrows drew together in confusion. "You don't know who we are?"

"Am I supposed to?"

Niall smiled at me. "We're in a band. You may have heard of the name, it's called -" He was cut off by my phone going off; the ring tone was a song called What Makes You Beautiful. I didn't know who the song was by, but Angie recommended me the song; thinking I'd like it.

As it played while I fished for my phone inside my purse, the three of them smirked. I gave them all a weird look and looked at the caller ID. It was my mother. Sighing, I pressed end call and returned to the boys.

"Sorry," I rolled my eyes, stopping when I noticed their faces. "What?"

"What's the name of the song on your ringtone?" Louis asked while Niall and Harry let out a chuckle.

"What Makes You Beautiful," I told him, giving him a weird look, "my friend recommended it to me. I don't know who the band is though..."

My eyes widened as I realised why the boys were smirking and laughing at me. The song as my ringtone was...the boys. They were the band. What was their name again?

"We're three fifths of One Direction," Niall explained, "and our song is your ringtone."

I smiled. This all made sense now. I had heard their song on the radio, where they had an interview with the Hot Hits. I knew I recognised the boys from somewhere, because in the cafe where I used to work, a poster similar to the one the girl had was plastered on the wall. Joanne, the owner of the cafe, was a fan of the boys.

I started giggling as a new thought came over me.

"What is it?" Harry asked politely, as I burst out into a fit of laughter.

Grinning at all of them I answered, "I knew you guys weren't professional bull-fighters."