Counting the Stars

"I'm not entirely sure how you'll feel about this, but would you like to go out to dinner tonight?" Niall asked quickly, as soon as I opened the door for him.

Harry and I had been sitting in my hotel room, watching movies for the good chunk of the morning. We had a show later tonight, so we planned on spending most of our time being lazy until we actually had to work. Somewhere in the middle of watching Finding Nemo, Niall came and knocked on the door.

The past couple days I had spent working on ways to get around without having to use my wheelchair all of the time. Once Niall began banging on the door, I took it upon myself to waddle over to the door and open it for him. Thus, leaving me in the current position of agreeing to go on a date or not.

I raised my eyebrows, "I don't know if that's the best idea..."

To tell you the truth, I wanted to jump into Niall's arms, hug him tightly and proclaim my love for him out loud. I wanted to shout all about how I would love to go out to dinner and how dinner would make me the happiest girl in the whole world. But I wasn't going to allow myself to do that. I told myself that I was going to stay strong and not just jump into his arms now that him and Caroline are no longer together, I had already made that mistake once.

"Please Callista? Us going out to dinner together won't kill you.. We can find some place to eat after the show and then come back to the hotel. If you really want, we'll go just as friends. No weird emotions mixed in with it," He begged, looking at me with his puppy dog eyes that could make any girl swoon.

"Fine. Right after the show. Strictly as friends. I want Italian again," I replied quickly, shutting the door in his face before he could respond.

I waddled back over to the bed and sat myself down next to Harry. His eyes were fixed on the screen, but turned to face me once I sat down. His eyebrows raised, as if to ask "What happened?"

"Niall wanted to go out to dinner. I agreed. Nothing else to it," I shrugged, cuddling up next to him.

Even though Eleanor made it apparent to tell me to listen to my heart, and not what my head was telling me, I couldn't help but still think that Harry would have been a better person to fall for. Not once had he done anything stupid to hurt me. He had always been a perfect gentlemen, never once being rude or doing anything to break my heart.

Niall on the other hand was a completely different story. In the terms of relationships, he was practically a walking disaster. He didn't know what to say or when to say it, and never knew what was right or what was wrong. Yet everything about him made me like him even more. It was all my stupid heart working against the logic that my mind had laid out for me.

Harry sighed, "Please just don't get hurt, Cal. I don't want to see you hurting."

---

The show tonight was probably the best one of the entire tour thus far. It wasn't anything over the top or overdone, but everyone just seemed so genuinely happy to be there, it made the show practically perfect. Rolling myself off of the stage, I was so happy after that performance that I didn't care I was stuck in a wheelchair. For the first time in a long while, I didn't pity myself and my immobility. I was happy for no reason whatsoever, and nothing was going to ruin that.

"Hey smiley, you ready to go out to dinner?" Niall asked, skipping over and standing behind my wheelchair.

Even at the mention of dinner, my mood didn't drop. I didn't begin to worry about what was going to happen like I normally would have. I smiled up at him, nodding eagerly. What was wrong with me? I wasn't entirely sure. It was weird for me to be this happy, this late at night.

"I found the best restaurant... Ever. You're going to absolutely love it!" Niall raved, pushing me out towards where the vans loaded unloaded.

One of the private SUVs that followed us around everywhere we went was already waiting for us, running and ready to zip out of the parking lot at any moment. Niall helped me out of my wheelchair and into the car, while the driver loaded my wheelchair into the trunk. If there was thing I was definitely not going to miss about the wheelchair, was the loading and unloading of it. After a while it became such a burden.

The ride to wherever we were going for dinner was silent. It was a comfortable silence, though. There wasn't any awkward small talk being made, was which made the silence that much more enjoyable. It wasn't long before the driver was pulling into a parking lot. Like before, Niall helped me out of the car and into my wheelchair. After a few words were exchanged with the driver, Niall was rolling me towards a restaurant named, "Valentino's"

"What is this place?" I asked.

"Italian pasta buffet.You eat almost more than I do, so I figured a pasta buffet would be your favorite place," He answered, smiling brightly.

The sign was up to seat ourselves, so we did just that.

The entire dinner was simple and sweet. As we ate our food, we talked and jokes around as if nothing had happened between us. For most of the night, we forgot about what had happened and started out as completely different people.

"I know this is probably the last subject you want to hear about, but like I've said a thousand times before, I'm really sorry, 'Lista. Everything I did to you was one mistake after another. I'm determined to one day call you mine, so I do plan on working for you. Tonight was just the first step," He talked slowly, looking directly into my eyes.

Without breaking eye contact, he pulled out a flat, rectangular box from his pocket and slid it over the table. I shook my head quickly, pushing it back towards him.

"There is no way I am accepting a gift from you, I can't do that."

He shook his head, pushing it back towards me, "I'm making you take it. Please, just do it."

I sighed and opened the box. It was a beautiful charm bracelet, with a few charms dangling from the chains. Each charm was a small symbol that represented something in my life. There was a set of drumsticks, two sky scrapers, the outline of California, and a few other things. It was absolutely perfect.

"Your plan is working," I mumbled to myself, still examining the bracelet.

"That was the whole plan, 'Lista," He smiled, reaching across the table to grab my hand.