Turn Around

I felt instantly relieved as I caught sight of the place. The whole relaxed vibe coming off the light maroon colored walls, freckled with simple wall decorations and small lantern lights having from the ceiling, comforted me. I was glad the boys had picked a casual restaurant as I wasn't in the mood - or in the correct attire - to go all out.

Niall placed a friendly hand on my lower back as he led me around. We followed Harry weaving through the other tables. A few younger customers stared at the two boys. With their nice selves, they sent the girls back sweet smiles.

We finally made it to our spot. At the table there were already the others gathered around in their seats - the rest of the boys, two brunettes and a blond girl who I guessed must've been their girlfriends. Sneaking another glance at the girls I felt my heart sink as they were gorgeous.

I felt something brush against my ears and it sent a shiver around the base of my neck. "Come on. Sit down Chris," he murmured. His accent dripped into my captivated ears.

I willingly followed his order. Having no reason to disobey. Everyone glanced at me, sending over welcoming smiles. In the back of my mind, I hoped that not one of the girls recognize my face as Leo's sister. That would simply ruin my day which had gone off to a great start.

"So," the girl sitting between Liam and another brunette began. She placed her elbows on the surface of the table, clasping her hands together. "Hi." She smiled brightly at me showing a perfect set of teeth. One of the boys cracked a joke and she laughed - eyes still on me - making her brown curls, almost ringlets, bob around.

I muttered a small hey. It was this girl's stare that bothered me. I had no idea why she was eyeing me in this way. The gaze wasn't exactly intimidating but I felt uncomfortable underneath it.

She laughed again. "I'm Danielle. The others and I couldn't put up with Niall complaining that you apparently don't talk to him." A brown brow is raised.

"Y-Yeah, um," I stuttered. "There was some misunderstanding."

Danielle nodded. "Sorry for not minding my own business, love."

"No," I said all too quickly. "That's okay. I guess you guys deserve it from his whining I guess."

She giggled and the rest snickered at my joke. I turned my head to the side to examine Niall's reaction. He was merely staring at me with those blue gems of his, a cute smile on his lips. Good thing he didn't take that as an insult.

After another second of our locked gazes he moved. "Sorry I haven't introduced you to the girls." My eyes followed his hand gesturing to the girl sitting next to Dani.

She emitted a small wave, wigging her fingers. Exact same thing Niall did when I first met him. "Eleanor, nice to meet you Christie."

"And this is-" he began motioning towards the cute blond beside the all too perfect Zayn.

"-Perrie and not as in peri-peri sauce Niall," she hissed before grinning back at me.

I replied with a smile realizing that these three girls are all familiar to me. How could they not be? The One Direction fans loved all their girlfriends and once when I was creeping through twitter, I saw a few accounts dedicated to them.

"Edwards? As in Little Mix?" Perrie nodded. "Oh your songs are good."

"Thank you!"

Niall sighed. "I just had an idea...why didn't we just go to Nando's?" All the others groaned at him but it wasn't one where it seemed they hated the food, it was more a groan where they had become so sick of it because of him. I laughed at the thought.

He was, in the simplest and ironically also cryptic way, adorable. I had never met such a precious eighteen year old before. It was a massive question mark for me to know that I'd been holding away from him for so long when he was such an all around wonderful person.

For some reason, he was the only boy who'd ever made me feel so conflicted. No other person could've messed with me enough to even begin fighting with myself. It was an honestly strange statement.



"Maybe we can hang out again," she offered, her brown strands waving lightly with the soft breeze. "This time without male company." Eleanor pulled me into an embrace and even though it felt slightly awkward for me, I reciprocated.

The others noticed our hug them decided to join in the fun - also hugging me for a farewell. It wasn't that I was afraid of contact, I merely felt uncomfortable as I rarely hugged people. Specially people whom I'd just met.

With one last final goodbye, I was in the car again, this time heading back to where I lived instead of driving me away. I wasn't entirely sure this belonged to Harry as I always pictured him in an expensive convertible, chocolate curls blowing in the wind. Or a smart looking sleek black car, with tinted windows so nobody would know it was Harry Styles.

Also for the second time that day, the two boys were again bicmerig over such unimportant topics. I didn't mind as long as they didn't persuade me to talk about things I wasn't sure about. I felt that I was already stuck in a booby trapped jungle. If I were to have deeper conversations they would know things about me and that would've only led me to an unsuspecting patch of quicksand.

I had no clue why I was even wasting time mulling over these thoughts. Obviously they did no good but raise my stress levels. As if he heard my venting mind, a hand picked mine up fiddling with the fingers. I looked up at Niall, the skin contact soothing me.

He was an absolute sweetheart. Also known as an alcohol consumer and at times could be foul mouthed. But none of those mattered. Suddenly flirting wasn't even in my dictionary anymore. I wanted to replace that word with 'Niall'.

Who cared what my brother thought? He couldn't do anything to harm me and if he could, he wouldn't. Leo was a jerk but he would never really hurt me if he tried. So all my worries were all for nothing. It's not like I'm the first one who dated the enemy, right?

"Here we are," Harry sang. If he put any more sentences into a song I might be forced to take stopping him into a whole new level. He sung for a living and fun, it didn't need to be his whole life.

I stepped out of the car. The engine was still rumbling and I knew they would've waited until I knocked on the front door. If patient, waited until someone answered it.

The door opened all too soon. I turned back to let Niall know something but the vehicle had vanished. Now he wouldn't know about my change of mind. And I was both afraid and relieved about it.

Afraid, because I could've reconsidered all of this and never allow him to know my feelings. And relieved because the stress of confrontation gone from my shoulders.