Never See Me Giving In

Tate

I stared at myself in the mirror as I adjusted the black belt around my waist. It rested nicely on my Lauren Conrad purple dress. The dress hung loosely around my neck and proceeded to end mid-thigh. The simple black belt pulled it in tightly to capture my frame. I twisted slightly in my black Gucci heels that sparkled when catching the light.

I heard Skye’s voice as she chatted on the phone and walked back into her bedroom where I was getting ready. She waved a black clutch at me before throwing it on the bed. I walked over and began to place the stuff I would need tonight within it.

It was New Years Eve but we had all been invited to a charity event for children in poverty. After the event finished we were then going to head out to Nick Grimshaw’s New Year’s party to spend the rest of the night.

I glanced over at Skye to see she wasn’t even dressed yet and we had to leave in twenty minutes. I started to motion for her to hurry up. She sighed and began to end the phone call.

“Casey and Paige say Happy New Years,” Skye told me. I smiled and yelled it into the phone back at them before Skye hung up.

“Let’s go, let’s go. You should already be dressed.” I said pushing her towards the dress hanging up. She waved her hand at me and I stepped out of the room to see all the boys sitting around on the couches ready to go. Niall jumped up the moment he saw me and headed over grinning largely.

“You look amazing like usual,” he said to me gruffly in his Irish accent.

I smiled and leant forward to press a quick kiss to his lips before wiping the lip gloss off his lips for him.

“Where’s El and Dani?” I asked the boys.

“They’re running late so we have to pick them up from El’s on the way there. So we really should be leaving now,” Louis said the last part louder so Skye could here.

“I’m coming, I’m coming!” she yelled back before walking through the door searching through her silver clutch. I smiled as I saw Harry’s eyes practically fall out of his head as he stayed seated gawking at his girlfriend.

Skye’s red dress had a very low V neckline with a silver sparkly belt wrapped around just under her boobs. The red dress continued tightly down to mid thigh. Every single curve of hers was accentuated through the dress.

Zayn laughed and smacked Harry on the back lightly to snap him out his trance before standing up.

“Is Perrie coming?” Skye asked Zayn completely ignoring the still wide eyed Harry.

“She’s meeting us there. Simon wanted her to show up with Little Mix,” he explained as he headed to the door, the rest of us following. Niall slipped his hand into mine making me smile at him as I squeezed it lightly.

We arrived at the charity even where we were shown our seats and we sat through speeches and music entertainment while we ate dinner. It was a good night where we walked around and talked to the other people who were in attendance that night. Niall and I were standing with Harry and Skye when we were approached by the young girl who had run the charity event.

I was surprised by how young she was, looking only to be around my own age. Her light brown hair had been wound up onto a bun on top of her head and her black formal dress gave her the air of a professional or of someone older but I could tell by the way her eyes sparkled and the way she carried herself she was only around our age.

She introduced herself as Lacey Williams and I realised that I had met her father. He was a businessman that had often worked with Simon in the music industry. We chatted with her for a while as she seemed nice enough but something about her just seemed kind of fake to me. Whether it was the smile that never quite reached her eyes or the fact that she looked absolutely bored with the event.

Niall and I eventually excused ourselves as we made our way over to the bar. Niall was dying for a drink.

“She seems nice,” I commented to Niall. Niall glanced at me before following my line of sight to Lacey. He shrugged.

“I guess, no offence to her but her event is starting to get bloody boring.” I laughed at his bluntness as he ordered both of us a drink.

“When are we going to the other party?” I asked him.

“Another hour,” he grumbled taking a large gulp of his drink. I pulled it out of his hand.

“Not the best etiquette for a place like this Ni,” I warned him.

“Niall Horan and Tate Richards right?” I turned around to be met with two brown eyes. I glanced between the older couple standing in front of us not recognising them.

“Yes that’s us.” Niall answered. They smiled and introduced themselves.

“We were terribly sorry to hear about the shooting...” the man started to say and I had to hold back the groan that threatened to fall from my mouth. This was about the fifth time Niall and I had been approached so people could talk about the shooting. Neither Niall nor I particular wanted to talk about the shooting for obvious reasons of it being a traumatic event. An event that still made me nervous to get out of the car on the way in to this building tonight. So to be constantly reminded of it throughout the night wasn’t helping my nerves.

I felt Niall’s arm warp around my waist making me relax slightly into his grip as he did the talking for me. As the older couple left I let out a sigh and rested my head against Niall’s shoulder.

“Thank you,” I whispered to him softly. He kissed the top of my head.

“Don’t mention it. I know it makes you uncomfortable to talk about,” he commented.

“I just don’t get why they have to ask all the time,” I groaned.

“Curiosity. I don’t know I suppose they think it’s polite,” Niall mused as he downed the rest of his drink. I rolled my eyes at him as he ordered another. I had barely even touched mine yet.

I was momentarily distracted however as I watched Lacey Williams practically run across the room and out a side door keeping her head down. I debated whether or not it was any of my business to follow her and see if she was okay. However Liam and Dani interrupted that thought.

“Hey, Simon said we could go. Have you seen Zayn around?” Liam enquired as Niall pretty much jumped for joy at the prospect of leaving. I glanced towards the side door that Lacey ran out of just as Zayn stepped through it.

“There,” I pointed immediately. Liam signalled Zayn over and he immediately headed towards us. I got a strong smell of his cologne which signalled that Zayn had probably just been outside having a smoke. Normally he avoided it at public events but I could understand that this event was probably boring him to the brink of having to have one.

I wanted to ask if he had seen a girl run out there but I was interrupted as Niall began to pull me out of the building, practically running to the door as his need to be out of there took over. I laughed and made him slow down to a more respective pace as he pouted at me.

-

We arrived at Nick Grimshaw’s house, who greeted us at his door already clearly drunk. I received a kiss on the cheek as Niall introduced us before Niall was leading us all towards the bar area. I watched as he downed a few beers quickly.

“How drunk are you planning to get tonight exactly?” I enquired as he grabbed another one for me and him.”Because I’m not carrying you home.”

“Haven’t we already had this discussion before my Tate? I can handle my drinks,” he smirked at me as I recalled the time when I had not long met him and I foolishly thought that I could outdrink the Irish boy.

“Someone’s cocky tonight,” I commented taking my drink from him. He leant forward and whispered in my ear making my eyes widen at his dirty comment. My cheeks turned a dark shade of red as I smacked him across the chest. He threw his head back and let out a loud laugh that shook his body and made people glance over at us and smile.

“You... You dirty minded Irishman!” I said to him sternly stumbling over the words I was trying to use against him while I remained shocked.

He smirked at me and leant forward pressing a kiss to my lips.

“Woah woah, guys there’s rooms upstairs for that business,” Niall and I pulled apart to see Nick Grimshaw smiling down at us. I blushed darkly as Niall let out another booming laugh which was joined in by Harry as Skye wrapped a comforting arm around my shoulders.

“Ahh now look at these two fine lasses. Who might they belong to?” A voice said behind Skye and I making us turn around. My eyes widened and mouth dropped open as I saw who was standing in front of me.

“Hey Ed,” Niall said walking forward and pulling the ginger man into a hug. Harry stepped forward next to greet the man. I felt Niall’s arm wrap around my waist, pulling me out of Skye’s grip as he introduced me to Ed Sheeran.

“You’re amazing by the way,” I said to him truthfully. He let out a small laugh as he leant forward and pecked me on the cheek making me blush darkly. I seemed to be doing that a lot tonight. I could feel Niall’s arm tightened around my waist. I glanced towards him to see his jaw locked slightly. It dawned on me that he was jealous. Smiling largely I reached over and pecked his cheek. He turned to me surprised and I smiled at him. This earned me a small smile back.

I leant into Niall more as I watched Harry introduce Skye to Ed. I was pleased to see that I wasn’t the only one who was star struck as Skye giggled softly as Ed placed a kiss on her hand. Harry glared at Ed and pulled Skye’s hand out of his jokingly. I saw however his arms tightened around her. I could tell he didn’t mind Ed flirting with Skye jokingly but the arm around her waist made sure he and everyone knew that she was his. I smiled at them as I could tell that he would be getting an earful from Skye if she ever figured it out.

Niall and I mingled with other people and I eventually ran into Jacob and Thalia. I let Niall and Jacob go off as I introduced Thalia to Danielle and Eleanor. They got along great with her and we chatted for the rest of the night and they even convinced me to dance through a few songs with them all.

“There you guys are! Come on the countdown is starting in five minutes,” Skye said appearing out of nowhere before leading us outside where people were starting to gather. Skye weaved through the crowd until we found our group of friends.

I found Niall chatting to Perrie and Zayn. He smiled down at me as I wrapped my arms around his waist.

“There you are,” he murmured. I smiled up at him as he pecked me on the nose. I shivered slightly as the cold winter breeze picked up. Niall immediately wrapped me up in his warm embrace as I buried myself into his jacket.

Ten

Nine

Eight

Seven

I smiled up at Niall as I briefly realised that this year was over and another one was beginning. Another one where even though I wouldn’t have my boyfriend for most of the year, he would still be my boyfriend none the less.

Six

Five

Four

I could feel my lips tingling already at the thought of crashing my lips to Niall’s the moment we all said one. I laughed as Niall inched down closer to my lips early.

Three

Two

One

Niall’s lips were on mine before I had even finished screaming the last number. But I didn’t mind. I didn’t mind as my hands came up and wound themselves into his soft locks of dyed blonde hair. I massaged them through as he moaned into the kiss, fingers tightly holding onto my waist pulling me impossibly closer.

His tongue eagerly pushed through to my mouth and gently explored it as we enjoyed the kiss we shared. The moment we broke away a large smile appeared across both of our faces.

“I love you,” Niall breathed out to me resting his forehead against mine.

“I love you too Ni,” I whispered back before snuggling myself in closer to his chest relishing in his warmth. We stayed snuggled up together with my head rested into the crook of his neck as everyone around us cheered and snogged, we were oblivious to them however as Niall held me close and we watched the fireworks explode into colour above us, lighting up the sky. Each loud crack and boom and every colour that exploded symbolised the year that was and the year that will be.