Take Me Home

It was Friday evening when Connor got the call. We were sitting on the floor, guitars in hand while we tried to work out the kinks in new song. I watched as Connor’s eyes light up and a huge smile spread across her face as she nodded and spoke rapidly into her phone. All I could do was watch and wonder what plans Zayn had made for the two of them she was excited about.

“Dude,” she said staring at me before repeating herself “Dude.”

“What?” I asked with a laugh, strumming my guitar and but keeping my eyes on the notebook where Connor had written the lyrics. I was focused solely on the songs, unable to break my concentration.

“Dude.”

“Connor.” I said calmly. “What? Who was on the phone?”

“We have a meeting with a fucking record company at the end of next month!” she screamed, jumping up from the floor and bouncing up and down with excitement. “I have to call Zayn! Oh my God!” she screamed and threw herself at me, hugging me tightly before she ran off and locked herself in the bedroom to make her phone call.

I smiled at the ground, I was excited. It just wasn’t the way I wanted to go about this. I didn’t want to be hurled into fame at the same level as One Direction. I wanted something more low-key. I wanted something that would allow me to go about my daily life and not be stalked by crazy fans. Although I imagined that could be flattering in a way, I’ve seen how scary it could be at the same time. I kept my mouth shut though, deciding that if Connor was happy then so was I.

Only an hour later, Connor and I were at Liam’s house. Every member of One Direction except a certain Irishman was in attendance. It was sort of a celebration of sorts. They were celebrating because they had a huge performance the next night and Connor and I were celebrating the phone call we had received. I wondered where Niall was but I didn’t care enough to ask or even think about for more than a few seconds.

“I’m surprised that Niall isn’t here.” Harry said, moving his curls out of his eyes to give me a strange look.

“What?” I laughed. “Why are you looking at me like that?” I asked and moved around the pool table to take my turn.

“Figured he’d be here as soon as he heard you were coming is all.” Harry said and when I didn’t reply in way at all Louis chimed in.

“Right.” I replied dryly. “Because I’m just so nice to him.” I shook my head and made my shot and then moved around to the other side of the table.

“He is rather…what’s the word I’m looking for?” Louis asked, racking his brain for the proper word.

“Smitten.” Harry offered with a smirk.

“Yes! Smitten!” Louis agreed and pointed a finger at Harry. “Thank you.”

“Oh I bet.” I let the sarcasm hang heavy in my voice.

“He really does have a thing for you.” Liam added.

“Why are we talking about this?” I asked, shaking my head and trying my best to laugh it off.

“Because-“ Louis started but was cut off by the sound of the door opening to reveal Niall.

“Sorry I’m late. Fucking traffic.” He muttered.

Chatter broke out amongst the guys but I stayed quiet, focusing on the game we had going on. Everything was going great until Liam had the brilliant idea of utilizing the hot tub he had recently gotten. I declined unlike the rest of the group. I wasn’t really that big of a fan of the idea of cramming into such a small space with so many people. Instead I opted for sitting on Liam’s sofa and watching Wall- E.

“Hate this fuckin’ movie.” Niall said and threw his weight down in the seat next to me, taking me by surprise that he hadn’t joined the rest of the group.

“Cool.” I replied without much interest in his opinion of the movie.

“I’m starving. You want to go get food?” he asked.

I shrugged my shoulders “I guess.”

“You’re agreeing just like that? I don’t have to fight you about it?” he laughed.

“I’m hungry.” I stated, shrugging my shoulders. “But if you want me to fight about it I will.” I offered, crossing my arms over my chest and smiling to myself.

Niall held his hands up in defense. “No. That’s okay. I’m not in the mood for a fight tonight.” he stood up from the sofa and snatched his keys off the coffee table. “Let’s go, I’m starving.” Niall reminded me causing me to roll my eyes as I followed him through Liam’s home until we were finally outside.

I climbed into Niall’s expensive vehicle and was smacked in the face with that new car smell which I hated. It always gave me a headache. I shouldn’t have expected Niall to drive anything less than a brand new vehicle but the thought of how much money he had dropped on it made my stomach turn. I shook my head but didn’t say anything as he started the engine, making all sorts of lights and screens come to life. I could only imagine that all of these things had to be distracting while driving. Not wanting to take any risks I buckled my seatbelt and took a deep breath before relaxing into my seat.

“What do you want to eat?” Niall questioned, pulling away from Liam’s large house.

“I don’t care. I’m not picky.” I confessed, watching the scenery fly by as Niall picked up speed.

“That’s the most annoying answer. I’m asking you what you want.”

“I don’t care! Whatever, you’re the one who is starving.” I snapped causing Niall to let out an angry breath and grip the steering tightly. I could feel the frustration radiating off of him but instead of saying anything else to cause another argument he just turned up the music and kept driving.

I was lost in my own thoughts, thinking about my brother and the rest of my family that I hadn’t seen in years. Thinking about my nephew who I had never even met. Thinking of the goofy but loveable golden retriever that hadn’t seen me in years who would still wait for me to come home according to my brother. I swallowed the lump in my throat, not wanting to think about home and how my heart was aching for Georgia. I didn’t want to think about home because I knew I wasn’t ready to go back no matter how much I missed it sometimes. We stopped moving and Niall killed the engine, I looked out the window to see where he had decided to eat. I screwed my face up in confusion as I looked at Niall’s house. “You coming or not?” Niall huffed, before slamming the door.

I chewed on my bottom lip to keep from saying anything to piss him off further but couldn’t help but wonder what had crawled up his ass and died that day. He was normally nothing less than sickeningly happy but that night he was in the worst mood I’d ever seen him in. I followed after him, running to catch up to his long legs. I didn’t say anything until he threw his keys on his kitchen counter and let out another frustrated breath and ran his hand through his hair.

“I thought we were getting food…”

“Pizza.” Niall said shortly pulling open drawer full of take-out menus.

“Why didn’t we just order pizza at Liam’s instead of driving all the way back here?”

“Because I just decided in the car.” He fished his phone out of his pocket and dialed the number on the menu “Any more questions?” he barked putting the phone to his ear.

I decided not to press my luck any further. I shook my head from side to side and made my way into his living room. I took a seat on an oversized armchair in the corner of the room. I kicked my shoes off and pulled my knees to my chest, hiding my face against my knees and listening to Niall rattle of his order from the kitchen.

Moments later Niall entered the room and took notice of me. “Glad to see you made yourself comfortable.” His voice was dripping with sarcasm but there was a bite to it as he threw his weight onto the couch.

I sighed and uncoiled my body and slide my shoes back on. I pulled the hood of my sweatshirt over my head and stuffed my hands in my pockets as I walked toward the door, not saying another word to Niall. I was cursing myself for leaving my coat at Liam’s because that meant I had to face a more extreme cold on the walk back to my own flat.

“Hey! Where are you going?” Niall called after me as I made my way to the door.

I didn’t even turn to look at him, I continued to walk down the hall while I muttered “Home.” and shook my keys from emphasis.

“Lincoln, wait!” he called after and I could hear him jog toward me. I stopped walking but refused to turn around until Niall grabbed me by the shoulders and spun me so I was facing him. “Don’t leave.”

“Listen.” I said calmly. “You’re the one who asked me if I wanted to go for food…I didn’t force you to. I don’t know what your problem is today but I’m not going to sit around and take the brunt of your pissy mood.”

“I take yours every day.” He mumbled .

“Yes. That’s true and have I ever prevented you from leaving while me alone when I’m in a bad mood?” I questioned, raising an eyebrow as I knew he wouldn’t be able to say I had. I spun around to make my exit.

“You’re right.” Niall agreed and spun me around again. “I’m tired, I’m hungry, and I’ve had a shitty day and I’m taking it out on you and that’s wrong of me. I’m sorry.” I blinked at him, watching him shift uncomfortably under my unwavering gaze. “Please stay.” He added softly.

Something about the pleading, hopelessness in his voice when he asked me to stay made my heart wrench. “Whatever.” I said and lowered my hood and headed back down the hallway with Niall at my side. Although Niall was talking animatedly about how good the pizza was from wherever he had ordered from…I didn’t catch most of it. I was still trying to wrap my head around the idea that he squeezed an emotion out of me that wasn’t anger or annoyance.

No less than two hours later Niall’s coffee table was littered with pizza, junk food, and empty beer bottles. It was safe to say that we were both a little drunk and we were both having too much fun quoting Pirates of the Caribbean. It seemed that Niall’s mood improved with the addition of pizza, alcohol, and movies.

“Are you going to be at the show tomorrow night?” Niall asked smiling goofily at me and bumping his shoulder against mine.

“Yeah.” I laughed, trying to hide my face as I lied to him. I had no intention of going to the One Direction concert but I wasn’t going to let him know that.

“Promise me.” he said, laughing as he attempted to be serious. I laughed and shook my head from side to side, refusing to make a promise I knew I would break. “Lincoln, promise me.” Niall laughed, pinning me down on the couch playfully. “I will hold you prisoner until you promise.” He informed before attacking my sides with his fingers making me trash about from under him and gasp for air through my laughs.

“I promise!” I gasped, hoping the tickling would cease. “I promise!” I repeated before he finally stopped tickling.

“Pinky promise.” Niall held out his pinky which made me giggle uncontrollably.

“I’m not going to make a pinky promise. We’re not five.”

“Pinky promise.”

“Fine. Pinky promise.” I laughed and latched my pinky with Niall’s to make the promise official. I began to laugh as soon as the promise was made. “I can’t believe we just pinky promised.” I said through my laughter as I looked up at him from where he still had me trapped under his weight.

“You should smile more often.” Niall smiled down at me, moving my hair out of my face. “You’re really pretty when you smile.”

“Thank you…” I said unsurely, not knowing how to respond to such a statement. My entire life I never had any idea how to react to compliment and it was no different that time. I giggled, at the time too tipsy, to notice the way Niall was looking at me.

I finally quieted my laughter, smiling contently to myself as I embraced the warmth of Niall’s body heat mixing with my own. I sighed contently, feeling my smile slowly dissolve from my face upon becoming aware of how tired I was. I opened my eyes meeting Niall’s that were still hovering above me. Although I wanted to ask him why he was staring at me, my attention drifted to the depths of Niall’s eyes taking notice of the flecks of yellow and green that were mixed in with the brilliant blue. Niall was equally as silent, staring back into my eyes. Although I can’t read minds I assumed he was analyzing the bits of brown and yellow that mixed with green of my eyes.

Our lips met in a gentle kiss but it quickly became less and less innocent the longer it continued. One minutes hands were roaming and then next thing I knew my shirt was laying on the floor. Niall’s lips were dancing across my neck when I final snapped out of it. I gently pressed my palm against his chest and turned my face away from him to tell him that I had enough. “What? What’s wrong?” he asked as he tried to reestablish a normal breathing pattern.

I reached for my shirt and then sat upright on the couch. “We shouldn’t do this.”

“Okay…” Niall trailed off, unable to process my sudden change of heart.

“I need to go.” I said to myself as I zipped up my sweatshirt, moving as fast as I could to get away from Niall.

“Let me call you cab!” Niall called after me.

“I like to walk.” I yelled over my shoulder before I closed the door behind me, not giving him a chance to argue the subject with me. I shivered against the cold air but being cold was the last thing on my mind. I couldn’t think about anything other than how much of an idiot I was for letting things with Niall go too far…again!