Over the Hills and Far Away

“It wasn’t exactly following, love, I uh…” He fumbled over his words, his eyes kept darting from the road to me. “Think of it as…uh…--“
“Stalking?!” I cut him off as I turned almost completely in my seat to face him, “because, it sure as hell seems like stalking to me!” I could see him cower in his seat as I raised my voice at him. The small voice in the back of my mind was telling me to stop yelling at the poor guy. All he had done was do what he thought was okay at the time. But really, who the hell listens to that voice?
“Y-Yeah, yeah it does…but we’re together now, aren’t we?” Niall spoke in a tiny voice.
“No thanks to you appeasing your fans! Now because of you, I’m pulled into a giant mess!” As soon as I saw the tears prick at the corner of Niall’s eyes, I turned away from him and rested my elbow on the arm rest on the door. Heaving a big sigh, I rested my chin in my hand.
“I know it was wrong to follow you, Evangeline…but I’m not like the other guys… I can’t express myself to a girl like they would. Frankly, I’m surprised that I can even talk about this now…” Niall spoke after a few minutes of us being silent. I glanced at him from the corner of my eyes and noticed how tense he was. He had both hands on the steering wheel and his back was firmly pressed against the black leather seat. “I really do like you though, Eva…I know it was wrong of me to just tell the world that we’re dating, but now that it’s just you and me, I want for us to be a proper couple.” I turned my head to watch Niall turn on the blinker and parked on the side of the road. Raising a brow, I watched him then turn off the car and turn towards me.
What the hell was this guy talking about?
“Eva,” He gave an uneasy smile as he reached out to clasp his hands around mine, “Will you do me the honors of properly becoming my girlfriend?” I blinked a few times, my gaze switching from his pleading gaze to our hands then back. Why did I feel like I was being proposed to instead of being asked out?
“I…uh…I’ll think about it,” I spoke as I pulled my hands away then turned back to look out the window, my hands now resting on my lap. For some reason, even though our touch had only lasted a few seconds, my hands felt…empty.
“Oh…Okay Eva…” Niall sounded defeated, which it did break my heart a bit, as he turned back onto the almost empty highway.
The rest of the way to meet the boys in Dublin was silent. I sat in my seat with my head towards the window. I had started playing ‘how many white cars are there?’ as we drove down the long highway. It was only an hour’s drive from my flat to Dublin, but with the silence, it felt like the highway had lengthened just because of the disagreement between Niall and me. I wondered if Niall felt the same way. There was a few times when both of us would open our mouth to say something, but shut it as soon as we saw the other looking like they were about to say something. The car ride couldn’t get any more awkward.
When we finally reached outside the flat, Niall parked the car behind a red Corvette and got out. Right as I was about to open my door, Niall opened it with a small smile on his face.
“Let’s not let the car ride distract us from having a good time with the boys, okay?” Niall took my hand and helped me out of the low car. Shutting the car door, Niall took my hand once more and led me up the door. “Don’t let their teasing get to you, they do it all in good fun, love.” With that, he reached up with his free hand and knocked on the door.
Not even a minute later, the door was pulled open revealing another part of One Direction. “Niall!” the man shouted and reached out to grab Niall and pull him into a hug.
“Louis!” Niall laughed as he let go of my hand and hugged Louis back. I couldn’t help but giggle at the two, which in turn, focused the attention on me.
“Is this her?” Louis started out, his hands settling on his waist as he looked me up and down. When Niall replied with a ‘yep’, Louis grinned and pulled me into a bone-crushing hug. “Welcome to the family!”
“Louis, you’re going to hurt her,” came a slow voice from behind Louis.
“Shut up, will ya, Harry? I’m just hugging her,” at that, Louis let me out of the hug but kept an arm wrapped around my shoulders as he practically dragged me further into his flat. I could hear Niall shut the door, all the while laughing.
“Looked like you were strangling her from my point of view,” Harry laughed as he took a few steps closer and held out his hand to me. “Sorry about Louis, he’s super friendly. I’m Harry, by the way.”
Shaking Louis’ arm off from around my shoulders, I gave Harry a smile and returned the handshake. I couldn’t help but gape at how large his hands were. The tabloids weren’t kidding then. “He’s quite the bubble popper,” I laughed softly and nodded, “Nice to meet you Harry, I’m Evangeline.”
“Who’s a bubble popper?” Louis said at the same time Harry said, “Pay up, Louis.” Harry held his hand out to the older of 1D, grinning.
“What?” I turned to Niall who had returned to my side after going to the kitchen and grabbing both of us a beer. As soon as it was in my hands, I cracked it open and took a sip, watching as Louis handed Harry 5 pounds, a pout on his face.
“Harry and Lou had a bet going on. Harry had bet that you were American and Louis thought otherwise,” Niall explained to me, a small smile on his lips as he looked down at me.
“Well, that’s a bit awful…don’t you think?” I pursed my lips, glaring at the two other boys who both grinned sheepishly and shrugged. “You could have stopped it, Niall.”
“You can’t stop them two from having bets, love, it’s like they live for bets. Besides, I’m sure they would have just had a bet behind my back anyways,” Niall shrugged as the boys nodded from where they stood, large grins crossing their faces.
“That’s awful. Couldn’t you boys have just bet whether I was normal or not?” I rolled my eyes before taking another gulp of the beer. Like American beer, it was bitter, almost tasteless. At least it wasn’t ninety percent water, I guess.
“You’re dating Niall, how normal could you be?” Louis laughed as he wrapped his arm around Niall’s neck and pulled him down for a noogie. All the while Niall was laughing while trying not to spill his own beer.
“Excuse them,” Harry moved to stand next to me as we looked over at the two who were horsing around now, “They’re always like this.”
“I’m sure you’d be doing the same thing, Harry, if I weren’t here,” I smiled up at Harry as he blushed some before nodding. “So, where are the two others?”
“Zayn is on his way but Liam had to go to a party for his gal. He’s sorry that he missed the chance to meet you.”
“I’m sure this won’t be the first time Niall forces me to come visit,” I grinned up at him as Niall and Louis came back to stand next to us, both laughing. “What’s so funny?”
“N-Nothing!” Louis laughed harder and pressed his face to Niall’s shoulder, failing to smother his laughter.
“It’s them being them,” Another voice came up from behind us, almost scaring the shit out of me.
Almost because I was able to contain myself from jumping, squealing and knocking whoever the fuck came up behind me without a forewarning. I will admit, I have done that more than once, mostly to my ex. That poor bastard.
“Zayn!” All three boys yelled as they hugged on the man. I suddenly felt like I was at my family reunion.
It was the first one in 15 years and everyone was hugging on each other. My old great aunts couldn’t stop hugging on me and telling me how big I had grown since I was 5. I wanted to strangle myself a lot that day.
“Wow, is today a reunion day?” I awkwardly scratched my neck as I watched all the boys nod their head.
“Yeah, it’s been a week since we’ve last seen each other…” Niall smiled as he looked between 3 of his band mates.
“Oh wow, so long…” I stuck my tongue out at him, smiling after.
“No thanks to you, we’ve had to separate for a week so Niall could make googly eyes at you from a distance,” Louis huffed playfully at me. Sticking my tongue out at him, I shrugged.
“Not my fault the boy isn’t all about being near you…” I grinned up at Niall as he took the few steps to wrap his arms around my waist to hug me, laughing softly at my comment. It was weird having him so close to me like this, but I didn’t stop him. In a way, it felt right too. I watched as Louis playfully glared at the two of us while Harry and Zayn laughed and shook their heads. If it didn’t work out between Niall and me, I hoped that I’d at least stay friends with these idiots.
“So, boys, Where’s the beer?!” Zayn raised his arms in a dramatic way as he looked to the can in my hands.
“To the kitchen!” Harry and Louis yelled at the same time, both of them grabbing Zayn and pulling him towards the doorway to the kitchen. Niall laughed a bit harder at the scene as he pulled away from me, his hand moving to rub the back of his neck.
“Sorry about them, Evangeline, it has been a week since we’ve last been around each other and it’s the night before an event,” Niall shrugged his shoulders some, smiling sheepishly at me before raising the beer can in his hand to his lips, taking a long drink from it.
“It’s fine, they’re a bit like my friends back in New York,” I smiled back before I set my can on a nearby table. “For straight guys, they have a stylish flat here…” I said as I walked around the living room, my hand running over the back of the black fake leather couch.
“I think the girl’s helped them a bit,” Niall followed after me, along with setting his beer on the table next to mine. “Good thing, really, or I’m sure all the furniture would mismatch…” I turned around as he came up behind me. He stopped almost a foot away from me, his bright blue eyes looking down into my grey colored ones. I took a gulp and a small step back as he reached out his hand to clasp mine. “Eva…I really do hope you’re considering the possibility of us being together…”
“I… I am thinking about it… I just don’t think I want to be in the spotlight of your first girlfriend since you’ve become famous…” I bit my bottom lip as he tugged me closer by my hand, his free hand moving slowly to cup my cheek.
If he was someone else, I would probably be freaking out on someone’s ass at the moment, but because it was Niall and I did feel this strange connection to him, I stood still, almost tilting my head to press my face more into his hand.
“You don’t have to be in the spotlight all the time, we do have ways to keep the paps from getting pictures of our girls, you see…” Niall spoke softly, his eyes darting from my eyes to my lips, as he moved a bit closer. He dropped my hand and moves his to my waist.
“I’ll have to think about it a bit longer…” My heart was pounding in my chest. I couldn’t help but feel so cliché when I wondered if he could hear it. I bit my lip as I noticed him licking his lips, clearly he feeling the same way I did.
“Is it bad that I want to say fuck it about us dating and just take you home?” He grinned sheepishly at me as our heads moved closer together. Our noses were now only a few inches apart. I couldn’t help but think about the distance between our lips.
“If you don’t wanna take it slow and you just wanna take me home. Baby, say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah and let me kiss you,” I whispered, grinning as I repeated the lyrics to Kiss You. He grinned back at me as he leaned down further, our lips brushing against each other.
“Guys! Niall and Evangeline are snogging in our living room!” Louis yelled from the doorway. I blushed and laughed as I watched Niall roll his eyes and pull away from me, immediately glaring at Louis as Harry and Zayn moved up behind Lou, laughing.
“We weren’t snogging, you dimwit,” Niall retorted, his arm securely latching around my waist. “Besides, I think it’s fair, seeing as we’ve caught you snogging in my living room as well.”
“That doesn’t count, we were drunk and there were a lot of other couples snogging too!” Louis took a step towards us while Harry and Zayn moved around him and moved to sit on the couch, turning on the TV and Xbox, starting up a game of Call of Duty as they took long gulps of their beer.
“Doesn’t matter, we should be allowed to snog in your living room if you snogged in mine!” Niall glanced down at me and grinned, “What do you say, Eva, want to snog?”
“Don’t you dare!”
Oh boy, what have I got myself into?