Canon

I look around the room at all the brand new faces. I glanced at all the older women in the room wondering, which could be Niall's mom. I spotted Greg who had dressed up tonight in a navy button up and a pair of dark slacks. I could see a few colorful tattoos peeking from under the collar of the shirt.

‘Do you see her?’ I whisper looking up at Niall as we walk towards the sea of people.

‘Not yet.’ Niall murmurs back allowing his eyes to scan the room. I place Niall's grandma's gift on the table along with the other presents. ‘There's my gran. I'll introduce you.’

A small silver haired woman dressed in shades of purple sat in a chair with all of her family and friends surrounding her. She looks up at Niall with a genuinely surprised expression as did everyone else.

‘Nialler!’ She cries out with joy standing to her feet so she could hug her grandson. ‘I didn't expect to see you here!’

‘I wouldn't miss your birthday.’ Niall chimes, ‘I thought you knew me better than that.’

‘Is your father with you, here in Mullingar?’

‘No nan, he's back in the states unfortunately. He's real busy with work and all that but he sends his love.’

‘Yeah, yeah. If only he sent himself.’ Niall's grandma laughs to herself, ‘and who is this gorgeous young girl behind you?’

‘This is Lizette, Lizette this is my grandma.’

‘Hi, it's so great to meet you.’ I smile bending over to shake her hand.

‘She's so lovely and American and so pretty.’ She smiles warmly wrapping a small hand around mine. ‘Lizette, what a pretty name.’

‘Thank you.’ I couldn't help but let a flattered giggle escape my lips. ‘And Happy Birthday!’

‘Thank you dear. Go mingle Nialler, your mum should be on her way and when she gets here I want you on your best behavior. Do you understand me?’

‘Yes ma'am.’ Niall answers back and takes me by surprise.

Niall places a hand on my back guiding me towards his family. I meet his uncles and aunts along with cousins and family friends. Niall's family were all inviting and nice. I feel Niall tense up beside me harder than ever before. A woman strolls in with a large box wrapped with a pink bow. Her blonde hair was pushed back with a pair of fancy designer sunglasses. She wore an impressively white pair of pants with a black top to go with her heels. From where we stood I could definitely see why Niall got a lot of his looks from. She speaks to the family as she walks towards Niall's grandma. The two exchange words and hug before she takes the large box and places it on the table, putting the other gifts to shame.

‘It's okay, it's gonna be okay.’ I soothe quietly giving his hand several tight squeezes.

The mysterious woman makes intense eye contact with her oldest son from across the room. Greg nods several times as she speaks before the two awkwardly hug one another. He then points a narrow finger in Niall's direction and the woman's face pales. She places a hand over her mouth before walking over to us quickly. I stare from Niall to his mom but neither of them said a single word. She raises her arms before dropping them again. I could tell just how much she wanted to hold Niall in that moment.

‘I haven't seen you in-...’

‘In over ten years.’ Niall interjects cutting his mom off midsentence,

‘I’ve always wanted to talk to you about my leaving. You deserved an answer so long ago and I’ve always regretted not giving it you. If you have the time I would love to sit down and talk to you.’

‘Maybe because you were in your nice house with your brand new family. You didn’t give a damn about me so please don’t try to sit there and act like you did.’

‘Niall.’ I urge giving him a gentle touch. I didn’t want him to make a scene with his mom and regret it later on. Even though he didn’t want to show it today meant a lot to him.

‘We’re really in the middle of something so later.’

‘What was your name, dear?’ she directs her attention onto me extending a hand out to me.

‘Lizette, it’s great to meet you.’ I shake her hand avoiding Niall’s glares. From the expression on his face, I had just betrayed him in the worst way imaginable. I wasn’t being overly friendly to her but I wasn’t going to be rude to someone who’s never done anything to me personally.’

‘Great to meet you too, Lizette.’ She chimes as Niall guides me away from his mom. I wanted to tell him how rude he was but it wasn’t my place to tell him how to feel about his mom. I knew how hard just being here was for him so I wasn’t going to make it worse.

‘I really need to get some air.’ Niall says pulling out a box of cigarettes from his back pocket, ‘do you want to wait in here?’

‘I’ll go with you.’ I volunteer following Niall out of the side glass door. We walk through the grass field until we get a good distance away from everyone else. Niall hadn’t smoked around me for a couple of weeks but I would always see loose lighters lying around his apartment along with ashtrays. ‘Are you okay?’

‘This is just typical of her, she comes in her with some big ass gift like she didn’t walk out on us before I could even form a fucking coherent sentence. Am I really supposed to smile in her face and act like none of that shit happened? I can’t even look in her face right now.’

‘You don’t have to,’ I place a hand on Niall’s back, ‘I do think that there could be more to this than you know. I think you owe it to yourself to figure out what happened and why she left, you know?’

‘I really don’t want to hear anything she has to say.’

‘I just don’t want you to have any regrets about this with her being right here in front of you. It wouldn’t hurt to give her ten minutes before we leave.’

Niall silently blows the smoke from his lips as he stares down at his shoes. ‘I don’t know, Lizette.’

‘You don’t have to decide right here and now, just think about it. I’ll stand next to you no matter what you decide to do.’ I wrap my arms around Niall’s torso looking up in his eyes beyond the cloud of smoke. ‘I. Love. You. I know that you’ll do the right thing.’

‘You must not know me.’ Niall teases dropping his cigarette to the ground before smashing it with his foot. ‘But I love you too.’

‘I think they’re about to cut that really good looking cake, do you want to go back in now?’

‘Sure.’ He gives in wrapping his two tattooed arms around my waist as we walk back to the party. When we were entering the party I spotted Tara walking through the room. This party seemed to be getting quite interesting.