Canon

‘Jesus, is it ready yet? I'm starving!’ Niall complains for the umpteenth time in the last twenty minutes.

‘I promise, just a few more minutes.’ I turn briefly to glance at him.

‘Fine.’ He grumbles under his breath, with a small grin on his face he stomps over to the refrigerator to get a bottle of water.

I stir the pasta once more before grabbing two of the bowls from his freshly stocked cabinet. I decided to go with spaghetti, because it was fairly simple and I knew that it was something that I could make well. The timer goes off, signaling the bread was ready to cut.

‘Niall, it's done!’ I call as I finish setting the small table.

‘It smells amazing.’ He compliments as he sets his phone down beside him.

‘Thank you, go ahead and taste it and let me know what you think.’

‘What, am I your lab rat?’ He teases scooting himself toward the table.

‘Ha ha - you're so funny.’

I watch anxiously as he twirls his fork into his bowl getting the right amount to put in his mouth. He nods a couple of times bending his head down to retrieve another fork-full.

‘Incredible.’ Niall finally speaks once his mouth is empty. ‘What are you doing?’ He speaks leaning against the doorway after his shower.

‘Washing the dishes.’ I chime, putting another plate into the drying rack. ‘You don't want the spaghetti to sit and stick.’

‘All I’m thinking about right now is how badly I want to sit on the couch, and stick you on top of me.’

I make a face to myself, remembering the time I walked in on Greg with Denise on his couch. Niall would probably still kill him for it. God knows how many times those cushions got up close and personal with Greg.

‘So?’ Niall murmurs wrapping his tattooed arms around my waist to pull me closer. ‘Or are these dishes more appealing than me?’

I open my mouth to respond, when his phone lets out a loud chime. He groans, letting his chin rest on my shoulder.

‘Oops.’ I laugh slipping out of his grasp to finish up with the dishes. ‘You should probably get that.’

‘Ouch, at least act a little disappointed.’ He laughs already grabbing his phone from the table. ‘Tara finally got back to me. She's gonna set up her laptop so I can Skype Jack later.’

‘That’s good, I'm sure he’ll be happy to see you again.’

‘Yeah, I’ve definitely missed him.’

Niall not-so-patiently waits as I finish up in the kitchen then drags me back to his room. I curl up beside him in bed, securely snaking my arms around him.

‘I love you.’ He leaves a kiss on my head turning the TV off after awhile.

‘I love you.’

The next morning, I hear Niall genuinely laughing from the living room. When I find him, he's perfectly in front of his laptop as his eyes attentively stare at the screen. Over his tattooed shoulder I could see Jack’s tiny hands showing off some of his dinosaurs. Niall glances behind himself to signal me to join him.

‘Hey Jack, you remember Lizette? Can you say hi?’

‘Hi!’ He frantically waves with a wide smile.

‘Hi Jack!’ I return snuggling against Niall’s open arm, ‘are those new dinosaurs I see?’

‘I was just telling him how he has more than enough to make his own Jurassic Park movie right from his bed.’ Niall chimes not taking his eyes from the screen.

‘You sure do.’ I agree as Jack shows even more of his new tiny dinosaurs.

Niall and I talk to Jack for a few minutes longer before he had to go have lunch. He makes Niall promise that he’ll call him later on so he can show him his favorite bedtime story, which of course included – dinosaurs. The brief talk with Jack, clearly put Niall in a good mood even if it was just for thirty minutes.

‘So now that you made me dinner what do you say I make you something for breakfast?’ He wonders dragging his feet as he walked to the cabinet.

‘I'd love some breakfast.’ I agree sitting on the island in the middle of the kitchen. ‘What'd you have in mind?’

‘Pancakes. I got tired of cereal every morning after awhile. Dad was too drunk to make me anything so I burnt a few and melted a spatula or two but I got the hang of it eventually.’

‘Have you seen him at all lately? Your dad?’ I wonder, kicking my heels against the wooden material.

‘Nah, I don't think I will either.’

‘Okay.’ I say in response, not wanting to force him into talking about his dad this early.

As he’s cooking there was a short yet firm knock on the door, and then again seconds later.

‘I’ll get it.’ I slide from the island already making my way to the door.

‘Who is it?’ Niall calls out, inches away from me. Out of habit, he protectively gives me a slight push behind him reaching for the doorknob.

‘Denise.’

He bites back a groan pulling the door open. She politely smiles as she anxiously rocks on the backs of her scribbled on Converse. Her lavender colored hair was pilled on top of her head in a bun.

‘Hi, just wanted to see if Greg was back.’

‘Not yet,’ Niall responds, ‘that was the plan but I just wanted to see how things were around here before he came back.’

‘Right.’ She nods understandingly, her pep completely stomped out of her step.

‘I'm sure he'll be back this weekend or something.’

‘Great. Could you have him to call me, when he gets a chance of course.’

‘I will.’ Niall speaks before closing and locking the door.

‘So, when is Greg coming back?’ I inquire wrapping my arms around his bare torso as I follow him into the kitchen.

‘I didn't want to tell her how I think he's back up to his old shit with those flunkies again. I'll call him tomorrow and just see if he's ready to come back.’

I hate pancake after pancake until my stomach felt full and warm. I grab his laptop from the edge of the bed and go to check my email. The bold black letters stuck out instantly.

‘Oh my god.’ I blurt grabbing a hold of Niall’s hand.

‘What?’ He immediately takes his deep blue eyes from the TV to stare at me.

‘NYU.’ I cough, not even able to bring my shaky hand to drag the mouse properly.

NYU was one of my top three schools, my dream school actually. Being in Ireland for the last few weeks and the chaotic few weeks before, I forgot just how close it was to hearing back from colleges. In two days, it'll be the last semester of high school.

‘Open it.’ He gives me a tight squeeze peering over to stare at the screen, ‘what does it say?’

‘Okay it says check my application account.’ I breathe out hastily, ‘wait, check yours too – we applied at the same time.’

‘Alright.’ He agrees, rolling over to retrieve his phone from the small table he keeps next to his bed. ‘I'm on the site, are you ready?’

‘I can't look - I'm too nervous.’ I hold up my shaky hands in front of his face.

‘It's going to be okay. You are the smartest, most incredible person I know. They would be out of their damn minds if they don't accept you.’

‘Thank you.’ I smile as he kisses each of my hands, giving them a quick rub. ‘You first.’

‘What about we look at each other's at the same time?’

‘Deal.’ I quickly and sloppily type my email and password into the thin white spaces and slide the laptop over to Niall.

‘Ready?’

‘Uh huh.’ I swallow pressing the login in button on his phone and waits while it loads. The seconds felt like hours. I could swear the twirling circle at the top of the screen was taunting me.

Congratulations, Niall!

‘You got in!’ I applaud, pointing at the bold two words.

‘Wow.’ He blinks, stunned at the words. ‘I would be the first in my family to go to college.’

‘I am so happy for you.’

‘Thank you.’ He genuinely smiles, bringing his eyes back to the screen. ‘Wait, what does this say?’

‘Wait, what does what say?’ My heart swells with both anticipation and anxiety.

‘It says you got in.’ He whispers sliding the laptop across the clean navy blue comforter.

‘We did it!’

‘Congratulations baby.’

Niall’s Point of View

As I’m sitting on the bed, I could hear Lizette in the other room squealing to Rose about the NYU news. NYU. We both got in. All we had to do was make it through this last semester and we would be out of this place for good. Wait – then there was Jack. I had thought about taking a gap year to spend some more time with him and just to take the time to get to know him, let him know me. Honestly I wasn’t dying to jump back into more classes for the next four years. But this is what Lizette and I have been talking about for the last few months – getting out of Michigan. Away from our twisted families and everyone else in this God forsaken town. After her phone call she collapses on the bed with this smile that make my stomach turn in annoying knots. How could I be the one to ruin it?