Canon

The next morning, I glance around to soak in the familiarity of Niall’s room. Almost every item had its own personal place, nothing stuck out. His clothes were neatly folded in the basket at the foot of the bed. His many hats were carefully placed on top of each other on his nightstand. Niall’s probably the neatest boy that I have ever dated. Sure, Scott was clean-cut with cookie-cutter looks but his room was a pigsty. His lacrosse gear was always all over the room, along with the dirty, sweaty socks. I run my fingers over Niall’s empty side of the bed. It was still warm so he hadn’t been up long. I’m guessing that he still wasn’t sleeping due to the nightmares about Damon. I find him out on the tiny balcony with a cigarette positioned in his fingers as he stared down at all of the cars. ‘Hi.’ I smile, hovering in the doorway.

‘Good morning.’ Niall blows one last puff of smoke before coyly putting his cigarette out against the metal railing. He extends an arm out to me and I happily fall into his grasp. ‘How’d you sleep?’

‘Better than you, I’m guessing.’ I murmur, not taking my eyes off of the crowded parking lot. ‘You’re always gone when I wake up now.’

‘Lizette...’ He starts, almost to say that he’s not up for a deep conversation about Damon on a Sunday morning.

‘Are we not going to talk about it?’ I finally place my eyes on him, ‘about last night?’

‘What part? I mean all I can really remember is how good you looked up there last night. It was almost torture making me sit right across from your dad when all I could think about is the list of highly inappropriate things I wanted to do to his daughter.’ Niall speaks lowly, sending chills up my spine. I knew that he was attempting to change the subject. I’m pretty sure that he knew that I wasn’t letting him drop it just that quick.

‘Niall,’ I laugh as he forcefully pulls me to the sofa and on top of him, ‘you know that’s not what I’m talking about. I mean the part where you easily handed the school a grand to spend the day with me. That’s a lot of money.’

‘Oh, that part. Baby, don’t worry about it.’ Niall places a tone arm under his head to prop himself up in order to get a better look at me as I rested my chin on his chest. ‘Didn’t you say just how important prom was to your friend? I’m glad I could help supply generic punch and cheesy decorations.’

‘How can you tell me not to worry about it?’ I urge, feeling guilty. It was my idea to go last night but the last person I expected to see there was Damon. Louis probably filled him and John in on the school’s festivities. I’m grateful that Niall and his wallet saved me from a day with Damon but fifteen hundred dollars wasn’t something to fan off. ‘I’ll pay you back. I have my college fund so I can just transfer the money into your account.’

‘No,’ Niall abruptly interjects as his dark eyebrows knit together, ‘you will not touch your college fund. You need it for Georgetown. If your dad didn’t hate me already, can you just imagine how he would take that? I’m sure he’d find some way to throw my ass in the darkest jail cell.’

‘But-…’

‘No.’ He repeats sternly, ‘I told you that my grandpa had money, plenty of it. I was the only Horan that he trusted so he left it to me. I’m good when it comes to money, so believe me when I tell you not to worry about it.’

‘Fine.’ I cave in, not wanting to press the issue any more.

‘That’s my girl,’ Niall muses causing my stomach to swell with butterflies, ‘so what exactly does a day with Lizette Matthews look like?’

‘I think that we should start on that list of yours that you mentioned and then go from there.’ I taunt, slowly dragging my fingers across his chest. ‘What do you say?’

‘God, I’m so in love with you.’ Niall pulls me up and towards his lips.

Niall’s Point of View

I silently eye Lizette as she slows her breathing, looking up at me. I kiss her as she settles down next to me. I bite back the dumb grin forming on my face as I watch her roll over to wrap herself with the sheets. Lizette nervously looks away after she notices my ongoing stare. She was so endearing, constantly I found myself dumbfounded as to why she was with me. ‘Why are you looking at me like that?’ She questions, pulling at her bottom lip with her teeth.

‘I. Love. You.’ I breathe out in between kisses against her skin.

‘I love you.’ She smiles pleased, intertwining our fingers. ‘I probably should get going. I need to finish my English paper. I would’ve had it finished by now but this weekend was so hectic.’

‘Procrastinator.’ I tease but go to sit up anyway, ‘C’mon, I’ll give you a ride.’

Lizette slips away to the bathroom to get dressed while I straighten up my room from our mess. I stifle out a laugh looking over at the sheets that Lizette practically pulled down onto the floor. Once she’s finished she makes herself comfortable on my lap, wrapping her small arms around my neck. ‘Ready.’ She announces, not bothering to stand.

‘Whatever you want.’ I shake my head and stand to my feet while holding her securely in my arms. ‘Lock the door.’ I slightly shift her over so she can lock the door before we get to the elevator.

‘You should do this more often.’

‘Have a nice day sir.’ The doorman waves from the desk as I walk through the lobby with Lizette in my arms.

I easily set her down to open the door for her and jog around to the other side. I deliberately take the long way to her house so I wouldn’t have to say bye just yet. I never wanted to spend every possible minute with a person until her. I sneak quick look as she stares absentmindedly out the window humming to whatever song was on the radio. ‘Niall.’ She suddenly speaks up and I thought she was about to call me out once again for staring at her. ‘Where’s the dinosaur? Did you throw it away?’ Jack’s dinosaur. I still hadn’t talked to him or Tara since we find out that he wasn’t my son but Greg’s. I haven’t even seen Greg since I kicked him and his drunk of a father out. With all the shit with Damon, I almost forgot about it all.

‘It’s in the hall closet.’ I answer not bothering to take my eyes off of the road. I couldn’t bear to throw it out and I’m sure Jack didn’t want it. I was torn. ‘Why do you ask?’

‘I was just looking at this earlier and thought about it.’ She flashes her phone in my face. It was a picture of her, me, and Jack at the animal sanctuary a few weeks ago. I remember that day perfectly. We went out to some nearly abandoned diner and got breakfast before randomly finding that place. I rarely use the word happy, but I’d say that I was pretty happy that day. The closest that I’ve ever been to happy. Right before I was smacked right back down to the hard reality thanks to a six-pack of cheap beer and Damon. ‘I know that we haven’t talked about it much since it happened but you know that you can still have a relationship with him, right? You can be his cool uncle.’

I don’t say anything automatically. I refrain from the smart comment that was bound to fall from my mouth. It wasn’t Lizette’s fault so it wasn’t right to take it out on her. Honestly, I don’t think I could look at Jack the same as harsh as it sounds. ‘Yeah.’ I mutter in response, hoping that she drops it and she does. Thank God. I didn’t have the power to be some fun, cool uncle when all I can think about is Greg messing around with Tara. It was burned in my mind.

‘I’m sorry.’ Lizette takes my silence as she did or said something wrong. I offer a weak smile as I give her small hand a squeeze.

I park outside her house, spotting the squad car in the driveway. I bet her dad was peering out some window right now with daggers. She unbuckles her seatbelt and gets as close to me as my tiny front seat allowed. ‘I’ll call you tonight.’

‘Okay.’ I’m able to get out before she presses her lips against mine. I place a hand on my waist pulling her onto me deepening the kiss, already missing her. I inch my hand lower causing her to pull away with a surprise laugh, poking at my chest.

‘Please don’t make my dad kill you, I like having you around too much. Bye bye.’ With that she’s sliding out the car.

‘Bye baby.’ I wait for her to go in the house before driving back to my apartment. The moment that I do, I head over to the closet and retrieve Jack’s dinosaur. I remember watching him dragging it around everywhere even though it was almost bigger than him, insisting that no one helped him. Stubborn just like a Horan. I call up someone that I never thought I would. While it rang, I debated on just hanging up and stopping while I was ahead.

‘Hello?’ My mom answers and I couldn’t just hang up in her face. I could already see her smiling, surprisingly she was excited to hear from me. She seemed disappointed when I avoided her conversation about coming to the states last we talked. ‘Niall, you there?’

‘I’m here. I need a favor.’