Canon

Niall’s Point of View

I rip the tape with my teeth just as Lizette lets herself in with the help of the spare key I gave her. I make sure that I have my mom’s address right one more time before walking over to her with open arms. She falls into me, snaking her short arms around my torso. I slowly ease back towards the couch to pull her on top of me, our lips connected. She smiles against my mouth, placing both hands on my shoulders. ‘It’s nice to see you too.’ I taunt, resting my face against her back.

‘Hey, I missed you yesterday. When my family’s there, it’s so hectic.’ She speaks exasperatedly causing me to laugh, ‘I’m serious. Next time, you’re coming.’

‘I’m not making you any promises.’ I reply as she intertwines our fingers as she usually did. She loved playing with my hands and comparing them to her own. She could sit there for an hour, just absentmindedly fumbling around with my hand and fingers.

‘What’s that?’ She points a finger over to the box as it finally catches her attention. Before I could speak, she slides off of my lap to read the label. ‘What are you sending to your mom?’

‘It’s Jack’s dinosaur.’ I answer, chewing the skin on my thumb. ‘I can’t have it here anymore. I feel like it’s laughing at me every single time that I walk past that closet door. I was thinking that if I sent it to her, she could get it back to him some kind of way. I mean, it’s not like she’s the one that scared the hell of him that night.’ I’m glad that I did it, I just wish that it wasn’t in front of him. I never wanted Jack to see me like that, I didn’t even want Lizette to see me like that. ‘Hopefully Tara doesn’t burn and throw it away the moment she sees it.’

‘Jack really liked it, I’m sure she’ll let him keep it.’ Lizette returns to my lap, and I feel at ease once again. ‘How about we do something a little different tonight?’

‘Like what?’ I raise an eyebrow at her, feeling some sort of Lizette idea coming.

‘You know that I love you and I love how we get our little takeout then watch movies all night but I feel like we haven’t gone out in a while, or ever really on a date. Just like a dinner, or a movie, anything. I’m not choosy. What do you say?’ I hated how she felt the need to ask me to take her out, I’ve been meaning to but a thousand things tend to get in the way. I never want her to think that she’s not worth it or I’m a little too comfortable in her feelings for me where I think I don’t have to try anymore.

‘Okay.’ I nod as she instantly starts smiling, ‘Lizette, will you go on a date with me tonight?’ Even though, I was asking now – I’ve never been on a “proper” date. I could already feel my hands get all sweaty and my stomach was turning with nervous knots. Lizette was worth it. And then some.

‘I would love to!’ She beams happily, ‘I better get going to figure out what I’m going to wear. How should I dress?’ Lizette is already walking towards the door and grabbing her purse, ‘what time should I be ready?’

‘Seven and I would prefer it if you had absolutely no clothes on but that’s just me.’ She scoffs but walks back over to me for a kiss goodbye anyway, ‘You look out of my league in anything you wear so you should be fine.’

‘See you at seven, I love you.’ I kiss her once more before she scurries over to the door excitedly.

‘I love you.’ I call out just as the door shuts. I pull out my phone and jab the Safari icon with my thumb.

Things to do in Grand Rapids

Lizette’s Point of View

After destroying my closet, I finally decide on a new-ish black dress that I never got around to wearing. I kept putting off wearing it and now I have the perfect reason. I throw my jean jacket over it before sliding my feet into my boots and hurrying downstairs once the doorbell rings. Just in time. Thankfully, my parents were out at a family friend’s house so Niall didn’t have to endure my dad’s third degree. He was dressed in a navy button-down shirt with a pair of jeans, I’m almost sure they were his favorite. He wears them at least once every week. ‘Hi,’ I smile as he extends his hand out to me.

‘I told you that you always look out of my league.’ He muses while guiding me towards his car, ‘I feel lucky.’

‘I feel lucky. You look very handsome.’ I compliment as I settle down into the leather seats, ‘where are we going?’

‘Calm down, we’re still in front of your house.’ Niall teases, ‘besides, you know that I’m not giving you any sort of hints. Just sit back and enjoy the ride.’

I reach over grabbing his free hand from his lap to hold in between my own. I loved his hands. They were always so soft and warm. He eyes me with a smile from the driver’s seat while we waited at a red light. He pulls both of my hands toward his face to give them a quick kiss before driving along with the line of cars in front of us. Niall drives for about thirty minutes before we’re on the outside of town. Bright, neon-colored letters hung crookedly on the building. ‘An arcade?’ I look over at him curiously.

‘Not an arcade, the arcade. I can’t tell you how many times I skipped class back in middle school just to waste hours upon hours here. It’s almost like my second home.’ He speaks, before rolling out of the car.

I grab a hold of his hand as a group of preteen boys rush past us into the building. He smiles while hooking an arm around my waist to pull me closer to him. He places a big zip-lock bag into my hands before forcing a crinkled twenty into the coin machine. I hold it steady as the tokens rush out in an instance. ‘Alright, which game first?’ I glance around the room at all of the machines in the expansive room. ‘Ooh, skee-ball!’ I cheer before Niall has the chance to open his mouth. He happily follows behind me as I stuff the machine with a couple of tokens causing the balls to roll down slowly.

I roll the first ball and barely miss the 100 slot that was safely tucked away in the corner of the machine. I hit the twenty easily and excitedly clap while Niall watches with amusement. His blue eyes dance with excitement as he bites back a smile with his arms folded over one another. Then, the fifty. ‘Did you see that?’ I gasp causing him to tilt his head back with laughter. ‘Look at all my tickets.’

‘Your tickets?’ He speaks, playfully offended.

‘Yes, my tickets.’ I clarify safely slipping them into my purse, ‘I’m not sharing.’

‘Alright, if that’s how you want to be – don’t expect me to share mine when I’m buying every single thing from the prize booth.’

‘Are you challenging me, Horan? Do you really want to see who gets the most tickets at the end of the night?’

‘No, I’m not challenging you.’ He leads the way over to the air hockey table, ‘and I’m not because of the mere fact that you’re my girlfriend and I don’t want to make you cry because I love you too much for that.’ Niall speaks confidently from the other side of the table, ‘so the answer’s no.’

‘You’re on after I ruin you in air hockey.’

I did not ruin him. I’m pretty sure that he ruined me, three times. He cockily smiles at me while leaning down on the table to get a better look at the score. ‘Where is all of your shit-talk, Lizette?’ Niall pulls me into his arms with a quick movement, ‘It’s funny because I’m not hearing it anymore.’

‘Just so you know, good boyfriends tend to pretend to suck at least once.’ I slip my arms around his waist, rising on my tiptoes to kiss his lips.

‘Is that a nice, white flag I see you waving?’ He taunts as he presses me against the table.

‘Ew, gross! You’re kissing on the table!’ Some boy, about twelve scoffs at the two of us. His black baseball hat is turned backwards as he clutches onto a big bag of tickets, ‘You’re both like fifty.’ With that he rushes off to catch up to his friends. Niall and I watch as the five of them push each other while fighting to see who gets to go next on some racing game.

‘Fifty.’ Niall presses his tongue against the side of his mouth, ‘maybe twenty but fifty?’

I burst out into a fit of laughter, burying my face into Niall’s shirt. ‘I think they’ve taken over your stomping ground.’

We end up using all of the tokens before Niall goes back for more. The manager comes onto the intercom to say that the arcade would be closing in fifteen minutes. ‘Time to find out the winner.’ Niall points over to the ticket machine. I eye his tickets carefully folded on top of each other. It had to be over 500. I didn’t even think that I got 100. The machine eats Niall’s tickets for what felt like ages. He prints out the ticket, reading it to himself with an oncoming smile. ‘753. You’re turn.’

‘You’re going to be so annoying, aren’t you?’ I attempt to shield the screen as the machine counts my tickets. 95.

‘C’mon, I’m sure we can get you a nice eraser or something with your winnings.’

‘You’re the worst.’ I frown, giving him a slight push away from me.

I silently lean against the counter as Niall eyes the items up high on the shelves, for the people with 753 tickets. I had to look down at the suckier prizes, like plastic vampire teeth and candy rings. I end up getting two suckers, a handful of Laffy Taffy, a Minnie Mouse ring, and neon green vampire teeth. I was surprised at all you could get with a measly 95 tickets. ‘Go ahead and hand it to my beautiful girlfriend right there.’ Niall announces causing me to look up from my small bag of goodies. The cashier hands me a large, plush elephant with a rehearsed smile. ‘For you.’

‘Thank you.’ I smile as he wraps an arm around me to leave, ‘Did you really use all of your tickets on me?’

‘Hey, I had three left. I even got to get this eraser.’ He muses, pressing his lips to my head.

Before dropping me off at home, we stop at a Taco Truck downtown. Niall carefully slides back down into his car with two plates full of food. ‘I told my mom that she could go ahead and come.’ He speaks up after a while of silence.

‘You did?’ I hide my enthusiasm at Niall attempting to create a relationship with his mom. ‘I’m really proud of you.’

‘She wants us to have dinner with her. Her husband isn’t coming or her daughter, apparently she doesn’t want to overwhelm me.’

‘That’s thoughtful of her.’

The drive to my house was peaceful but it came too quick. I wasn’t ready to say goodnight just yet. It was already 11:53 so I’m sure my dad’s somewhere peering out of a window with a clock in his hand. ‘So, on the scale of dates, how did I do?’

‘You did amazing.’ I gush kissing along his jawline, ‘I must say I’m a little disappointed that you didn’t make time to take me back to your place.’

‘Wow, I didn’t know you were the type of girl to sleep with guys on the first date. I definitely should’ve then.’

‘You’re terrible,’ I slide out of the car, making sure to grab my elephant as I went. ‘I love you.’

‘I love you.’ He repeats while watching me to until I make it to the front door before driving away.