Long Way Home

“Will you put your phone down for one minute and help me?” The annoyed voice of her best friend is what finally pulls Niomi’s attention away from her phone. The blonde looks up from her place on the sofa to see Finley stood there with her hands on her hips, lips pursed and eyebrow raised.

“What’s up?” Niomi asks casually. Really, she knows that asking that will only serve to annoy Finley more but she finds so much humour in winding up the younger.

“Are you serious?” Finley asks in that tone Niomi absolutely despises – the one that makes her sound like a patronising mother talking to a disobedient child. Niomi scowls up at the younger, receiving only a smirk in response.

“Fine.” Niomi puts down her phone and stands up. “What do you want me to do?” She questions, looking expectantly at her best friend.

“Just help me clean this damn apartment. It’s still a mess from last week and Aaron is coming around later.” Niomi rolls her eyes – it's all in utmost fondness, really – at her best friend's fretting because really, who cares if their apartment isn’t tidy?
Then Niomi looks around and, okay, now she understands why Finley is being so frantic. Last week the two girls had thrown a party for Finley’s boyfriend, Aaron. It had been his 25th birthday and since he was the girls’ closest friend besides each other, they wanted to do something special. Both girls were notorious for their parties and it was a well-known fact throughout their friends that nobody could throw a better party than they could. It was actually rather often that their friends asked if Niomi and Finely could help them plan a party. Admittedly, the fact that they lived in an apartment complex sometimes causes issues with neighbours and such, but luckily most people in their building were students so they either weren’t bothered or they sometimes even joined the party.

Last week though, things got a little out of hand and the girls had to kick people out and the apartment was absolutely wrecked. Hundreds of empty bottles covered every surface along with the sticky remains of spilled drinks. At the time both girls had been too drunk to think about the mess and had just been cleaning little bits up throughout the week. Now though, they have to face it head-on because Finley likes a clean apartment when guests visit.

"Okay, let's do it." Niomi huffs out.

The two girls began cleaning up the apartment to the sound of The 1975 playing softly in the background. Throughout the few hours the girls were working, Niomi finds herself often checking her phone to see if a certain lead singer had replied. She won't admit it out loud but she struggles to hold back her grin whenever he does reply.

Niomi pauses as she finishes putting the last plate from the dishwasher away and turns to look at Finley - whose eyes she could feel on her.

"What?" Niomi asks, raising her eyebrows expectantly.

"Are we just going to ignore the fact that you look like someone just told you Peter Pan is real?" Finley teases, making her way over to the blonde. She chuckles at the confused look on the elder's face and continues, "You're smiling."

"Am I not allowed to smile?" Niomi asks questioningly. She turns completely to face the younger, who had now sat herself on top of the counter, and frowns. She can't help but feel a little offended by the comment.

"It's just... unusual." Finley shrugs. She hadn't meant to offend the other female, she just couldn't help but point out the fact that this is the first time in a long time she's seen her best friend smiling at nothing. It's a nice change.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Niomi brushes off the look her best friend is giving her and tries to walk away but Finley grabs her shoulders. She sighs because she really thought she was going to get away with it.

"Cmon Ni, tell me all about your lost boy."

"Okay, firstly, can you stop calling him that? It makes him sound about twelve and that creeps me out." Niomi pleads. She shrugs Finley's hands off and walks out towards the sofa fully expecting Finley to follow her.

"Sorry. So, tell me about yesterday." The younger begs, sitting down next to Niomi.

For the next hour or so the two completely forget about the fact that they're supposed to be cleaning their apartment or that Finley's boyfriend was on his way over. Niomi tells Finley everything about the day before - from the minute she saw him in the shop to when she finally went to sleep. All throughout the story Finley was quiet, only offering appropriate responses every so often. When Niomi finishes, the two sit in silence just thinking about everything that she had said before Finley breaks it.

"You really like him, don't you?" She asks in a quiet voice, looking at Niomi with soft eyes.

Niomi doesn't say anything immediately and instead just stares down at her feet. A light blush spreads over her cheeks as she nods her head ever so slightly, shoulders shrugging the slightest bit.

"Yeah." The blonde mumbles.

"I'm really happy for you, Ni. It's nice for you to have something, or in this case someone, that you're interested in other than music." Finley smiles toward her best friend.

Honestly, Finley's shocked that Niomi even admitted to liking the frontman. Normally, she'd ignore her feelings or she would flat out refuse to talk to anyone about them. Finley hoped this meant that there was something between the two, it was nice seeing Niomi like this.

"Technically, he is like 90% music since, y'know, he is in a band." Niomi says, smirking as she looks up at the younger.

Finley snorts out a laugh and shoves Niomi's shoulder, "Shut up, you know what I meant."

Niomi lets out a chuckle before returning her gaze back to her hands. "I just - I'm not sure if it's going to work out." Niomi confesses.

"What do you mean?" Finley could see that something was seriously troubling the elder.

"Alex is in a band, he lives in Baltimore, and he's constantly on tour. I just don't know if I can handle that."

It was something that had been bothering Niomi since she met Alex. If, for some insane reason, something did happen between them, how was it supposed to work? Niomi didn't like relationships as it was, she wasn't very good at being in them when the person lived ten minutes away. So, what would it be like if the person lived a two hour plane journey away?

"If you liked each other that much, you can make it work." Finley argues. "Look, Ni, you never like guys and you hate relationships and feelings and all that lovey stuff, but here you are and you have this great guy who likes you and you're admitting your feelings for him. You can't let him go."

"But how do we even make it work?" Niomi asks. It was in that moment that she realised just how much she wanted something with Alex. She sounded almost desperate as she asked Finley for her help and she knew that Finley would happily comply.

"When he's on tour you could visit him in certain cities, and maybe even go with him. And when he plays a show in Florida he can make sure there's a day off and when he's not on tour you could go up to Baltimore or something." Finley stresses because she really wanted to show Niomi that a relationship between her and Alex was possible.

"I guess," Niomi mutters but she's still frowning down at her lap. Just then she feels her phone vibrate in her hands and she grins, opening up the message from Alex and sending him a reply.

Finley laughs, "Call him, seriously. You mentioned that he's leaving tomorrow, right?" She asks, receiving a sad looking nod from the elder. "Then call him and ask him on a date or something." Finley suggests.

"What? No-" Niomi starts to protest but stops at the look Finley gives her. "Okay, okay." She stands up and starts walking towards her bedroom, twirling her phone nervously in his hands as she thinks about what to say.

"Oh and Ni?" Niomi turns as her best friend speaks up, raising her eyebrow expectantly. "Promise me you'll try with Alex, even if it ends badly, just promise you'll try." Finley pleads.

Niomi smiles at the red head and nods. "I promise, Finn."

Once in her room, Niomi sits on her bed and stares at Alex's contact on her phone for ten minutes before she plucks up the courage to press the call button.

"Hello? Niomi?" It only rings twice before he answers, as if he'd been waiting.

"Alex." Niomi breathes out, completely forgetting everything she had planned to say just at the sound of his voice.

"Are you okay?" Alex questions; sounding slightly worried and, okay, Niomi probably does seems a bit strange right now.

"When do you leave?" The blonde cuts straight to the point.

"Tomorrow morning, why?"

"I need to see you." Niomi blurts out.

There's a pause filled with Alex's breathing into the receiver before he replies, "I need to see you too."

#-#-#

"So, I've a question." Alex states as the pair sit down in one of the many booths located in the bar.

As soon as she had hung up the phone, Niomi had run out to Finley and demanded she dress her in nice clothes. Whenever she went somewhere that required her to wear something other than a band shirt, Niomi relied on Finley to dress her in an appropriate outfit. The outfit of choice for tonight was a cute white chiffon Drop Dead shirt with skinny jeans and a bowler hat. Niomi usually wore beanies but Finley had argued relentlessly that a beanie wasn't suitable for her meeting with Alex.

The pair met up and decided to go to a bar downtown. It was a nice place, owned by a young Italian couple and served food that was to die for.

"Ask away." Niomi replied, smiling at the brunette sat opposite her.

"Is this a date?" Alex asks, a smug smile on his face.

Niomi blushes, "Do you want it to be?" She asks shyly.

"Yeah, I really do." The singer admits, now sporting his own blush.

"Then I guess it is." Niomi smiles at the way Alex's entire face lights up when she says that. She finds it enticing when she makes him smile like that, as if she was the most important thing in the universe.

The pair stayed at the bar for a good two hours, just getting to know each other more. The conversation flowed effortlessly, the only pauses were whenever a waitress came and took their order, and they found they had a lot more than expected in common.

When they finished their food and Niomi had, reluctantly, let Alex pay for their meal, Alex had invited Niomi back to the bus to watch a movie. Niomi had accepted because, really, she would go anywhere with Alex.

The two made there way back to bus, their hands brushing against each other's every so often before Alex linked his fingers with the blonde. The action cause a blush to paint across Niomi's cheeks which was, luckily, hidden by the night sky.

"I'm surprised you're not out partying somewhere since it's your last night and all." Niomi says, swinging their hands and grinning cheekily up at Alex.

The brunette responds by bumping his shoulder with the shorter's, "The guys are all going out for drinks actually." He say matter-of-factly.

"Oh, why are you not there then?" The blonde wonders. From what she had heard about All Time Low, they were avid party goers and enjoyed drinking quite a bit, so it struck her as confusing that Alex would turn that down.

They come to a halt as they arrive at the bus and Alex reached up to enter the entrance code. Once inside, Niomi can hear music playing from somewhere within the bus. She rolls her eyes at the sound of drunken laughter.

Alex turns back to her, "I wanted to hang out with you instead." He says it so meaningfully that Niomi nearly trips over. Alex sounds as though he genuinely meant every word that he's said and Niomi knows that she's made the right choice.

She smiles up at him shyly as he leans down and places a kiss ever so gently on her cheek. She curses herself from blushing again, but Alex only grins at the sight.

An obnoxious cough pulls their attention away from each other. Niomi frowns at the skunk haired man who she remembers from the music shop. Jack or something. He shakes his head before turning his attention back to the TV.

Alex, who still has a tight hold on Niomi's hand, pulls her over to the couch to sit down. Alex rests his head on her shoulder and sighs lightly, causing Niomi to look down at him questioningly.

"Is it stupid that I'll miss you?" He whispers, looking up at her.

"Absolutely." She smiles when Alex pouts, "But I guess we're both stupid because I'm gonna miss you."

Alex grins that adorable grin that he does and Niomi has to hold herself back because she really wants to kiss him. The singer nuzzles his nose into her neck causing Niomi to giggle, and okay, Niomi doesn't think she's giggled in her entire life.

"Are you fucking serious?" Exclaims Jack, shooting a glare at the pair.

Alex looks at his best friend in alarm, "What?" He asks.

"You ditch us for some girl you met, like, three days ago and then you bring her back to the bus?" Jack rants, arms flailing everywhere.

Niomi shifts uncomfortable in her seat. She didn't want to cause an argument, that was probably the last thing she wanted. She contemplates just getting up and leaving but Alex seems to sense this and grips her hand even tighter.

"I told you we were coming back here before I left, why is it such a big deal to you?" Alex stands up, dragging Niomi with him.

"It's such a big deal because this is our last night here and you don't see anyone else running off!" Jack shouts.

By now, some of the other occupants of the bus had come to join them. Rian and Zack were looking questionably between the arguing couple whereas the rest, who had no idea who Niomi is, were looking at all three of them.

"Exactly! It's our last night here, Jack! I see you almost every fucking day so I'm sorry if I wanted to spend time with Niomi, who I don't know if I'll even see again." Alex yells. It was kind of scary, and maybe just a little bit attractive, to see Alex so mad.

At the mention of the girl's name, recognition seemed to cross the others faces and they all shot her a knowing smile before turning back to the two men.

"Let's be honest here, you probably won't see her again." Jack states, in a voice that's a lot more calmer than before but still held just as much anger.

"Jack." Rian warns, holding his hand out to stop the skunk haired man from continuing.

Alex grips Niomi his even tighter, pulling her closer as he does so. "What do you mean?" He asks.

"You said it yourself, she doesn't do relationships. How do you expect to be with someone who not only lives in another state, but also hates relationships?" Jack asks, now pointing and glaring straight at Niomi, his face almost smug as he says as much.

Alex looks down at the girl, noticing how she was staring sadly at the ground, before glaring at Jack. "Fuck you, man." He spits out angrily before tugging on Niomi's hand and leading her out of the bus.

On their way out, the pair receive looks of shock and sympathy. The guys all look at Alex with shock - he had never spoken to Jack that way, the pair have petty arguments all the time but their arguments are like ones that two bickering brothers would have. But never – never – have they once either spoken in such a hateful tone to the other. Even Jack looked shocked. They look at Niomi with sympathy. A blind man could see how uncomfortable the blonde was during the argument especially as she kept looking towards the ground as if waiting for it to swallow her up.
Once outside Alex pulled Niomi to his chest, wrapping his arms tightly around her shoulders. She can feel his heavy, angered, breathing as she wraps her arms just as tight around his waist. They stand there, in each other's arms, just enjoying the silence.

"I'm sorry." Niomi utters so quiet that Alex almost thinks he misheard her.

"What?" He asks, shock evident in his voice as he pull himself away from her. He keeps a firm grip on her shoulder as he looks down at her.

"I'm sorry." She repeats, louder this time. She tilts her head down to look at the floor, avoiding eye contact.

"Ni, look at me." Alex requests. When she refuses he places his forefinger under her chin and moves her head so that she's looking at him. "That, what happened in there, is not your fault, okay? Jack's been moody all day, I don't know why, and he saw a chance to let his anger out and he did."

"He's right, though." Niomi says in a quiet voice, still avoiding Alex's eyes.

He's almost scared to ask, but he does so, anyway, "About what?"

"Us." She shrugs, looking up at him finally. "I mean, how can any of this work? You said it yourself, we don't even know if we'll see each other again." Niomi's voice cracks as she speaks and she wills herself not to cry, eyes darting back down to her shoes. She didn't want to think about what's going to happen when Alex leaves.

For the longest time Alex just stares at her, his eyes roaming every part of her body. Not in a gross way, like he's checking her out, but in a way that suggests he's trying to memorise every crook and curve of her body. Every freckle and every hair. His eyes held nothing but adoration and eagerness, as if she was the most fascinating thing he had ever seen. It made a shiver run down her spine, no one had ever looked at her so lovingly. She really wanted to kiss him.

At the same time though, he's looking at her like he will never see her again. And that just made her heart want to break.

"Be my girlfriend." Alex whispers, so quietly and so gently that it almost goes unnoticed by the blonde. But it doesn't.

Niomi looks up, startled, "What?"

"Will you be my girlfriend?" Alex asks again, louder and clearer. He sounds like he was asking the most important question of his life. Which it really isn't because he's a grown ass man and he never thought he'd have to ever physically ask that question again, but. Okay.
When he see's Niomi's dubious look, though, his face falls a little, but he pushes on, "If you're my girlfriend then I know that we'll definitely see each other again."
Niomi stares at the man before her, thinking over her options. This entire situation was completely foreign to her, it was one she didn't know how to handle. She remembers the promise that she made that morning to Finley, that she would try. As she looks up at Alex she knows that this, him, is what she wants.

"Yeah, okay." It was probably the most awkward response she could have given but nevertheless, it has the brunette grinning bigger than she'd ever seen and she knows her smile is the exact same, though probably more unsure and nervous than his.

Alex wraps his arms around her waist before lifting her off the ground and spinning her around. She lets of a noise, something between a scream and a laugh, and demands to be let down. They stare at each other for a minute, just smiling.

And then, he kisses her.