Overnight Sensation

Bryan finally understood why they called this the walk of shame. There was only one thing she disagreed with, though, and that was that it came and went. Her walk of shame seemed to be the pep in her step no matter where she had went for the next few days. And she had the feeling that whoever took a single glance at her was seeing a glowing sign above her head that read: I SLEPT WITH ANOTHER MAN WHILE ENGAGED.

One good thing had happened to her, though. As she was on her way home from her ‘safe haven’, she received a call on her smashed up phone from her fiancé.

William was a rather important and prominent business man(which her mother highly approved of), and he had been called out of town for the week for a work emergency. The relief Bryan felt made her feel even more guilty. But she wasn't quite ready to deal with facing him, nor was she ready to let go of the flashbacks of Niall that came and went.

However, she was pleased to find out no one had seemed to catch them. There were a few photos of her walking with the two boys, but no suggestive ones. Besides, she had already answered to Brianne and her family telling some story of how they had helped her when she lost her friends that night. It wasn’t a big deal, just a chance encounter with two quarters of one direction that proved to be well rounded gentleman. It might have been the biggest lie Bryan had ever told, especially to her best friend, Brianne. She just couldn’t think of another way out of it, though.

Bryan had been plagued with flashbacks of her night with Niall for the entirety of the following few days. And that made perfect sense, because the little snippets she was receiving were definitely unlike any other sexual encounter she ever had. And now she couldn’t stop thinking about how delicate he treated her with soft, gentle hands that were filled with purpose and intent. So it wasn’t just his laugh, his humor, but it was his mannerisms, his friendliness, and the way he had touched her like he had truly believed she was something to be treasured.

She guessed there was a good chance it was her mind playing tricks, but she was almost certain it wasn’t.

And it was sad for her to admit to herself, but he had been the only one to ever touch her like that. to ever make her feel like that. And he had been drunk. And bloody hell, did she miss him. She hated herself for it, but she admitted it on Tuesday night when she went to bed cuddling a pillow wishing it were him. Really, had William not been in the picture, maybe her and Niall could have remained friends, at least. The two hadn’t even exchanged numbers and she found herself regretting it. It was something about him that felt right - she was comfortable with him. Do you know how long it took her to become comfortable with someone?

It was day four, when she met up with Brianne for coffee that it was pointed out that Bryan hadn’t been wearing her ring.

Eyes wide, she saw exactly where it was sitting like she had been standing in front of it at the very moment.

Nialls bathroom counter.

***

Trying to convince the guards of One Direction to let her in was proving to be incredibly tedious for Bryan.

Lucky for her, after doing some intense research on the internet, she had found that the boys had taken a break. Also lucky for her, she had simply assumed Niall was still in the same hotel and she had been right. And she didn’t know this because she had seen the blond boy (or heard that obnoxious laugh of his), the dead give away was the amount of security the place had.

So, it was only natural that her luck ran out when she approached the service desk and said that she had needed to speak to Niall Horan. Which was laughable, now that she thought of it. A twenty one year old girl in London shows up at the hotel One Direction was staying at and hastily demands to speak to a member of aforementioned band. What a bloody twonk she was for that. As if they would simply say ‘come right along! Say, maybe we can even call the Queen over and you can have a tea with her!’.

Her next move was to order a room. But that was complete rubbish, too because she would never know what floor they were on. Plus, they had probably bought the entire floor anyways.

Her final option was to pull out her phone (which she had gotten replaced), and scrolled through the internet, regrettably searching the night she had spent with Niall to pull up a photo of the two of them. She cringed at the sight of the two of them laughing in close distance to each other. As she brought the photo to the security guard, she swore she had almost heard this laugh just by seeing the photo and made a note to see a psychiatrist.

Or an exorcist.

Someone had to expel him from her bloody thoughts. I mean, beginning to hear his laugh clear as day in her mind? She was surely going mad.

“See!” She squealed, “Look, that's me right there and thats Niall Horan, do you happen to have facial recognition abilities?” She growled.

“Miss, you can’t get in.”

“Yeah, I bloody know that, don’t I? I’ve been stood around here for forty minutes trying to explain I left my engagement ring in Nialls room!”

The guards only exchanged unbelieving looks toward each other, and she stomped her foot on the ground in frustration.

“Listen here, you daft cow, I-“

“Bryan?” When she turned around, Niall’s face was red. There was screaming and a load of camera flashes popping about behind him.

“Thank god,” She gasped, heading over to him, “You ought to think twice about the people you hire, Niall. They all seem to be dead from the neck up.” Niall could sense her frustration and took her word lightly enough to laugh at her them and the glare on her face.

The truth was, Niall had seen the ring the day after she had left. As if it aided him in not thinking about her (sarcasm). He hadn’t tried to contact or find her though, simply because he had this whole theory that if she came back trying to find him, then it meant she had wanted to see him. Yeah, okay, so she had left her engagement ring. But it was his theory, okay? He couldn’t ignore how well the two of them got on, he couldn’t ignore the mixing levels of comfort and excitement that came from just hours of speaking to her.

He had even cancelled his flight to Ireland and gave her a whole week to come back to him. He was beginning to doubt she would take the bait. But here she was.

He felt incredibly stupid about the whole thing, but he was twenty-two. His life was so busy and now that he had a break, all he could think about was wanting to really get his life going. He had learned by how quickly the passed years in the band went, that everyone was on borrowed time. Nothing was concrete, and for as long as he could remember he had always wanted a wife and a family.

He was getting ahead of himself. He wasn’t saying that Bryan was the girl he was going to marry by any means, but Niall had only been in love once before. And the amount he had felt for Bryan in that short span of time surprised him. He wasn’t saying he was in love, because he certainly wasn’t, but he believed with everything that he could love her. He believed with everything that she could love him. He wasn’t completely sure if it was just his brain getting ahead of him, so don't quote him. But it definitely was a gut feeling. Since when were his guts ever wrong?

He was certain that whatever it was he felt toward her could turn into something great.

It wouldn’t, of course. She was engaged after all.

That had been the battle Niall had with himself for three straight days. The lads had tried to talk him through it, and he let them believe he had stopped obsessing over that night, but he hadn’t.

Truth be told, he wasn’t ready to banish the flashbacks of Bryan and himself between tangled, damp sheets. Or the conversations they had shared in the room or the ones they had when he accompanied her on the drive back to hers. She just seemed to fit for some reason.

Before Niall had even began to respond to her, the crowd outside had gotten exponentially louder, and a tousled up Harry stumbled through the door, a horrified expression on his face. Bryan took a closer look to see his jacket being pulled at, and once it was released, the singer took a nose dive to the floor.

“Oh god, Harry,” Niall sighed. He was bored with his friends tendency to taking falls, and went over to help the triple-left-footed band member to a safe standing position. All Bryan could really do was stare. If she was honest, Harry Styles was absurdly more attractive in person than in photos.



“Shut up, bro,” Harry said quietly, brushing himself off. “It’s not my fault, someone had a hold on my jacket and I - Oh. Hello?” Harry looked at Bryans face, and she found herself clenching her fist at her side in order to calm herself down a bit. It was all over whelming, and the last time she had met another member of One Direction, she was drunk. She quickly realized doing it sober was not the way to go.



“H-Hello,” she sputtered.

Niall only rolled his eyes, knowing full well that she was giving Harry a look over. As girls do. Which was quite annoying, if he was honest.

“Harry, this is Bryan,” Niall introduced. Harrys brows shot up in interest before a small smirk took over his features. He out stretched his hand to shake hers.

“Great to meet you, love,” he said as she placed her hand in his, “Niall’s told us a great deal about you.” The charm she was blinded by quickly dissolved, and she turned to glare at Niall, reluctantly pulling her hand out of Harrys.



“Excuse me?”

“No!” Niall shouted, “No, i-it wasn’t - I didn’t - I hate you,” he directed the last part toward Harry, who laughed. Which, of course, showed off his dimples and had Bryan dumb founded all over. Although she was quite taken with Niall, she couldn't help feeling flustered around Harry. It wasn’t even that she had wanted him in anyway, not really. It’s just that…Harry Styles, okay? She believed it was enough reason.

“Right,” Bryan shook her head to rid herself of the birds flying around, “my ring.” William. William. William. She had to repeat it because for a split second there, she had sworn his name had gotten lost.

“Her ring?” Harry scrunched his face, “Niall, have you eloped?” Because Niall may or may not have forgotten to mention that Bryan had been engaged.

“Harry, go away,” Niall groaned, and quickly took Bryans hand to lead her through security and up to his room.

He definitely couldn’t ignore Harrys calls as he followed behind the two, shouting about this elopement and why he hadn’t been invited. He then offered to be ordained, asking if they could do it again.

And as Niall finally closed to door to his room, effectively silencing Harry, he found that he also couldn’t ignore the sensation he felt where his skin had touched hers.