little do you know // niall horan au

chapter 3; best song ever

Mona wasn't overly religious.

She actually didn't even know if she was religious at all. She didn't know if she believed in the prospect of a God, or if she believed in all the hymns she was taught to chant at a young age. Something clicked in her head when she woke up, though, and suddenly she was remembering the suitcase she never unpacked, even after all these months.

It had been something on her mind for the last month or so, the small Ganesha murti safely tucked away in its box in one of the pockets of her bag. Her dad had gifted it to her about a few weeks before he passed, and Mona's heart still gave a sharp twinge at the memory. She'd found herself fiddling with the box quite often over the past few weeks, debating whether or not to finally open it.

But it was like, how could she? It was something that reminded her of everything she and her dad had been through together, and there were times where the sole memory of what used to be pierced through her heart like a knife. It was something that reminded her of San Francisco and everything she left behind, and it had been months but Mona still didn't want to remember, she didn't want to think of something that made her blood run cold.

It was truly beautiful, though—the murti—completely unlike the brass one she had kept in her room back in San Francisco. But she still saw her dad in it, his smiling face appearing when she blinked, and she quickly closed the flap and set the box back in the pocket of her suitcase, shoving it back under her bed before her chest seized up. Instead, she grabbed her messenger bag, shoving her laptop into it along with her notebook and study planner, taking one deep breath before shrugging into her sweater and heading out the door.

"Going out?" Harlow asked without even glancing at her, and Mona always wondered how she did that, how she knew Mona was behind her without having to look back, because she was quite sure she never made a sound. "Can you drop this off to Liam as you're going?" she said, gesturing towards the bluetooth speaker and charger sitting on the table. "He left it here last night."

"He was here last night?" Mona gathered the items into her hands, a thoughtful look on her face as she watched Harlow try to look as nonchalant as possible.

"Yeah," she replied, turning the page of her textbook, which in itself was odd because she was an art major so shouldn't she have been...painting, or something? Mona wasn't exactly well versed in the world of artistic abilities, but she was pretty sure art students didn't carry around textbooks, at least not when they've already completed an Intro to Art class. "He came over when you fell asleep. Said he was bored because Niall was too busy studying to pay attention to him."

Mona scoffed, because Harlow never felt the need to explain herself to her, but she figured it was best to simply not ask questions, at least not for now. Besides, it really wasn't any of her business anyway. So with a quick nod and wave goodbye to Harlow, she headed out. She knew that if she waited too long, she wouldn't be able to get her favorite seat at the library.

As she was about to knock on the door leading to the boys' apartment, it opened, Mona nearly jumping out of her skin because her knuckles hadn't even grazed the cool exterior of the door before Niall's blonde hair was coming into view, his own messenger bag slung over his shoulder.

"Oh." He quirked his head thoughtfully, the corner of his lip quirking up in the beginning of a smile just as Mona held her hand over her chest, muttering something along the lines of Jesus Christ, Niall, you scared me. "Didn't know you were standing out here," he said, a laugh hidden in his tone.

Mona huffed out a laugh of her own, holding out the items Harlow had instructed her to bring over. "Liam left these at ours." Niall simply nodded and gestured for her to set it inside. "Going somewhere?" she called over her shoulder as she left Liam's stuff on the table in front of their couch. She didn't realize that he'd followed her in, almost bumping into him as she turned around again. She swallowed down the sudden lump in her throat when Niall's hands gripped her hips to keep her from falling back into the table.