Crossroads of Life

Chapter 9

It’s surprising, the effects caffeine can have on five teenage boys. Of course, blasting my ITunes and singing along to a number of Ed Sheeran, Adele songs, and Torn on repeat helped raise the boys mood as well. Within 20 minutes, the boys were mostly back to their normal hyper selves. This was great for them, but not so much for me.

They soon discovered that I would be sharing a tour bus with them. This turned into a loud fit of “Roomies!” and “Bunk mates! Called it!” and that led to bickering which slowed the whole work day as a whole.

The worst part was I joined in on the excitement. I shouldn’t have because I was supposed to keep them focused, but they’re funny and I get easily distracted. Especially when Niall is winking or pulling faces at me, encouraging me to respond with my own cross eyed look, followed by a burst of loud laughter.

Around noon, Paul stuck his head in the door. He couldn’t have walked in at a better time either.

Louis was upside down on the other revolving chair, spinning in slow circles and slowly adjusting the height of the seat, for who knows why. Harry and Zayn were both wrestling Liam for his iPhone, wanting to get in a word to Danielle. Niall was on the table in front of me dancing like an idiot to Single Ladies which was currently streaming from my laptop speakers.

Just as Paul stuck his head in the door, I pulled the legs of Niall’s pants, trying to get his attention. This resulted in an almost-naked Niall, his pants falling to his knees, revealing a pair of Calvin Klein boxers. “Wooohoo!” Niall screamed before realizing we had a visitor.

“Ahem.” Paul cleared his throat and I quickly turned the radio off, blushing as I did so.

“Danielle? Yeah, I’ll call you back,” Liam said into the receiver.

“I came to tell you that you all deserved a lunch break-”

“YES!” Niall shouted, pulling up his pants and jumping off the table.

“However, I’m not so sure you deserve one...” Paul eyed each of us like we were kids who had stolen from the cookie jar.

“But.. but, Paul.” Niall said slowly, his happiness fading.

“We’re sorry.” Liam stepped in. “We were just uhm.. running over some..uh..”

“Approval documents,” I coughed, trying to help Liam out.

“Approval documents!” Louis suggested, stretching a hand in the air like the thought had occurred to him.

Paul began to laugh at us, clearly enjoying making us sweat. “I’m kidding! You really think I would deny Niall food?” He laughed. “Be back in an hour.” Paul told us and turned to leave. Niall jumped in the air and ran over to him, attacking Paul in a hug.

“Thanks,” he said. After Paul was a good few feet down the hall, Harry pushed himself off of Liam and Louis sat upright again. However, Niall jumped back on the desk and pressed play on the computer and started dancing to Single Ladies again. I pulled at his pants (yet again) and they fell down (yet again). He needed a belt. Seriously.

“Okay, Niall,” I said turning off the music, “you can pull your pants up now.”

“Why? Does it make you uncomfortable?” He grinned. I leaned over and smacked him in the arse. “Niall James Horan, get yourself off my desk!”

“Where have I heard that one before..?” Zayn wondered out loud.

Niall reluctantly did as he was told, hopping off of my desk and onto the floor.

“Where are we eating then?” Zayn asked.

“Nando’s!” Niall yelled.

“What’s Nando’s?” I asked innocently.

“What?! You’ve been in London how long and you haven’t eaten at Nando’s yet?” Niall gasped in disbelief. “We’ve got ourselves a Nando’s virgin mates!”

Five minutes later, we were all piled into Paul’s Range Rover. Liam, Harry, Louis, and Zayn were loaded in the back of the car while Niall sat beside me in the passenger seat.

“You sure you don’t want me to drive?” he asked.

“What? Don’t believe I’m a good driver?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him. His cheeks turned pink a little as he looked at me with his blue eyes.

“No, it’s just driving in America.. is different than driving here.”

“That’s true.” Zayn said from the backseat. “When we were shooting the What Makes You Beautiful video in the states, Louis got pulled over quite a few times.”

I laughed at this, picturing Louis’ face when confronted with a police officer.”BAILEY!” Lou yelled from the back.  I looked up from the steering wheel and had to put all my force on the pedal so I didn’t run into the person in front of us. I looked over at Niall and saw him laughing silently. He was about to open his mouth, but I stopped him.  

“Don’t,” I said through gritted teeth, “say anything.”

****

Ten minutes later, we were all squished into a booth, eating our food. Niall sat on my left, Louis on my right. Niall ordered for me, insisting I get what he did

As Zayn scooted into the booth, the distance between Niall and I was closed. Our legs brushed up against each others, and I suddenly grew hot. I took a nervous sip of my drink and listened to Harry and Liam’s conversation.

“I think it’s time for more food,” Niall announced, stretching.

“How can you eat that much?” I wondered. I mean, I could eat a lot but not as much as him.

“It’s one of the seven natural wonders of One Direction,” Harry said.

“Oh, yeah? What are the other six?” I asked, raising my eyebrows at the boys.

“See now, if we told you that, they wouldn’t be wonders,” Niall said playfully. There was some space between us again and I rested my hand next to my thigh. Harry, Zayn, Louis, and Liam had broken off into the conversation and the next thing I knew, Niall’s hand brushed up against mine. I looked up at him and he looked down at me, staring into my thoughts with those blue eyes of his. He smiled cheekily, and turned back to the conversation, his hand still close to mine, barely touching. His pinky finger wrapped around mine, clutching onto it. I tangled mine around his as a wave of guilt and happiness flowing through me.

The fact that the slightest physical contact  with him made my heart race, made me breathe just a little faster, killing me inside, knowing that I had to tell him no, knowing that we couldn’t be together, because I wasn’t going to be the one who stole the smile from this beautiful boys face. I didn’t want to be the one who turned his bubbly laughter into tears. I couldn’t be with him because I promised.