out of the blue / n.h

Chapter 27

MELANIE RICHARDS

“Mrs. Hills, I have a date with Melanie, if that’s okay?” Niall breaks the tension between the three of us.

“A date?” My mom’s jaw half dropped as she's really trying her best to understand of what’s happening right now. I take a look at Nathan. His face is pale and he doesn’t even look at me, even at once. He looks away and takes a sip of his wine without dealing with the conversation Niall and my mom is having.

I quickly shift my eyes to my mom the time she looks at me. I make a sarcastic face with blinking and pointing my head out to Nathan a couple times to make my mom really knows what has been happening. That we are just pretending.

Niall darts his eyes on me, he notices that I’ve been blinking around and patting my head to the side back and forth, looking like a total idiot. But it doesn’t matter for now.

“Oooh,” My mom finally makes that understood-grin face by nodding a couple times and pointing out to Nathan who’s not paying our stupid sarcastic conversation. As soon as Nathan shifts his head to us, I timidly blink my eyes on purpose and scratch the skin of my eyes to look like I wasn’t doing it on purpose.

“A date?” She fake laughs, so does Niall and me. “Why don’t you guys just get married already? You guys have been on dates for the millionth time!” She giggles. God. She’s taking it too far. 

Niall clears his throat as he smiles awkwardly. Everything in this situation is awkward.

“Well, uhm,” My mom giggles. “Why don’t you bring Nathan?” She points to Nathan who’s been standing and paying attention to our last conversation.

“Huh?” Nathan responds as he arches his brows. He doesn’t even want to deal with any of us, for now. “No, no. It’s a date. I’m just going to be here, celebrating.” He nods. “I better fill myself a wine.” He lifts his glass up as he turns his heels and walks away.

“Way to go, mom.” I nod and fake smile.

“I don’t even know why he’s here, anyway.” She shrugs.

“He said that you invited him!” I make out a sarcastic grin.

"Well, his mother called and we always talk. You know that, right?" She shrugs. 

"Yeah, I know." I roll my eyes.

“Oh, here he comes again. You guys better go.” She gestures us to go.

“Whatever.” I shake my head, walking away. Her eyes make out a death glare pointed at me. Niall seems to hold his laugh. “Mom, by the way, would you ming telling him I’ve been dating Niall for the past 6 months?” I whisper to her face.

“Okay.” She exhales and rolls her eyes. “Go.” She gestures us to go.

I lead Niall out as he clicks his car key to unlock his car. “Use my car.”

As we get in the car, the familiar cozy scent fills my nostrils making my mind travels back when I first got into this car. Then he starts the engine.  “Nathan seems nice.” He laughs.

I shoot him a glare. “Whatever. My mom really likes you, don’t you know that?”

“What?” He arches his brows with his nose flaring in and out.

“Not like she likes you!” I laugh. “You should've seen your face!” I point my forefinger at his face. Now, he’s the one that shoots me a glare. “What I mean is, she likes you, as in, she wants me to be with you.” I roll my eyes.

“Really? How?” He grins as he pulls the car onto the drive way.

“I—I don’t even know.” I shrug. “She talked about you the night in her boss’ workers gathering.” I tilt my head to his side. “Then here I am talking to her dream guy.” I sit back and exhale.

“You’re talking to him.” He nods. “Wait, where are we going?”

It takes a while for me to think the right place. I try my best to act fine despite the hard times I’ve been through for today. My dad and Nathan.

“We should go to KFC, I need a fried chicken and, just to make sure,” I sigh. “it’s not a date.” I shake my head and giggle.

“No, hah, ofcourse not.” He scoffs.

We drive to KFC and decide to take the drivethru so I can avoid other people’s existence. We drive down to Niall’s apartment to hang out there. When we get to his place, the cozy Niall smell from the car hits me twice harder than before. The place is a lot tidier than the other day I got here for the Smiths records. It feels like forever. I wish I can have my own place just like this apartment. It must feels really fun to finally can be by yourself.