Words [Niall Horan] AU

Chapter 3: Harry

"Bye mom!" I yell through the house before slamming the front door shut and walking down the driveway to Niall who looked up from his phone.
"Morning Erica," He smiles.
"Good morning Nialler, so how was the rest of you night?" I ask.
"Okay I guess, I stayed in my room most of it," He shrugged.
I nod in response as we turned down the street.
"So did you enjoy your first day of school?" He asked as he taps my shoulder.
"It was pretty good actually, better than I thought it would turn out," I smile in response.
Soon enough we arrived at school with only a few minutes to spare and Niall and I went to our lockers before heading to class. Turns out I Niall and Liam were in my biology class so they lead me to our room.
"Come sit with me," Niall says before turning around and dragging me to sit next to him.
Liam and Niall looked as if they were reading each other's minds I saw Niall say 'please' before Liam rolled his eyes and sat in the sits in front of us. It wasn't hard for me to catch on that I had taken Liam's seat so I tap on Niall's shoulder.
"Should I move so Liam can have his seat?" I ask Niall
"He's fine, he has other friends," Niall smiles.
I nod simply before looking at the front where the teacher was writing notes and begin writing them down myself. After a few periods it was finally lunch so I sat between Niall and Peyton eating a boring ham and cheese sandwich my mother made me. I looked around the table and noticed two girls who weren't here yesterday and Peyton turns to look at me, pulling herself out her conversation with one of the girls.
"Erica, this is Dawn and that's Ella. Guys this is Erica," Peyton introduces.
But something was different; she looked at me the whole time. Which might not sound weird but when she said my name to the girls normally people look at the person they're talking to in this case the girls unless... Niall. Niall told them I was deaf and now I'm getting special treatment of course.
"It's nice to meet you, I've heard a few things about you already," Dawn smiles.
"Same, I've heard quite a bit. We would have been here yesterday but there was this massive sale and I couldn't miss it," Ella says dreamily.
"It's nice to meet you both, and I hope everything you've heard is positive," I laugh nervously.
"Of course it has been," Dawn nods.
"Peyton I can't believe you didn't come yesterday! It would've been better if you were," Ella says.
"My mom's still pissed off from the last time I ditched, I am not risking my phone being taken away again or being grounded with all the parties popping up," Peyton sighs.
"Well we can go shopping another time, not during school," Dawns suggests.
All this talk reminded me I need to go shopping for my brother's graduation so I tap Peyton on the shoulder distracting her from her conversation with the other girls.
"So I need to go dress shopping from my brothers graduation and I'm not very good with this kind of stuff so I was wondering if you wanted to coming with me and help me out tomorrow since it'll be Saturday, you don't have to of course," I ask.
"I'd love too! I've been dying to go shopping, been nagging Zayn but you know how boys can be sometimes," Peyton rolls her eyes.
She then sends a fake glare across the table to Zayn who only pulls a face before blowing a kiss and returning to his conversation with Liam. They were a cute couple, anybody would agree with that.
"Can I join? I need to get a dress for Liam's sister's wedding before I forget again. I went shopping yesterday with Ella but I guess I got distracted..." She shrugs.
Liam's sister's wedding? Trying to put the pieces together, I assume Liam and Dawn we're dating or some sort to be a plus on for the wedding unless all of Liam's friends were going. But I didn't want to ask and sound noisy.
"Yeah, the more the merrier," I smile.
"If you guys are shopping, I'm coming too. I've got nothing better to do anyway," Ella shrugs.
"What about your English essay? You know the one that you we're supposed to submit yesterday," Louis snickers.
"Who cares, It was..." Ella began talking but I kind of got tired of lip reading everyone talking and went back to eating my sandwich.
I walked out the school gates with my bag on my shoulder and binder in my arms when by surprise someone wrapped their arms around my waist. I screamed and dropped my binder before jabbing my shoulder into whoever was behind me because well instincts. Oh shit it was probably Niall again.
I turned around and to my surprise instead of Niall on the floor gripping his stomach it was Harry.
"Harry?" I laugh before helping him up.
"Shit that hurt, I forgot you did that when you get surprised," Harry rolls his eyes before picking up my binder.
I tried to take it from him but Harry being Harry kept a tight grip on it saying something about being a gentleman which as usual I tried to fight back for it. He used his height to his advantage and held the book way about our heads.
"I hate you," I grumble.
"You wish, you love me," He smirks and gives me a side hug before we begin to walk.
"What are you doing here anyway?" I ask.
"I may have gotten suspended..." Harry says before bursting into laughter.
"What?! Harry! What did Anne say? And how?" I asked though I wasn't very surprised.
Harry does some stupid things sometimes, well all the time.
"It wasn't my fault well kind of. I dared Damion to pull the fire alarm and he only agreed if we got caught or in trouble that I'd have to take the blame so I agreed. They were going to cancel prom if nobody confessed so I took one for the team. 2 weeks suspension," He shrugs.
"I swear you'll come to me in a month and say you got expelled," I shake my head.
"Well my mom would probably move me to your school, you'd get to see me more hours in the day!" Harry cheers.
"Oh god no, I'd have to move schools" I joke.
Harry gasps and acts offended only to make me roll my eyes and shove him. I may have shoved him a little too hard though because he crashed into a bin and tumbled down with it causing me to burst into laughter. He glares at me and picks himself up off the floor since I was too busy laughing my head off to help. Luckily the bin was empty so Harry picked it up and we continued to walk down the street.
"I'm home mom!" I yell and drop my bag before heading straight to the kitchen.
There was a note on the counter.
Went out to a meeting- love mom
My mom owned an interior designing company and since she owned it, she could basically choose when to work. She did a lot of paperwork and designing at home to be around for me which I'm grateful for.
"Looks like mom is not home, wanna make our weekend sundae today? I've got plans tomorrow with some friends," I explain to Harry.
"You want have out weekend sundae on Friday just for some new friends? Oh I see how it is," Harry acts offended.
"Shut up, I need to get a dress for Derick's graduation thing, do you have your clothes ready yet?" I ask pulling out ice cream from the fridge and placing it on the counter.
"I'm a guy, it's easier for me I just get pants and a dress shirt. You need a dress for Gemma's graduation too," Harry reminds me and pulls out our usual large sundae bowl.
"Shit I forgot about that! Thanks for the reminder; guess I'll get 2 dresses tomorrow, I shrug.
"And don't forget you need a date for both," Harry smirks.
I roll my eyes and go into the pantry and grabbing a bunch of sweets and sprinkles and placing them on the counter as well. My mother wants me to be a 'normal' teenager and get a boyfriend or at least go on the occasional date. Harry on the other hand dates around, he's quite the flirt and he's got charm I guess but since I'm forced to bring a date Harry is too.
"I know, I need to ask someone. Maybe someone from school, Peyton said there are plenty of options since I'm new to the school and all. What about you?" I ask.
"Don't have one yet either but who's this Peyton girl? Is she my type?" Harry winks and begins scoping ice cream into our bowl.
"Peyton has a boyfriend and you don't have a type. You go after anyone who goes after you Harry which is quite a lot of people. You should go after someone instead of letting them come to you for once," I suggest.
"You should give yourself some dating advice. There are boys going after you and you say no to all of them" Harry states.
"I like to be friends before I date someone so I know what they're like. I don't see a cute boy and think yeah he's the one," I roll my eyes waiting for Harry to fill the bowl up with ice cream.
"That's why you date them and see how it goes, point of dating," Harry says with 'duh' face.
"You date can your way and I'll date my way," I shrug.
"More like I can date my way and you can not date you way," Harry snickers.
I didn't say anything, I simply threw a hand full of sprinkles in his face and somehow one got into Harry's eye. I fell into a fit of laughter as Harry tried washing it out.

Niall P.O.V.
"Who's that guy with Erica?" I ask Louis as we walked out of the school building.
There was a fairly tall teenager about our age holding Erica's binder above his head and she tried jumping to get it but failed multiple times before she gave up and hit him in the chest. At first I thought he was picking on her but then he pulled her into a side hug and carried her binder as they walked away.
"I don't know, never seen him before, maybe Erica's friend or... boyfriend," Louis smirks and I whack him in the arm knowing he was teasing me.
"What? It could be, it's not like you've asked her," He shrugs.
"Well then it's obvious I'm into her," I say in a 'duh' tone.
"So you admit it HA! Well you can ask Peyton to ask her or maybe she knows," Louis suggests.
"Yeah I could do that, can I get a lift? I was going to walk with Erica but it looks like she's got other plans..." I say indicating to the tall guy she left with.
Louis nods as we reach his car and we both hop in before my thoughts wondered to Erica. She was walking home with that boy who may or may not be her boyfriend. Maybe he was just a friend or cousin or sibling o- that's it I'm not going to torture myself withal my thoughts. I'll just text Peyton and ask her, she would know right?
As Louis begins to drive on the main road along where Erica walks home and notice her and the boy I saw her with laughing at something. I shook my head and grabbed my phone out of my pocket to send a message to Peyton.
To Peyton
Hey do you happen to um know if Erica had a boyfriend?
She replied almost instantly
From Peyton
I asked her earlier and she said no... why? You interested ;)
Heat rose to my cheeks, luckily Louis was too busy driving to notice and Peyton couldn't see me
To Peyton
Maybe, just don't tell anyone.
It took longer for a reply but within a minute she replied.
From Peyton
Okay Horan, your secrets safe with me
But knowing Peyton and her big mouth, Zayn probably knows by now. I just hope she doesn't start blabbering to Erica and it just blurts out. I don't know how she would react. I wonder if she thinks I like her... Louis says it's pretty obvious but then again maybe that's just because he knows me so well.
I groan when I realise I'm heading home to Jane planning the wedding. Everywhere I look in my house at the moment is wedding plans from flowers to themes to venues. I think we were going to taste cake samples today which I didn't completely hate the idea of but it was for the dumb wedding that I had to attend. I also had to be groomsmen for my dad. He said I could bring a plus one, I wonder if Erica would like to.