It's several days later. Once again, only one day to go until I pack up and leave again. This time, I'm going back to my home in the US. Odd as it sounds, being over here feels more like a home than anywhere I've ever lived.
I'll give you a brief recap of what's happened the past few days. I've met several of Ed's friends and hung out with them, I met freaking One Direction and got Harry, Niall, and Perrie Edward's numbers, I got drunk for the first time, and Ed and I did a semi-drunk twitcam (that was interesting), paparazzi took several photos of Ed and me and put them online, rumors are floating around that we are an item, and he has still not asked me to be his girlfriend yet.
Hmm. I'm almost a little worried, but at the same time I'm not. We've kissed almost more times than I can count, got drunk together, fallen asleep in each others' arms (although it was on a couch, it still counts to me), et cetera. Hmm.
It's a lazy day evening, and Ed and I are in his living room eating tamales that I made and watching tv. We usually keep up a pretty good chatter over our meals, but today I'm quiet, and I'm not eating much.
Ed notices. "What's wrong?" he asks, and stuffs a huge bite of tamale in his mouth. Lovely.
I shrug. "Nothing."
"No, that's not your happy face," Ed presses. At least I think that's what he says, as his mouth is still stuffed full. I give him a pointed look and he swallows, grinning. "Sorry, Nat."
"Thank you."
Ed scoots a little closer to me. "So are you gonna tell me what's up, or am I going to have to get it out of you myself?" He inches his hands toward my sides, and I lean away. I am very, VERY ticklish, a fact that Ed knows and always uses to my disadvantage.
"No." I put on a pouty face and try to scoot over away from him. Unfortunately, I hit the arm rest.
"Yes!" Ed sets his plate down beside him, then grabs mine and does the same. He lunges at me and starts tickling me. I shriek and jump up off of the couch, running madly for anywhere I can get away from him. He knows house better than me, though, and I end up cornered in his kitchen, my back pressed up against the counters. I'm trying to come up with an escape plan when Ed brushes a bit of hair behind my ear and leans in to kiss me gently on the lips.
I lean into him and enjoy the sensation of our lips moving together, his fingers brushing my jawline. After a few seconds he pulls back and looks deep into my eyes, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips. I smile, too. "There it is," Ed says happily.
I blush and look down towards my feet. "So what's wrong, Natalie?" Ed asks again.
I shrug, still looking carefully at the ground. "I don't want to go home."
"Oh." We stand there for a second in silence, then Ed takes my hand and leads me back into the living room. He plops down on one of the armchairs, and I sit down in his lap, nestling my head on his shoulder. It's nice.
Ed wraps his arms around me. After a moment he says, "Natalie?"
"Yeah?" I respond.
"You're squishing my leg."
"Sorry." I adjust my position a little.
"Thanks."
"Yep."
After a few more minutes, Ed says again, "Nat?"
"Hmm?"
"I like you."
I giggle a little bit. "Yeah, Ed. I like you too. Otherwise I wouldn't be in your house all the time, squishing your leg fat."
"I never said it was fat!" Ed says, laughing.
"But as you were saying..."
"Oh, yeah. Well, we've, er... spent a lot of time together."
"Sure have." I'm not sure how I'm feeling so calm. Probably because Ed's making this so awkward. I swivel sideways on his lap to look at him.
"And I'm sure you've seen what people are saying about us on twitter."
"Well, we did give 'em a bit of a reason to. Didn't we make out on camera?"
He gives me a funny look. "You must've dreamed that one."
"No, I remember it pretty clearly."
"Natalie, I'm the one who was sober. Trust me on this one."
"True." I think about this for a minute.
"I was probably acting like a huge freak," I say somewhat sadly. "They probably all think I'm retarded."
Ed smiles and shakes his head. "Nah. You weren't too bad. They all like you, from what I can tell. Besides, there's a video of me doing a drunk rap battle on YouTube... You've got nothing to worry about."
"Oh yeah, I've seen that!" I exclaim, then hurriedly cover my mouth. Ed cracks up. Oh, how awkward it is when your man finds out you'stave em stalking him like a maniac. Dang it. "Let's pretend I didn't say that, shall we?"
He leans over and kisses me on the cheek. "It's alright," he mumbles. I can't tell if he's embarrassed or flattered.
We sit in silence again. "So... What were you getting at again?" I press.
"Oh yeah." He makes a face, like he's thinking really hard.
Eventually I give up patience. I let out a big sigh. "Good gracious Ed, this isn't a marriage proposal."
He goes red and grins. "Yeah, I... I suppose not. Will you be my girlfriend, Nat?"
In response, I throw my arms around his neck and give him a kiss on the cheek. As I pull back, I whisper in his ear, "Took you long enough."
