put a little love on me // niall horan

chapter five

Niall's POV:

It was around 7 pm, Harry and I were just sitting on the couch watching some old soccer reruns. Our season didn't start until November but we started practice a week after college started. Our coach wanted us to be prepared for anything and to him, practice was the most important.

I didn't disagree with him; plus with soccer, I could finally get my mind off everything else and focus on the sport.

With college, there were so many new opportunities. I still wasn't sure what I wanted to major in so for now, I was undecided. I knew I had to start thinking of what I wanted to do but I had time. I had my whole freshman year to experiment with classes so I wasn't too worried.

I was thankful that we were so close to home; I wanted my independence but I didn't want to be that far away from home. I was very close with my family and being far away from them wasn't what I wanted.

I remember when my brother, Greg, left for college and how much he missed being at home. He was in California, but in Southern California, at USC, but he struggled a lot. He grew to understand how to live far away but that didn't mean he liked it.

Cal Poly was always my dream school. Obviously growing up in San Luis Obispo, I was near the college for my life but I grew to fall in love with it.

Harry and I went to so many soccer games there, even toured the school multiple times and we made a pact that the two of us were going to go there no matter what.

"Harry, what are we gonna do if we go to different colleges?" I asked, playing with the soccer ball that was on Harry's floor.

"Ni what do you mean? Come on our dream school is Cal Poly SLO," Harry responded, looking at me as if I was stupid.

"I know but that doesn't mean we're going there Harry. You know how unlikely it is," I explained. We were only in 8th grade but I knew there was no way we could make it at the same college, especially if both of us wanted to play college soccer.

It just wasn't likely.

"Ni, there is no way we aren't going to the same college. Promise me that we'll try our best," Harry said. Being a 13 year old, Harry was different than others. He was always compassionate, more mature than you would expect.

Harry was also very intact with his emotions. He didn't care about what other people thought and he would showcase them. If he was sad, he would cry. He didn't give a shit about the stereotypes.

"What about Adam? I don't wanna stop being friends with him," I said.

"Adam is our friend Niall, but you're my best friend. I don't wanna go to college without you."

"What are you thinking about?" Harry asked, passing me the bowl of popcorn.

"Nothing," I shrugged off, hoping he would take the hint. I didn't want to tell him that I was reminiscing about our friendship cause he would make fun of me.

"Niall I don't believe that for one second."

"I was just thinking about our pact, you know? We fulfilled it H," I said, running my hand through my hair awkwardly. I didn't want to get emotional but I couldn't stop thinking about it.

"Niall," Harry said, looking over at me with a sad expression. "Come here you sappy little shit."

Harry grabbed my arm and pulled me into a hug, accidentally tipping over the bowl of popcorn but not caring enough to do anything about it.