Foreign Affair ›› n.h. mature

Fifty-Two

Niall Horan

"Ahem," someone cleared their throat.

"Gimme a minute then I'll be up," I said to Liv and rolled over.

The throat clearing noise happened again, this time more irritated, and I felt Liv jolt near me.

"Oops." Liv elbowed me in the back.

"What?" I sat up rubbing my eyes, still sleepy from the nap.

"Um," a voice that was not Liv's said.

Fuck. I opened my eyes slowly to see Liv's mum standing on Liv's side of the bed. Thank god it wasn't her dad. "Oh. Hi, Mrs. Allen."

"I was just going to tell you to come out to the pool because people are here. I didn't expect to find anyone but Olivia inside Olivia's room."

"Yeah, sorry Mom. We just fell asleep," Liv said.

She ignored her daughter's comment and turned to me. "You're a regular Eddie Haskell, aren't you?"

"I honestly don't know what that means but I'm sorry. Won't happen again," I said.

She looked at Liv, then at me, then back at Liv again. "Just come downstairs and join the family."

As soon as she left I turned to Liv. "Well shit."

"Sorry about that. That's embarrassing." Liv cringed a little.

"Could've been worse."

"Yeah?"

"We could've been fucking."

"Don't say it like that." She shoved my shoulder but she was laughing.

"Is your mum going to hate me now?"

"No, she'll bounce back. But she will probably keep a closer watch. We'll just try to stay on her good side for the rest of the visit. I know she's dramatic and I'm sorry."

Liv got up and started putting her swimsuit on.

"Okay don't tempt me," I said.

She smirked. "It's not my fault you can't control yourself."

We went downstairs and her dad was blending up margaritas, the speakers were blasting outside, and a vast majority of Liv's family was either in the pool or lying on a lounger around the pool.

Harry was chatting it up, as per usual. We joined the party.

Of course Liv's family had a lot of questions about the band and the tour and everything. We are used to it. I personally don't mind talking about it in this setting. When it's not an interview where anything you say wrong can bite you in the ass, it's pretty fun to chat about.

Our conversation was suddenly broken up by some deafening pops and bangs. We all jolted and jerked our heads towards the noise.

Liv's dad and uncle were standing there with Black Cat firecrackers and a lighter, cracking up. They got some patriotic shouts of approval from others.

"I thought you couldn't shoot off fireworks in the neighborhood?" I asked Liv.

"These are fine. We'll go out to the land for the big ones!"

"Big ones? You people are nuts, I swear!"

"It will be fun, you'll see." Liv gave me her winning grin.

"Yeah it will," Grace agreed. "I set up out at the land earlier and it looks nice. It was while you two were napping," she said accusingly.

Harry jumped in the conversation. "Yeah, what is this I hear about your rule breaking, Niall?"