Luck and Laughter (Niall Horan fanfiction)

Chapter 4 - Questions and the Drive Home

The first twenty minutes were torture. It consisted of me trying to desperately make shapes out of the black abyss that was the outside world. I could feel my face getting redder as I sensed eyes watching my every slight move, or perhaps it was just my imagination, it tended to do stuff like that. I fiddled with my fingers trying to distract myself. Any girl would kill to be in a car alone with Niall Horan but this was just plain awkward. What did I have in common with this guy? I had only just started listening to their music today so I felt like it would just be weird to discuss that. I felt the car slow down and we were in a lit up parking lot, a 24-hour food place. The driver pulled up to the drive-in window.

“What would you like, Amy?”  Niall inquired.

“Oh, I’ll just have a root beer.” I wasn’t about to pig out on fast food with a world famous pop-star sitting next to me.

At first I thought Niall had ignored my wishes when he started relaying the order to the driver. He ordered more than enough food for four people. But then I remembered reading something about Niall having the equivalent of eight stomachs and let him carry on without interruption. The car filled with the aroma of the food as the driver turned back onto the road. “Great, another hour to go of awkward silence” I thought.

“So what do you do?” Niall said, interrupting my internal sigh of depression.

“What do you mean? I go to school, eat, sleep, do work, sleep, eat a little more, rinse and repeat”

He let out a little chuckle. I was oddly proud of myself for making him laugh. Maybe he wasn’t completely bored out of his mind.

“What’s your favorite color?”  He asked between bites.

“I’d have to say green, but certain oranges are quite nice, and blues, but if you show me the right purple….” Geez Amy, stop rambling, a one word answer would have been fine.

“Okay” He snickered. “So, basically every color?”

“Maybe.” I smirked.

“What’s a city you want to travel to?”

“Anywhere, I’ve lived in the same town my whole life. It’s small; I haven’t met a new face in years. I’m tired of it.” Why’d you get so deep about it? You should’ve just said Rome, or Italy, or anywhere! Now he’s going to think you’re some weirdo. I decided to sip on my soda hoping he would just pretend I hadn’t said anything.

“I see what you mean. You just want to experience the world; it doesn’t matter where you start.” Wow, he understood exactly what I meant. “So, any siblings?” He further inquired.

“A brother named Jason. He’s 3 years older than me.” I realized I hadn’t asked him anything yet. “What about yourself?”

“Same, an older brother, Greg.” His next question surprised me, but maybe I was just overreacting. He may have just wanted to fill up the silence. But still, why would he ever ask this question? It seemed so random. “Do you have a boyfriend?”

“No.” I replied sort of sheepishly.

He seemed to let my answer sink in for a moment. Then he continued with his interrogation. I gave a few quick witted responses and, once again, I was proud they elicited bursts of laughter from him. His laugh was infectious. Soon both of us were in stitches and I was disappointed when I started to recognize the streets we were driving on. Niall noticed my slight pout as the driver turned onto my street.

“We should talk again, I had fun.”

I tried to hide my blushing cheeks. “Me too.” I admitted.

“I’ll call you?” He said questioningly.

“Uhmm, sure, I-I mean… if you want to, absolutely.” I stuttered, kicking myself mentally.

“Yeah, I want to.” He grinned.

I nervously gnawed on my straw as I turned to step out of the car. “Bye, Niall.”

“Bye, Amy.”

Niall’s POV

                I don’t really know what it was, I guess a combination of things really, but I like this girl. Like, I really like this girl. I shook my head trying to clear it; I had only known her for a few hours, but Amy is all that went through my head the entire ride back. I smiled to myself as I recalled some of her funnier answers to my questions. Then one of her answers came to the front of my mind: “No” She had said. She didn’t have a boyfriend. That made me happy, happier than it should have made me.

                I arrived back at the hotel late. Good. Now I didn’t have to be interrogated by the rest of the gang as to why I wanted to go on that over an hour car ride with Amy.

                “NIALL!” Oh, no. It was Louis. He was going to rip me to shreds. “So how was the car ride?” He said with a smirk.

                “Fine.” Was my response. I heard whispering coming from around the corner. I walked over to find Harry and Liam looking up at me with fake innocent expressions which soon turned into cheeky grins. I rolled my eyes. I should have known they’d wait up no matter how late I got back.

                “I don’t believe ‘fine’ is a good answer, Horan. Is that lipstick I see on your collar? Why is your hair all tousled?” Louis was lying of course but I couldn’t help but turn slightly red at what he was suggesting. This, of course, caused Harry to laugh. Liam was on my side though.

                “C’mon guys. Nothing happened and you know it. Niall was just being nice so the poor girl didn’t have to suffer through the long ride all alone” I looked at Liam trying to convey my thankfulness. “Unless…” Liam paused as his face stretched into a conniving grin. “Is that perfume I smell?” At least I had thought he was on my side.

                I groaned.

                “Aww, Niall, we were just poking fun. You know we support you and your dating decisions.”

                “Yeah, whatever.” I said as I made my way down the hallway to the room Zayn and I shared.

                I was hoping he was asleep, I didn’t need more jokes. But my wishes weren’t granted. He was just finishing up a call with his girlfriend, Perrie.

                “Oh, hey Niall. What’s up?” Maybe I was going to be able to have an actual conversation with him.

                “Can I ask you a question, Zayn?”

                “You just did, didn’t you?” He said with a smirk. “What is it? I’m going to assume it has something to do with the girl you just spent over an hour with.”

                “Well, yeah. How did you know you liked Perrie, like really liked her?” I struggled with spitting out the words. I didn’t usually ask Zayn, or anyone for that matter, questions like that.

                “Well I knew there was something special about her the first time I talked to her, but I suppose it took a little while for it to sink in that I really wanted to be with her.” He paused. “Is there something special about this Amy?”

                “Yeah.” I responded. “I think there might be.”

                Zayn gave me a smile. “Good for you, mate. She seemed nice.”

                I settled in for bed, I was exhausted.