Lights, Camera, Action [N.H]

20

tried to get this chapter done as quickly as i could after the last update took so long! song of the chapter is 'honey' by troye sivan, some wholesome vibes :) also, i have been adding photos of the outfits cause I'm not very good at explaining sry

The darkness of night had to be one of my favourite new pleasures. I'd always been a fan of the daytime, the sun. It was warm, it was bright. Being on the beach, in summer was truly all bliss. Niall's new nickname for me seemed to coincide with my love for the warmth. The name sunshine made my fucking toes curl just thinking about the way his accent purred when he spoke it. Almost every night for the past week he'd been performing, if not every second night. I'd never had this constant feeling of adrenaline before, each night the levels rose just when I thought that maybe the effects were temporary, like the feeling of excitement would slowly die down. It just kept returning to greet me, a welcome feeling.

Sunshine was always the embodiment of fun and fullness, I couldn't remember better times in my life than the summers I'd had with friends and family over the years. My best days were at the beach, skateboarding through the streets, riding bikes and swimming in pools. Drinking at parties and wearing tight denim shorts with nothing but a bikini like I was pledging a fraternity. I'd been to college, done it all. Everything stereotypical that you'd find on a college bucket-list, I'd done. And it was always in summer. Even when it was nighttime, the warmth of the sun continued into the evening, prolonging the best times I still hadn't forgotten. Sunshine to me was always the best feeling to feel. Even though it was winter now in England, smack in the middle of the coldest months, I felt my goosebumps melt away every time Niall called me sunshine like it was washing over me.

Just like a ray of sunshine.

It washed over me, like remembering my attempts to surf on the beach, sand in-between my toes, tanning under umbrellas and having water-gun fights in my friends' backyards. I felt full of life, full of laughter every time that nickname left his lips.

Just full.

But now, I felt myself beginning to shift perspective. Nighttime was now beautiful when I didn't know it could be. Filled with reminiscing of the day before, with more memories than I could count, ones I was making more of by the minute. 

The familiar feeling of fullness began to engulf me every time a show finished and I found myself shoved into a van, driving off into the midnights. My ears ringing with music despite the earpieces, with passion and screaming. I didn't mind the hearing loss I was probably giving myself, it was all worth it to me. My goosebumps somehow simultaneously appearing and melting from the sheer excitement, eyes blurry from the energy of each city as we drove past streets lined with city lights and billboards with Niall's glowing face plastered over them. Watching the crowd's flashlights blur into a crowd of twinkles, it was truly like nothing else. Except like summer fireworks. I drew parallels with my life at the best times to now, they truly began to feel synonymous. Nighttime reminded me of summer, based on how amazing it made me feel to watch the sun go down and just knowing it would be another amazing evening. I anticipated the moon coming out and nighttime beginning, just knowing it would be even better than the night before. It made me appreciate the nickname sunshine all the more, it was like Niall somehow knew me and all my best moments even though I'd never spoken them out loud to him. Like he was connecting dots, tying strings to my past to pull the pieces together and make me feel full 24/7, every hour of the day.

I was beginning to get used to the process of it all, arriving at the venue, shoot, leave, quickly. The first time caught me off guard, I wondered if I was supposed to know beforehand what to do, and who forgot to tell me, but I chalked it up to just being a learning experience. I learned very quickly. We leave the venue ASAP, not get mobbed, security makes things all go smoothly. That was the drill, and after the first night, I'd not made the same mistake twice of standing around with my shoes tied. Well, that, and making sure I had my lanyard on me at all times. They were all part of the schedule now. I was proactive, warming myself up to actually being part of the crew and knowing what to do. I was also warming myself up to the rest of the crew, especially Connor, considering we bumped into each other so often. We even got fun little moments of each other on camera, him taking videos of me, and me taking photos of him. It was a funny, ironic dichotomy.