Everything Has Changed

Chapter 9- The Date

Eva's POV- 7:56 pm:

“Here you are.” Our waiter sets down both our meals on the wooden table. A burger and fries for Niall, and some steak and mashed potatoes for myself.

“Ah this looks so good.” Niall licks his lips and points toward the ketchup, “could you hand me that please?”

“Sure.” I pass him the ketchup and salt my potatoes. It has always bugged me when girls go out to dinner on a date and try to seem healthier than they really are. Amanda says she always orders salads and doesn’t even finish half of them when she goes out with her boyfriend, and I honestly just don’t get it. If you are comfortable enough to go on a date with someone, then you should be yourself and eat what you want.

“So tell me more about yourself.” Niall grins as he stuffs about five French fries into his mouth at once, “Oh god, I’m sorry. I’m being rude.”

“Of course not!” I laugh and he joins in. “Well, I grew up in a small town called Kinsley about a half hour outside the city. Went to a very small elementary school, and then moved onto a high school that was occupied by kids from about five different towns, so it was a change. I have a mom, dad, brother Dan who is 20 and a sister, Livvy who is 8. I have a chocolate lab named Cara. And ummm, I think that’s about it.”

“What about your interests? What do you like to do?” Niall asks.

“I love softball, I play second. Also I love to paint, and I love to sing and play the guitar—“

Niall cuts me off before I can finish, “You gotta sing for me when we get back. You can borrow my guitar. Pleeaaaseeee.” Niall makes a pouty face and I can’t say no.

“Sure, I’d love to.” I realize right after the words slip from my lips that I can’t ever sing in front of people because I get too self-conscious. The fact that I was trying to be more confident tonight just got me a free ticket to embarrassment. Shit. I try to settle down and just enjoy this dinner, after all I will only get a few more days with Niall, and I don’t want to waste a single one. “So what about you, what do you like to do besides singing and playing the guitar?” I sort of already know everything about him but I don’t want him to know that.

“Well I love to go to the derby. Um, I love the lads. They are the best friends I’ve ever had.” Niall blushes and I smile at his beyond-cute response. “Sorry didn’t mean to get all cheesy there.”

“No, I get what you mean. I don’t know what I’d do without Cameron and Amanda.” I let him know that I understand exactly what he means, and I do. Amanda, Cameron and I have known each other since we were born. Our moms were best friends before they had us (and still are today) and Amanda and Cameron’s moms were pregnant at the same time. My mom got pregnant with me just after Amanda was born. We used to have play dates as babies, which of course we don’t remember, but through the pictures I can see that we loved each other then too. Then once Amanda and Cameron were four and I was three and a half we used to put on little plays for our parents about princesses, and I always got to be the princess because I was annoying and would cry if they were princesses and I wasn’t. They still tease me about that, apparently I was a very bratty child, but I am the exact opposite now. The biggest fight Amanda, Cameron and I had was over who got to buy the pink floral dress from Delia*s to wear on the first day of school in the sixth grade. Amanda got it, which she always did, but we all shared it anyway. Then at the beginning of last year when Amanda and her boyfriend, Cody started to date, we kind of drifted apart because she was focused on her him, and meanwhile Cameron and I were occupied with trying to keep our grades up. Because we were taking honors courses (huge mistake), we had to work our asses off not to fail our classes. But thankfully over the past summer we started to bond over One Direction, and I still have the boys to thank for that. They brought my best friends and I back together, which was the most amazing thing anyone could have done for us at the time.