It started out slowly, almost too slow to notice.
First it was the finals – it turned out they would be taking place just a couple of days before Niall and the boys were supposed to go on tour, so the first week of our remaining month, Niall spent rehearsing and I spent studying my ass off to make up for the lost time I had spent trying to avoid doing it. After that Wednesday when we had gone out for a drink with the boys and I found about the tour, next time we actually saw each other was the next Sunday, when Niall called me to grab a bite with him at the local diner. In the meantime, we barely exchanged a few texts; we were both so busy. I hadn’t got my nose out of the books since that Friday afternoon, which meant I was feeling exhausted, sleep deprived, grumpy, not to mention I looked absolutely awful. But I wanted to see him.
So I took a quick shower, pulled my hair into a messy bun and put minimal effort into my make up before I ran out of the house, noticing Niall waiting for me across the street. He was leaning on a fence, sunglasses covering his eyes, hands stuffed in his pockets, his ankles crossed; I approached him, feeling my shoulders relaxing just from the sight of him. He noticed me and a smile lit up his face; he pushed himself off the fence to meet me, his arms immediately finding their way around my waist while he leaned down and pecked my lips.
“Hey” he greeted, pulling away, before he swung an arm around my shoulders and we started walking down the road. I winded my arm around his back, nuzzling myself into his side, looking up at him.
“No car today?” I asked, pleasantly surprised.
“Nope” he said, “It would be a waste of a perfectly good weather.” And he was right; it was sunny and warm and you could see summer approaching, you could smell it in the air around you. It was calming yet upsetting at the same time, since I knew what the beginning of summer meant for us.
The night after I comforted Niall, I started thinking. I really started thinking. About everything. Us. The good, the bad. Everything. And I realized he had a right to be doubtful and worried, since we weren’t the steadiest of couples – hell, we weren’t even a real couple. We were fragile and shaky and we started on a very, very wrong foot, and that part we couldn’t change; all we had was that last week or two, when we had managed not to bite each other’s heads off. The important question was if it was enough for us to hold on, and I had to be realistic – I couldn’t tell yet.
“How’s the studying going?” Niall asked, shaking me out of my thoughts. “Not that good, huh? Your face kind of says it all” he laughed, noticing the grumpy grimace I had made.
“So much information, so little memory space” I groaned out, panic bubbling inside of me just at the thought. Niall threw his head back, laughing.
“You’re funny” he said, looking at me and smiling warmly, “You’ll do just fine.”
“And how would you know?” I challenged.
“You’re smart, I know that much” he said, and I felt blood rushing to my cheeks, “Just keep studying and you’ll pass with flying colors… Are you blushing?” he asked, poking my cheek teasingly.
“Shut up” I grumbled, in desperate need of changing the subject. “And what’s with the sunglasses anyway? Don’t wanna be recognized, rock star?”
“Ha ha” Niall said sarcastically, pulling the sunglasses down his nose to meet my eyes. “Hangover. Sun’s not my best friend right now, but I needed some fresh air, so…” he trailed off, shrugging his shoulder.
“Hangover, huh? Had fun time last night?” I asked, doing my best not to sound upset or snarky or bitchy, even though I felt the pang of something like annoyance and jealousy.
