“Hey! Wait a second...”, she exclaimed. I pressed my hand over her mouth, making her eyes grow wide. The guards moved on, and didn’t see either me or her. I looked back at the bookworm, and felt something warm and wet at the inside of my hand.
“Ew!”, I hissed, shaking it furiously. She’d licked it. She didn’t care, and looked at me with the same expression.
“You’re Niall Hora...”, I didn’t let her finish, and put my hand back over her mouth, dragging her through the glass door and inside. There I let her go.
“Sush!”, I hissed at her.
“What are you doing?!”, she cried, stepping away from me.
“I said sush!”, I repeated, reaching out for her again.
“Don’t sush me! You’re kidnapping me!”, she said, just as loud. I took her hand, pulling her down the hallway. If I could just get her to shut up she would be perfect. The books made her look special, like she wasn’t a girl who’d just been at a concert. “Stop pulling me!”, she snapped, and slipped out of my grasp. I turned around, looking at her.
“Look girlie, I need a favor”, I whispered, again taking her hand. “You know you’re not very strong”, I said, looking down at her pathetic attempt to pull away. I’d never seen a girl with such a sour expression on her face.
“Give me my books back, and let me go”. At least she wasn’t yelling anymore.
“I helped you, didn’t I?”, I said. “Now I need you to do me a favor”. I was not in a good mood, and I was not going to beg or try any harder to make her listen.
“I’m going to call the guards”, she said, and sounded like it was the most threatening thing in the world. Did she even know how pathetic it sounded?
“I just saved you from them”, I said, laughing bitterly at her try.
“What do you want from me!”, she cried. I was about to tell her to shut up again, but there was no time.
“Look, I’ll give you your books back, as soon as you do me a favor”, I whispered, standing closer. Right in that same second, Don and the others turned the corner. How lucky could a man be, everyone showing up at the same time when you least want them to. My heart was sinking and pounding at the same time. My bandmates have never looked more shocked than when they saw us. Don didn’t even flinch, he didn’t even have an expression. The book-girl was completely frozen, and her mouth hung open like she’d seen a ghost. Even though it was my bandmates she had seen. I was still holding her wrist, but quickly swung my arm around her shoulders. This was it, there was no way back now.
“Who’s this?”, Don asked, nodding towards me and the girl. Liam looked like all he wanted to do, was to get me to the nearest mental hospital and lock me up in there. Might not be the worst idea. Louis was just shaking his head, and ran a given-up hand down his face. Zayn mumbled something under his breath, while Harry’s mouth was like the girl’s, hanging wide open.
“Everyone”, I cleared my throat. “There is someone I’d like you to meet”. The girl stiffened even more underneath my arm, and her eyes were glued to my face now. I tried to ignore it.
“Really?”, Don was not convinced. The boys were absolutely not convinced, and waited for one hell of an explanation.
“This is...”, I looked down at her, and two growing grey eyes. God, could she just try to close that mouth of hers. But even worse, I didn’t even know her name. I plastered on the widest of grins. “Love, would you like to introduce yourself?”. I nudged her shoulder a little, and no one else saw it, but my hand was grasping into her arm to make her snap out of her trance like state. I begged higher powers that she wouldn’t mess this up for me. “Or what love?”, I repeated. Her eyes flicked across my face. Yes you morron! This is the favor! I begges she could catch on.
“Uhm...”, a hesitating sound broke the silence. She looked at Don. “I’m Sair”.
“Sair?”, Don repeated, cocking an eyebrow. He liked her. “How are you doing Sair?”. There was still a trace of disbelief and mocking when Don asked her.
“Good?”, she squeaked. I patted her shoulder, and let out a breath that no one heard.
“Niall!”, Harry said, looking like he was about to break down with all this confusion. “What the hell is going on”. I swallowed down thickly, again plastering the grin on my face.
“I’m introducing you to my girlfriend Harry, that’s what’s going on”. It didn’t sound all that confident, but confident enough. Don was listening, and the boys... well they were four huge question marks. Little miss book-worm gaped up at me again. “Close your mouth”, I whispered. Her mouth shut immediately.
“So this is the girl?”, Don sighed, and I knew I had him. He believed me. He really did.
“Yes”, I said, filling up with relief from top to toe. Maybe I would be let off the hook this time.
“So you’re Niall’s girl?”, Don said, looking at the girl under my arm. Now, it was me looking at her, and again I just begged her silently to play along. Just so I could go home and put my feet up and eat popcorn, and have days off, and watch games without 48 calls chiming in every minute. I waited for what seemed like years. The book-girl sent me a quick glance.
“Yes?”, she croaked. I breathed out a little more obvious than I should have, but it worked. Don shrugged, giving me an apologetic look.
“Right, it’s nice to meet you Sair”, he said, and shook her hand. “I’ll talk to you later Niall”, he added, a bit more threatening. “You better all go home and get some rest, I’ll see you all the in morning”. He left with his hands in his pocket, not saying another word. The boys hung left, and I think if I had blown at them they would have just crashed to the ground.
“What are you all staring at?”, I asked them, and led Sair past them all. They didn’t say anything at all even then. I kind of hoped they wouldn’t, and it must have been my lucky day. “You can all take the van back, I’m going to give my girlfriend here a lift home”.
