Act Like You're in Love {Niall Horan}

Chapter 22: Party in the Plaza

~Niall's P.O.V.~

"Welcome to Party in the Plaza!" a man shouts at us. "Everything's free except food and beverages now that you're in!"

I grasp Mariah's hand a little tighter as the crowd coming from the entrance thins out, spreading into different directions. The song, The Other Side by Jason Derulo, comes to a close. For a few seconds I don't hear vibrations right inside my ears from the loud music until a familiar tune is blasted from the speakers all over, setting off a whole chorus of screaming girls.

"You're insecure, don't know what for, you're turnin' heads when you walk through the do-o-or," Liam's voice echoes throughout the whole area.

Mariah shrieks and jumps up and down. Since we're holding hands, I kind of have to move a little bit with her.

"Let's go dance!" she shouts excitedly over all the extraneous noise. She runs in the direction of the area that everybody is dancing in, the central part, which is basically the actual plaza part. My body is yanked when she moves, and I have to run or I'll be dragged on the ground.

While we fly over the grass, I take a sharp intake of the fresh air. It doesn't smell wet anymore like it has for the past month or so since all it did was rain, rain, rain.

Eventually Mariah halts to a stop and I crash into her, but she doesn't even notice. She's too pumped.

She jumps up and down to the song with a big grin on her face. "Are you gonna dance or what?"

I laugh, "It's my song, that's weird."

Mariah stops jumping and rolls her eyes. "Then sing."

"What?"

"Sing."

"Er, okay," I reply hesitantly. "Baby, you light up my world like nobody else." I start to nod my head to the all-to-familiar tune and start to get into it. "The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed, but she you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell, you don't know, oh-oh, you don't know you're beautiful."

"Woo!" Mariah claps gleefully. She looks happier than a kid who just got an Xbox and a get-out-of-school pass on Christmas, and it makes me chuckle.

"I like it when you sing," she says more seriously now.

"Then I'll sing more often," I tell her happily. "But I'm hungry."

"Oh my gosh," Mariah says in a very exasperated tone, but I know she isn't really annoyed. "You're so stupid. C'mon, let's go get food...."

She grabs my hand again and leads me out of the dancing mob of people. When we get out of there I feel like I can actually breathe again, so I close my eyes and take deep breaths.

"What do you want?" Mariah's voice says into my ear.

I open my eyes to see a vending truck in front of us. Quickly I decide what I want, and I struggle to be heard over the steady beat of the music behind us.

"That'll be $11.50," the cashier informs us indifferently, not even making eye contact. He sticks out a hand for the bills and pulls them in through the window. The coins jingle in the register when the drawer pops open and the guy fishes around for our change.

Soon my food is ready, and Mariah and I meander over to a bench farther from people. She relaxes in her seat by leaning against me.

I munch on my fries in a happier mood with Mariah resting her head on my shoulder. She takes a fry cautiously, and looks up at me before putting it in her mouth.

I smirk at her, but I let her eat it without snatching it back.

Unknowingly, Mariah gave me advice on how to get a girl that happened to be her. I'm guessing that part of what she said is something she would want to see a guy do, so I'm glad I asked her. I'm trying really hard to not act like someone else, too, because she said and also the boys said so.