Laney:
When I got into Niall’s car I thought it would be awkward, seeing as we’d just met, but it wasn’t. I felt like I’d known him forever. He had black raybans pulled over his eyes and a snapback on top of his blonde locks. The radio was on and he sang softly along with it.
“Niall?” he kept his eyes on the road as he answered. “Yeah?”
I looked out the window and then back at him “Where are we going?” he took a hand of the wheel and put a finger to his lips. “That’s a secret” he whispered. I watched him turn the wheel as we pulled into the parking lot of a rollerblading arena. Suddenly I felt really insecure. I slumped down in my seat and looked out the window. “Niall, I can’t rollerblade.”
He parked the car and faced me. I could practically feel his blue eyes on the back of my neck. I turned to see him holding his sunglasses. Our eyes met and he wiped on a sly smile. “Who cares, come on” he said as he unbuckled his seatbelt and climbed out of the car. He started to jog to the door so I followed.
He held the door open and waved me in. We walked to a counter where a tall man with barely any hair was standing. We told him our shoe sizes and he handed us rollershoes. Niall got blades but I decided to try skates. I waddled on them over to the rink and we stepped onto the smooth wooden floor together. I started walking, lifting my feet high with every step so I didn’t fall. Niall slowly glided along the floor to my right. I could hear him giggle under his breath at my failed attempt at rollerskating.
I told him I was hungry and we went over to the tables where we could order food. He ordered fries, nachos and a cheeseburger. I picked at his nachos and ordered myself some chicken fingers. We finished eating and I could see him staring at something. “What are you looking at?” I asked, expecting it to be a girl. With his eyes still focused behind me he pointed to a claw machine “That” he said. He took a handful of quarters out of his pocket and walked toward the machine. I followed him and stood beside him looking at all the plush toys. Before he put the coins in he nodded at the machine “Which one do you want?” I giggled. “Oh, you don’t have to” before I could finish my sentence he interrupted “I know, I want to, so pick.” I pointed to a light green dog with a white clover over his eye. “Good choice.” He winked as he mumbled the words. As he worked the joystick he stuck his tongue in the corner of his mouth. In one try he lifted the dog from its resting spot and dropped it into the prize box.
“You want to try again?” he asked as I played with the dogs floppy ears. “Sure, but I’ll just fail again.” He shook his head taking the dog and asking the almost bald man to watch it until we were done. As we stepped onto the floor he told me to watch his feet. I saw him push out with one foot, then the other, back and forth over and over. I tried and fell flat on my bum. He turned around quickly and reached both his arms down. I grabbed them and he lifted me back to my feet. His hands were unusually soft, but I didn’t mind. “I have a suggestion.” He said, sounding a little apprehensive. “Shoot” he looked at me, we were standing still in the corner making sure I was okay to try again. “I’ll hold your hand. That way if you fall, we both fall.” I laughed at him. “Yeah only then two of us will be hurt instead of one.” He shook his head “Come on, try it.” He held out his left hand and I took it in mine. We interlocked our fingers and started slowly gliding on the floor.
A few hours later we turned in our shoes and got the clover puppy back. I started to put on my shoes and I heard Niall’s voice. “Ice cream?” I laughed at him but agreed anyway. Anything to spend more time with him.
