Niall:
The red door to her huge, white house opened and she stood in the doorway in a light blue dress. From what I could see inside no one was home, but I could’ve been wrong since the house was so big. She stepped out and I pulled the door closed behind her. She smelt sweet, like vanilla, and she was only inches from me. Realizing I’d been speechless and she hadn’t said anything either, I broke the silence. “How are you, Laney?” She smiled and her eyes sparkled from beneath her bangs. “I’m good, how about you.” I nodded “great!”
I opened the passenger side door and she crawled in, sinking into the leather seat once again. I ran around the car and got in behind the wheel. She watched me as I started the car and I let a smile form on my face. “Where are we going anyway?” She asked tapping on the arm rest between us. “It’s a secret.” She rolled her eyes at me and I let out a chuckle.
“Let me ask you something.” I said to her as she fiddled with my radio. She was humming along to a song I hadn’t heard. “mhmm?” I drummed my fingers on the steering wheel as we hit a red light. “Is this a date?” I watched her as she played with the hem of her dress. She let out a soft sigh and shrugged her shoulders. “Do you want it to be?” She asked raising her eyebrows. I nodded and turned my head out the window. The light turned green and we started to move forward and she started to talk. “First dates are awkward though.” I let out a loud laugh and tried to quickly compose myself. “Then how about yesterday was our first date, and today is our second? That way the awkward is behind us.” She nodded silently and I felt like one of the luckiest guys in the world.
We pulled into the parking lot of Uncle Jack’s Mini Golf and she raised an eyebrow at me. “Is this some sort of short joke?” She asked putting her hands on her hips. I shook my head and we got out of the car.
She grabbed a yellow ball at the same time I did, so I put mine back and grabbed a green. We took a score card, a pencil and two putters and headed onto the course. The first hole I watched as she shimmied her hips and stuck her tongue in the corner of her mouth. She swung her putter and her ball traveled along the green turf. It landed in the corner by a rock and she turned to me with her bottom lip out. I got a hole in one and her jaw dropped which made me giggle. “Help me next hole?” she asked folding her hands together. “It’s not actually that impressive to get a hole in one on the first hole in a kids game.” I said picking my ball out from the hole. She pouted and I agreed.
At the next hole she waved me over to where she was in front of her ball. She took my putter and laid it beside us. She positioned herself in front of my and wrapped my hands over hers on the putter. “Show me how to do it, Niall!” she said excitedly. Happy to help, I moved her hands with mine and we gently swung, sending the ball straight into the hole. By the time we hit the end I had technically won. I say technically because I may have written the wrong thing a few times to make sure Laney won. When she grabbed the scorecard from me and saw her score circled she waved her hands in the air. “Take that, Horan!” she said pushing the card into my chest. I could feel my heart beating against her hand. I moved my hand over hers and she started to lean forward. I leaned in too and I could see her move onto her tip toes. As she did, she fell and we both toppled to the ground. I helped her up within seconds and made sure she wasn’t hurt. “So you are clumsy.” I said laughing, thinking about rollerskating with her. She nodded smoothing her dress. “Guilty” she said with a shaky voice.
We walked back to my car and I was sure of where we were going next. The sun was beating down on us and she had pointed out at least six times that she was hot. We ended up at a mall and she turned to me with a questioning look. I raised both my eyebrows and hopped out of the car. By the time she got out of the car I was halfway through the parking lot. She started to run after me and I could hear her laughing hysterically. She really did have the cutest laugh. “Are you always this spontaneous?” she asked clearly out of breath. I nodded “Yep, or at least I like to think so. Now lets go get you a bathing suit.” She pulled on the back of my shirt as I started to walk away. “A what?” she asked almost in a yell.
For the first time since I met her I didn’t try to fight the urge, for no reason at all I reached out my hand and she grabbed it and interlocked her fingers with mine. She looked up at me, her hazel eyes reflecting the fluorescent lights that filled the mall. “But why?” she asked with the softest most innocent voice I ever heard. With confidence I began to speak as we walked to a directiory. “So we can go to the beach.” A huge smile planted itself across her lips. Her lips that I almost kissed. I shook the thought away.
We walked into a PacSun and headed toward the bathing suits. She picked up a floral bikini with a strapless top and said she was going to try it on. As she walked into the dressing room I wandered over to the sunglasses and picked up a pair of white aviators and another pair of white raybans. Both were fake but that didn’t matter. She walked out back in her dress with the bikini in her hand. I held out the sunglasses “which ones?” She shook her head “I don’t need sunglasses. I tilted my head and raised my eyebrows again. I found myself doing that a lot. “You’ve been squinting all day, pick one.” She grunted and grabbed the raybans.
She dropped her things on the counter and started to take her credit card out of her iphone case. I hip checked her gently to the side and handed the man behind the counter my card. He had huge gaudges in each ear and he was wearing a snapback. He handed us our bag and she pointed to my jeans. “Are you going to wear those?” She was right, I couldn’t wear jeans in the ocean. I quickly found a plain white bathing suit in my size and paid. We picked up beach towels and a beach blanket at one of the kiosks in the middle of the mall and headed back to my car.
On the way to the beach we played the last letter game while we sipped our mango smoothies. “Theme is song titles.” Laney said staring blankly out her window. “Do I start?” I asked looking at her curls. “Yes.” She said letting out a yawn. “Okay, I’m gonna go with Paradise.” She looked at me and I turned away to face the road. “Then I’ll say Everything About You.” I started thinking of a song title that started with a U and I heard Laney humming. She started to sing softly. “You can stand under my um-ber-ella ella ella, ey ey ey.” I started to laugh. “Okay I get it! Umbrella!” I shouted as we pulled into a sandy parking spot. She held her hand up and I high fived it. We walked to the bathrooms to change into our bathing suits, and I thought of how much I was going to miss her when I got on the plane for London tomorrow.
