Act Like You're in Love {Niall Horan}

Chapter 27: Theo

~Mariah's P.O.V.~

My ear lobe sags a bit as I tug on it apprehensively. "What if -"

Niall cuts me off. "They'll like you, Mariah."

"That wasn't exactly my question. What if they don't like me because I might've cheated on you?"

Niall sighs and closes the cab door before answering. "My mum isn't the type to judge very quickly anymore because of all the things the media says that she personally knows aren't true."

"What about your dad?" I ask worriedly. "And your brother? And his wife?"

"You'll be fine," Niall assures me. "Why do you even care so much, Riah?"

"Um, I, uh," I stutter nervously and pull on my ear lobe again. I care because I like Niall, but I can't really say that.

I look back up to make eye contact. Niall is looking directly into my eyes, and it's making me feel vulnerable. I drop my gaze again.

"Um I uh? Is that your answer?" Niall jokes.

"No, I don't know, I just don't want my best friend's family to dislike me," I say. That's true...it's just not all of the truth.

"Oh, well, like I said, don't worry about it," Niall says.

"That doesn't really help," I say, giving him a fake sour look.

Niall chuckles. "Sorry. There isn't much I can do."

I poke my tongue out at Niall and then look out the window of the cab. The streets of Ireland whiz by us, but then the car rolls to a stop.

"We're here!" Niall exclaims happily. His smile is so wide, and it just makes me feel all happy too.

As soon as the cab is stopped, Niall flings the door open, jumps out quickly, and practically throws the money at the driver before sprinting up to the front door.

I smile at Niall's actions and go to get our stuff from the trunk. The driver helps me unload and I give him a quick "thank you" and a smile. He gets back into his car and drives off while I try to juggle all of the luggage up to the front door.

"Niall!" I hear a woman exclaim. I look up and there's Niall's mom, hugging and kissing Niall. She looks over her shoulder and then rolls her eyes at Niall. "Niall, why is your girlfriend wheeling all of that up here? Go be a gentleman, I thought I taught you better!"

I laugh, but a bit nervously because she referred to me as Niall's girlfriend.

Niall shifts his balance and stuffs his hands in his pockets. "Erm, Mum? Mariah and I - er, I'll tell you inside, aye?"

He awkwardly hurries over to me and grabs the handles from my hands so that now I'm holding nothing. I shrug and walk ahead to the door that Niall's mom is holding open. I walk in and she immediately embraces me in a hug. The door swings closed, right in Niall's face and we burst out laughing.

"Um, I'm going to bring these upstairs," Niall says after I reopen the door for him.

He begins making his way up the stairs without any help, so Niall's mom leads me to the kitchen.

"Alright, you may know already, but I'm Maura. Please call me by my first name or else I feel old," she smiles happily. "Would you like anything to drink?"

"Yes please, water would be fine," I say politely and a bit nervously.

She turns away and gets a glass from the cupboard. "Mariah, would you mind telling me what Niall was going to say?" she asks while filling up the glass with water.

"Oh," I sigh and take the glass from her hands. "Niall and I aren't actually dating."

Maura's eyes widen and her face falls. "What? But...wait, are you...what?"

"The movie management thought it would be good to make us date publicly for fame or popularity reasons, I think," I explain with a slight frown.

"That's such a shame. We were all so happy to hear that he was finally with somebody," she sighs.

Instantly, I feel a small blush rise to my cheeks at the thought of us being together. Maura's face lights up a little bit as she catches on, making me heat up more.

"Oh!" she squeals excitedly. "You like him, don't you!"

I bury my face in my hands and Maura laughs, patting my shoulder. "It's okay, you two would be cute together."

"We're good friends, though, and I wouldn't want to mess that up. He's the closest person I have in my life right now," I say hesitantly.

"Oh don't worry, he probably likes you too," Maura chuckles. I swear I'm getting redder and hotter by the second.

Before I can respond, Niall comes clunking down the stairs.

"Mum can we go see Greg and Denise now?" Niall asks, jumping up and down excitedly like a little child. I smile at that while Maura gives me a small, knowing smile.

"Of course, Niall. Let's go," Maura says, grabbing her keys. She gestures for me to just leave the glass on the table, so I do.

I follow the two excited people out to the car. Niall opens the door for me and then slides down next to me. The whole time Maura tells us all about the pregnancy. She's been tired out from spending so much time with Greg and Denise lately, and the due date is supposed to be really, really soon. Niall and I are flying back to the United States in about a week, so hopefully we get to see their son born and maybe even squeeze in a few days with them.

"We're here!" Maura sings.

Niall rushes out of the car and up to the front door where he hits the doorbell continuously until a young man comes to the door with a great big smile on his face.

"Niall!" he exclaims, opening the door and welcoming Niall in with a bear hug.

"Greg! I haven't seen ya in so long! How're you and Denise?" Niall shouts.

As I walk up with Maura, I hear a feminine laugh approaching. "We're doing wonderful, Niall. It's so nice to finally see you again!"

Niall and Denise, I assume, hug each other lightly since Denise's belly is kind of stopping them from hugging tightly.

They pull apart and Denise spots me. "Ooh! You must be Mariah! I've heard so much about you!" she squeals gleefully. "And very nice things too!" she adds with a little laugh.

I chuckle with her. "That's good."

"So has Niall been a good boyfriend to you? He is such a sweetheart, goodness gracious," Denise asks, still with a bright smile on her face, leading me away from the others.

"Actually, um," I falter. She gives me a concerned glance but surprisingly doesn't talk so that I can just continue on.

I check over my shoulder to make sure the others are out of earshot because I don't want to start a whole awkward conversation. "Niall isn't really my boyfriend."

"What do you mean?"

"We're fake dating for the press," I explain, slightly grimacing.

"Ohhh," Denise sighs sadly. "But you two are adorable together. You two do like each other, right? Why hasn't that silly boy asked you out yet? He is way too slow at this. He needs to find a girl," Denise starts to ramble on, much more like herself from what I've seen.

"Am I that readable?" I ask worriedly. "That you can see I like him after knowing me for about two minutes?"

"Well, your face kind of lights up a little more with him and it's really cute. He's the same way, too. It's just really adorable and Greg and I will have to stuff some sense into that boy before he leaves again," Denise says with a bit of a chuckle while she shakes her head.

"Please don't make it too obvious that I like him though?" I plead. "Maura and I were already talking about it like we are now and I just don't want it to be so obvious."

"Mariah," Denise says a little more calmly, resting one of her hands on a shoulder of mine. "You don't seem to understand. He isn't going to ask you out unless he really believes you like him or he has a shot. I mean, don't start flirting with him constantly, because I don't think he'd like that, but don't try to hide your feelings from the poor boy."

I sigh. "This is so complicated. It's like high school all over again."

"Like I said, you two are just adorbale!" Denise says happily.

"Hi ladies," a male voice says from behind us suddenly, which scares me and makes me scream. Denise and Greg, who turned out to be the one behind me, start laughing hysterically and soon I join in. Niall and Maura come over with smiles on their faces, too.

It's nice.

Everybody is smiling and laughing, and this house is so homey that everything already feels right. Niall's family is incredibly nice, so now I understand where he gets his sweetness from. I feel really comfortable with Niall's family like I could get used to it.

I hear the front door open and close and yet another voice holler, "I've to food!"

Niall and I speedily get up and go to the kitchen while Greg patiently helps Denise come over here. Maura is already in the kitchen, getting plates and cups to put the take-out food on instead of eating it from a box. I would've offered to help her, but she looked done so I can just help afterwards.

Everyone runs around doing different things until finally all six of us sit comfortably around the table. Immediately I was showered with questions in conversation.

Finally the dreaded question came, but I knew it would. Maura asked it. "How are your parents handling all of your fame?"

"I don't know," I admit, fiddling with my napkin. "We don't keep contact any longer."

Everyone quiets down awkwardly for a moment before Maura says, "I'm sorry."

"It's fine," I say, picking up my fork again. "I get that question a lot."

After that awkward minute, I was bombarded with all sorts of questions again. They didn't ask about any siblings, probably because they just avoided family talk after that.

Time really flew with them. It was all warmth and happiness with them. Only a little while passed by before I fit right in. Laughter was constantly ringing through the house, and everyone kept teasing one another.

Maura and I cleaned up after dinner. Denise tried, but we made her sit out because she is really, really pregnant, and I honestly don't know how she can even walk at this point.

"I'm still staying here though," Denise insists, crossing her arms. "I don't want to go hang out with those men, they're weird."

I laugh. "That's true. They're probably having a farting contest right now."

"Trust me, they used to do that," Maura sighs, rolling her eyes. Denise and I chuckle, imagining it.

We make small talk after that. They're both really nice and surprisingly relatable. When we start to talk about One Direction and their families, Niall walks in with his hands in his pockets.

"Hello ladies!" Niall says. "Sorry ta interrupt but I was wondering if Riah wanted to go for a walk before it gets too dark."

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Denise and Maura look at each other, but I don't pay any attention.

"Sure thing, I'd love to!" I say as I dry my hands off on the hand towel. Then I turn to the other ladies and smile. "Thank you for all of the fun I had this evening."

"Anytime, dear," Maura says. "Have fun, you two!"

Niall and I make our way out the door. His neighborhood is cute, and the weather is nice.

"There's a trail a little ways down going through a bit of forest. We could go through that," Niall suggests.

"Ooh, that sounds nice. Is it old?"

"Maybe a few decades," Niall answers.

"Do people use it often so that a trail still exists? Because one time over spring break I went down one with my aunt and we got totally lost," I laugh, remembering.

Niall chuckles. "Nah, the trail should still be dere."

I giggle and Niall gives me a questioning look.

"Sorry," I say, still giggling. "Just your accent is so cute."

Niall's cheeks turn slightly pink. "And yours just sounds weird."

I drop my mouth in mock offense and blink about ten times. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me. It sounds quite odd," Niall teases me, poking my cheek.

"But when you said third, it sounds like you're saying turd," I giggle like a little girl, and even he can't resist laughing at that one. His face scrunches and his head rolls back while he emits a deep laugh and claps his hands.

"I never even realized that," Niall says, shaking his head. "That's real luck of the Irish, aye?"

I giggle. "Definitely."

"So what did you think of me family?" Niall asks, shoving his hands in his pockets and eyeing the upcoming tree that starts the trail into the woods.

"They're wonderful," I nod. "I really like them. Denise and your mother are just so sweet. Everybody is, actually, so now I know where you got your sweetness from."

Niall raises one eyebrow in his signature look, and my heart races. "Sweetness? You haven't spent enough time with me and the boys yet then," he says mischievously with a smirk. "You just wait until April Fool's Day, Mariah."

I frown. "Niall, are we going to even see each other on April Fool's Day?"

Niall's face falls, making my heart rate increase a smidgen. Is he...disappointed?

"I hope so," he says quietly. We both turn away from each other to instead look at our surroundings, a serene mix of various greens. The pathway in the dark dirt is defined by small rocks of different hues that sit side by side like munchkins.

"I hope so too," I reply softly. I feel Niall's pace slow, and a slight tug on my hand that was held by his lets me know to stop and look up at him.

A slight breeze blows between our faces. It tickles me along with Niall's finger when it brushes some hair out of my face. Goosebumps instantly rise on my skin from his touch, and I close my eyes in an attempt to save the feeling of his hand resting behind my ear. I open my eyes when he takes his hand back and gaze at him.

Unwillingly my eyes flicker down about two inches to where there's a place for his lips. When I flush in embarrassment and I look back up to see him looking at my lips, too.

My heart quickens at the thought of him kissing me. Last night I seriously thought we were going to kiss after John left, but we didn't and I don't understand why. It disappointed me, and it kept me up wondering last night along with on the long airplane ride.

A leaf blows past and brushes my ankle and another piece of my hair out of place. Niall reaches to fix it again, but this time he leans in and I think I'm about to burst from excitement.

After another glance at those pink, plush lips, my eyelashes flutter closed. My heartbeat increases by a thousand as I realize that we're about to kiss - Niall Horan and I are about to kiss - because I feel his breath on my lips. I can almost feel his own lips when suddenly the Marimba tune starts to blare through the crisp night air.

We jump apart right away and he fishes his phone out grumpily. "Hello?"

Even though now I'm at least a foot away from Niall, I can hear his mother screaming in a tizzy on the other end. "Niall! You and Mariah have to come now! Denise is being rushed to the hospital because her water broke!"

Niall's face turns happy once more. "A'right, we're coming, we're coming!"

He hangs up and grabs my hand, dragging me in a jog to his car. He must be too discomposed to drive because he tosses me the keys even though I'm uncomfortable driving on the left side of the road.

In a way I'm glad that if we had to have an almost-first kiss interrupted, it was this way because Niall was jumping up and down in his seat the whole car ride there. He kept talking rapidly about how excited he was and every few sentences he would exclaim, "I'm gonna be an uncle! Greg's gonna be a dad! Denise is gonna be a mummy! My parents are going to be grandparents! I'm gonna be an uncle, Mariah!"

I would just chuckle and say "I know" happily. I am happy right now, actually, because of the baby. A fraction of me is disappointed about the timing, but at least I know he was going to kiss me. I just feel some sort of comfort in knowing we almost-kissed twice because I know it isn't just a short fling for him.

I don't want it to be a short fling. Maybe it's too early to say this, but...I don't know. I kind of felt at home with his family, like that was where I belonged.

It took way too long to get to the hospital. In reality, it was only about 15 minutes away, but it felt so much longer.

When we finally got there, I pulled up to the front to drop off Niall because he looked like he was about to burst from excitement. After parking and checking in at the front, I hurried down to the designated room and found Niall impatiently pacing outside the door while his dad was calmly sitting in a chair.

"Niall," I laugh while I approach. "Chill."

He looks over at me with a crooked, sheepish, cute smile.

Niall's dad exits the room, leaving us to talk alone.

Niall fiddles his thumbs and looks at them. "The lads miss you."

I laugh. "Yeah, I kind of understood that when I got 69 texts from Louis saying that."

Niall chuckles. "I swear that boy has issues. His sisters are much more normal though, they're quite nice."

"I don't think anyone can be as crazy as Louis," I joke, but I'm speaking the truth.

"That's true," Niall agrees, pursing his lips into a weird face and making me giggle.

About ten minutes pass of random conversation before Niall begins to get antsy and pace around the room again. He seems to think something's going wrong.

"Niall, sh. It'll be okay. Calm down," I soothe him, gently pulling him into a hug.

"Why is it taking so long though?" he asks me worriedly.

"It isn't taking that long, Niall, you just don't have much patience. Women don't give birth to a baby in one minute and then the baby comes out perfectly clean with absolutely no tests to run and the woman giving birth needs absolutely no recovery. It's it like that. I'm sure if something were wrong then someone would come out and tell us. And look," I say, guiding his face to look at the door, "your dad is here with a nice big happy face."

Niall doesn't even get to respond because his dad starts and continues to talk. "So far, everything is great!"

I give Niall a subtle I-told-you-so nudge and he nudges back while his dad keeps talking. "Now apparently I have to fill some paperwork out because Maura is busy fretting, so I have to go collect that. Someone will come to give you an update soon, just sit tight."

He barely gives us any time to respond before scurrying away to get whatever he needed to fill out. Niall looks a bit calmer now, but he's still shaking a bit.

"Hey Niall, let's go sit down in the chairs," I suggest, leading him over to the section of waiting chairs. He takes a seat and then, before I could sit, wraps an arm around my waist and pulls me down onto his lap. I relax into him only to feel him resting his chin on my shoulder.

Does he not realize what kind of effect he has on me?

We sit in a comfortable silence with each other for who knows how long. Feeling him near me is really all I need to keep me occupied.

Out of the blue, though, a door slams open and Maura pops her head out of the doorway. "Go get the soon-to-be-grandfather! It's almost time!"

Niall jumps up and almost knocks me down. "I'm so sorry -"

"Niall, chill, it's fine. Just go with your mom, and I'll find your dad. Go, bye!" I chirp, turning the other way and going into the hallway that Niall's dad went down.

Only a short ways down I find a set of vending machines with Niall's dad standing in front of them and banging on them.

"Do you need any help with that?" I ask tentatively.

He jumps a little, I guess out of surprise. "Maybe. It ate my money and didn't give me anything in return," he says with a grumpy face on.

"That's happened to me quite a few times," I say with a nod. I walk over and give the machine a kick, and the snack pops out. Niall's dad gives me an amazed look, and I shrug. "I was actually just lucky."

He chuckles and bends down to grab his food. "So anything with the baby?"

"Yeah! He's supposed to come soon!" I say, turning excited.

"Ooh, let's get over there then."

When we get there, we're allowed in. There's so much action going on at once with Denise screaming, Greg and Maura pretty much in tears, Niall still jumping up and down like a kid on Christmas, and the doctors bustling around shouting orders at one another. I walk over to Maura and we take each other's hands in support while the rest of the birth goes down.

Next thing you know, the baby's screams are added in.

Maura and I gasp while Niall starts to cheer and runs out of the room. We're going to follow, but I think we both want to stay a moment more.

"He's here," Maura whispers to Greg with tear-filled eyes. She pulls him into a hug and they stand there for a minute or so. I say my congratulations to the couple and Maura talks to Denise for a quick second before we head out.

"WOO-HOO!" Niall cheers loudly, pumping his fists in the air when we come into the empty waiting area. "Their little boy is here!"

Tears fall and laughs echo around the room for several minutes before we're called back into the room.

Immediately we catch sight of the calm baby bundled in Denise's arms. Greg is knelt by her bedside with tears reflecting light to the room.

"Oh my goodness," I gasp. "He's so precious!"

"He's my nephew!" Niall practically yells with a glowing, proud face.

Everyone in the room laughs at Niall's reaction.

"Greg and I decided that his name is Theo," Denise says, breaking the silence but not looking anywhere except at the baby in her arms.

"That's so perfect," I say admiringly.

"I love it," Maura smiles.

Niall slips his arm around my waist, pulling me closer. For the few minutes that we all discuss the baby, I keep getting distracted by him.

Then he leaves me lonely, breaking away to pose for pictures. He uploads one to Instagram and Twitter after sitting down next to me. He's silent for a moment or two and then leans closer.

"Mariah, look at this," he says a bit grimly, handing me his phone.

I take it and scroll through a lot of comments on Niall's Twitter. About three quarters of them mention me. A few just ask if I was there and about the trip to Ireland, but some are questioning the magazine about the picture of Randy and I kissing.

Niall is leaning over my shoulder so he knows what I look at. When I see a bunch of comments, he takes it back.

"I didn't want you upset or anything by those, but I just wanted to show you in case you haven't seen Twitter recently that the Hamille article is pretty big and making a big fuss," Niall says with a slight, thoughtful frown.

"I know. I got a few texts from Mary talking about it. Apparently about the whole management has conferenced over it and they're looking into it," I inform him.

"This is bad, Mariah. They haven't done that in awhile."

I sigh and run through my hair. As usual, I tug on my ear lobe nervously.

"But lucky for you," Niall says suddenly, his face changing quickly to a grin, "you have a wonderful best friend slash fake boyfriend to get through this with you."


~
I dunno I didn't like that chapter much sorry :/

UPDATES: Ok so I hate school
And um yeahh I'm gonna push updates to about every other week (because I'm really overwhelmed with school) unless, again, something makes me really happy and I'm just all pumped idk haha

Thank you:) xx