Act Like You're in Love {Niall Horan}

Chapter 48: Sort It Out

I personally think this is boring.

~Mariah's P.O.V.~

"Thanks for peanut butter, I'll get it back to you soon," Louis called to me from the front door.

"No problem!" I shouted back from the kitchen.

I heard the door close, only to hear it being knocked upon a mere minute later. Only two raps on the door -- a tendency of Niall's. "Come in," I called. My throat itched as a way of telling me it needed water.

Then the door to my apartment creaked open, and Niall walked in.

"Hey, want anything to drink?" I asked since I was getting myself a glass.

It had been one week since Niall and I made up. My mom stayed with me for a couple of days before returning to Chicago, without me. I stayed in New York, but I know I am going to have to actually move soon. My career is elsewhere, and so is One Direction's anyway.

After Niall and I were back on good terms, it seemed like everything went back to the way it was before the fight. And that worried me. Everything before was good, but there were flaws that caused us to split, right? I didn't want that to happen again.

"No, that's okay," Niall replied, seating himself on the barstool next to the high-top counter. "Can we talk?"

"Yeah," I told him unsurely. "Of course." I set down my cup after taking a sip and then sat down on the stool beside him.

He looked at me. "I don't wanna screw up our relationship again."

I sadly smiled. "It wasn't really your fault, Niall. Stop beating yourself up about it."

"But half of it was my fault."

"And half was mine."

"So let's both make sure we don't screw up, then."

I take a small drink of my water again. "Mmkay."

"I'm saying we should talk about it. Sort out our differences in stuff."

"Okay, this time you can lead this discussion," I laughed.

We got up and walked to a cleared area in my living room, sitting down criss-cross style on the floor across from each other.

"Let us begin!" Niall exclaimed in his announcer voice, and I bursted out with laughter.

When I calmed down I started to talk. I figured Niall's proclamation was the most he was going to do of leading the discussion. "So if we're going to make a long-distance relationship work, we have to be on the same terms with everything."

"Yep," Niall agreed.

"Basically what I thought is that we would talk about every major aspect that couples tend to have maybe problems with long distances," I started. "We go through and make sure we're on the same page."

"Okay, how about finding someone else or cheating?" Niall suggested. "Lots of people have that issue."

"Or at least they think they do," I corrected. "But that all boils down to trust. I'm really not worried about you with another girl, like we established last time."

Niall nodded. "Most girls -"

"I'm not like most girls then, am I now?" I said to him.

A smile appeared on his face and his eyes lit up a bit. "No, no you aren't," he whispered quietly before leaning his pretty face to mine for a nice, slow kiss.

Though we had kissed a thousand times before, my cheeks were flushed with pink.

Then a bothering thought crossed my mind; we had so many differences, particularly in opinion of alcohol. Uneasiness took over my stomach at the very thought, but we had to get over our differences, I had to get over what happened to my brother.