After Ana and Niall's talk Wednesday, they were in a good place. They decided to have a late lunch, early dinner and Niall went back to his hotel for the night.
Niall spent most of Thursday in the studio and called it an early night. Ana had to prepare for an interview for next week, it was also Grey's Anatomy night. Ana took her shows very seriously.
But today was Friday, and it was the first official day of the fair. Ana only picked two days to go to the fair each year. The first day, she would eat all the shitty fried food her heart desired, walk around and check out the 4-H animals and all the booths and play some games. The second would be for rides. She figured the rides would be set up long enough, they'd know which ones are safe to go on.
It was a county fair, but going was like walking into a class reunion. You'd see at least three people you went to school with.
This year Ana was slightly nervous. The fair was packed with young kids so they'd no doubt run into One Direction fans, plus, since Ana refused for them to pay for parking they were parking at her family's house and walking to the fair grounds. She hated dealing with the traffic. Which meant they would be seeing her family.
***
"Are you sure you don't want to wait outside? I'm just going in to grab a hoodie and the passes so we don't have to pay."
"No, it'll be fine."
Everybody's car was in the driveway, which made Ana even more nervous, considering she still hadn't told her cousin she had some sort of relationship, whatever you would call what they were doing, with her cousin's favorite member of One Direction.
"Okay, before we go in, my cousin is in love with you!" She blurted.
"What?" He laughed.
"My cousin Ellie, she's a huge fan and you're her favorite. I should have told you sooner, but honestly, I didn't expect for you to be meeting everyone until her wedding next week."
"Okay, well... I've met plenty of fans, it will be fine."
"Yeah, sure it will." She rolled her eyes coming through the door.
Ana crept in trying to sneak up the back staircase undetected.
"Lijana, kitchen... Now!" Her mother called from the other room.
"Damn it. I swear she has cameras, I was never able to sneak out!"
Ana and Niall made their way to the kitchen where her parents and Nona were sitting around the table.
"Introduce me to your friend." She smirked at her daughter.
"Mom, Nona this is Niall. Niall that's my mom, my Nona and you already met my dad."
"Ya know, I knew about the first date...but I'm surprised I had to hear from your father you were seeing him again."
"Yeah, well Dad finding out wasn't exactly planned." She replied rolling her eyes. "I'm just here to grab a hoodie and the passes and we're walking to the fair. What about you anything you'd like to share?"
"Your father proposed. Your sister wasn't exactly thrilled about it, so we decided to keep things the way they are, we'll be together, just, not married."
"What do you mean she's wasn't thrilled. Jeff got remarried, what's the difference?"
"She said that if we got married and moved in with your father, she wanted to live with Jeff and Kathy."
"She's such a brat."
"Don't call your sister names. It's fine, we don't need a piece of paper to let us know we love each other."
"Fine. I'm going to run upstairs and grab my stuff." She huffed and ran upstairs, leaving Niall awkwardly standing in the kitchen.
She was going through her sister's closet trying to find a hoodie or short to keep her warm when it cooled off when she heard a shriek. Ellie found Niall. She grabbed the flannel that was on front of her and bolted down the stairs as fast as she could.
When she got downstairs Niall was hugging Ellie and Danny was in the background waiting for Ellie to compose herself.
"You! You've been hiding him from me! You were the blonde he was spotted with in Chicago!!!! I didn't see any pictures of your face! I cannot believe you kept my favorite from me!"
"Jesus, compose yourself. Your fiance is in the room for Christ sake! I met Niall at work, we ran into each other at Lolla, we've hung out a few time. Also, he's coming to the wedding. Okay we're going bye!" She called dragging Niall out the door.
"That was...wow."
"Yeah...told you she was kind of crazy."
***
Ana spent the five minute walk pointing out places to Niall. The house they lived in when her mom and Jeff first got together. The place her first friend lived. The theater she worked at in high school before she started her job at the diner. The park she had her first kiss at.
"Right under those bleachers by the baseball diamond. It was a group of us, I was in seventh grade and my like, only friend had a bunch of friends in the grade above us. They all thought they were bad asses smoking and they decided to play truth or dare. I being the chubby girl with braces, was basically a joke so, their one friend got dare to kiss me. He was really quiet and he was actually really nice, I don't know why he was friends with those d-bags.
I was so scared I was going to do something wrong and in front of all the cool, older kids. I came home that night and smelled like smoke, my mom was pissed! I tried to blame it on Jeff and say I was wearing the same jacket when I was with him in the car but she wasn't buying it. She finally realized that I hadn't actually been the one smoking." She laughed as the made their was into the fairgrounds.
"I wish I knew you back then."
"I was chubby and had braces and acne, you wouldn't have noticed me. Plus, you're three years younger than me, I would have been far too cool to hang out with you." She joked.
"Well I'm glad none of those lads paid attention. Then you'd be here with one of them instead of me." He said lacing their fingers together.
"You are so fucking cheesy." She laughed.
Niall pulled her closer to him and kissed her.
"Ugh, seriously, I did not need to see that." Ana knew that voice, and pissed didn't even begin to cover how she felt about that voice right now.
Ana pulled away and turned towards her sister and Jeff.
"Hey Cupcake." He said opening his arms for a hug. She moved into him, before she stepped back and glared at her sister.
"Jeff, Niall, Niall, Jeff. This is my mom's ex. He was basically the only decent guy she was with."
"Hey mate, good to meet ya." Niall said shaking his hand.
"Yeah, you too."
She turned to her sister once the introductions were over.
"What is your problem? Mom told me what happened and you're being a brat, just let her be happy."
"I'm not moving. I like living at Nona's it's close to school and my friends."
"Cut the crap. You'd still take the same stupid bus to school you do now and your friends drive. Why can't you let Mom be happy?"
"Hold on, what's happening?" Jeff asked.
"My dad proposed to mom and when they talked to Len about it she said if they get married and move in with him she's going to live with you."
"She seemed fine. She's probably not that upset."
"Really, cause she seemed pretty upset to me, and I've known her a lot longer than you."
Lennon stormed off away from them leaving Ana with just Niall and Jeff.
"Okay, listen, your sister and I will be having a very long talk about this. Don't worry okay? Everything will work out. Go have fun." Jeff said kissing her head and going after Lennon.
"You okay?" Niall asked grabbing her hand.
"Yeah. I'll be fine."
