Climbing the Walls (a Niall Horan love story)

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

All five boys rushed up stairs at the sound of my blood-curdling screech. Oh look, Liam's home. They seemed to be relieved when they saw I was bouncing around in my bedroom. "Why are you so happy?" Zayn asked.

"DANI CAME FOUR DAYS EARLY!" I squealed, unable to contain my excitement. I knew only Harry understood what I was talking about, so I ran past the one smiling and four confused faces and out the front door. I saw the moving van in front of the house with the SOLD sign in the lawn, my eyes scanning for the brunette head with the gorgeous, straight light brown hair with the golden streak. My eyes found what I was searching for, and I resumed screaming my freaking head off, charging her at full speed. I knew I looked retarded when I ran, (Once, Julez told me I looked like a mentally challenged turtle.) but I didn't care. Dani heard my screams and ran at me, a huge smile plastered on her face to match mine.

"I missed you!" she cried before I could stop screaming as we crashed into an embrace. Ok, it wasn't even an embrace. We were literally squeezing each other like we were trying to get the last bits out of the toothpaste tube.

"I missed you more, don't even get me started!" I replied, spinning her around and jumping up and down. And I wasn't lying. I thought I was going to have to live without my best friends for the rest of my life, I thought they were going to forget about me. And here was one of my favorite people on this whole god damn planet, same as I left her; same turquoise eyeliner, tanned skin, huge, gorgeous, radiant smile, and sparkling brown eyes.

"Gee, thanks for acknowledging me, Hale. Missed you, too," Derek's familiar sarcasm came from behind me. I loved Derek, he was like my brother. Dani finally let go of me, and I turned around to face the boy that looked exactly like Danielle, just male. And two years older.

"Der Bear!" I exclaimed as he enveloped me in a brotherly hug. Dani rolled her eyes at my nickname for him. Well, it had been her nickname for him, when they were like three and five, and I never let her live it down. They've both gotten used to it by now, which is good. Derek will always be my Der Bear.

"Hey there stranger," he greeted me back as I smiled into his shoulder. His jacket was soft, and he had that familiar scent of Italian food that he always carried, no matter how much cologne he drowned himself in. We pulled away and I faced Dani again.

"So, you want to meet the boys?" I asked, giggling when I noticed them all waiting in the doorway of our house.

"No shit!" Dani replied, both of us bouncing with giddiness. I took her hand in mine, and we started bolting like drunk idiots, laughing our heads off, towards the boys. We were both out of breath by the time we reached the porch, but that didn't stop us from laughing. They smiled at us a bit weirdly, but I assumed they were used to my weird behavior by now and probably figured my best friend wouldn't be much different.

"Hi, I'm Louis!" Lou said perkily, sticking out his hand. Dani shook it, but he didn't pull her into a hug like he did to me.

"Would it be weird to say 'I know'?" Dani giggled, her natural charisma I had always envied shining through. "I'm-"

"Pretty!" Louis cut her off, making me roll my eyes.

"Aww, thanks," Dani blushed bashfully. She was never one to think she was pretty, even though she was unfairly gorgeous. "Actually, I'm Dani."

"I'm Harry." He took her hand away from Louis' grasp and kissed it, making me roll my eyes again. "But I believe we already met over video chat. Dani Styles is it?" he asked with a wink. He was such a flirt. I was very amused, because so was Dani.

"You can call me that if you want," she shot back flirtatiously. Just as I made a gagging gesture, Derek came up behind me.

"Actually, it's Dani Manchester," he corrected jokingly. "And I'm Derek." Harry smiled and replaced Dani's hand with Derek's.