Limitless

Chapter 34

I was glad that Louis and Niall waited to get pizza until after they got me.  I didn’t eat much at the italian place and the sweet-tarts that I snacked on from the gas station were stale and didn’t fill me up either.  The three of us sat in a local pizza place and all munched on a large pepperoni pizza. I stretched the cheese until it slid off of the crispy dough and then tilted my head back to drop the string of mozzarella into my mouth. I looked back at Louis as I chewed, waiting for him or Niall to respond to my telling them of all that happened earlier that night.  Over the course of the last 5 months, we had become a trio, especially when Isabella broke up with Louis.  I told Niall and Louis everything.  It was fun to hang out with them.  Louis picked up another slice from the tray. “So he just kept telling you that you were beautiful?” 

I nodded. “I mean, it was nice and all at first but then after like, the fifth time, it got a little weird.  He told me over and over and over in the car and then again and again at the restaurant.”

"He sounds like a creep," Niall said with a full mouth. "You’d never seen ‘im before?" 

I shook my head. “Apparently he had been talking to Charlie about me though.  He’s been watching me for a couple of weeks or something.  He broke up with his girlfriend just to take me out.” 

"That’s weird," Niall mumbled, taking another piece of pizza.

Louis raised his eyebrow at me. “You should just keep an eye out for him. Tell Charlie not to tell him anything else about him.  What was his name? Marcus?”

"Mason," I corrected.

"Hmm," Louis hummed, looking off into the empty restaurant around us.

Niall kicked Louis under the table. Louis frowned at Niall. “What?” 

Niall nodded in my direction. I stopped chewing and looked from Louis to Niall as they tried to communicate something about me to one another. 

"You know I can see you two, right?"

Niall huffed as Louis shook his head, not understanding the charades that Niall was trying to convey to him. “Her thing. Do you wanna…?”

"Oh!" Louis reached into the pocket of his jeans and dug around for a moment. When he finally grabbed what he was looking for, he pulled it out and set it on the table.  It was a small, black box that had a tiny red bow on the top which was smashed from being in Louis’ pocket.  He pouted when he saw the bow and Niall immediately tried to fix it. 

"Proposing to me, are you?" I laughed as I picked up the box.  

Niall chuckled. “Happy Birthday, Lou.” The two boys watched as I removed the bow and opened the box to see two pretty large diamond earrings. I grinned as they glimmered in the light. 

"Thanks guys. They’re beautiful!" I pulled them out of the box and put them on, brushing my hair behind my ears so the boys could get a good look.

"They look great," Niall said, pulling at my ear slightly.  "We did good." Niall smiled and high-fived Louis. 

"We also wanted to know if you wanted to go out tonight?" Louis asked, looking hopeful.

I looked down and motioned at the pizza. “This wasn’t going out?”

Louis shook his head. “I mean like, OUT… to The Core?” 

I had heard about The Core before. It was pretty much your typical club where all of the “cool kids” hung out.  I just knew that Catalina hung out there a lot so I generally tried to stay away.  All I really wanted to do was go home and be lazy.