SPACES [Editing]

Passenger Seat

Song of the chapter:

- Someone Else by LANY
- I hate u I love u by gnash ft Olivia O'Brien
- Over again by 1D

Harry Styles

[FLASHBACK:

"Imagine this. In a world corrupted with sham, hypocrisy and greed, where people are treated as anything but equals. Suppose you can have one superpower. What would that superpower be?" Niall asked.

Everyone was surprised not by the question, but by how suddenly it was brought up.

See, Niall has this weird coping mechanism for whenever he's nervous about something. He asks what-if questions that are completely far from whatever he's anxious about, and right now we're completely oblivious to what's bothering him right now.

"You know you can just ask us what we wanted for a superpower, you know." Louis told him.

"That's just how he is when he's nervous," I told Louis whose lap my head was resting on.

He's currently playing FIFA with Luke and Ash while Niall's pacing back and forth.

"What are you so nervous about, anyway? And quit biting your nails." Ash asked him.

"I can't help it, okay? I'm meeting Nat's parents in a few hours and I'm flipping my shit." Niall finally sat down, burying his face in his hands.

"Chill, Ni. It's not that difficult." Luke said.

"Y'can't say that, you haven't met Stephanie's parents. You haven't even formally asked her out yet." Ash told Luke, who just nudged him on the waist.

I can tell how anxious Niall was getting. I've never seen him this nervous before, not even in board meetings and events. I decided to speak up and lighten the conversation.

"Well to answer your question," I started, "if I could have one superpower, that would be the ability to speak French."

Everyone stared at me with blank faces. I sat up from Louis's leg and just pursed my lips.

"Okay, pause the game. Maybe we all heard it wrong. What did you just say, love?" Louis asked me.

"I said, I want to learn how to speak French. I mean, you know French. That'd be so cool. If I had that superpower, I can say things like 'Je suis allé au cinéma avec mes copain et ma famille.". I told them, relying on probably the only French sentence I know.

"You literally just did that. That's not a superpower." Louis pointed out.

"It means 'I went to the movies with my friends and family.', in case you didn't know, because you guys don't have a superpower." I stuck my tongue out at the boys and placed my hand on Louis's inner thigh, hoping he'd back me up on this.

"You really are strange, aren't you? Are you sure you married the right lad, Lou?" Ash asked Lou, who was now squeezing my arm, pulling me closer to him.