hazy || niall horan

2. library lull

Aoife loved science fiction.

That was it. Simple and raw. She loved aliens and she loved the supernatural. For some it was the couples who meet each other one summer on the beach and eventually fall in love only to have that false sense of intimacy ripped from under their feet by some astronomical force who deemed their relationship unworthy. And of course in the last few chapters the boy and girl eventually crossed paths 5 years later and finally realize that they were each other's forever.

Yeah that did it for some girls, but for Aoife, it was some weird nobody getting beamed up into space or the time portal of another dimension being opened that really got her system going. It wasn't something everyone was into and she understood that. In fact, Aoife knew she was strange. However, she'd learned at a young age to keep that side of herself hidden. it wasn't that she was ashamed of who she was, she would never be ashamed of herself. No she was just worried about sticking out in a group of people.

You see she was taught at a young age to never be different. Don't speak out unless you absolutely have to and don't draw attention to yourself because chances are nobody will care enough to listen anyways.

That is what foster care told her. She was uniform in the sense that her dingy brown hair and dull brown eyes could not be picked out in a crowd. That is what she had learned over the years and that is what made her different. She was smart and guarded and that is what had kept her alive all these year.

She needed the next book in the time travel series she'd begun and so that is where she found herself.

Her town was cold and wet most days and thus that day was no different. Of course she braved the cold because in no way would mother nature stop her from finding out what happened to Declan and his time remnant from a past dimension. She needed that second book, she couldn't stop herself from finding it.

Enter Niall.

He's a few paces behind her and his stomping feet don't seem to be heading in any particular destination. His shoes are covered in mud and pieces of the gravel from the streets around him.

He doesn't pay attention or give notice to the mess his clumsy feet are making. He's in much too poor of a mood to do so. But he sees the library and wonders maybe if he could hide in there for a little bit.

He passes by Aoife on the sidewalk and narrowly makes his way into the library that she's also heading to. Aoife acknowledges the back of the brown head of hair that briskly walks past her. She doesn't think much of him though.

Niall heads to the farthest part of the library. The part of the library that nobody visits. He heads into a cubicle next to the window that outlooks the alley.

Aoife heads to the farthest part of the library. The part of the library that holds all of her science fiction novels. She scans the shelves and finds what she's looking for and she opens it, smiling to herself. She plops down into a cubicle, one just a wall away from the boy who she briefly acknowledged outside.

This is their meet cute. Their beginning to a happy ever after. This is the moment that never really interested Aoife in romance novels.

Here begins her novel.

The Science Fiction girl and the rich (but rather unhappy) boy.