Lovely

New Decisions

That day when I got home from school, I immediately searched up "flirting" on the internet:

to court triflingly or act amorously without serious intentions; play at love; coquet.

Play at love? I leaned back in my chair in bewilderment. I couldn't be in love. There was no way. I was the least social girl on the history of the earth. Why would I fall in love?

And especially with Niall?!

I theorized that Blair had to be messing with me. She knows that I don't flirt. I don't fall in love either.

Finally, I decided to soothe my worries with a cup of herbal tea and a long bath.

***

At school the next day, I walked into science with some type of fake confidence manufactured by my conscience. Niall walked in right as the bell rang and he sat down next to me, sending a shower of butterflies into my stomach. My confidence was already slimming.

"Good morning, class," Mr. Gatsby coughed. "Today, you will be working with sublimation. The best example of sublimation is dry ice. Get into pairs and you will be observing dry ice in some beakers. Once you have a partner, come with a beaker and I'll give you some dry ice. Pair up!"

Now's your chance! Ask him to be partners! My eyes flitted around the room, but he was already talking to another boy. I sighed and started to walk towards Autumn, when I felt a firm hand on my shoulder.

"Sorry, were you going to be partners with her?" Niall smiled as I turned around.

"No. I mean..yes. Well... I mean-"

Niall laughed: a gorgeous laugh I might add. "Do you want to be partners or not?"

I blew a strand of hair out of my face. "Alright, sure." Almost immediately, my butterfly shower was gone. My confidence was now real. We got our dry ice and watched the smoke come out of the beakers.

"What's with the crazy idea of moving to London?" I asked cooly.

"I wanted something new. Ireland's great and all, but I wanted to go someplace where I couldn't walk the entire block with my eyes closed," Niall replied. He looked me in the eyes and smiled again.

"Well I can guarantee you one thing Niall: you'd kill yourself if you tried to walk down this block with your eyes closed," I said playfully. He threw his head back in wholehearted laughter, while I smirked and patted myself on the back.

"You know Pepper, you're pretty cool. We should hang out more often." I nodded and smiled.

"Sounds great."