Stevie // Niall Horan AU

One

                                                  Chapter One

     "Oi, Stevie! Over here!” I hear the all too familiar voice of my best friend, Mary, bellow over the loud noise of the coffee shop and I turn in the direction of her voice to find her standing to the right of the coffee bar, collecting an order.

     I make my way over, taking my time and keeping my distance from the lady passing me by with both hands full with steaming hot cups as she makes her way hurriedly back to her table, the scent of freshly made coffee leaving a trail behind her.

     Reaching Mary I place my purse on the bar and jump up onto one of the stools that she had saved me by placing her handbag on. I remove my camera bag from my shoulder and place it on my lap, hooking my left arm through the strap in case it takes a tumble.

      “You said you wanted to chat?” I take the cup of hot chocolate she’s handing me and take a sip, jerking my head back when the boiling liquid stings my tongue but I hold the polystyrene cup tightly in my hands to keep them warm.

      “Me and Lee broke up last night,” She says casually with a heavy sigh, clearly not bothered that her nearly three year relationship has recently ended.

      “Oh,” Is all I say, blowing my drink before taking another sip and trying to form a sentence in my head to reassure her that everything will be ok and she’ll get over it with time. Yet I get nothing and we sit in silence until she continues.

      “But he doesn’t matter anymore. I want to get back on the dating scene so the club down the road tonight yeah?” Mary questions and chugs down her mug of tea as though it’s a bottle of vodka, a drink she’s familiar with.

     She places her mug down on the saucer and I cringe at the sound it makes. Her sleeve acts as a tissue to dab away any liquid surrounding her lips that are coated in a thick layer of red lipstick.

      “I can’t tonight, sorry,” I reject her offer politely. “I have to collect more photos for my photography project. I’m already so behind.”

     She groans and rolls her eyes but nods her head, telling me that she understands although she’s not too pleased about it.

      “You’re going to get caught taking photos of random people one day, you know that right?”

     It’s my turn to roll my eyes now and I place my cup down on the bar, reaching for my camera bag and carefully opening it in my lap then lifting out my Nikon camera and taking the lens cap off and shoving it into my coat pocket.

      “That’s the whole point of being sneaky and pretending something’s wrong with my camera,” I whisper to her and flick the cameras on switch, already snapping photos of the people scattered around at the tables in the coffee shop.

      “Hey!” One voice suddenly screams out and causes the whole shop to go silent. “Delete that photo now!”

     It’s then that I realise that someone has caught me out and it couldn’t be an angrier looking man. I freeze in place until Mary nudges me and quickly zips up my camera bag, collecting my purse and pulling me out of the door and down the street with her before the man could say anymore.

      “You jinxed me!” I point at her and let out a breathy laugh as soon as we stop running to catch our breath in a road a few minutes away from the coffee shop if you were to walk.

      “Well it was going to happen one day or another.” She shrugs and chuckles, giving me a playful shove in the shoulder, pushing her brunette hair from her face and tucking it behind her ear.