just the beginning ➣ one direction

chapter 10 // casey

**due to the inconvenience of dana's emotions last night, imma update faster than usual bc shits going down**

The bus stopped, and it's thin long glass doors opened. A line of people shuffled to exit the bus. Rachel and I stepped in, and sat down in the middle right behind the back exit door. I glanced out the window, and saw a tall, blonde teenage boy running on the pavement gasping for air, going towards the direction of the bus. It was Niall.

He entered the bus, and breathe a sign of relief. He looked up and spotted us at the back, and smiled. Rachel waved a sign for him to come sit with us. He walked towards us, and sat at the seat right behind me.

Rachel turned around. "Where's Naomi? Don't you guys always walk home together?" 

Niall shook his head, "Not today, she's hanging out with Hayley tonight." 

Suddenly, I heard a phone vibrate. We three checked our pockets, it was Niall's. He recieved a text, tapped the keyboard on his screen to respond, and turned off his phone. He shoved it in his back pocket, and looked back at us.

"It was Naomi, she said Zayn was coming along, and I should have come with." He frowned.

Zayn? Who's Zayn?

The thin glass doors of the bus closed, and the bus rode on it's way to the next stop. Rachel laughed, "Looks like it's a bit too late for that." 

Niall let out a sigh, and looked at me.

"You seem awfully quiet." He said.

"Just stressed, from coming back from school and all." I answered.

He frowned, "Don't be stressed, it's sad and I don't want you sad." 

That made me smile more that I should have. I turned around, and laid back on my seat. I gazed out of the window, while the vechile moved. I saw people walking, I saw buildings and places I've never seen before. I watched the sight take place.

4 stops later, I heard movement behind me. We both turned around and we saw Niall getting off. "See you guys tomorrow." He smiled and hopped off the bus. 

We had 3 more stops to go, and we finally got off. We walked 5 blocks in silence to the right, and I followed Rachel into the front porch of her house. Her house was huge, it reminded me of mines. I walked inside, took of my shoes and looked around. The kitchen was in the far back, and her living room was directly the first thing you would see. The staircase would be right in front of you, if you entered from the front door. 

"I'm home." Rachel screamed. No one was home. 

She smiled. "Drop your stuff anywhere."

Even though that sounded impolite, I dropped my bookbag beside the couch and I followed her to her room. Her room was huge. She had a baby blue color for walls, and she had a bunk bed, with only one bed on the top. The bottom bunk wasn't a bed, but her computer. She has 3 mini bookshelves near her closet, and two bean bags laid in the center. Not to mention, her floor contained a white carpet.

She dropped herself down her bean bag, and watched me as I scrolled through her library of books.

"You read? I ask.

She laughs, "Of course I do. Why else would I have all these books for?" 

I looked at top shelf, and saw a collection of the series "A Switch in Time" by Marcus Cage. I read the series when I was in the 6th grade, it was one of my favorites till I started reading Carol Lamark, and Farah Crawford. Rachel walked to my direction, and saw me glancing at the series.

"You read that?" She asked. I nodded.

Her face lit up, and she went non-stop about her favorite authors, and she asked me about mine. She even recommended me some books to take home and read, and then we just changed the subject right after, and talked about the most random-est things for 2 hours straight. It was one of the longest conversations I've ever had, and this is the first time I've ever laughed so hard in my life. It felt great.

A moment of silence came, and Rachel just looked at me.

"You seemed interested this afternoon, when you found out Niall and Naomi were dating." She blurted out of nowhere.

"Yeah, well, I didn't even know they were a thing." I said.

"The way they started, was something everyone knew, expect you of course, since you weren't here last year." She said.

"How did they start?" I asked.

She looked up at the ceiling, "When Naomi really really likes someone, she'll go out of her way to impress them." She looks back at me, "Like a sick love puppy, that can't be cured."

I stare back at her, "What do you mean?"

She began to tell me the story. "When Niall and Naomi first met, they met in freshman year. They both had a bond, and we're clearly really good friends. Niall would always tease her, and Naomi would get annoyed and lash out. Niall loved that about her. Apparently, Naomi started to develop feelings for him at the middle of freshman year. Niall didn't know about it, of course. She would keep it to herself, and only told me, Emma and Hayley."

She continued on. "When Naomi found out that Niall didn't like anyone, she got upset expecting that it would be her that he'd fall for. So she began to wear more makeup, like red lipstick, eye liner, whatever you could name. She began to straighten her hair more, and curl it more, braid it more. She dressed a different way, she would go all out and do sorts of stuff, just for Niall to like her back. She went on diets, and she did everything she could."

"Niall noticed of course, he found it strange. One day, she was tired of trying to be the perfect image and just broke down. She didn't coming to school for days, and she cried most nights. Emma and I tried to cheer her up, but it wouldn't work. Hayley had enough of it, so she told Niall everything, for the sake of both of them. Niall was upset, that Naomi did all of that for him. So he went to her house one night, and told her she was beautiful the way she is, and that she didn't need to change."

"Jesus Christ himself only knows what happened that night, but all I know, is that they started dating after that." She ended the story with one big breath at the end.

I stared at the ceiling, silence filled the air. I didn't know what to say, but just quietly blurted the words, "Oh."

"Now, you know." She said.

"Yeah." I nodded, still looking at the ceiling.

"Let's not think about  that, it sounds depressing." She recalled. 

I didn''t answer, thoughts overwhelmed by head like it's all twisted in knots, and I can't untangle them. I decided to change the subject.

"Video games?" I asked.

She smiled. "It's about damn time."

We raced each other down the stairs and into the living room, like we were 9 year old's. She turned on the game console and landed on the couch. I microwaved a bag of popcorn and poured into a huge white bowl. The rest of the night, we just played video games, talked, and ate like fat asses. It was 10pm when I got home, Louis told my mom I was selling drugs in an alley, I punched him on the arm. I never thought I'd learn so many things, in one short day.

end of chapter 10