Plain Pain: A Niall Horan Fan Fiction

Chapter 54

I stepped outside the limo and shielded my face from the flashing cameras bombarding me as I sped towards the hotel. Once I was inside, I took a deep breath and tried to calm my nerves. Having 20 people with a bunch of cameras in your face can get a little overwhelming at times. Not to mention, I was really nervous about seeing Niall again after what happened the other night. I barely got any sleep last night because my mind wouldn't stop coming up with different scenarios as to why Niall was treating me differently. I wasn't stupid, I knew by now that he must've been attracted to me in some way, but I wouldn't dare myself to think that he might have felt half the amount of love I felt for him. Hope was dangerous territory for me. Hope destroyed my friendship with Niall once, and I wasn't gonna let that happen again.

Before I knew it I was in the elevator pressing the button taking me to the penthouse. I followed the loud music echoing down the hall, which led me towards a huge wooden gate that opened up to a spacious room that held an unbelievable amount of people and yet still didn't seem to appear too crowded. The walls were panoramic, consisting mainly of ceiling to floor windows that gave a breathtaking view of the city. The women in the room appeared to be struggling with the purple carpeted floor in their seemingly uncomfortable high heels and I thanked my lucky stars I opted for flats tonight.

I was still standing by the door, waiting for someone to recognize me and pull me out of my anxiety-induced misery. I sighed a breath of relief when I saw Penelope half running, half stumbling towards me with a glass of martini in her hand. I could tell she wasn't drunk, but those heels made her walk as if she were.

"Rachel, you came!" She grinned and pulled me into a hug before releasing me and linking her arm with mine, "There are so many hot guys here, I think I might pass out," she gushed.

I laughed, "Yeah, I don't know if I'm- wait is that Zac Efron?" I widened my eyes and almost tripped over my own feet as I watched him talk to a girl I couldn't recognize but felt like I should have.

"Yeah girl, what did I tell you?" she said excitedly, "you think you'd get used to seeing famous people when you're working with One Direction but it just never gets old does it?" Penelope said as Kendall Jenner walked past us to greet a friend.

"Yeah, this party's not very good for my self-esteem," I joked, "I suddenly feel very underdressed," I stared at my plain black dress and my matching flats.

"Shut up, you look gorgeous," Penelope brushed me off as we sat down on one of the white couches that surrounded the room. "I could've sworn I've seen Niall just before you got here. I don't know where he ran off to," she said as she looked around the room searching for him.

"That's okay, I don't have to see him right now," I said a little too quickly.

My urgency thankfully went unnoticed by a now tipsy Penelope as she shrugged her shoulders and took the last sip of her drink, "Do you wanna go get a refill with me? You need to get some pep in your step and some funk in your junk girl," she got up and started dragging me off the couch.

I laughed, "I don't know what any of those words mean."

Penelope took me to a bar in the corner of the room where she ordered two drinks for the both of us and I scanned the room as I waited for the bartender to get our drinks ready. I spotted Harry talking to a tall blonde at the other end of the room, but still no sign of Niall. I didn't know if I was too happy about that.

Our drinks came and we sat and drank them at the bar while Penelope rambled on about something that happened to her that morning, most of which I blocked out because I was too distracted by my fear of bumping into Niall. As the time dragged on, I grew more and more impatient and concluded that I at least wanted to know where he was. My prayers were answered when I saw his blond mop of hair appear in hindsight as he leaned against the very end of the bar to my right. He was laughing at something the girl next to him said before he gave the bartender his order and went back to his conversation with the girl. I couldn't see her face since she was facing Niall and not me, but I found myself unnaturally curious as to who this girl was and what it was she could've said that made Niall laugh so hard. I shook my head in disapproval and gave myself a mental slap in the face. He was just having a conversation with a friend and I needed to stop being so dramatic.