GHØST (Niall version)

Bad habit

I have a nasty habit of romanticizing anyone who is remotely kind to me in any form. It's very subtle most of the time; I don't notice when I keep thinking about the boy who checked me out at the grocery store and smiled and called me Miss in our short interaction. My mom said I've always been this way- falling in love with strangers. She said I have always had a vivid imagination and gave all my lovers beautiful back stories. The boy at the shoe store said he liked my eyes and despite my obvious knowing that it was just a sales tactic, I talked about him for the next year and a half. I never even learned his last name but I was set in being his wife. Even at 20, living the life most could only dream of, I'm constantly in love. I fall in love with every new city I visit, every new person I meet, every new shade of lipstick I find and every song I hear on the radio. I love to experience new things and new places; I always have. That's one thing I'm sure I'll never going to grow out of. Whenever my mom was asked to describe me in 3 words she would always say happy, hopeless romantic, beautiful.
I don't think of myself as a hopeless romantic, I think there's hope. If you have a great outlook and love the little things in life and in people, it will reward you in one way or another. I've always made sure to be known as the nice one, be the best version of myself, and now I'm the girl travelling the world making enough money to be financially stable and do the thing I love with people who I love. Even though I love my job, it calls for me to travel a lot which requires me to spend a lot of time in airports and tour buses. I don't mind it though. I find airports to be oddly romantic and road trips just make me endlessly happy.
So I sit sideways in the wide black chairs with my knees tucked to my chest and my denim jacket as a pillow for resting my head on the back of the chair. My purple backpack sits beside me and my guitar rests in its case against it. It's 1am and my plane to Seattle flew into a blizzard in Boston which damaged one of the wings so they have to fix that and send us another plane instead of attempting to fly it to England in technically spring but it seems winter wanted more time for itself. My crew has wandered off; some trying to wake a bit more, most looking for food. My guitarist, Jack, is asleep in the corner not too far away charging his phone beside him. I can't quite fall asleep even though I'm exhausted beyond definition because one, it's freezing in this place and two, these chairs are not as comfortable as they seem.
"Cold?" I open my eyes and see a blond guy sit down beside me. I sit up and notice 4 other boys sitting down behind us, they all automatically cuddle together and close their eyes, hoping to sleep.
"Well I'm not wearing much clothing." He smiles and covers me in a thick black coat. He must have just taken it off because it's warm and I basically melt at the beautiful feeling. I return to my previous position and close my eyes. "Oh god, thank you."
"You're welcome. So why are you all alone at an airport terminal at 1am?"
"I'm not alone, he's with me." I point in the direction of Jack and I hear the guy laugh. His laugh has a smooth crescendo and at its peak, he squeals and his voice falls into buttery descent. "Our plane is very delayed. What's your reasoning?"
"We just like to travel at odd times to avoid being recognized." This time, I laugh. He smiles at me and covers himself in a blanket.
"You're very prepared for this," I comment and he shrugs.
"I've done it a lot. Where are you going?"
"Seattle, you?"
"Fuck me sideways, I'm going there too!" My heart stops and I stare at him in disbelief. He has a huge grin on his face and he has turned to face me.
"No way."
"Nah, we're going to Paris." I frown, I was kind of excited for a second there. I close my eyes again. "Keep your eyes open."
"Why?" I open my eyes.
"They're magnificently beautiful and I just want to stare at them." I feel myself turn red as I smile at him. I keep my head resting on the seat and look at him, fluttering my eyelashes. "Keep that up and I might have to switch flights."
My smile remains and my stomach feel like there's a hole burning through me. It's a weird but good feeling somehow. His smile is comforting and his eyes are a muted blue color. I have also always had a weak spot for boys with blond hair.
"Why are you going to Seattle?"
"Home, I was here for work." I shrug and he nods.
"Well, I don't know if you realized this; but I, too, am a foreigner," he explains like I didn't notice how rough and jagged and obviously not American the words he speaks are. I nod along, pretending this is new information to me. "I just might happen to live here in England."
"I live down the street from the airport, so I can just get off the plane and sleep." He smiles and says he is praying for me to be able to sleep soundly if I ever get home. "Why are you going to Paris if you live in London?."
"Business trips." He doesn't seem to want to say anymore about the subject, so I don't pry. I stare at him and think. We could potentially be cute together I mean we both like each other's eyes and I like to think blue and blond hair could possibly work together quite nicely. He's so fucking cute why did he show up when I'm such a mess.
He gave me his coat without me even asking what does that even mean.
My phone vibrates against the chair and picking it up I see a text from my drummer, Oliver, asking if I want a drink. I tell him a warm drink preferably from Starbucks because they're the only ones I trust with my hot drink needs. When I look back up at the guy, he is just staring at me.
"You could be taken as very creepy, you know."
"Do you think I'm creepy?" He moves over in his seat so he's closer to me and I close my eyes and pretend to go to sleep instead of answering. "Really?"
"You seem nice." I open my eyes, sitting up and trying to not smile at him.
"Nice doesn't mean not creepy though." I look away trying to avoid answering him and I see Oliver walking with drinks in his hands.
"Hey, look at that! I gotta go." I stand up and bring his coat with me and hug Oliver then take my drink back from him. I thank him and he smiles and leans down to press a kiss to my cheek before walking over to Jack. I sit back down and cover my lap with his coat again.
"So you have a posse of males then," he states and I shrug. "You could be taken as a groupie."
"You're in the same boat as me, asshole." I sip my drink and he takes a deep breath. "What your name, anyway?"
"Niall, yours?"
"I mean some people call me some things and other people call me other things my mom calls me a disappointment." He laughs and I smile. "I'm kidding, my mom is nice but she did decide naming her daughter Seventeen was a good idea."
"Like the number, seventeen," he asks completely serious. I nod and he smiles. "That's so fucking groovy!"
"That's what makes me so indie." He smiles and a cough interrupt us. I look over and see my manager standing looking at us.
"I see you've made a friend," he comments looking at Niall. "Where are the others?"
I point in the corner and he whistles to get their attention and wave them over. Everyone gathers together a foot in front of where I was sitting and Aaron stands back and starts to explain what the plan is. I stand beside him and pose every time his voice pauses. Niall erupts laughing and everyone turns to him. He immediately shuts up and looks at me. Aaron continues telling us the plane will arrive in an hour or so and we will have a 3 hour layover at JFK. When he is done, I sit back down beside Niall and cuddle into his jacket.
"We have another hour together, my love." I sigh and he sighs with me. We are quiet for a minute, I almost think has fallen asleep and I'm on the brink of sleep when he speaks.
"How old are you?"
"20. I keep my eyes closed.
"Thank god." I smile and I can feel him moving closer to me.
"Tell me a story," I say.
"What? No, why?"
"Please, just keep talking." I can just hear him breathing.
"Fine. Uh," he clears his throat. "So I was going to this festival with these losers and Harry was driving and I was in the passenger seat because I obvi get superiority-"
"Did you just say obvi?"
"Yes, shut up. So we were trying to find a place to park and we ended up at a four way stop and I was on my phone and he took a right onto this four lane street and when I looked up I just saw four lanes of headlights coming for us and I was like this is it; this is my death. And everyone was blind because the cars had their brights on and Harry just swerved onto the side of the road out of the way and I was like this is it this is my life. Then this police officer on a bike was riding towards us yelling obviously trying to act tough because bike cops are the loser cops let's be real and he was like yo this is a one way street what the hell do you think you're doing? And I was like what the hell do you think there were no signs for this I could have died and Harry was like sorry we didn't know. So we sat there for a few minutes until the cars stopped coming and he turned around and we were back on track and everything was good again and i was living my life correctly." I'm in a fit of laughter by the end of his story and when I laugh too hard, I get hiccups and everything goes downhill from there.
"When was this?" I ask through my hiccups.
"Last week."
"Oh my god." I cover my face with my hands and he continues to laugh. I hiccup again and take a sip of my drink. Niall stares at me and I readjust my seating so my legs are over the armrest and I can freely kick him. His whines turn to giggles fairly quickly though.
"How old are you then?" I ask and he smiles.
"17."
"What the hell? No you're not," I say same glaring at him. He smiles and leans back in his seat.
"You got me, I'm 21. I'm old and I might die next week." He stretches his arms above his head and smiles at me.
"You couldn't pull off being younger than me."
"It was a joke, you know, because your name is Seventeen.... 17." I roll my eyes and he pulls a pack of gum out of his pocket. He unwraps a piece and shoves it in his mouth before holding it out to me. I take a piece because well it's 1am and my breath isn't all that beautiful right now.
He slouches in his seat and stares up at the ceiling, chewing his gum. Something about looking at boys' profiles to me, I find them to be the best view for some reason. You would think I would prefer to look someone straight on. His jaw intrigues me somehow, and he looks so adorable and I guess you could say innocent. I stare at him, trying to hold myself back from asking the only question on my mind.
I have never been very good at biting my tongue.
"What made you want to come have a conversation with me?"
"Well, I saw you sitting here and I was like holy shit she looks so cool so I was like c'mon man you can do this the worst she can do is turn you down so I went out on a limb and did it. What I've leaned in my many years is that if you want to talk to someone, you can't wait for them to make the first move because, odds are, they're waiting for the same thing. I don't really think that was the situation with you though, you wouldn't have even noticed I was here."
"I might have noticed, when I sat up or something." He smiles and shrugs.
"I don't know where I'm gonna be five years, but I hope it's somewhere with a beautiful view aka you."
"That rhymed, I'm impressed."
"Just doing my job, baby girl."
"Oh my god." I face forward and lean against the arm rest separating us. "I take it you like nicknames."
"Yeah, that's why I'm offended you haven't given me one yet."
"Whatever, Twinkle Toes." He grins and pinches my cheek. I push his hand away and laugh.
"You have an adorable laugh, it makes me smile every time. Actually, your smile could have probably ended the Bubonic plague had you lived in the 1400s." He winks at me and I smack his arm.
I've never met someone like him. I doubt ill ever will find someone just like him. He's so intriguing, and I can't fully grasp the way i feel when he looks at me with his blue eyes and his lips slightly parted. His confident and somewhat cocky demeanor, yet complete lack of judgement makes me want to open up to him in a heart beat. All i crave is his laugh and his eyes to glisten as he sees me, just the way I've always wanted someone to look at me.
I don't realize I had fallen asleep until someone is poking my cheek repeatedly. I open my eyes and blink a few times before the world comes into focus and I see Oliver standing over me. I then realize the situation and Niall's head is definitely on my shoulder.
"The plane is boarding." I sit up and that causes Niall to wake up. He rubs his eyes and looks at me while I stand up.
"You're leaving me?" He pouts and I shrug.
"Soz, babes."
"I'll miss you, my love." He grabs my hand and sighs dramatically. I smile and and pulls me closer to him. He hugs me while he is still sitting down so his head is on my stomach but then stands up. I had no idea how tall he was. He is around a foot taller than me and standing next to him, the top of my head only reaches a about his collarbones. He hugs me tight, kissing my hair and rocking us side to side. He smells like something spicy and I recognize it to be his cologne. Our embrace is broken up when the loudspeaker announces again that our plane is now boarding. He looks down at me and I take a step back and look up at him.
"Bye." He smiles.
"Bye."