Plain Pain: A Niall Horan Fan Fiction

Chapter 72

"Where are you staying?" he asked as his fingers went over the GPS screen built into his dashboard. I told him the name of my hotel and he quickly brought it up on the navigator.

"You sure you don't wanna just get back to my house?" he asked and I tensed.

"Yeah, it's fine. I already have a room booked," I reassured him and he fell silent, "Your speech was really good."

He looked in the rearview mirror as he mumbled a distracted, "Really?"

"Yeah, you made everybody listen. The whole room went silent when you were talking, especially during that last part," I gushed and looked at him to find him focused on the road. I almost thought he wasn't listening until he spoke up.

"I forgot to thank you by the way. You helped a lot," he said without even so much as giving me a glance, but I shook my head anyway.

"I didn't do anything."

It was true. I didn't even know what I did to help him, or how exactly he thought I helped him.

He didn't answer me, so I pressed the topic further, "You didn't even need to call me over. You did great all on your own. All I did was just sit there," I half-joked, but he didn't laugh. 

He shrugged casually and steered the wheel as he exited the roundabout, "You calm me down."

My eyebrows flew up at that and my heartbeats grew quick again. They seemed to be doing that a lot around him. I decided to be just as upfront with him, "Well, you make me nervous."

This was probably the most honest thing I'd ever told him in a while. He stopped the car, and I thought he did that in response to my words, but I realized I was wrong when he furrowed his eyebrows at me and said, "We're here."

He still had a quizzical look on his face as he turned the engine off and unlocked the car. I was about to open the car door when his voice cut me off, "Why do I make you nervous?"

Ironically enough, I felt my hands getting clammy at his words, and as I got a whiff of his stronger-than-usual cologne, my heart continued hammering against my chest as my brain turned to mush. I looked at his eyes and the way his eyelashes curled up, and found my gaze wandering down to his lips.

No.

I couldn't do that.

I looked back up to still find him anticipating an answer, "Thanks for the jacket."

I changed the subject and began to take his suit jacket off before he stopped me, "It's fine, you can keep it."

"No, no, no. This must be really expensive. Just take it. I can survive the walk from here to the lobby," I rolled my eyes mockingly.

He nodded quietly and turned to look at the windshield. I began taking the suit jacket off again and stopped midway as I pondered my next words, "Or you can walk me upstairs and take the jacket when I'm there," I suggested and he turned to look at me. I felt the nerves kicking in again as I impatiently waited for his response, and just as I'd begun to regret my words, he smiled.

"Let's go."

Niall and I exited the car and headed towards the lobby. I wondered if he was thinking about how lame of an excuse the jacket ordeal must've been for me to get him to accompany upstairs. I fiddled with the sleeve of his jacket as we awkwardly rode the elevator together. Silence was never Niall and I's forte.

I almost sighed in relief when the elevator dinged, signaling that we'd reached the right floor. Niall followed me as I walked down the hallway to my hotel room.