secret admirer II

24

It's Monday and Rose has agreed to meet up with Niall after school.

As she waits in the parking lot for Niall, David comes up to her with his car keys in his hand. She hasn't told him that she's meeting up with Niall and if she were to then he would probably tell her to not go.

"Hey, are you ready to go?" He asks her as he juggles his keys in his hands.

Rose comes up with a lie. "Actually David sorry I didn't tell you before but I'm actually going to stay after school to do some work and talk to a few of my teachers."

"I can stay with you and help--"

"N-No. You go home. It's fine." She looks behind her to see Niall coming out of the school building headed towards her. "Thanks but I think you should get going--one of my teachers is leaving soon and I should go talk to her before--you know. But I'll see you tomorrow."

He looks at her awkwardly but nods and walks off. "See you." She waves as well.

As soon as David gets in his car, Niall comes up beside her. "Hi." He says.

"Hey."

"Should we get going?" He asks her while gesturing to his car.

Rose nods. "Yea."

**

The whole car ride was silent, they only discussed on where to go which was a small coffee shop near the park they shared their first kiss. After thinking about it for a while, Rose thought of what a horrible idea it was to go there--Niall thought the exact same thing but neither of them said anything. Once they reached the spot, both of them got out of the car and entered the shop. 

"Are you going to order anything? I'll pay." 

Rose looks up at the menu. "Yea, but you don't have to--"

"I invited you here so I'm paying. That's that." This shuts her down instantly.

After ordering, they take a seat with their drinks. Rose takes a look outside at the park across from them. The memory flashes through her head as if it were a movie. There's a small smile which appears on her face. Niall seems to notice this and look at the park as well.

"It's a strange thing to pick the coffee shop right across the park where we shared our first kiss..." He mumbles.

Rose takes a quick sip of her coffee. "It is..."

Neither of them say anything for a moment. Simply looking from their drinks to each other then to the park. "I should start off by saying I'm sorry." Niall speaks up. "I'm sorry that you caught me kissing another girl--"

"Who you are now dating." Rose mutters.

"Rose, please. She came up to me and kissed me--"

She rolls her eyes. "But it was clear that you were kissing her back until I showed up!"

Sighing he runs a hand through his hair. "I-I was kissing her back because you and I didn't kiss that often. I know you want kisses to be special and all but when Jess kissed me all I could think about was you and how we shared our first kiss. I totally forgot that she was Jess--I was thinking that she was you." He processes what he said and mumbles to himself. "God that sounds horrible." Rose simply stares blankly at her. "I never meant to cheat on you, Rose. Ever. I care about you even when I started dating Jess. I don't even care about her like I care for you."

"Niall--"

"And the guys? I know they aren't really my friends or ever will be again. I've been hanging out with them and drinking because I've been trying to forget you, Rose. I would think about you constantly and being with Jess made me think about you more and how I wished she was you. So I would go to drinking in order to stop thinking." He clutches his drink. "I'm sure you think that I was with them because I wanted to be back in the group--but no, not at all."

It was Rose's turn to speak up. "I-I'm also sorry, Niall."

He looks at her questionably. "Sorry? I'm the one--"

"No. I should of known better. I believed that you never meant to kiss Jess and that she forced you too but I was just so hurt that all I wanted to do was forget you but that only made things worse."

"And I'm sorry. We both ended up hurt." Silence.

"We can't simply get back together if that's what you were planning on doing, Niall. This is going to take time."

He nods. "I know, I'm glad we had this talk. I know it doesn't resolve everything but at least we discussed a few things."

Rose sees Niall's hand rest on the table. She's tempted to hold it. Staring at his face, his heads turned looking out the window. Rose's hand hesitates a little. She then decides to sit on her hands so she doesn't do anything stupid. Niall looks at her and she smiles, he does too as they both take a sip of their drink.

It felt as if they were just a couple hanging out again.