I just stared up at these beautiful eyes for what felt like an eternity.
"Hi I'm Niall", he said and the evident glazed look vanished from my face.
When I didn't reply he looked at me with his eyebrows furrowed and it was the cutest thing I've ever seen.
I finally found my voice and managed to reply with an extremely incoherent sentence.
I cleared my voice and tried again.
"Umm...hi I'm um... Louise!"
He giggled at my inability to speak and it was music to my ears.
"Do you remember me?", he questioned.
I stared down at the ground, eyes wide, trying to think where I should know him from.
"We went to nursery together when we were younger. It's no big deal if you don't remember", he said with a cheeky smirk.
I felt absolutely terrible. How could I forget such an exquisite face?
I stared down at the floor with my cheeks burning. I'd completely forgotten how upset I was supposed to be with Oscar. I didn't seem to care anymore.
"Okay w-w-well I saw you were upset so I thought I'd ummm come and see if you were, y-y-you know, okay!", he stuttered.
I glanced up at home and he was staring up at the sky with his hands in his pockets avoiding eye-contact with me. He almost seemed embarrassed!
"You're so cute", I thought to myself.
"Pardon?", he asked.
Maybe it wasn't just a thought. Shit.
I fumbled with a few words before I managed to say "I said you're cute cause you seem all concerned and that and it's sweet and yeah so I'm gonna stop talking now."
Why am I such an awkward person around guys?
He smiled at me and then asked something quite unexpected.
"Can I walk you home?"
"Well...umm..." I mumbled whilst considering his offer.
"Don't feel like you have to say yes!" he urgently said.
"Umm okay sure!"
"I can walk you home?"
"Yeah why not!"
Where the hell did that come from?
I suddenly felt a boost of confidence as I stood up from the curb and brushed the bits of mud off my bum.
I didn't bother mentioning that I got a cab here. It would ruin the moment. (if there was a moment here to be ruined who knows!)
I started walking down the street and he followed. Hands still in his pockets.
*
We talked and laughed the whole way home and I found out he was from Mullingar in Ireland (the accent was also a big give away) and that he'd only moved to London a few months ago.
We were getting closer to my house and as the end of the street loomed I started getting nervous about, probably, the most irrelevant thing in the world.
How do I say goodbye?
Do I go for just a goodbye and a wave?
A hug?
A kiss on the cheek?
With all these questions going through my mind I hadn't realised that we were outside my front door.
"Well this is me!", I said, gesturing at the door.
"Ah okay", he replied, "I'll see you later then!"
He leaned in to kiss my cheek but I pulled away.
The look on his face killed me inside.
His cheeks burned crimson and he stared nervously at his feet.
To break the silence I said, "I'm sorry it's just I have a boyfriend..."
