I'll Catch You

Chapter Thirty Four:

“So you look lovely.” Niall smiled at me. “I would have said it earlier, had I realized it was you dragging me out the door...”

I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Yeah, well I didn’t want you to suffer any more embarrassment at the hands of my friends. They’re evil. If I fall asleep at the concert, its because they woke me up at eight jumping on my bed and singing your guys’ song.”

“EIGHT?” He stopped dead in his tracks, shocked. “I would kill the boys if they got me up that early.”

“I would have just ignored it, but they were making my ears bleed. Not everyone is cut out to be a singer you know, at least your boys wouldn’t have made you want to hurt them. Or yourself, I guess. Whatever would make it stop.” 

“Well, I guess that much is true.” He laughed. Niall was wonderful about knowing when I was kidding. He could read into what I was saying to get the point, but never missed a joke. It was just one of the reasons we clicked so well. 

“Did you walk here?” I asked, sort of surprised. Of all the boys Niall wasn’t the one to exert himself physically. 

“I did indeed.” He grinned, obviously pleased with himself. “I told you, low key. No paps following my car, nothing but me and you tonight okay?” 

“Sounds like a perfect date to me.” I said, grabbing his hand. 

We walked and talked for about half an hour until we reached the park where the concert was being held, grabbing little snacks at vendor stalls as we passed them.

“Right little feast we had ourselves, wasn’t it?” I asked rhetorically as I sighed and plopped down on the grass. 

He groaned. 

“So... much... food. Wait no! Don’t sit in the grass, you’ll ruin your dress! I’m going to go buy a blanket, hold on.”

“Good.” I responded. “It’ll teach Maddi not to force me into one. But besides that, its green! You can’t ruin a green dress with grass stains!”

“You’re not going to change my mind.” He laughed, and ran to the back of the park to pick up a blanket. 

I now understood why he wanted to get there so early. The park was filling up really, really fast but luckily we had managed to get awesome seats. We were right by the stage, close enough to see the expressions on the band’s faces. I mean if those boys so much as whispered to eachother, we would know what they said. 

I sat there, lost in thought for a few minutes, until a voice near my ear startled me.

“Hey sweet thing.” It said. “Why don’t you come join me and my friends? I’ll buy you a beer.”

“Thanks, but no...” I responded as I turned to look at the source. He was tall, well built, but not my type. Good looking for sure, but he knew it and had apparently gotten many other girls with those same lines, as his cocky smile made it seem like he had no reason to think he wouldn’t get lucky tonight.

“Sorry, I’m not who you were looking for.” I said again, more forcefully this time.

“You’re exactly who I was looking for.” He smiled wolfishly. “Come on, I said I’d buy you a beer.” And he grabbed my arm and pulled me up with him with a vice grip I knew would bruise tomorrow.

“Stop!” I yelled. “You’re hurting me! Let. Me. Go.” 

Remembering some self defense classes, I started thrashing around and managed to solidly elbow him in the stomach. 

“That’s it. No more Mr. Nice Guy.” He said, a deadly tone to his voice, as he grabbed my hair with his other hand. “Lads, I found a spirited one!” He laughed to his cronies.

“Hey! Let her go!” A familiar, Irish voice yelled. 

“No. No I don’t think so.” The man laughed. “You’re a good looking guy, go find a different date for the night.”

The grip on my arm and hair tightened dramatically, causing tears of pain to well up in my eyes. Then, suddenly, I was pulled to the ground and the pain was quickly reduced to nothing. I wiped my eyes and tried to make sense of my surroundings.

Niall, standing above me, was holding out a hand.

“Come on, Jess.” He said,as he pulled me up.

“Thank you...” I breathed, clinging to him. 

He started rubbing my back and we stood there in a hug until my breathing returned to normal and I worked up the courage to turn around and see what had happened. The cronies of the mysterious man had all dispersed, not wanting to be associated with his... attempt. I wondered where their leader had gone until I looked down and saw him on the ground, his nose bleeding freely. 

“Niall,” I asked, hesitantly. “Did you punch him out?” 

“I always defend the people I love. Although I’m as terrifying as a baby penguin.” He replied simply.

I couldn’t help but giggle. 

“Well come on then Happy Feet. Let’s go sit down. I should hope you got a blanket after all that.”

“But of course.” Then, suddenly, he turned and stopped me. “Jess, I’m so sorry...” He said, a cloudy, lost look in is eyes.

“What for? Niall, don’t ever apologize again. You just decked a guy and saved me! Why in the world are you sorry?”

“Because. I promised you I’d catch you if you ever fell and I wasn’t able to...”

“I think this time I’ll let it go.” I said, and kissed him on the cheek. “In my book, we’re even.”

Blushing, he laced his fingers through mine ever so gently and led the way back to our spot.