Picturesque. (Niall Horan)

chapter 2

"Just let me grab two towels for the car.." Niall mumbled to himself as he rifled through a closet and snatched two dark blue towels. He opened the door and let me walk through, locking it behind him and leading me back to the lift.

"We're inside." The ends of my mouth still formed a frown.

"What?" His eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

"We're inside and you still have on your sunglasses." I explained giving him a quizzical look.

"Oh," he said when he caught up, "I uhh, keep them on a lot." He sounded unsure of himself.

"Okay, if you say so." I surrendered. The lift dinged and the doors opened once again. And once again, Niall gestured for me to go first, and so I did. Niall steered me in the direction of his car, a small four door black car, still with the towels in clutch.

"Wait here and I'll pull up." He turned to jog off, but my hand caught his arm. There was a burning in my palm. He turned and looked at me.

"I, uh, you don't have to give me a ride to my flat, I can walk." I finally managed after I got my brain to function like normal.

"Rubbish, I'm not going to let you walk alone in the rain." He gave me a slight smile before jogging off. I stayed under the haven of the awning that kept the rain from hitting me. I watched Niall. He first went to the passenger side and laid the towel down, then jogged to the drivers side and laid down his own before turning the car on and pulling up to me. I opened the door and began to sit when I noticed Niall next to me again. "Or not." He smiled lowly and shut my door for me. When he returned to his seat, and turned on the heat and directed it towards me. "You alright?"

"Yeah," I returned the smile, "I'm fine thank you." My eyes drifted over to Niall who was now pulling onto the street, he had on hand on the steering wheel, and the other one lazily gripping the gear shift. "Oh, um, I'm not quite sure how to get home from here." I admitted sheepish.

He only chuckled, "Put the address in here and it'll give is directions." When we were completely stopped at a red light, he dug out his phone, unlocked it, and handed it to me. "Now don't go putting your own number in there." He lowered his sunglasses to give me a playful look before the light turned green.

"Shit, you caught me." I put my hand up in defeat. He only laughed in response.

"Turn right in 500 feet." The phone broke the momentary silence.

"So how long have you been in London?" Niall tried to make conversation.

"Just a few months, I'm not from around here. How long have you been here?"

"A little over two years, I'm not from around here either."

"You're from Ireland, right?" I stole a glance at him, still in his previous position.

"Yeah, how'd you know?" He glanced over at me whilst at a stop sign.

"Uh, your accent." My voice was uneven. Niall merely nodded in response before turning left and going down the road. In the distance I could see my flat, and a feeling over despair came over me. The car lurched to a stop. "Well, this is where I get off." I smiled over at Niall and put my hand on the door handle, but stopped myself from opening it. "I know why you where your sunglasses inside." I looked at my lap, still damp with the rain. "Thank you for the ride home, I guess I'll see you around?" I have a weak smile before getting out. Niall wore a stunned look.

"Yeah," he said quickly through the window, "I'll uh, see you around. Kaylie." I look at him confused for a minute. "Name tag." He smirked at me before I turned around and made my way up to the left stairs to the grey door with 200 etched above. With a quick glance over my shoulder, I waved to Niall, knowing he was waiting for me to go inside. He honked the horn and I watched him drive off in the rain.