You're the only sound that I ever want to hear.
"Hi, I'm Casper."
As soon as she uttered her name, Niall's entire body relaxed.
The girl from the park finally had a name.
"Hi, Casper. It's nice to meet you." Calum put extra emphasis on her name as he glared at Niall in annoyance. He still didn't understand why Niall was being weird.
"It's nice to meet you...?" Casper paused, waiting for his name.
"Calum. And he's Ashton." Calum pointed over to his left, where Ashton was preoccupied with his Fruit Loops. "And you already know Niall, I guess." He rolled his eyes again.
Throughout their entire conversation, Niall hadn't taken his eyes off of Casper once. He couldn't stop thinking about her and her name.
Casper.
He liked it. He liked it a lot. It suited her.
He wondered if she liked his name.
Casper shrugged. "Yeah, I know him."
"So what brings you to the cereal aisle, Cas?" Niall hoped she was okay with nicknames.
Casper blushed when he called her Cas. No one had ever given her a nickname before.
"Um, Cocoa Puffs?"
"Man, I like her. She's got good taste." That was Calum. His favorite cereals were the kinds that made milk chocolatey.
"Serious question," This time it was Ashton who spoke up. "Do you like having chocolate milk parties?"
He looked at Casper expectantly while Niall groaned and covered his entire face. He couldn't believe this was actually happening.
He never thought he'd see Casper again, much less even learn her name. But now here she was, with him and his friends, being interrogated over if she liked chocolate milk.
"Um...yes?" Casper was beginning to feel extremely self-conscious. She wasn't used to answering question after question, and Niall could easily tell just by looking at her face.
He decided a subject change was needed. A crazy, insane one. One that would either make his day or break it.
After glaring at Ashton and Calum until they turned back around to continue looking at boxes of cereal, he took a small breath and glanced at Casper.
"Casper, do you have any plans for today?"
She froze.
Casper had never planned on meeting hi--Niall again. She definitely daydreamed about it more than she'd ever like to admit, but it wasn't supposed to happen. Yet, here she was in a cereal aisle with him and two of his friends.
Life has a funny way of helping people out.
"N-no, I was just gonna go home after th--"
Niall cut her off. He wasn't going to let her go home to her father. Not if he could do anything about it.
"Would you like to come to a 5sos rehearsal?"
Calum and Ashton whipped around.
"Dude, we never let people come to practice. You know that."
Niall gripped his hair in exasperation. How fucking difficult are they going to make this.
Turning around, he rapidly whispered "Just this one fucking time, can you not do this. Please." to his friends.
Casper smiled. Niall wasn't great at whispering. She'd heard everything.
She tapped his shoulder and he turned around, a little bit of stress evident in his blue eyes.
Niall didn't know if he'd ever see Casper again after this. He didn't want her to leave. He wanted to make her smile and forget about whatever was running through her mind. He had to find a reason for her to stay.
"Niall," she laughed a little. "I'd love to."
His face immediately broke out into the beautiful full smile Casper knew fairly well and she blushed lightly when she heard Ashton and Calum groan simultaneously behind him.
"You're so whipped, Horan."
"Ash, let's go buy your damn cereal. We have a band practice to get to. And Cas has never heard us play."
Niall winked and pushed his friends toward the checkout, monitoring for Casper to follow him.
This was about to get interesting.
***
i'm really sorry it took me so long to update. i lost interest in this story and i still don't have a computer. but at least i started this chapter with her name, so now you know what it is.
also, and thank god for ed sheeran. i finally heard and bought x yesterday and it's the greatest thing i've listened to all year.
i hope you're having a great day and if you have any ideas for what should happen at 5sos' band practice or just the story in general, feel free to leave them in the comments. it might help me write faster.
