Royalty

Twenty Nine

Monday morning I walked all the way to the restaurant thinking about Summer's birthday party tomorrow. I still had no idea what I was going to get her as a gift, and I needed to think of something really soon because I was running out of time.

I tried asking Isabella and Xander yesterday if they had any kind of gift ideas, but that was absolutely pointless because neither of them were of any help. Isabella kept naming off ridiculous and extravagant things that I would never buy, and Xander couldn't think of anything besides lingerie. And don't get me wrong, I love those two to death, but sometimes they can be the worst people to talk to.

As I approached the restaurant, I saw someone standing by the door. They weren't facing me but I knew exactly who it was. I had to admit that I was a little surprised they were there because I really wasn't expecting them at all. The bill of their baseball cap was somewhat covering their face as they turned their head to the side, immediately seeing me.

"Hey, Niall."

"Hey!" He greeted, shifting his weight between his feet as he stood in front of the door. As he glanced back and forth between my clothing attire and his own, he nervously looked up at me. "Am I dressed for this? I didn't know what to wear, so I just grabbed some sneakers and-"

"You're fine," I laughed, unlocking the door and letting him inside. "We're just cleaning. There's no dress code. I mean, just wear whatever clothes you don't mind getting dirty."

"Okay cool. So what do we do first?"

I pulled out my phone and walked over to the sound system, "First we put on music so it's not quiet."

He started talking and asking me about what music I liked and what I usually played. I didn't realize how much he was into music, and most of it we had the same taste. We talked for quite some time about The Eagles and The Rolling Stones and Coldplay and a bunch of other artists we were both into.

Niall was telling me about all these concerts he had been to and which artists are the best live performers. The second I had mentioned that I've only ever been to one concert, his eyes bugged out of his head as he started going on and on about how it was crazy I hadn't been to more and that some day soon he was going to bring me to another one. I had to laugh at how easily excited he got about some things because it was actually kind of funny.

When we finally stopped talking about music, I started showing him around the place to familiarize him where certain things were. I told him what exactly needed to be done before 10AM and how to work everything in the kitchen and how to set up the dining area and how to fold the utensils into the napkins. I thought it was going to take him a really long time to grasp all the information I was throwing at him, but to my surprise, he understood it all without asking questions.

Soon enough the two of us were getting to work cleaning the kitchen and humming or singing along to the music being played through the speakers. It was really entertaining having a second person in here with me. I always thought it would be nice to have someone else in here, and even though I did sometimes like doing this all on my own, it was just a lot more fun having company. 

Niall cleaned all the kitchen appliances and counters as I mopped the floors and wiped down the tables. A few times we'd catch each other getting really into the same song, so we'd temporarily stop cleaning and start dancing and singing like absolute idiots. 

It was this weird comforting feeling I had around Niall, as if we had been good friends for years. We weren't awkwardly shy around each other for only having met about a week ago. I mean, I don't even do any of this dancing and singing stuff with Xander, and I've known him since we were about twelve. So Niall should consider himself special.