Addicted z.m

Chapter 21

I could feel his eyes on me again for the tenth time in the past five minutes. I gave him a questioning look and he just blushed then looked away.

When our group disbanded from sitting in the grass, he stayed seated and grabbed my hand before I could walk off.

"Can we talk?" He asked, squinting as the sun shined through his blue eyes like they were made of little sheets of glass.

I nodded and sat back down in front of him, crossing my legs. I began picking at the grass, waiting for him to speak and he cleared his throat nervously.

"So," he began. "You know we have a couple weeks off after today. And I wasn't sure if I'd be able to see you before Christmas or the day of."

"Yeah?" I urged on when he paused.

"And you're birthday is coming up afterwards," he continued.

"Niall..." I warned.

"I got you something." He reached in the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a small, decorative box. I took it out of his hands and eyed him.

"You're not proposing to me are you?" I smirked amusingly.

He laughed a nervous laugh and shook his head. "No worries. Just open it."

I did as he said and lifted the lid. My smile faded when I caught sight of an open locket on a chain. Inside the locket was a very small picture of me and Niall sitting on the bench in his dad's garden. I had my arm draped over his shouder while and his arm wrapped around my torso. We both held genuinely happy smiles. I think we had been laughing at someting.

Yeah, we were laughing. His dad took this picture. He had taken a hundred different ones of us sitting on that bench. He had said something funny and we began cracking up. Bobby took the picture right then and I remembered looking back at all of the ones he took and choosing this one as my favourite.

I was pulled back into reality at the sound of my own sniffle. I looked up at Niall who had been waiting for my reaction.

"Niall, I love it!" I leaned forward and pulled him into a hug. He hugged me back before I sighed and pulled away. I stared at the picture and wiped away a tear.

I had gone the whole week looking forward to leaving with Zayn. But at that moment, I felt guilty and selfish for knowing I'd be leaving Niall for God knows how long in less than ten hours.

We both stood from the ground and I pulled the necklace out of the box.

"Here," Niall took it from my hands. I turned my back to him and he clasped the necklace around my neck. I looked at the decorative design on the front of the locket and smiled, turning back to him.

I wrapped my arms around him again. "Thank you so much, Niall," I mumbled into his shoulder.

"You really like it?" He asked, hesitantly.

"I love it," I repeated.

"Horan! Malone! You can finish your love fest later! Let's go!" We turned to see Mr. Austin holding the door open for students to enter the school building. We had been working outside for Biology that day because it was sunny and warm for once.

Niall smiled down at me and I rolled my eyes, wiping at my face again and walking in the school with his arm wrapped around my shoulders. I couldn't stop looking at the locket. I'd open it and close over and over. After what felt the millionth time snapping it closed, the bell rang. I was prepared to go to my next class until I realised I was in my last class of the day.

I met Niall at the back door and he draped his arm over my shoulder like he had that morning and I could feel myself getting emotional with every step. He stopped about a twenty feet away from Zayn's car like he normally did.