how you get the boy

twenty

At 11.59pm on a Friday night, I came to a conclusion that my classmates weren't that bad after all.

When they roped me into coming with them to a bar that I'd never been to – I didn't know how's that possible considering Niall had never failed to drag me to every bar he'd known – I was, least to say, hesitant because I was certain that I wouldn't have a good time.

I was completely wrong.

Ten minutes was all it took for me to find out that they were quite pleasant to be around with. If you ignored the bit where they were extremely loud, that is. But since loud was what I needed to stop myself from thinking about things that I shouldn't, I basked in their presence.

And as I took one after another shots with them, I was beginning to forget the reasons as to why I wasn't fond of them in the first place. They were a bunch of fun people – could be too much at times – alas they were great. In fact, against my better judgment, I started to think that maybe I could get used to this – going out with them for a drink or two.

"Oi, Tee!" A voice calling out my name snapped me out my trance and I blinked, looking around the table to figure out who was talking to me. It was Jaspar. The bloke who couldn't seem to shut up, I noticed, and whom I assumed was the glue holding these people together. He was the Niall Horan for them.

"Yeah?" I kinked an eyebrow at him, to which he pulled the chap next to him to his side – his name was Logan, I think – and smirked. The kind of smirk that told me he had something up his sleeves.

"Serious question: Logan here wants to know if you're dating that Niall bloke," Jaspar said next, chuckling when Logan's cheeks turned bright red. Another thing about them – Jaspar especially – that I noticed tonight was that they loved to give shit to one another. Good thing they hadn't known me well enough to take the piss out of me. "So, are ya?"

"No," I shook my head as my nose crinkled in disgust before I downed another glass of tequila, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. I pressed my lips together as the burning sensation hit my throat; nonetheless, much like the noise, I relished the taste of it. "We're just good friends."

His smirk broadened, "So, you're saying Logan's got a chance with you, yeah?"

Before I could get the chance to answer his question, not that I knew what I was going to say anyway, the girl sitting next to him cut in. The same girl who sat next to me in class a few times – Robin – and the girl who had never failed to shout out wrong answers when questions were asked. Long story shortened, I wasn't a big fan of her, though I might have changed my mind about her. Might.

"Don't think so, mate," she mentioned before casting me a questioning glance, "Think she's got someone, don't you, Tee?"

Five curious pairs of eyes were on me now, waiting for an answer, making me feel unsettled. If I were sober, I would straightaway tell them that I had no one, that I'd been single for quite a while now and that I wasn't looking for anyone at the moment. But I was the complete opposite of what I wished I were; I was drunk and my mind was fuzzy. Instead of giving them the default answer, I blurted out, "No, not really. Fucked it up, I think, but whatever."

Though my answer sounded nonchalant, everyone around the table looked surprised as though they had suddenly sobered up upon hearing it. They must have not expected me to answer it honestly because we weren't even close and truthfully, under different circumstance, I wouldn't let a single soul know about this.

After taking another sip of vodka, I reminded myself that these people, they weren't someone that should know everything about me. The less they knew, the better.