Masquerade || Niall Horan

9 ♥ Frozen Yogurt

“This is such a bad idea,” I mumbled as soon as we were past the fence. We managed to make it out of the house and off campus without a problem, but there was always the risk of Margaret checking up on us unexpectedly only to reveal an empty dorm room.

“Quit your worrying, would you?” she rolled her eyes. I remained silent as Ida hailed a cab, the adrenaline pulsing through me. I didn’t speak again until we rolled up to the same apartment building we’d gone to before.

It was only when we reached the familiar top floor that I realized how excited I actually was to see Niall again. She attempted to open the door without knocking, but it was locked so she banged on it until Zayn opened it.

“You have patience issues,” he informed her while she walked past him into the apartment.

“Yeah, yeah,” she waved off, smiling.

“I thought you were supposed to come by the other night?” Harry questioned from his spot on the couch. He sat up and turned his head to see Ida and I stroll in like we owned the place.

“We ran into some issues,” she said, squeezing herself in between Harry and Liam on the couch. “We got busted, and now I’m stuck doing fucking origami three days a week when I could be doing something much more productive with my life like, I don’t know, binge watching television shows.”

“Life is hard, isn’t it?” Louis remarked sarcastically from the chair he was seated in.

“At least Louis understands me,” Ida sighed dramatically. I still hadn’t uncovered whose apartment this actually was. All five of the One Direction boys seemed to hang out here, but I noticed the first night here that there was only a bedroom for one.

“Hey,” Niall emerged from the hallway by the kitchen. The smile on his face was huge, and he seemed to hardly notice Ida as he walked toward me.

“Hi,” I replied, smiling in return and feeling the excitement within me grow at the sight of him. He gave me a hug, and only then seemed to remember there were other people in the room. He greeted Ida and asked where we’d been lately, just as Harry had when we arrived.

We all chatted for a while, most of the conversation being small talk and banter. There was no wild party, and for some reason I hadn’t expected there to be. It was nice, but eventually Ida suddenly decided we needed to get ourselves some frozen yogurt from the shop down the road (apparently it was the absolute best according to all of them and I just had to try it) and she insistedthat Niall and I stay back while her and the other boys went to pick some up.

“We’ll bring some back for you guys, don’t worry,” she assured while practically shoving the other boys out the door along with her. I caught the sneaky wink she shot me just before shutting the door behind her.

Everything was quiet in pursuit of the door closing, and Niall and I exchanged a look of awkwardness before bursting into laughter.

“I am so sorry about her,” he said at the same time I said, “I apologize, she’s so crazy.” We laughed some more, but I felt extremely embarrassed on the inside. I was secretly so glad that Ida has left me and Niall alone, but now what? What to say? What to do?

“Are you alright?” he asked, noticing how deep in thought I must’ve looked.

“Oh, yeah yeah, no don’t worry. I’m…I’m okay,” I stuttered, adding a reassuring smile that probably didn’t come off as very reassuring. Why was I so nervous being around him? This was the same boy in the mask. The same boy I talked to endlessly on the night of my roommate’s birthday party. “I’m sorry,” I blurted.