Then There Was You

Come Go With Me

Vivian wasn't always super fussed with how she looked, but she did care about pleasing her family. Appearance was something of respect, she knew that and it meant a great deal to her parents, and to her, that she look presentable and modest at all times. She had a reputation to maintain, and a name that couldn't be squandered by frivolous actions such as a hair out of place or too much skin showing. But even to her, making sure she was looking her very best for Niall, a drifter and local car mechanic, seemed...silly. What did it matter how she looked to him? Why should she even care what he thought? He probably wouldn't even notice anyway.

But that didn't stop Vivian from checking her red lipstick in the car mirror after she had parked out front of the mechanics shop that very next day. She lightly danced her fingertips through the side sweep of her hair that was pulled back into a ponytail, patting down a few untidy ends. Pulling in a shallow breath, she smiled at her reflection before getting out of her car and making her way over to the open garage. She heard a bit of clattering and the faint sound of music playing on a small transistor radio.

He was crouched down, tinkering on the engine of his motorcycle when Vivian walked up. Niall gradually looked over at her upon hearing the clack of her saddle shoes on the concrete floor, a smirk tugging around the cigarette that hung from his lips the second that gorgeous girl came into his view. Vivian was quick to notice that he looked exactly as he had the day before: same gritty clothes, same marks of dirt and oil smeared across his sticky tanned skin. And when he stood up, wiping his hands off on a stained shop towel that had been draped over his shoulder and began to walk over towards her, she was again quick to notice that her heart was nearly leaping from her chest.

She had never had that feeling before; one of pure excitement and nervousness, of giddiness and invigoration, as if she could just take off and soar across the sky like a bird at any moment. He was able to send her in a tizzy with one look, he awakened something in her, something she wasn't so sure she was ready for. Niall offered to pull her car in and to check it over, Vivian agreeing and patiently waiting just at the foot of the garage as Niall got to work. They didn't chat much, Niall too busy thoroughly inspecting the car inside and out, and Vivian too busy watching every movement he made, but it didn't bother her.

By the time he was finished, he had left no corner of her car unchecked. He was glad to do it, to help her out and would have taken all day to look over her car if he needed to-if it only meant that she would be standing there ten feet from him the whole time. There was something about the way he felt when in Vivian's presence, his heart galloped in his chest, the sweat beaded up just a bit faster on his palms. The words on the back of his tongue questioning themselves with each second his brain conjured them up. He didn't want to mess anything up, he liked her. But he had to remain cool-cool and collected.

Niall climbed out of the seat and shut the door, grabbing a small towel to swipe across the back of his sweaty neck. "That should do it," he mumbled, sauntering over towards Vivian. "Everythin' checks out, you're good to go."

Her teeth just barely scraped across her pillowy bottom lip, her green eyes darting over his dirt-covered features before she gently cleared her throat and reached down to her small handbag. "Thank you, for everythin' really. How much do I owe you?" Vivian had started to pull out her change purse as she glanced back up at him.

Niall shook his head. "Nothin'."

"I can't not give ya anythin'..." she chuckled.

His blue eyes narrowed slightly as he peered over at her. "Okay...go out on a date with me."

She might as well been lying at his feet in a lump with the dizziness that invaded her head in that second. "What?"

"Go on a date with me. Tonight, at the drive-in," he smiled with a slight cock of his head, "we'll call it even."