Love and Charm

Chapter 1

Niall's P.O.V.

We were at the pub. Les and I were waiting for the performance to start. It sounded like a good band, Black Midnight. Les said their music was amazing, but I was still skeptical. I was a musician myself, singer and guitar/piano player. We were sitting at a table, Les was drinking. Suddenly, I spotted a girl across the pub. She was wearing a pink tank top with dark blue jeans. Her hair was short, brown and incredibly curly. She was staring directly at me, her eyes wide with curiosity and her head was tilted to the side. Then, she began walking towards us. When she did, she climbed on to the table and moved until her face was inches from mine. She just kept staring, looking into my eyes. Les and I exchanged glances, not knowing what the hell to do, when she murmured, "Beautiful." I didn't know what to say, no one had ever called me that before.

Suddenly, a man ran up. He had brown hair that swept over his eyes, blue like mine. He was short and thin, with one of his arms covered with tattoos. He wrapped his arms around the girl and attempted to pull her away from me. "Babes, leave the poor lad alone. We need you on stage." He had a high pitched voice with a British accent.

"But his eyes, Josh," she said as her hands gripped the table, refusing to be budged. Her accent suggested American, and her voice was deep and reminded me of honey.

"He has very nice eyes, I agree. But Stu lost his voice and we need you to sing for us." She turned away from me to look at the man- Josh.

"But-but-but..." she started but sighed. "Fuck Stu. I want to look at his eyes." Her gaze returned to me.

"Do I get a say in this?" I asked.

"And he's Irish." She whined.

"Sorry, mate," Josh said to me. Les had spent the last five minutes laughing, so he was no help. "Here, Baby, you can look at him from the stage, and if he's still here, you can stare at him afterward. Now let's go!" She huffed and allowed Josh to drag her off the table.

"My name's Baby!" she shouted at me from over her shoulder.

"Bye Baby!" Les shouted and pointed at me, "His name's Niall!" She waved as Josh led her away. Baby. What a strange name.

"Well you were a lot of help," I shouted at Les.

"What was I supposed to do?" He was laughing again. Fucking bastard. Suddenly, we heard tapping on the microphone on stage. It was another man. He was tall, with brown, curly hair that reached the bottom of his neck; and his arms and chest were covered with tattoos. He was holding a guitar.

"Hi, excuse me, everyone." His voice was weak and scratchy. "I'm Stu Daniels with Black Midnight. I was supposed to sing but, uhh..." He gave an awkward chuckle as he gestured to his throat. I then noticed that Josh was on stage as well, holding a bass guitar, and there was a woman on drums. "So, yeah. Our first song is Only for You."

They started playing, and a female voice suddenly played through the speakers. It was Baby. She came onto the stage from a door in the back right after the first stanza from the song. She danced slowly and moved her body with the beat. She was amazing as she sang, so much passion in her voice. And the entire time she sang, her eyes were on me. Once the song was finished, everyone was on their feet applauding. I was standing on the table so she could see me as I cheered and screamed. Finally, it all died down and Les helped me off the table. "Hello lovelies," she said. "As you can see, I'm not Stu, but I hope you're not too disappointed." She jutted her hip out as she winked. We all applauded and laughed. "I usually am on the keyboard but Stu busted his voice and Josh refused to sing. So here we are. I'm Baby Ross and we are Black Midnight!" Then their next song began playing. They played about 10 songs, and they were all amazing.