Foreign Affair ›› n.h. mature

Twelve

Niall Horan

It's been two days since Liv and I last hung out, when we fell asleep to The Incredibles. I dropped her off Tuesday night and it's now Thursday.

I texted her yesterday but she said she had a lot of homework. But I have a bad feeling it's more than that. Maybe I'm being paranoid. She just seemed weird when I took her home the other night. It was like she really wanted to leave.

At least I've had my family to keep me occupied. Theo is crawling all over the place so we are always busy. Right now the three of us are on the couch drinking our morning tea, kind of watching the telly, and mostly watching Theo.

"What's got you all riled up?"

Oh, Denise was talking to me. "Huh?"

"You keep checking that phone of yours every two seconds. What's the deal?"

"Nothing. No I'm not."

"Yeah you are," Greg added.

"Nope."

"Is it that girl? Is she not answering your texts?" Denise was prying.

"No, nosey. I'm just looking at my phone."

"Why isn't she answering? Did you do something to make her mad?"

Obviously I wasn't fooling them. "Okay, fine. It's not that she isn't answering. But yesterday she said no to hanging out and I can't decide if I should text her or not today."

"Did you upset her?"

"I don't know! How could I have? I've only just met her Saturday!"

Greg took this opportunity to give us his two cents. "Well for someone you barely know you seem awfully obsessed."

"I am not." I tried to laugh it off.

But honestly, I kind of was acting like it. She was making me crazy. I haven't gotten nervous just to text a girl in years.

Denise took on a new tone, like she was going to get to the bottom of this. "Why are you worried?"

"I don't know."

"Well why didn't she want to see you yesterday?"

"Too much homework."

"Oh! Well why are you freaking out then? That seems perfectly normal."

"I just have a bad feeling."

"I think you're leaving something out of the story then."

"There's no story, I just can't tell what the deal is."

"The deal is you like her a lot and you're afraid you like her more than she likes you."

"You're mental."

"Actually I think it seems accurate," Greg added. "What happened when we left Tuesday? It really does feel like you're hiding something."

"Nothing happened!" My cheeks were blazing and I didn't know why.

"Oh my goodness. Niall James Horan, what happened?" Denise asked.

Greg asked, "Did you two...you know. Did you sleep with her?"

"No! Wow, we just met! You guys need to calm down." My cheeks turned even more red. This wasn't that awkward of a conversation to have with your brother, but with your sister-in-law it was strange.

"Then why are you the color of a tomato?"

"Because I'm uncomfortable!" I retorted.

"Well then what did you guys do?"