Small Talk (Niall Horan)

Chapter 26

*Sofia's P.O.V.*

I stood there in shock. I knew Vic meant well and if this were under any other circumstances I'd be beyond thrilled. After I didn't react and just stood there frozen she spoke again

"I know this is a shock to you, but we're here to see Niall. Surprise." Victoria shrieked as she hugged me really tight. Fuck, she was so happy about it. I finally snapped out of my trance and decided to put on a big fake smile. I couldn't make Victoria feel bad, she was my best friend. And she decided to spend the whole afternoon with me instead of with her boyfriend, I couldn't be ungrateful.

"That's great." I replied with fake enthusiasm.

"I know. And that's not all, we've got soundcheck access too. That's why we had to get here this early." Fuck, fuck, fuck. Could this possibly get any better? *sarcasm*

"That's so cool, I can't wait." Again with my fake enthusiasm.

"Yes, now come on. We've got to head inside. Soundcheck is in less than 30 minutes." She told me as she grabbed my hand and practically dragged me across the parking lot. I was still processing everything and things didn't quite add up, how had she gotten soundcheck access as well? Those had sold out months in advance and she didn't even know she was coming to Houston until about 3 weeks ago. There's no way she got them when they went on sale. We approached the entrance and there was a person there checking everyones tickets.

"Hi. I'm on the list. Victoria A. Díaz Serrano." Victoria told the woman scanning the tickets. She also had a handful of papers, which I'm assuming was 'the list'.

"Yes, here you are. Do you have an ID, I just have to make sure everything matches." The woman spoke.

"Yeah, here it is." Vic handed it to her proudly.

"Thanks. Everything's good. Here's your tickets for the show and these are the passes for soundcheck. Make sure to keep them on." She continued as she handed her everything.

"Here you go." Vic smiled at me as she handed me my pass, which I quickly hung around my neck.

"Thank you." I replied as I did.

"Let's head inside." She told me before she took my hand again and dragged me all the way inside. There were already several girls lined up, ready for the gate to the PIT area to open. So we lined up behind them, there were only about 10 girls there. Guess we were here early.

"So how did you manage to get soundcheck and the tickets?" I asked Victoria, eager to get some information and make sense of everything.

"You won't believe me if I told you." She responded in a hushed voice, I don't know why.

"Try me." I answered.

"I actually won a contest! Niall posted a tweet about giving away two tickets for his show with soundcheck access and so I entered and I won!" Vic explained to me in the same hushed voice, I guess she didn't want anyone to hear. She had to be kidding right? Niall never gave away free tickets, and he would never host a twitter contest for them either.

"You're serious? Let me see." I asked her as she pulled out her phone. She showed me Niall's tweet first and then the message he had sent her telling her she was the winner of the contest and asking for her details. Every piece of the puzzle then clicked, this was all Niall. He had planned this, I couldn't believe it. So that's why he hadn't try to speak to me in the past two days, he was busy scheming. That fucker. I still can't believe he did all of this just to see me. I'm actually kind of flattered that he went into this much trouble, but I'm still mad at him nonetheless.

"See, I wasn't kidding. I'm so lucky." Victoria commented with a big grin on her face. I didn't have the heart to tell her that Niall had planned all of this just to see me, and besides she didn't even know that Niall and I had a history.

"Yes, you really are." I stated as I squeezed her hand. "Thank you for bringing me along." I continued.

"No problem. Besides I feel like this is a great distraction from your guy trouble, because there's no one better to help clear your mind than Niall Horan himself." Oh boy, if she only knew how wrong she was.

15 minutes later they opened the gate and we were able to enter the PIT area and thanks to my awesome good luck we got the best seats, front row dead center. I can't believe just how incredibly lucky I was. There was no way to avoid Niall now, I just hope he doesn't do anything stupid during soundcheck. This is not how I want Victoria to find out, she'll kill me.

*Niall's P.O.V.*

I'm already here at the venue, soundcheck starts in less than 15 minutes. I'm really nervous, I haven't seen Soph in almost a month and I haven't talked to her for the past 2 days, well 3 since she didn't answer any of my calls or texts. I just hope my little stunt worked and that she's here with her best friend. I can't wait to go out and see if she's actually here, this is the most anxious I've ever for a soundcheck.

"Niall, it's time." Preston hollered as I opened the door to my dressing room, eager to get on stage.

"Coming." I told him before I met him by the side of the stage. This was it, the moment I had been waiting for for the past 3 days. I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best before heading out. As I started walking to the center of the stage I scanned the crowd, I didn't see her so I started to panic. I tried to hide my emotions as well as I could. I scanned the crowd a second time before I got to the microphone, and just as I did I saw her, relief washed over me. She was here, front row dead center, along with her friend. She looked gorgeous, I just wanted to jump down, and kiss her right there, I didn't even care what anyone would think. Of course I didn't do it, I knew I had to contain myself. Her best friend didn't know that we were together and Sofia would kill me if she found out this way. I had to contain myself and just admire her beauty from afar.

"Hi, how's it going?" I asked the 'crowd'. There weren't a lot of people here, 30 at best. And that's something I loved about doing this kinds of soundchecks, you could really interact with the crowd. I was answered with hollers, just as always.

"I'm going to perform a few songs, this one is Everywhere. Hope you like it." I spoke before I grabbed my guitar and started singing. I caught myself staring at Soph multiple times during the song, I just couldn't help it. I hope no one will notice. I could see her friend was pretty excited, she kept swaying to the beat and singing along. While Soph on the other hand, had a smile plastered on her face, I knew it was a fake smile. That's how much I knew her. But at least she swayed to the rhythm, it was something. I just hated to see how broken and sad she looked. Even though she did her best to hide her emotions, I could see right through her.

I was getting to the final chorus and I decided to sing it looking directly at her. I tried making eye contact with her but she kept lowering her gaze, until she finally gave up and stared right into my eyes. I wished she could see just how sorry I was as I sang to her.

"I swear it's hard to think
It's hard to breathe when you're in the air
I try to run, but you're everywhere I go
When I think I'm all alone
And my heart's under control
Why is loving you not fair?
You're everywhere"

And just as I was finishing, I saw her mouth curl into a small smile, and I could see the sparkle in her eyes, it was a genuine smile. There was still hope for us!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author's Note:

Hey there guys! How are you enjoying the story so far? They finally saw each other, even if it was from afar. How cute was Niall to arrange all of this? I'm really hoping you enjoy it and any suggestions and/or grammar corrections are more than welcome. Don't forget to follow me, vote and comment, it really helps me out and I'd love to hear your thoughts! If you're obsessed with 1D make sure to check my TikTok account, I upload daily vids of the boys, it's @cristylealr