Stole My Heart

Chapter Five: Love is a Tragedy

(A/N: this was written on my phone so I'm super sorry for any mistakes or weird spacing. The slash marks (/) indicate italics. Warnings: this chapter gets a bit dark near the end, so if anxiety and negative thoughts are triggering, please be careful if you continue to read. for those who don't, thanks for reading!)

Niall did find me the next morning. And the morning after and after and after. We started eating lunch together, he introduced me to a few of his friends, and we always exchanged flirty looks in choir. It was wonderful. And then, before I even knew it, it was Friday; Our date.

I jumped out of the car the minute I got home. I had already set in stone the details with Niall before I left school. I ran up the stairs to my room and didn't look back until I heard a chuckle coming from the bottom of the stairs.  

"Whaaaaat?!" I called down to my mum. 

"Eager much?" She said with her eyebrows high. 

"Mum..", I trailed off as I took a couple of steps down the stairs to where my mum was. I stopped mid-staircase and continued, "I think I could really like him." I walked down the rest of the stairs and hugged her. 

"I know, sweetheart. I know." She cooed, soothing the clothing over my back. She hooked her fingers under my chin and smiled. Whispering "So go get 'im," she kissed my forehead and walked off towards the kitchen. 

I turned and walked back up the stairs. Ok... Ok. She like this whole thing. She was happy for me, maybe a little excited. I changed into some black skinny jeans, an oversized cream sweater, some tan combat boots, and a maroon sweater scarf. I looked at the girl in the mirror. Feeling like something was missing, I threw my hair up into a circle bun- keeping it loose so that I wouldn't look too put together. I looked nice. Just nice. I stared hard at the mirror. Why did Niall even /like/ me? Maybe that was it. Maybe he didn't. Maybe he only wanted me for sex. That made sense. Well, not really, considering I wasn't the fittest girl. Not big just.. not small.

"Stop." I whimpered out to the mirror. This was ridiculous. I moved here for this very reason. Fresh start. Niall liked me, he had said he liked me (kind of), and he had shown it more than once (We kind of liked to kiss.. a lot).  

I ran downstairs to get away from the mirror and see what my mom thought of the outfit I put together.

"You look beautiful," she said. She kissed my forehead again. 

"What time are you guys meeting in town, again?"  

"Seven," I mumbled into her shoulder. 

"Where are you meeting?" She asked brushing a few stray strands of hair behind my ear. 

"At a shop in town. Coffee shop. Figured we'd start small. Gonna have some treats and some tea." I babbled. 

"Sounds like you'll have a great time, dear," she paused. "Do you think you two will go out again?"  

"I hope so," I said, giving her one last squeeze, and breaking our temporary embrace.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

When Niall and I met at the shop, Midnight Delights, we just kind of stood there, unsure of what to say to each other. Everything about this was 10x more intimate than anything either of us had experienced. 

"You look beautiful," he breathed finally, almost in awe, kissing my cheek lightly. I turned a bright shade of apple red, not really knowing how to respond. He gave me a quick smile as if to tell me I didn't need to say anything back. He took my hand and led me inside. We quickly decided on ordering coffee and some treats, and then sat down to get the night started. Well, coffee for him. Tea for me. Our conversation started out light, mostly things like our parents and school and, above all, our love for music. We playfully argued over our two very different styles of music taste, pop and indie. Mine being the latter.