Broken (a Niall Horan love story)

Chapter 34

***Navaeh’s P.O.V.***

“Hey, can you wait down there for just a second?” Cody questioned as he tucked part of his longish hair behind his ear to try and get it out of the way. I had come a little earlier that I thought and he wasn’t done getting ready yet. So, he was leaning against the banister at the second floor of the house. There was a wide smile on his lips, and I couldn’t help but to return the giddy expression while tilting my head to look up at him.

“Yeah,” I nodded, and he gave me one last grin before disappearing into his room and leaving me to stand there. Like the semi awkward person that I was, I stood in the foyer and rocked back and forth on the ball of my foot. My eyes scanned the increasingly familiar scene, and my ears picked up on Cody’s mum singing along to an unfamiliar song. The open living room to my right was kind of dirty, but not nearly as dirty as my house.

I continued to stare at the entry way just as a very recognizable tune floated out of the living room. Without even thinking about my actions, I turned and walked towards the living room in order to find the source of the music. The steady beat was calming and slow as it carried on. I strained to hear the part of the song that I had grown accustomed to hearing in that wonderful Irish accent. When I reached the door to the room, I leaned up against the doorframe and shut my eyes for a moment when the words came.

“Y-You like them?” a small voice stuttered from the middle of the room. I didn’t have to open my eyes to know that it was Ben; I had seen him coloring on the coffee table when I had walked to the doorway. I peeked one eye open to look at him, and a small smile stretched out my lips as I nodded.

“This is my favorite song,” I told him. Well, it was the song that I had heard the most so it had grown on me a lot. Niall sang it a lot when we were just sitting around or sometimes when we were snuggled up on the couch or bed. The soft chords in Once in a Lifetime were also easy to play, so he would whip out his guitar every now and then and I would watch his skillful fingers glide against the neck of the guitar.

“I like Fool’s Gold,” he told me while dragging a blue crayon back and forth on the paper nudged beneath his forearms. When he was done talking, he stuck his tongue out to focus on his coloring even more.

“Oh, yeah,” I agreed while taking the few steps needed to get to the coffee table. I plopped to the ground after that and I sat crisscross on the carpeted floor. In order to bring about a more open and friendly feeling, I rested my forearms on the table and leaned over to peek at his picture. “Do you have a favorite out of the boys?” I questioned.

“Niall,” he answered immediately, and he pronounced the name so precisely that I could tell that the boys were something that Ben cared deeply about. Whereas some of his other words were slurred or slow, the names of the songs and Niall’s name had come out perfectly clear. “Because he died his hair blond like mine,” he beamed at that, and I couldn’t help but to giggle at his happy mood, “it looks really soft.”

Oh, it is, I couldn’t help but to think the answer to myself. His comment reminded me of a couple of nights before when Niall had laid his head on my stomach and let me run my fingers through his hair. It was a nightmare to comb through when it was wet, but once it dried it was like a lovely cloud. He would hum every time I touched him, and I must confess that that was a wonderful sound to hear. Every once and a while, he had mumbled something that I couldn’t hear, and I took it as an encouragement to keep fiddling with his hair.

“I like Niall too,” I confessed to him as if it was the biggest secret in the world.

“Really?” he looked up from his drawing in order to give me an awe filled expression. The look only fueled my smile, and I nodded happily.