When Taylor walked into the classroom, she felt ten times worse than she did on her first day. The guilt of kissing Harry had been building up all night and she hadn’t slept at all. She was trying to figure out what exactly this was that she had with Harry; he confused her but she couldn’t help but feel like there was definitely something there between the two of them.
She didn’t expect her heart to sink as much as it did when she saw Harry with Cara. He even glanced in her direction but payed no attention to Taylor as she took a seat in the back corner of the room, but in front of Harry so she didn’t have to watch him all over Cara. Taylor’s mind was in a whole different place the whole of class. Selena had sat next to her and tried to start a conversation, but Taylor couldn’t keep it going and she just ended up apologizing over and over for her lack of concentration.
“Tay!” She heard a loud whisper coming from behind her but ignored it at first, assuming it was Harry or one of his teammates. When she heard her name again she turned around, realizing it was Niall. He handed her a folded up piece of paper and Taylor couldn’t help but chuckle, rolling her eyes sarcastically at the note she was about to unfold.
“Passing notes? You’re such a dork!” She whispered back. As she read the contents of the note, she couldn’t help but sigh at his question he had scribbled on the paper.
You okay?
She turned around and just nodded, trying to smile but completely failing. Niall gestured for the note back as he added more to the page. When he handed it back and Taylor read the note, she couldn’t help but feel a little happier at his question this time.
Wanna hang out today?
Taylor neatly wrote a reply, handing it back to Niall as she waited for his answer.
“Meet me at my car after school.” Was all he said and Taylor just nodded, smiling as she got back to her school work. Her day had completely turned around, and she was really looking forward to spending some time with Niall.
“What was all that about…?” Selena nudged Taylor, winking as Taylor started to blush a little. She knew what Selena was implying but she wasn’t sure if she Niall as anything more than a friend. He had been so lovely to her the last month and they had grown much closer than she imagined. She guessed that only time would tell if anything more would happen with Niall, but right now she was just enjoying his company.
Taylor’s classes went incredibly slow for the rest of the day, the excitement of seeing Niall continuing to build up until the final bell sounded. She put the books she didn’t need in her locker and the ones she was taking in her bag, before heading outside to find Niall’s car. She spotted his blonde hair instantly, her face lighting up when she got to the car and he pulled her in for a friendly hug.
“So what do you have planned for us for the afternoon?” Taylor asked and Niall just smirked.
“Secret business, Taylor. You’ll find out soon.” He opened the passenger door for Taylor and she thanked him, getting in as she watched him get in the driver’s seat. There wasn’t exactly a lot to do around here, Taylor had discovered, so she was curious as to what Niall had up his sleeve. She hoped he hadn’t gone to too much trouble to organize anything, but this was Niall and he was always finding ways to make people happy.
After a short car trip full of conversations and smiles, Niall pulled up to a small park. Taylor opened the car door and waited for Niall, who was rummaging around the backseat. He finally grabbed out a blanket and led her to grassy field in the middle of the park. There was no one around and it was so peaceful, plus it wasn’t raining which was also a huge positive. Niall spread the blanket out and they both sat; Taylor couldn’t wipe the smile off her face as she took in the beautiful surroundings.
“This is really nice here, Niall. Who knew there were places as beautiful as this here?” Niall chuckled at Taylor’s comment.
“I come here a lot. It’s good to just take a guitar and sit and play.”
“You play guitar?” Taylor could feel a little dejavu coming on, as she thought back to the night she had spent with Harry in the storm. She was genuinely interested in hearing about Niall’s interests, especially guitar playing, but the smile on her face slightly faded when Harry popped into her head. Why was she even thinking about him? She was with Niall; she should have been focusing on the present and not worrying about anyone else or anything that had happened in the past. She was sure Harry will have already moved on, so she needed to forget about it too. Taylor hadn’t even realized Niall had started to answer her question in detail until she heard her name, bringing her out of her distracted frame of mind.
“Taylor, are you okay?”
“Oh um, sorry. I’m just distracted. You were saying about your guitar?” She tried to get the conversation back on track, but Niall was still concerned.
“You sure everything’s okay? What’s on your mind?”
Taylor knew she didn’t want to tell Niall about Harry. Harry was his friend and Cara was too; plus she didn’t want to cause any drama that could have been avoided in the first place. She wasn’t too sure Harry would be happy with her if she blurted it out to Niall anyway.
“Never been better.” She put on her best and most convincing smile, even adding a giggle afterwards to make it more believable. By the look on Niall’s face he didn’t quite believe it, but he wasn’t about to push the subject. Instead, he had a proposal of his own for Taylor. He had grown a lot closer to her in the last month and really felt like they had something.
“Good, because erm… I had something I wanted to talk to you about…”
“Oh? Go ahead.” Taylor had no idea what Niall wanted to talk to her about, but she knew it wouldn’t be anything too extravagant or ridiculous. But she couldn’t help but get nervous whenever someone said they needed to talk. It was like an automatic reaction and she couldn’t stop feeling like that.
Niall cleared his through, scooting a little closer to Taylor on the blanket as he looked right into her eyes. “I was… erm, I was wondering if… maybe you’d be okay with me taking you on a date?” Taylor definitely hadn’t been expecting that. It came out of nowhere, or at least she hadn’t seen the signs. But somewhere inside of her, she didn’t want to say no. Maybe it could work, and even if it didn’t there’s no harm in trying, right? Well that was Taylor’s logic anyway, and she knew Niall was a good guy and would never do anything that would hurt her or affect the relationship they had now. But what if something was going to happen between her and Harry? She didn’t know what it was about Harry, but she couldn’t help the fact that no matter who she was with, he was always in the back of her mind. She didn’t know what was drawing her to him, but something was definitely there and Taylor felt like it was something that she could maybe explore in the near future. But Harry was the type of guy who would never go for a girl like her, so it was probably best to just move on for good.
Besides, it was only a date; maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to try…
