“What’s this?” She asks, her eyes widening slightly as she takes the small, plastic case from me. She holds up the mixtape, a simple TDK cassette with a handwritten label that just says “For Rory” in Joey’s insanely pretty handwriting.
I shrug. “Yours, I assumed. That’s your ipod isn’t it? The one he said he’d fix?”
I know Niall was the one who really fixed it, really, but I wasn’t about to let Joey down as a wingman.
“Yeah, but this isn’t... uh, nevermind,” she shakes her head, shoving both the ipod and the mixtape into her own bag. The bell above us rings, reminding us we better get going to class.
During history, I can’t help but watch her, since she sits right beside me. She’s supposed to be taking notes on the Tudors, but instead, she’s running her thumb over the mixtape under the desk, her expression unreadable.
Interesting.
??` ?? ?´?
“WHAT'S YOUR FAVOR?” Niall greets me at practice, when I come out of the locker room in my training kit.
He’s leaning against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest, a lazy grin on his face. I hold up my hands and he intertwines his fingers with them, giving me a quick kiss.
“There’s a mall in the city, right?” I ask, acting casual.
“Yeah, Dundrum?” he says, his brows furrowed. “What about it?”
“I was thinking maybe we could go there tomorrow? And bring Claire and her friends, maybe Chloe. For the winter ball thing.”
“Did my sister put you up to this?” he says more than asks, his smile fond and knowing.
“Maybe...” I admit, swinging our intertwined hands between us.
“Well, I do owe you,” he admits, his expression softening. “So yeah, I’ll drive. But I’m charging her. A tenner a head. Claire can pay me back in chores.”
“You’re the best,” I laugh, leaning up to give him another quick kiss.
“I know,” he says smugly, letting go of my hands to give me a quick squeeze around the waist before we walk onto the pitch. “Someone’s got to keep you lot in style.”
“Don’t get too full of yourself,” I warn, but I’m smiling.
“Too late,” he calls over his shoulder as he jogs over to join the rest of the lads, his laughter echoing across the pitch.
47
Yes To The Dress
niall
December, 2007
CONVINCINGJJTOcome along with us to Dundrum was easy.
All I had to do was lie.
It’s a skill I’m surprisingly adept at, a necessary evil when you’re trying to manipulate your childhood best friend and sister into a truce they’re both too stubborn to initiate on their own.
I already had him in the passenger seat of my car (with the doors locked, just in case) when the girls’ were almost here. I just let them in the back and ignored his panicked glare as the five of them (Molly, Claire, Niamh, Marissa and Chloe) all squeezed into the tiny backseat of my Escort, packing in on top of each other like a litter of puppies.
“Everyone comfy?” I ask, once they’ve mostly stopped moving around, their bags and coats thrown around at their feet. I glance at JJ in the passenger seat, his face a mask of misery and betrayal, then back at Molly in the rearview mirror, who’s trying and failing to suppress a grin.
Whatever she knows about JJ and Claire that she won’t tell me, she also agrees that it’s time they made up.
What better way than forced proximity? It’s a foolproof plan.
