Claire
Hiiii, do u want us to giv u a lift 2 school ?
Me
Who’s us ?
Claire
Niall JJ + me :)
Me
No thx its OK ill js walk to my bus stop
I shouldn't be so transparently avoidant, but ever since the party, things feel... ugh. Niall’s seen me drunk. He’s seen me retch into a bush. Then I was so stupid as to ask about his dead father in my beer-soaked haze.
Worst of all, he’s been nice about it—all of it. He’d even offered to stay with me since my mom was gone, out of pity no doubt. I know accepting it would’ve made everything even more awkward.
Claire
r u sur? ni has 2g2 petrol station so we’d pass ur stop
GOD DAMN IT. THIS SHOULDbe easy. Since when is saying no NOT easy for me?
Since I met Niall Blue, I suppose.
In truth, he makes me feel weird. Not bad weird, like the guys who stare at your chest the whole time you talk or can’t get through a sentence without saying something sleazy. Niall makes me feel... destabilized. Like my stomach is filled with angry, buzzing bees every time he looks at me. It’s a somatic response I don't appreciate. I like control. Niall makes me feel like I’m losing it.
But avoiding him, I know, is a means to an end.
Me
K fine. ill be at the Blackenridge bus stop
Claire
YAY !! see u soon x
??` ?? ?´?
AHONKING HORNnearly makes me drop my phone into the street.
I look up, gripping the device in a death grip, and see Niall’s familiar beat-up Ford Escort pulling up to the curb. As I approach, JJ appears to be climbing over the center console into the backseat like a golden retriever trying to escape a bath, while Niall tries to drag him back to the front by his shirt tail.
I hesitate outside the car door but decide to open it just as JJ successfully tumbles into the back. I slide into the seat, assaulted straight away by the blast of the heater.
“...Hi,” I say, the cold making me a bit breathless. Just the cold. Nothing else.
“Hi...” Niall replies. “Uh, sorry.”
He’s gripping the steering wheel like it’s the only thing keeping him tethered to the earth. He looks... good. Annoyingly good. His uniform is actually neat for once, his tie done properly up to the collar rather than hanging loose like a noose, and his hair is styled up for the day. I notice immediately that the brown roots that usually peek through are gone. His hair is a stark, fresh bleach-blonde right down to the scalp. It makes his eyes look startlingly blue.
“Sorry?”
He gestures in front of him, at the wheel. “That gobshite in the back decided to honk the horn. Didn’t mean to startle ya.”
“Alright, Molly?” Claire chirps from the back before I can answer or deny being startled. She’s squashed into the corner by JJ, who looks pretty pleased with the seating arrangement.
