Little Misunderstandings [Sequel to Little Steps]

Aria’s P.O.V.

He was here. Dressed in a waiter’s uniform. He was here. Oh my god.

Oh my god.

Oh my god.

It became hard to breath very quickly and blood began to pound in my ears. I grabbed Nate’s hand and held on even tighter than before. I glanced at Niall and he looked back at me, locking a gaze. He squinted at me and realized quickly that something was wrong.

Oh if only he knew.




Niall’s P.O.V.

“Hey, are you okay?”I asked as we made our way into the restaurant.

“Fine,” Aria exhaled. I caught a glimpse of her gripping tighter onto Nate’s hand. She kept her head down as the four of us walked through the entrance. It was as if the last thing she wanted was to be seen around me.

I checked us into the restaurant and a pretty waitress led us to our table. She left the table after introducing herself, handing us the menus and taking our drink orders. Nate and Colette whispered with each other what they were getting while my gaze remained on Aria. She looked a bit pale and it was making me a little nervous. I reached across the table and took one of her hands into mine.

“What happened?”

Aria gulped and shook her head. “It’s nothing. I promise.”

“Look, if this is because of what happened the last time we were at a restaurant, I promise you that’s never going to happen ever-“

“No,” she cut me off with wide eyes. “Trust me. I’m over that.”

“Okay.”

“It’s just that… I saw someone.” She whispered, looking around the restaurant. Her eyes were bright and alert.

“Who did you see?”

“Jace.”

I blinked a few times, wondering who the hell Jace was.

“Remember,” she said, raising her eyebrows. “Scarlett’s boyfriend?”

My eyes widened and I nodded quickly. “The guy in the all pictures that changed his hair way too much.”

Aria laughed. “Yes, that one.”

“So why are you so worried about seeing him? It’s not like he did anything you should be afraid of, right?”

“I don’t know,” she shrugged. “He totally lost all contact with my father and me after Scarlett’s car accident. For some reason, my dad hated him even more after Scarlett died, even though it definitely wasn’t Jace’s fault.”

“Here are your drinks,” a voice interrupted, making me look up. Instead of the waitress from before, there was a man holding our drinks. Aria squeaked, and I glanced over at her. Her eyes were wide and her face was paler than before.

I looked back at the guy and my eyes drifted down to his nametag. Sure enough, it read “Jace”.

“Hi, “ Jace said. “I’m Jace and I’ll be your waiter today. Your previously waitress, Annie I believe, had to assist the manager in his office so I took up her table.”

Aria nodded meekly and I kind of just stared at him. He had sharp features but his smile was kind. He looked like a really friendly guy and it was hard to think a guy like him could have lost his girlfriend long ago in a car accident.

“Now then, who ordered a sprite?”

Nicolette raised her hand and grinned. “I did!”

Jace laughed and handed her the drink.

“And who ordered a Fanta?”

“Me,” Nate raised a finger, a small smile on his face. Jace smiled warmly and handed Nate him drink. After all drinks were handed out, Jace asked for our orders. Nate and Nicolette both ordered small sized hamburgers and Aria and I got the steak and sausage combo. Jace wrote down the orders fairly quickly and flashed us all a smile before walking off.

“He didn’t’ recognize me.” Aria exhaled, clearly relieved.

“What if he did but just hid it really well.”

“Oh,” Aria snorted, “I know Jace and he’s not good at hiding things.”

We listened to Nate and Nicolette go on and on about all the other rides they wanted to go on. Nicolette pretty much wanted to go on any ride containing water and Nate wanted to go on every roller coaster. Jace came back to our table shortly with four plates in hand.

“The two kid sized burgers are for mommy and daddy, right?” Jace thought out loud, tapping his chin exaggeratedly. Nicolette giggled and shook her head.

“No. The burgers are for me and Nate.”

“Mommy and daddy got the grown-up food.” Nate added, sticking his tongue out at the two plates of steak. Jace and Aria laughed, but hen Jace glanced at Aria she looked away. She bit her lip and began playing with her fingers nervously. When Jace left again, she let out the breath she had been holding in.

“It sucks.” She sighed, picking up the fork and stabbing it into her steak. “It sucks that he doesn’t recognize me.”

“I thought the last thing you wanted was for him to recognize you.” I said.

“Yeah, but when I think about it, he was there for six years of my life. He was like my older brother. We did everything together and now he doesn’t even know who I am.”

“Maybe it’s because when you were six, you were this cute little girl with a slightly higher voice and a different style of clothing. When you were six, you were smaller and sounded different and acted different. But now, you’ve matured. You’re taller and extremely beautiful and definitely different than you were eighteen years ago.”

“True,” she shrugged, chewing on some steak. “But how come I recognized him then?”

“Maybe because you have a better memory or something.”

“Or maybe it’s because he meant more to me than I meant to him.” She mumbled quietly. I frowned but I didn’t say anything back. I honestly didn’t know how big of a bond the two of them had had, so I couldn’t tell Aria that he had cared more than she did. I didn’t know.

“Hey, let’s just forget about this.” I whispered, giving her an encouraging smile. She nodded and forced a smile onto her lips.

“Okay.”

Nicolette entertained us with really lame jokes that my mum had told her and Nate told us about how Greg and Noah had come over. Noah, my nephew, had grown up a lot. He was definitely a Horan, with his sense of humor and constant cheeky grin.

I was glad that the kids were there to take Aria’s mind off Jace.




Aria’s P.O.V.

After everyone had finished lunch, I was dying to go to the bathroom. What can I say? That coke went through my system faster than I had expected. Niall kept an eye on the kids while made my way to the bathroom. After doing my job, I washed my hands, because you can’t forget to wash the hands, and left the bathroom.

“Aria,” someone whispered. My head shot up, alert. When I saw who had called my name, I nearly passed out.

“W-Who are you? H-how do you know my name?” I lied. Of course he knew my name. Of course I knew who he was.

“It’s me,” he said, eyes desperate. “It’s Jace. Remember? I’m Scarlett’s ex.”

I blinked a few times as he made his way towards me. He still looked the same, but a little more matured. He was still extremely good looking and he still had that little twinkle in his eye.

“Please tell me you haven’t forgotten me,” he begged, full on serious. I shook my head slowly.

“I haven’t.”

“So it is you,” he exhaled, smiling widely. “Y-you have a family now. Your kids are so beautiful.”

“Thank you,” I answered hesitantly. I felt a little bad when his smile dropped to a frown.

“You don’t look so happy to see me.” Jace said, looking down.

“No,” I protested. “I’m just a bit shocked. I haven’t seen you in so long, and we lost touch such a long time ago.”

“Yet I still remember you,” he smiled softly. “Damn, you were like my little sister.”

I had to smile when he said that. “And you were like my brother.”

“So how’s life going for you?” he asked, smiling at my reply. “Must be going well with your kids and a man for yourself.”

“Yeah,” I nodded, smiling nonchalantly. “I’ve got a great family. What about you? How have you been doing?”

“Well,” he blushed. “As you can see I’m working as waiter in a Disneyland café. Not exactly what I had imagined.”

I shot his a sympathetic smile to which he glanced down again. I remembered how he would always tell me about getting a job as a teacher so he could teach little kids like me, so long ago. I wondered what made him fall off course. He was a really good student from what I remembered, all A’s and star of the football team.

Suddenly I didn’t want to know what had happened.

“Listen Jace,” I sighed. “I’m really sorry to be in a rush but I got to get back to the kids. They’re going to wonder why I’m taking so long and my daughter is going to kill me for wasting time. She’s got every ride on her list.”

“Nah, it’s no problem,” Jace laughed. “Do you think I could get your number? I’d really like to catch up.”

I juggled the choices I had. I could decline and walk away and never have to deal with him again, or I could give him my number and figure out just what my “big brother” had been doing for twelve years of his life. Naturally I went with the second choice. We quickly exchanged numbers and I waved goodbye, just as a waitress came by and told him to stop flirting and get back to work.

If only she knew.

When I arrived back at the table, Niall was laughing at something Nicolette had said. Nate looked incredibly bored, blowing bubbles into the glass of water on the table with his straw.

“I’m ready,” I smiled, getting their attention. “Let’s go.”

I was still trying to fully grasp the concept that I had just ran into Jace. It was so weird, and it made me shiver. It wasn’t that I was scared of him, because I wasn’t. Sure ,he was strong and could take someone down in a second, but even after years and years of not seeing each other, I got the feeling that he would never hurt me. He looked so much the same, yet so different. It was hard to explain but I knew it was still him. It was still Jace Walters.

“What’s keeping my princess so deep in thought?” Niall whispered, lips tickling my ear. I smiled up at him and pecked his lips.

“Nothing important.”

“Sure,” Niall snorted, taking my hand. He had Nate’s in the other, with my other hand attached to Nicolette’s. “Well Nicolette and Nate want to go on the Jungle Cruise.”

“Oh,” I smiled. “Sounds good.”

“Okay.” Niall laughed. “Who are you and what did you do with Aria? Aria would tell me how damn boring sitting in a teepee boat for an hour, watching contaminated water is.”

“I would not!” I laughed, hitting Niall’s shoulder. Niall gave me a look and I rolled my eyes. “Okay fine. I would. But I’m trying to be nice for the children.”

“Sure, Ari, sure,” Niall grinned, reaching for my hand again. We reached the line for the Jungle Cruise, which surprisingly wasn’t too long. Once we were on the boat along with a few other people, Nicolette and Nate tried to stick their hands in the water and drink it. I groaned and lifted them up, away from the edge of the boat.

“Mum, what are you doing?” Nicolette pouted, trying to reach the dirty water again.
“The question is, what are you doing?” I shot back at her, holding her tighter. Nate and Niall started playing Eye Spy and Nicolette gave up trying to reach the water and joined them.

“I spy with my little eye, something beautiful.” Niall said.

“Oh, it’s me!” Nicolette grinned, teething on full show. Niall burst out laughing and I couldn’t help but giggle. She was such a drama queen, such a spoiled girl. I couldn’t have her any other way.

“I think we all know it’s me,” Nate laughed from Niall’s lap, his smile even wider.

“Niall, what were you spying?” I asked, smiling at him.

“Well, I was actually talking about my entire family. All of you are so beautiful.”

Geez, what a softie.

“You’re beautiful too, daddy,” Nicolette giggled, touching all over Niall’s face. He tried to lick her hand and bite her fingers until she pulled her hand away.

“Oh, daddy’s a lion!” Nate gasped, clapping a small hand over his mouth.

“No,” Nicolette argued. “Lion’s go ‘roar’.”

“I can roar,” Niall frowned, and did a ridiculous lion roar to prove himself worthy to Nicolette. This of course earned strange looks from the people sitting next to us. I gave them apologetic smiles and they turned away.

“Behave yourself,” I said in a low voice, putting a hand on Niall’s knee. He looked up and stuck his tongue out at me in return. It seemed like he was just as bad as our children.

The cruise showed us around the park, explaining the different rides and the oldest ones. The cruise helped point of places to eat, and the best place to go see the fireworks at night. Nicolette and Nate got extremely excited at the mention of fireworks and made Niall and I promise to go see them tonight.

After the Jungle Cruise, which no offense was really boring, we hit the Peter Pan’s Flight ride, the Pirates of the Caribbean showcase and the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. To lower down the kids’ energy, Niall got the good idea to take them to the Disney Picture Gallery. That was probably Nate’s most favorite part of the entire day, looking at all the different paintings of the Disney characters. He especially liked the painting of Goofy and Mickey Mouse and told Niall he wanted to steal it from the gallery. That was our cue to get the hell out of there.

By the time we had exited the gallery, the sky was dark and the fireworks had began.

“Let’s sit over there!” Nicolette pointed to a large area of grass where there were a few other people seated watching the fireworks.

“Race ya,” Nate grinned and the two of them ran off without our approval.

Niall looked over at me with a small smirk. “Race ya.”

“Oh, it’s on.” I smirked back at him, lining up where the concrete met the grass.

“Loser owe’s the other a big kiss.”

I rolled my eyes. “That’s not exactly punishing.”

“On the count of three,” Niall said, ignoring my comment. “One, two, three!”

It was a race, neck to neck, but in the end Niall won. Partly it was because he was obviously fitter than me, and also because I tripped on a rock and fell face first in the grass.

Nate and Nicolette just laughed at me but Niall was gentlemen enough to give me a hand.

“You owe me a kiss later.” He winked, pulling me up.

Together, the four of us sat watching the fireworks. Nate was obsessed with all the different colors and told Niall he wanted to paint the fireworks when he got home.

Nicolette imitated the loud sounds of the fireworks, screaming out, “Boom”, and “Wee” when they exploded. Niall and I just sat together and watched the fireworks like normal humans, unlike our children.

When we got back to the hotel room, Nicolette and Nate had completely passed out. Their hair was drenched from sweating so much from running and jumping around in the grass.

“So, should I deal with Nate and Colette?” Niall sighed, standing beside me as we stood in front of the bed our kids were snoring on. They looked so calm and peaceful that I considered just letting them sleep.

“You know we can’t just do that,” Niall smiled, giving me a knowing look. “We got to get them cleaned up.”

He left my side and slowly shook Nate awake. I picked Nate up and took him to the bathroom.

“”I’m tired mum.” He whined, rubbing his eyes as I undressed him.

“I know, but you stink.” I laughed in attempt to wake him up. He scrunched his nose as I placed him in the water. I quickly bathed him and wrapped him in a towel for Niall to handle, then took Nicolette. She was too tired to fuss around, literally falling asleep as I massaged the shampoo into her hair.

Once the kids were clean and fast asleep in the bed, Niall and I once again stood at the foot of the head.

“Mission accomplished,” he laughed quietly, giving me a high five. He turned to face me and a smirk approached his face. “You still owe me a big kiss from earlier.”

I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled myself closer to his body.

“Do I?” I purred, my lips brushing against his.

“You do,” Niall answered, arms snaking around my waist.

“Well,” I giggled, “I think I can fix that.”

I brought my mouth to his in a passionate kiss, and Niall eagerly kissed back, capturing my lips in his. Our tongues engaged in a hot dance and soon Niall had lifted me up for my legs to sling around his waist. I opened my eyes for a split second to see where he was walking us – to the bathroom.

I was going to be exhausted by the end of tonight.

Notes

OMG Like I think I updated a freaking month ago or something.... so sorry for another long wait :P hope it's worth it!! Here is a picture of Nicolette as the Mad Hatter from the last chapter. (Yes the girl in the picture is actually Nicolette's character) :D