“My rib cage is so sore,” I complained as I met up with Zayn in the front room. “What’d you get?” I asked him. He held out his arm to show me his new microphone tattoo. “Okay, I really like that. Like I really really like that,” I nodded. “Thanks! I’ve had the idea for a while. What did you get?” I lifted the right side of Niall’s shirt and showed him my new tattoo.
“That’s beautiful,” He whispered. “Thanks, dream catchers were always a thing that me and my mother loved.” We got the bandages put on our new ink and we were on our way back to Niall’s flat just making small talk. We walked through the door laughing at the face of this one girl in the elevator.
“AND YOU KEPT TEASING HER!” I exclaimed. “OMG THAT WAS SO FUNNY SHE LOOKED LIKE SHE WAS GONNA DIE!” Zayn laughed harder. We walked into the living room with tears in our eyes. The boys looked at us like we were insane and we just shook our heads. “So what did you guys get!?” Niall asked. Zayn showed everyone but I just shook my head and shrugged. “It’s a surprise! You guys’ll see it when the bandages come off.”
“Where did you get it?” Harry asked. “Rib cage.”
“What is it?” He asked. “Ha. Nice try.”
“I WANNA KNOWWWW!” He whined and flopped onto the couch. I laughed and sat down next to Niall. “So, movie night?” Louis declared.
We all cheered in agreement and settled down to watch scary movies.
***
“You have a date with Niall Horan,” Catherine repeated for the 4309572th time. “Yes, Cat, I do. Now, can you help me get this dress on?” She snapped out of her trance and helped me zip up my lace dress.
“The hat is stupid,” I mumbled and took the matching beanie off throwing it across the room. “So when did you get that tattoo?” Cat asked.
“Yesterday with Zayn,” I called from the closet, grabbing my shoes.
“Why aren’t you wearing the nude Louboutin pumps?”
“Cause they’re six inch heels and I don’t wanna be taller than Niall on our date,” I explained with a shrug. “You are so considerate,” She spoke sarcastically. I smiled and shrugged. “I try!”
“OH GOD he’s gonna be here in 5 minutes, you need to leave!” I shooed Cat out of my room and down the stairs to the front door. “What? Why? When do I get to meet Prince Horan?”
“Soon, I promise, but leave! I love you and I’ll call you. Okay bye,” I called closing the door. I could practically hear her roll her eyes as she walked down the stairs to her car. I ran up the stairs to my bathroom and brushed my teeth for the fourth time in the past hour. I am so nervous it’s ridiculous. I wiped the toothpaste from my mouth just as the doorbell rang. “Shiiiittt,” I said under my breath. I took a deep breath as I trotted down the stairs. With a sudden burst of excitement I raced down the front hallway, and threw open the door.
Niall looked amazing. He was wearing black pants, a white button down and a skinny black tie. His blonde hair was perfectly styled and spiked up in that perfectly messy way. “Hi,” I whispered breathlessly.
He smiled that gorgeous smile, “Hi, Liz. Are you ready?” I just nodded weakly and took the hand he offered me and followed him to his car.
“Where are we going?” I asked for the 35th time. “Elizabeth, there’s this thing called patience, GET IT!” He replied. I rolled me eyes and fought back a smile. “You look beautiful tonight,” He said with a smile. I blushed and looked down. “Thanks,” I mumbled. “So that tattoo….” He trailed off.
“It’s a dream catcher. I’ll show you tomorrow when I’m not wearing a dress.”
“Why a dream catcher?” He asked. I took in a deep breath and let it out, hesitating. “You don’t have to tell me, Liz,” He said as he came to a stop in front of his flat building. “Uh, Niall…” I trailed off. “Don’t question it, just trust me.” He got out of the car and jogged to my side, opening up the door for me. He led me up the stairs, passing his flat and all the other boys’ flats.
There was a door at the end of the hallway marked ‘Roof’ I was about to question Niall’s intention but he just shook his head at me. “Close your eyes,” He whispered. I complied, shutting my eyes and trusting his judgment. He grabbed my hand and I shuffled behind him. I felt the warm air of London brush against my skin. He kept leading me in a straight line before stopping. “Okay, open your eyes.” My eyes snapped opened and I gasped softly, taking in the beautiful view of the city.
“Niall,” I whispered. “It’s beautiful!” I tore my gaze from the skyline and looked around the roof, gasping again. A table set for two with a candle in the middle next to a single red rose, was under a vine like plant.
There were twinkling lights everywhere, “Niall, it’s beautiful…er,” I gushed. “And you’re beautifulest,” He whispered in my ear. I felt the blush creeping t’s way to my cheeks. “Let’s eat!” He cheered and pulled out my chair. We sat down and Louis came walking up to us with two silver dome covered plates. “Le dinner is served,” He said in a crappy French accent. He scampered away and I uncovered the plate, bursting into laughter.
“So Harry cooked again…” Niall said looking at the tacos. “It’s perfect,” I smiled. We started eating the tacos, but everyone knows that tacos can be extremely messy. I sat there trying to look lady like, with a taco exploding in my hand. “You have a little something right there,” Niall joked pointing to my chin. I started laughing really hard and as I laughed I accidentally squeezed the taco, squishing it into a sloppy, Mexican mess.
Niall started laughing his adorable laugh. “Okay…okay…McDonalds?” He asked through his loud laughs. I nodded, “McDonalds.” We got up and walked off the roof. We stopped in Niall’s flat so that we could wash our taco filled hands.
We were walking hand in hand to the McDonalds near his home. “I’d like a Big Mac. With everything on it. Oh and a large fry,” I ordered. The girl behind the register looked at me with disgust written all over her face. “If you keep eating like that, you’ll be fatter than you already are.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “Excuse me,” Niall cut it. “But I think that Elizabeth is such beautiful person, so keep your bitchy comments to yourself.” I squeezed Niall’s hand. The girl’s eyes lit up when she looked at Niall. “You’re Niall Horan from One Direction….you could do so much better than that loser.”
“Says the girl working at McDonalds,” I snapped. “Whatever, we’re going to Burger King!” Niall exclaimed and dragged me out of the fast food franchise. I slowly felt myself losing it. My insecurities were coming back and the taunting words were on replay in my head.
My dress suddenly felt too tight and my thighs seemed to brush together with each step I took. All the sudden I started analyzing everything I had eaten in the past week, adding up the calories on my head. My breath came in short pants and I tried to tame the wild thoughts in my mind.
“Hey, Liz, are you okay?” Niall asked. I shook my head quickly. “Don’t listen to her, okay? You’re absolutely perfect to me.” I took a deep breath and pulled myself together. “Thanks,” I whispered. He smiled at me, “So I thought it was really hot when you ordered a Big Mac.”
I laughed and rolled my eyes, “Let’s go to Burger King.”
***
“I’d love to be on stage singing in front of thousands of people, but I literally can’t bring myself to say yes to Simon’s offer. I just think that it’s not what I want my life to be like, at least not yet, you know?” I said to Niall as we lay on the grass on our backs at the park, staring at the stars.
“I understand,” he said softly. “So, the dream catcher…do you think maybe you can tell me about that?”
“When I was little, I used to have horrible nightmares. I can’t even remember what they were about, but I’d wake up sweating and crying and screaming. One day, my mom came home from work with a dream catcher. We hung it up over my bed and since then, I haven’t had any nightmares. But then when my parents died, I kind of lost myself. I didn’t know who I was anymore. My only family was living an ocean away from me and I was risking foster care. Once I got wrapped up in drugs, the nightmares came back; I drove all the way to Doncaster, to the house that I grew up in. It still stands in its original spot, half burned down. I went to my old room and found the dream catcher. No more nightmares,” I ended with a shrug.
“You and your mother were close weren’t you? Wait, drugs?” He turned his head to me, shock clearly evident in his ocean blue eyes. I nodded, regretting bringing that up. With Zayn, it was easier to confess my drug issue. Maybe because I didn’t like him the way I liked Niall. “Uh yeah. I got wrapped up in some pretty serious drugs. It started with alcohol and weed then escalated to cocaine and prescription pills then ended with meth laced heroine. I didn’t know what I was doing, I was so lost, and I just couldn’t live with the whirlwind of emotions going on in my mind, so I denied them. Don’t worry, I’m 3 years sober.”
There was a long silence that scared me. He could easily get up and walk away right now. He could walk away and leave behind the girl that loved to easily. The psychotic girl that shot up on heroine because she was sad. I suddenly regretted every single word that had spilled out of my mouth like word vomit. He’s gonna leave.
Instead of leaving, Niall grabbed my hand and squeezed gently, “You aren’t alone, Liz.” Tears filled my eyes. No one’s said that to me before, “Thanks, Nialler,” I whispered.
We fell silent just staring at the stars in the endless night sky.
“Have you ever wondered how many stars are in the sky?” Niall asked. “One time, when I was like seven, I laid in my back yard and insisted on counting how many stars were in the sky,” I told him. He laughed softly. “How many did you count?”
“Well, I was only seven, so I really only got to 30 before I checked out. I’ve never really had a good attention span,” I muttered. Niall giggled at my answer and I smiled.
“I’ve always thought that because the stars and knew no limits that so would my love,” Niall whispered. “What do you mean?”
“Like, space is endless and limitless, there are an infinite number of stars, and I’ve always been told that love should be limitless and infinite. I’ve always wanted a love like that. To love someone so strongly, that nothing could ever tear you apart. Nothing. Not distance, or time, or fights, or money, or lies. It’s just you and the other person. Limitless, Infinite and Forever.”
His words rang through my head on loop. Limitless, Infinite, and Forever. Limitless, Infinite, and Forever.

Notes

HEEEEY! So this chapter will be important way later on in this story.
Let me explain:
This story is super super important to me. I have every detail of this planned out. Before I got deleted off Quotev back in January, I was up to like Chapter 25 or something. I have every detail of the SEQUEL planned out as well.
I have spent so much time invested in this story and I finally got the drive back to continue it. So please! Vote, Subscribe and Comment.

I love you all so so much.

Have a swaggy day :)
~Alex