The next evening Mae stared at her reflection in the mirror of her bathroom as she curled her long, brown hair, trying to get it to cooperate with her. As she let the hair go from where she was holding it on the hot curling wand, she sighed to herself. She was kind of nervous about going out with Niall alone. She had never went out with a complete stranger before and had to wonder if she would get along with him. It seemed as if they got along when they were down by the beach yesterday, but she didn’t find out anything about him besides the fact that he was 18, the same age as her (but two months older), and that he liked the beach… and those two things didn’t really give her a good idea about who he was as a person.

And that, of all things, made her nervous.

She was never good at starting conversation with cute boys, they always did it for her (if they ever decided to approach Mae and talk to her). In school she was used to sitting near the front of the classroom and only talk to a few of her girlfriends that she had been close with since she was in second grade; she never sat in the back with the “popular kids” or went to parties or smoked or drank or dressed like a complete slut. She was just…average, and she was scared that maybe Niall wouldn’t like that.

After she ran her fingers through her loose curls and put on her normal amount of make-up, which was just a pale shade of eye shadow, mascara, and eyeliner, she left the bathroom and headed down the stairs to see both of her parents at the counter putting away the leftover roast beef they had for lunch. They both looked up at their daughter and her dad smiled.

“You look nice for your date,” Tom said, emphasizing the word ‘date’, knowing that it would embarrass Mae.

“Thanks,” Mae muttered as she slipped on her brown sandals that matched her white, quarter-sleeved v-neck, teal shorts, and her brown belt that she was wearing for the night. She felt her cheeks heat up as her dad said ‘date’, even though she didn’t quite consider it a date because Niall never stated that it was. She figured he thought of it more as a ‘hang out’ because they didn’t really know each other…but the thought of her going on a date with him made her smile.

“I’ll be back later tonight,” Mae said as she grabbed her brown and white purse. She made her way to the front door as her dad gave her the whole ‘You call if anything goes wrong or if you need one of us to pick you up because we don’t want anything to happen to you’ speech. Once Mae waved goodbye to her parents, she opened the door and headed down the sidewalk towards the Malik’s rental house.

+

“Do you like her?” Louis asked Niall.

“I think she’s cute,” Niall replied cooly as he messed around with his blonde hair, trying to get it to look at least halfway decent. “She seems really nice.”

“You know the guys are never going to stop teasing you, right?” he smirked as he stared at Niall’s reflection in the mirror. “You better not let her come inside for your sake.”

Niall rolled his eyes, knowing that his friend was totally right, before he mumbled “I know, Louis.”

“Does Doniya even know?” Louis wondered curiously, always having 20 questions ready for Niall (or any of the guys) whenever they were going anywhere, and that didn’t really bother Niall because Louis was the one he always talked to about everything; he helped Niall through the break up with Steph and knew that he would be there for him to talk to after his date with Mae (yes, he considered it a date).

Niall shook his head as he tugged at the collar of his navy blue polo, before he adjusted his white skinny jeans on his waist. “No, she doesn’t…I didn’t know how or what to tell her.”

As Louis was about to open his mouth in reply there was a knock at the front door, and Niall knew exactly who it was. “It’s her.”

“You had her come over to pick you up?” Louis scolded. “How not gentleman-like, Niall!”

“I told her that I would come get her after I talked to Zayn about borrowing his car, unless she was ready and wanted to just come over,” Niall replied. “I’m not that big of a dick.”

Rolling his eyes, Louis flipped off the bathroom light and led Niall out of the bathroom. Niall quickly slipped on his white shoes, that were the whitest of white due to his excessive washing and scrubbing ten minutes ago, before going down the stairs to hear Doniya talking to Mae.

“You could’ve texting me before coming over!” Doniya said as she looked at Mae, while Louis and Niall watched them from the stairs. “Were you wanting to go out?”

Mae opened her mouth to say something to Doniya, but Doniya kept going.

“Wanna go to the mall? I just have to throw on a new pair of clothes,” she said as she let Mae inside.

“Well, I’m…going out with Niall,” Mae said quietly, and the sound of Niall’s name coming out of her mouth multiplied the amount of butterflies that were already in his stomach, and he couldn’t control the grin that appeared on his face.

“Niall?” Doniya asked in disbelief. “When the hell did this happen?”

“Yesterday,” she said. “While you were gone.”

“Whoa, I must’ve been gone for a long time,” she mumbled. She turned towards the stairs and glared at Niall. “You’re stealing my friend?”

“I just asked her to hang out,” Niall said as he headed down the rest of the stairs, not daring to say the ‘D’ word in case it would embarrass Mae. “Chill, Doniya.”

“You guys can share,” Louis said as he shrugged. “No big deal.”

Niall looked at Mae, who was now looking at the ground. She looked slightly flustered due to the situation at hand and Niall kind of felt bad that he didn’t mention any of it to Doniya. But at the same time, Doniya didn’t own Mae, so there was no reason for him to tell her.

“What’s going on?” Zayn asked curiously as he wandered into the foyer. “Is a rumble breaking out?”

Niall ignored Zayn’s question, knowing he didn’t need an answer. “Can I borrow your car for the night?”

“Sure,” he nodded, totally forgetting about the question he just asked. He tossed Niall his car keys after he dug them out of his pocket. He glanced over at his sister. “What’s got you all rattled?”

“Niall,” Doniya responded, before she turned to Mae. “Well, I guess have fun. Wanna hang out tomorrow?”

“Okay,” Mae said with a small smile—the smile that drove Niall crazy. “Sorry, Doniya.”

“It’s okay!” she chuckled. She looked over at Niall and narrowed her eyes. “I hope you rip your trousers while you’re out and about.”

“Well, thank you,” Niall said as he walked over to Mae and put his hand on her lower back to lead her back outside towards Zayn’s car. “And have a nice night alone, Doniya.”

Doniya smiled and rolled her eyes, knowing that Niall was only giving her a hard time, before she turned around and walked towards the family room, Louis and Zayn following close behind her.

Notes

thoughts, anyoneee? :)