Gone

I took a seat next to Niall, across from his parents. We were having meat pies, mashed potatoes, and peas. Just like her husband, Louise seemed cooler than most other parents. She treated me how I wanted to be treated. Not in that 'you're sixteen so you're responsible for absolutely everything that happens from now on' kind of way.
"Is Emma not joining us tonight?" Louise asked.

Niall shook his head.
"Nah, she's probably spending the night with that guy. You know, the guy she met last week,"
Tension brewed as an uneasy silence filled the room. Harold stopped eating and shot Louise a look of concern. They spoke amongst themselves in low harsh voices. It wasn't any of my business so I forced myself to stop listening and turned to face Niall who was busy shovelling food into his mouth.

Food was his thing, he had explained to me while hanging out at the park after school with me one day. I'd heard all about his victory in primary school where he'd won a doughnut eating competition. He was proud of his ten in one minute record. I couldn't help but laugh at the thought of it. I loved food but definitely nowhere near as much as Niall.

Emma must've been his sister. From what little I knew about her she sounded like a bit of a troublemaker. Nothing like her brother, that's for sure. I just hoped she was older than him if she was going around chasing guys. I flinched as he grabbed my hand under the table, catching me by surprise.

I gave him a small smile as I scooped the last bit of pastry into my mouth.
"Um...thank you for dinner. I really enjoyed it,"
I rose from my seat, offering to take their empty plates to the sink as well as mine. Louise got up and took the pile from me.

"That's very sweet of you but you shouldn't have to do that," she said suddenly back to her bubbly self again.
I insisted though. She gladly thanked me and yelled out to me to just leave them in the sink for her to wash up later.

I hoped they enjoyed my company as much as I enjoyed theirs. It wasn't like me to get all worried about this sort of thing but I'd never done this before so I wasn't really sure what to expect. Had I been to polite? Nosy? Did they secretly not want me here? I'd have to bug Niall to casually bring it up in conversation with them so I could stop stressing about it.

Notes

DONE :)