Running After You

I laughed. "Alright...um, favorite color?" Niall and I were getting to know each other while we were on the road.

"Green, though I also like blue. Yours?" I hold up the end of my dyed hair.

"I like the teal color. Favorite number?" He thought for a second.

"Fifteen," he said, blushing a little. "Because that's how old I was when I was last with my friend. "

"I'm sorry for your loss."

"She's not dead!" He snapped, making me swerve a little. "I'm sorry." I hummed.

"Mines infinity, if you even count that as a number. I quickly looked over at Niall, who shrugged. "Favorite book?"

"To Kill A Mockingbird," he said immediately.

"I don't have one, I haven't read a book since I was sixteen." Niall looks at me shocked. "Oh! I need gas." I pull into the station.

▪▪▪▪▪

"Can I ask you a question, Niall?" He was driving now. He nodded, keeping his eyes on the road. "Why are you goin to all these places?"

"I'm looking for someone," he said.

"A girl?"

"Yes," he said, getting redder in the cheeks.

"Tell me about her," I quietly said. Niall sighed.

"Her name was Naomi Taner," he said. "We were best friend, through first school and some of secondary school. But, when I was fifteen, and she was fourteen, she left. She told me she wasn't coming back.

But now I'm looking for her," he concluded. "I'm going to the places I think she'd have gone. She had family up in Northern Ireland, that's why I'm going there first." He smiled, talking about Naomi. "I remember, when I was about eleven, her family took me with them to Northern Ireland. It was really fun. We made friends with her cousins."

Niall stopped abruptly. I knew he didn't want to talk about the past any more than I did. So I let it go, looking out the window and leaving him alone.

Notes