A Girl In A Million

“Come on, slow down,” Liam complains as he jogs after Elsa. She just laughs at him and continues walking at her quick pace. The wind is tugging at her hair, making it dance in the air.

The two friends are on the way to the pub. Ever since they found out Niall doesn’t play regularly, they’ve been to the small drinking establishment every day after university in the hope they’ll catch the blonde Irish guy with his guitar on stage. Up until now, they haven’t had any luck.

For some reason, though, Elsa feels that today they’re going to be lucky. Maybe it’s because the weather is slowly becoming warmer or maybe it’s because she has aced yet another test, that she thinks today luck is on her side. Elsa doesn’t really care about the reason as long as she’s right.

It feels like her chest is so full of happiness it’s threatening to explode. The feeling makes her want to sing and dance in an open field - something she has always wanted to do when she was a little girl but never has done because it’s not proper for a lady to behave that way - but she doesn’t really feel like having people stare at her, so instead she settles for skipping a few times.

“I said slow down, not go faster,” Liam cries out at her. With a sigh of slight irritation, Liam increases his pace as well and jogs to her side. He lays a hand on her shoulder and tugs at her a bit so she slows down her feet. She doesn’t fight him, instead, she slows down and smiles at him. He smiles back at her. "You’re really sure he’s going to be there, aren’t you?“
Liam pinches her cheek with a goofy grin on his face before letting his hand rest on her shoulder once more. Elsa doesn’t shrug it off because she rather likes the warmth it emanates.

"Yeah, I don’t know why, though. I just have a feeling he’s going to be there today,” Elsa tries to explain to Liam. A glint flickers into being in Elsa’s honey colored eyes and the corners of her mouth twitches. “I hope he won’t start to try to flirt with me again.”

“Don’t act like you didn’t like it,” Liam teases his friend. “You didn’t stop him the last time he tried to come on to you.”

“Well, that was before I knew he had a girlfriend in every city.” Elsa tips her chin upwards and mimics looking down her nose. “Now I don’t want nothing except hear him play.”

“Where’d you get that information?” Liam exclaims. He snickers as he shakes his head.
“From the bartender, of course. He said Niall doesn’t like to be tied down, which surely doesn’t only apply to his performance schedule.” Elsa looks at Liam with one eyebrow raised, giving her friend the impression she thinks her reasoning is obvious.

“So, you’re saying just because Niall doesn’t like to play at a set time, he has a lot of girlfriends?” Liam asks. He’s trying his best to keep himself from laughing.

“Yeah, that’s why I’m saying and that’s why I don’t want him flirting with me. I don’t feel like being just one of his girls,” Elsa tells Liam. A laugh escapes the barrier of his lips and Liam tries to mask it by clearing his throat. Elsa isn’t fooled and she sends him a glare.

“Look, Elsa, I don’t think you have to worry about being one of Niall’s girlfriends. I think you’re connecting things that aren’t connected,” Liam tries to reason with his friend. He drops his hand from Elsa’s shoulder and grabs a hold of her hand instead. He gives it a friendly squeeze because he doesn’t want Elsa to think he’s attacking her or something. “Just remember not to judge people until you’ve got to know them.”

“I don’t judge people,” Elsa exclaims. She glares at her friend with narrowed eyes, apparently offended by Liam’s suggestion.

“Of course you do, Els. Everybody does. It’s part of being human.”

“Well, maybe other people do, but I don’t.”

Liam is used to Elsa being stubborn and he’s learned not to press when she refuses to admit something. So, instead, he says, “All I’m saying is, give Niall the benefit of the doubt. Who knows, maybe he’s never even had a girlfriend.”

“I doubt that,” Elsa scoffs. “Musicians always love shagging multiple girls.”

“Yet you love musicians. Remember when we were little and you told me you were going to marry a musician one day?” Liam reminds Elsa. She had been ten and the Beatles just had their first number one hit. Elsa had been crazy about them and when she’d discovered John Lennon was married she’d told Liam she was going to marry a musician one day, like Cynthia, John’s wife.

Elsa can feel her cheeks heat up because Liam is right. She’d wanted to marry a pop star when she was ten and she still does. She just wants to marry one who doesn’t go chasing skirts. Maybe it’s a long shot but she’s more than willing to give it a try. Whatever it takes to be part of the group of people that try to change the world for the better.

“Well, I’m going to. I just need to find one who doesn’t have a wandering eye.”

The two friends have finally reached the pub. Liam walks towards the door and opens it. He steps aside so Elsa can enter first. Elsa is used to her friend being all gentlemanly but like always, she doesn’t forget to thank him for holding the door open for her. After she’s gone inside, he follows her.

The pub is crowded this time, packed with men of all walks of life. From bank employees to bus drivers. All of them have their eyes fixated on the blonde boy who is seated on the stage with nothing else but his guitar. With his hazy tenor voice, he sings about doing anything to get the attention of the object of his affection.

A shiver of awe runs down Elsa’s spine as she listens to Niall sing. Her eyes stay glued to the stage as she and Liam walk to the only empty table at one of the far corners of the pub. Niall is just as charismatic as she remembers him.

Elsa sits down at the table with her eyes still glued to Niall’s hunched-over form. She knows the song he’s playing, it’s another one from Bob Dylan. She wonders if he’s only going to play covers like last time or if he’s going to play some songs of his own. Does he even write songs himself? Maybe he can only sing covers.

But that idea is ridiculous. Niall plays with such emotion, it’s simply not possible that he doesn’t pen his own feelings down. He probably writes songs to give a voice to his thoughts and emotions the same way Elsa does with her paintings.

Painting is one of the few things she likes about her upbringing. From a young age, her mother had started to prepare her for becoming a lady and learning to paint was one of the things that came with it.

Elsa likes to think she has talent, however, nobody but Liam and her mother and sister have seen her paintings - not the too personal ones she keeps hidden away from any prying eyes but her own. She’s just too shy to show it to people and have them judge something so personal.

But despite her reluctance to share her work, she still has the dream of becoming a successful painter. She would love to make a living out of something she enjoys a lot, she just lacks the courage as of yet.

Not that her mother would ever allow it of course. Ladies aren’t supposed to make money, they should care for their husbands and children and nothing else. The men are supposed to bring food to the table.

It irks Elsa sometimes how her mother sees their sex. She sees them as nothing more than someone to produce children and serve their husbands. Her mother wants that for Elsa and that thought terrifies her. She doesn’t want to be someone who has no other choice but to serve other people. She wants to make that choice herself. Helping people means so much more when it comes from the heart instead of it being a result of being forced to do it.

Elsa is shaken from her thoughts when Niall suddenly stops playing. The blonde comes back into focus as her brain catches up with her eyes.

“The next song is one of my own. I wrote it just after I performed at this pub a few days ago would you believe it.” Niall’s accent is clearly audible and his voice is hoarse, which sends a shiver down Elsa’s spine. The corners of the Irish lad’s mouth pull upwards as he looks up from where he was staring at the strings of his guitar. There’s a mischievous look in his eyes, much the same way there had been when he’d talked to Elsa. “I talked to some lovely bird and she inspired this song.

A crimson blush creeps up Elsa’s cheek as she realizes Niall might be talking about her. Unless he met another girl after she and Liam had left the pub. It could be, but still, the idea that someone might have written a song about her makes butterflies erupt in her stomach.

Elsa tries to stop them from reaping havoc on her insides because she knows she shouldn’t let it get to her. She has to remember he has a lot of girlfriends and he’s probably written songs about them too.

But she can’t stop herself from listening to a song that may be about her.

After Niall has finished the song, he tells the audience he’s finished with his set and that he’s going to see if he can find his special bird. The crowd hoots and Niall grins back at them as he walks off the little wooden stage.

"So, he wrote a song about you, then?” Liam teases as he digs with an elbow in Elsa’s side. Some of his beer, which he’d gotten from the bar after Niall’d finished the Dylan cover along with pint for Elsa, sloshes over the brim of the cup he’s holding in his hand. He curses before dropping his hand beneath the table and whipping his hand on his trouser leg.

“It’s probably about some other girl. I doubt I’m the only one who he’s talked to that day,” Elsa protests. She tries to will away the blush that’s crept back up over her cheeks but it isn’t really working. Elsa really wishes she has more control over her body.

“Don’t sell yourself short, Els.” Liam’s smirk has morphed into a genuine smile. “You’re a lovely girl. Shakespeare would probably write a bunch of sonnets about you if he met you.”
Liam’s weird complement oddly enough makes Elsa’s stomach flutter. She decides to ignore it. “You realize Shakespeare was gay, right?”

“That’s a matter of opinion,” a voice with an Irish accent suddenly replies.

Elsa turns her head so quickly she thinks she may have pulled something. For a minute she forgets to breathe as she sees Niall looking at her with a confident smirk but with a fond look in his eyes at the same time. “Some think he simply wrote those poems in a woman’s point of view.”

“Hey Niall, your set was far out, once again,” Liam exclaims. He smiles at Niall with eager eyes. Liam is as much of a Niall fan as Elsa, even though he denies it, of course.

“Thank you. I’m glad you liked it.” Niall sounds genuine as he smiles at Liam. “Do you mind if I join you?”

“No, I don’t. Elsa doesn’t either,” Liam replies for the both of them. Elsa is going to have a word with him when they go home. Now all she can do is give him a kick against his shine beneath the table. Only a twitch in the corner of Liam’s mouth gives away that he felt it.

“So, did you like the song I wrote for you?” Niall asks as he sits down. The only sound in the background is muted chatter. The next act won’t be up until another hour.

“It was sweet, I suppose?” Elsa reluctantly agrees. She doesn’t want Niall to think he has any chance with her. She downs another gulp of beer before her eyes find their way to Niall’s face again.

He doesn’t seem fazed by her lack of enthusiasm. His smile never falters as a leans a bit closer, over the table. “Well, it came from the heart. You’re very pretty.” There’s a twinkle in his eyes that make Elsa wonder if he’s being serious or not.

So, she decides to tease him. “So, am I only pretty to you?”

“Yeah,” is Niall’s blunt reply and Elsa can feel the urge to throw her drink in his face crawl up on her. “But you seem like a sweet girl as well. Won’t know for sure, of course until I get to know you better.”

Niall leans even closer and grabs one of Elsa’s hands. Elsa would have pried her hand from his grip if she wasn’t spellbound by how blue Niall’s eyes are up close.

“So, what about it? Will go on a date with me?”

The proposition comes as such a surprise that Elsa can’t say anything for thirty seconds. She’s expected him to flirt with her but she’d never would have thought he’d ask her out.
Elsa is roughly shaken from her stupor by a jab to her side. She turns her head to look angrily at Liam, who looks back at her with wide eyes.

“So, will you go out with me?” Niall asks for a second time. There’s a hint of nervousness in his voice that has Elsa turning her head back in his direction.

Niall is looking at her with a lopsided smile and eyes that dance over her face. His hold on her hand is tighter, telling Elsa Niall cares for her answer.

“Do you ask a lot of girls out on dates?” Elsa tries her best to leave the judgment out of her voice.

“Yeah, but none of them have been as pretty as you,” Niall answers. There’s a glow in his eyes that warms up Elsa from the inside. There’s sincerity in them as well.

“Are you going out on dates with other girls?” is Elsa’s next question. Maybe Liam is right and she should give Niall the benefit of the doubt but she needs to make sure.

“Yeah, but if you don’t like it, I can stop,” Niall tells Elsa. His blue eyes start to shine with eagerness and he shuffles once again a little bit closer. He doesn’t seem as confident as when she first met him and it makes her heart melt.

“Okay. I’ll go on a date with you.” It’s only fair of her to say yes if he’s going to stop seeing his other girlfriends for her.

Notes

Please let me know what you thought of this chapter!