Expect The Unexpected

“Nially, guess what!” Liam beamed at his mate.

He was excited to share his news with his especially sulky companion. He had just rang off with Charlie, the barmaid from the Irish Pun. She had invited all of the boys to use the passes she got for Scarefest at Alton Towers. It was a rare free day so he had told her that he would go. She had squealed in his ear and then apologized endlessly. He had just chuckled and told her he would see her soon.

“What?” Niall asked tightening the towel around his waist. He had just gotten out of the shower when his friend had called on him.

“Charlie just invited us out to Scarefest, the whole lot of us!”

Niall raised his brow. “And you think that is a good idea how?”

“Ah, don’t be such a spoilsport, Nially. It’ll be fun for once we will be the ones with dates and the other boys won’t have one. Plus I have it on good authority that Kat liked you.”

“So she’s Kat now?” Niall said and then pondered the idea. It didn’t sound so bad, spending the day with his mates, rubbing his date in their faces for once. “Well, go on and let me get ready then. I need to look good.”

“Right then, I should too!” Liam said excitedly. He knew that Niall would be the hardest to get to agree to go. All he had to do was ask the other lads and then get into the shower.

Today was going to be perfect he could feel it in his bones.

XxXx

“Alright, lads, Charlie said she left our passes at the gates and that her and Kat are on the other side of park so we will take tram over to them,” Liam said as the boys walked up to the gate.

“Swell,” Louis said rubbing his hands together. Louis was excited to go to Alton Towers, he loved amusement parks.

The boys walked up to the gates and to their surprise were not immediately recognized. Lucky for them the woman running the gate was at least sixty-seven. After they were admitted they tracked down the tram.

“Wow,” Harry said taking in all the different rides as they zipped by.

“I can’t believe I’m the only one who has been before,” Louis commented offhandedly.

“Me either,” Liam saidin an airy teasing tone.

“Oh, bugger off,” Louis said with a playful shove.

It was the running joke that Louis was the most boring of the group. He seemed to act like more of an adult than any of the other band members. Like a boring adult. Sure he liked to joke around like the rest of the boys, but he tended to be more serious, more reserved.

“You know it’s the truth, Louis,” Zayn said chuckling.

“Just because it’s true it doesn’t mean you have to talk about it,” Louis said fake pouting.

“Girls, girls, quit bickering,” Niall said in a teasing tone.

He was feeling quite a bit better as the day went on and as they got closer to the girls. Now was his chance to rub it in his mate’s faces. He and Liam would be the ones with dates for a change and it seemed to be a pretty good feeling.

“It’s our stop, now. Do you see the girls?” Louis asked scanning the crowds of people.

Niall and Liam looked out the tram window and saw Charlie and Kat coming out of the toilets. Charlie was fluffing her hair and turned to ask Kat a question.

“There they are.” Both boys spoke at the same time. Niall pointing, Liam just looking at them.

“Where?” Zayne inquired.

“By the toilets, come on,” Liam said running down the tram stairs.

The rest of the boys followed feeling like they had only the slightest of ideas which girls Niall had pointed at.

Niall went to join the Irish Bombshell who had separated herself from Charlie before the gang had approached her. She was wearing, despite the cold weather, a short skirt –that showed off an amazing set of legs- and one of those sleeveless tops that girls always seemed to wear with skirts. The name of the top escaped Niall, not that he really cared. He was just concerned with what a knockout Katharine was. But she was no Liam.

Good God, get yourself together, lad. Katharine is a beautiful girl and Liam is just a silly chap.

Niall cursed himself for his thoughts under his breath.

“Excuse me?” Katharine asked. She could hear the blond swearing, but couldn’t tell who or what his words were directed to.

“Oh, nothing. I-I was just talking to myself. You look lovely, but aren’t you going to freeze?” He asked to redirect the conversation away from his thoughts. He really did think that she looked ravishing. But she wasn’t nearly as stunning as Liam.

“Why thank you. I’ll just have to let you know if I do,” she said with a wink hoping that the Irish boy would catch on. She noticed that he was so consumed with his thoughts he could barely get through a small piece of conversation.

“Okay. Right, well, I better introduce you to the other lads,” Niall said tugging Katharine off towards the direction of the gang.

“Look at me about to meet all of One Direction and I’m not even a proper fan. Actually I’m probably the worst fan imaginable,” she said with a laugh in attempt to lighten the mood.

“Oh? Do elaborate please,” Niall said, glad for the distraction.

“Well, let’s see I pronounced Louis’ name Lewis for a good six months, I have only heard Up All Night, I didn’t know the four nipple story until very recently, and I thought Larry Stylinson was a member of the band.”

Niall tried to cover his boisterous guffaw, but did not completely exceed. “All of those are highly commendable, except the last. Because Larry may be very much real,” he said with a mischievous grin. He liked to tease the boys relentlessly for their assumed bromance.

“How exciting,” she said wiggling her eyebrows.

Niall laughed and then began introducing Katharine to the boys.

“What were you two laughing about?” Louis asked with a smile playing at the corner of his lips.

“Can I tell them?” Niall asked turning to look at Katharine for permission to possibly embarrass not one, but three people.

“Yeah, I reckon.”

“Well, Katharine was telling me that she used to think that Larry Stylinson was a member of the band. I told her that just because Larry Stylinson wasn’t a person in the band that it didn’t mean it wasn’t real.”

“Oh, bugger off,” Louis and Harry said shooting each other matching looks of disgust.

Everyone else broke into laughter. Especially Liam and Zayn. They were fellow tormenters of the twos budding bromance.

“Are we just going to stand around all day or are we going to ride some rides?” Charlie asked after a moment.

“Ride some rides!” Harry chirped.

The rest of the party cheered along with him and took off in the direction of some unspoken unanimously chosen ride.

For the rest of the day Niall and Liam enjoyed rubbing their dates in the other boys face. But only Liam really enjoyed his date. Niall was too busy wishing his date was someone else. Not to say that he didn’t have a good time with Kat. She just wasn’t the person that Niall wanted to be sitting beside, holding hands, with on a rollercoaster. But he wouldn’t let himself admit that. He just went right along with the premise that he was interested in Katharine that way.

Notes