Amp It Up (X Factor, Niall Horan, One Direction Love Story)

Three AM.

That's how late it was, and the party downstairs was just getting started. I groaned and pulled my pillow over my head after punching it repeatedly.

I groaned again when a song with heavy bass came on. There were nearly twenty people that had made it to Simon's house, and it seemed they'd all brought a guest. The other judges had taken the rest of the contestants.

My room was amazing. It had white walls, gold carpet, and dark furniture. And the bed was so soft I could sleep forever.

I heard more drunken screaming come from the stairs when some idiot started playing the Wobble. A minute later a boy and girl stumbled into my room, and I screamed.

“Suh-reh, buh” The boy muttered, while the girl giggled and clutched his arm. I slammed the door after them, then pulled a pair of shorts on and Converse, knowing I wouldn't be able to sleep. I grabbed my phone off of the wardrobe, then I set off.

It was warm outside, a breeze blowing my hair into my face as I walked the garden. It looked beautiful in the moonlight.

I switched my phone on and checked Twitter. There wasn't anything new at all. I switched it back off and sighed, looking up at the moon.

“Fancy seeing you out here!”

I screamed and jumped backwards, crashing into a flowering bush and landed on my rear.

“Ow.” I groaned, trying to get up. My hair caught on the bush and I shrieked again.

“Oh! I'm so sorry! Lemme help!” Niall Horan cried. His face was contorted in worry as he lent over me, shifting my hair out of the branches. I grimaced when he accidentally tugged too hard.

“Sorry!” He said. “It's fine.” I muttered, taking his hand and pulling myself up. I began dusting my jean shorts off as Niall started picking leaves out of my hair.

“So, Hi.” I said. I pulled a twig from the sweater I was wearing. “Hey.” Niall said. He grinned at me. His eyes were twinkling, and his cheeks were flushed.

Niall brushed my face with the back of his head, then grinned lazily as I raised an eyebrow.

“What brings you out here?” He asked. I shrugged. “I was trying to sleep, and a couple of idiots came into my room all over each other, and I had to run them off.”

Niall laughed, throwing back his head. “So THAT'S where Carl and Stacey got to!”

I grimaced. “I just hope they use protection.”

Niall laughed again and threw his arm around my shoulders as we started to aimlessly walk.

“You should come to the party, it's a riot!” Niall told me, tightening his arm around my shoulders. “It's not really my thing.” I replied. “It's too loud. And whatever are they going to do when Simon gets back?”

Niall shrugged. “I dunno. Run I reckon.”

They're going to get caught. Can't anyone around here focus on the competition? They act like they don't even care about it. And apparently they don't care about their reputations, because if anyone caught wind of that party after or if they got famous, their careers would be gone.

I didn't realize that I'd spoken out loud until Niall answered.

“Well, they are young. We did that too, but not as dramatic. We just stayed in our room and hit the walls and jumped on the bed to wake everyone up.”

I laughed. “I bet Simon appreciated that.”

Niall grinned down at me. The moon was shining behind his head, turning his blond hair white.

“Oh, he didn't stay at here then. Too many hormones, well as he put it.”

“Oh.”

Why am I so bad at making conversations?! I can talk to anyone normally, if they're older. Anyone my age and I don't know what to say. Maybe I could talk about guy stuff. Like video games. No, guitar. Niall plays guitar. That's good.

While I was trying to figure out what to say, Niall spoke again. He was much better at this than I was.

“So, why do you have a American accent?” He asked.

Oh. I could answer that.

“I moved here, well not here, but to Ireland, you know, last year.” I said. I looked at my hair in a fountain. I was horrified to discover it looked like a bee hive.

I pulled a hair band from my pocket and wrapped my hair into a ponytail and pushed my glasses up my nose.

“And my parents are in Canada.” I tripped over a rock in the path, then caught my balance then continued. “And I didn't want to go there, and I'm not legal until next year here so I'm living with my Gran.”

I winced at the lie. I tripped again as I tried to get up.

Niall grabbed my arm to steady me. “Have you been drinking?” He asked.

“No, I'm just naturally clumsy.”

Niall chuckled. “Me too. Couldn't dance to save my life.”

I rolled my eyes. “I've seen videos of you dancing, you can too. And I can dance, it's the normal stuff I can't do.”

Niall'd blushed at the sort of compliment. “What'd ya mean by normal stuff?”

“Stairs, doorknobs to the arm, stubbing my toes, hitting my head on cabinets and generally just falling over at random times.” I listed. “Oh, and counters. They hurt when they hit your side.”

Niall laughed out loud at that one. “And hitting your knees on the bottom of a pool.”

We walked along the path towards the house, aimlessly talking. We discussed different sports, then some how started talking about the latest James Bond movie, then it's video games. Apparently the game room had a 2006 version of 007 Night Fire for Play Station, which I vowed to play as soon as possible.

Niall held the door for me after we walked back up the steps leading into the main part of the house. I opened my mouth to thank him, but instead I covered my ears with my hands and cowered back against the closed door.

Music was blaring, and drunk teenagers and twenty somethings were staggering around, several trying to make it up the stairs. Niall took my arm and started to steer me up the stairs.

“WOO! GET IN THERE HORAN!” A very drunk Zayn Malik yelled. He took a swig of his drink, the red liquid sloshing down his shirt.

“HE WISHES!” I yelled back. Niall muttered something off to the side, but when I raised my eyebrow at him he just shook his head with a grin.

“WANNA DANCE?!” He yelled over the music. Feel This Moment was blaring, and he had to repeat his question twice before I understood. I nodded reluctantly, thinking of my bed upstairs. Well, I wouldn't be able to get any sleep anyway, so it didn't matter.

Niall took my hand and led me to the middle of the room that was serving as a dance floor. I laughed when he awkwardly tried to dance, trying to sway his hips to the beat. I rolled my eyes and grabbed his shoulders, and then he grabbed my hips, and then we were dancing.

Niall's arms moved us back and forth to the beat, the distance between our bodies slowly decreasing until his head was in the crook of my neck. I tightened my arms around his neck and laughed when I saw a very drunk Ryan trying to do the moonwalk. Niall laughed into my neck at the sound of my giggle and I scrunched my shoulders at the ticklish feeling.

Niall's hands suddenly came up to my waist, and his arms wrapped around me, bringing me closer.

“Ya havin' fun?” He asked in my ear. He was slightly out of breath, our hips and feet moving to the beat of the song.

“Surprisingly yes.” I answered. Niall laughed into my neck again, his nose traveling up to my ear, inhaling.

I shifted away slightly when I saw Ryan holding two thumbs up and mouthing Get in there! At me. I flashed a not-so-nice sign at him with one of my hands behind Niall's head.

I tightened my arms around Niall's neck again and his lips pressed softly to my neck. I startled a little, then relaxed when Niall's hands tightened on my waist again as his mouth parted a little and he started to suck. I gasped and gripped a handful of his shirt and squirmed a little.

Niall detached himself from me a little, blowing over the slight mark on my neck. I shuddered and drew back. I wasn't quiet sure that I had liked that. It'd felt nice, but people were watching and I felt exposed.

Niall seemed to sense my awkwardness. “There's a pool 'round back, ya wanna take a dip?”

I shook my head. “Maybe later. I need to find a place to sleep.”

“Babe you're not going to get any sleep for a while, there isn't anywhere t' sleep.” He told me.

“I have a bed.” I protested.

“And by the looks of it it's occupied.” Niall said, nodding up the staircase. A boy and girl, locked din a tight embrace had just closed the door to my bedroom.

“I didn't need that image in my mind.” I muttered. “What was that?” Niall said into my ear.

“Nothing. Let's go find the pool.” I said, giving in. Niall took my hand and led me through the crowd again, grinning back at me every so often.

Okay. I just had to try not to trip. Okay, mission failed.

“Sorry!” I called over to the person I'd tripped over. They waved me away and merged into the crowd. Niall laughed and tugged on my hand again. He led me through a clear sliding door and outside to the patio, where a smaller group of people were playing classic rock on the radio, sitting around and in the large in ground pool. Niall led me to the edge of the pool and grinned at me.

“I'm not getting in.” I warned him. “I'm just putting my feet in.”

I slipped out of my Converse and socks and pulled my phone out of my pocket just in case and put it on a beach chair.

Niall shrugged out of his shirt. “Suit yourself. I'm getting in while I don't have to wear sunscreen.”

I rolled my eyes and turned my head when he cannonballed into the water.

The sliding door opened again and Liam and Ryan staggered out, laughing hysterically. As soon as Ryan saw me he barreled right for me, plopping himself beside me. His feet landed in the water, with the shoes still on and I rolled my eyes at him.

Ryan threw a arm around my shoulder and gave me a sloppy kiss on the cheek. I pushed him away a little more roughly than needed and he fell sideways, laughing the entire time.

“Sorry.” I said, pulling him back up. He leaned heavily against me. “It's fine, you don't wan' meh, no one's a wan'en meh.” Ryan told me matter of factually. “That's not true! Plenty of people... Uh, want you.” I said. I wrapped an arm around him to keep him upright.

“Bull. Na'lie broke up with meh', she don' wan' meh.” Ryan said. He hiccuped.

“Natalie?” I asked. Ryan hiccuped again. “Mah' girl fren'.” He answered. “No. Waie', EX-girlfren.”

I half hugged him. “What happened between you two?” I asked.

Ryan hung his head. “Sh' broke up wi' meh. Through a bloodeh' phone call. Like I wasn't bloodeh GOOD enough for her. I kept her awa' from that prick of'a ex she had, heh stalked her all the time.”

I winced. Ouch. No wonder the guy acted so weird.

“Did she give you a reason?” I asked. Ryan shook his head sloppily, and his hair hit my face.

“She said I was t' imma'ure.” He said.

“Why did she say that?”

“I proposed en' dropped the ring en' freaked out 'cause it fell in the water.” He said.

I hugged him again. “Why is that immature?” I asked.

“It was a glass of water.”

I snorted and covered my mouth so he wouldn't see me laugh. “What did she do?”

“She said yeah and 'den broke up wih' meh a few days ago.”

That doesn't make sense. What happened?

“OK. I think you need to lie down.” I told him. “We'll talk later.”

“I'm FINE!” Ryan half shrieked. His voice unnaturally high and I giggled. Ryan looked frustrated. “It's okay Ryan, I know you're fine. You ready for bed?” I asked. Ryan stood suddenly, staggering a little.

“No. I wanna swim.” He said stubbornly. “Can you swim?” I asked him. He nodded vehemently.

“Then go swim.” I told him.

“NO! You're getting in too!”

Ryan grabbed me under my arms and pushed me into the cool water. I held my breath before I went under. I sank to the bottom, sitting there. I loved swimming, just not in my clothes. I opened my eyes underwater, and all I saw was darkness and lighter patches that I realized were people's legs. I pushed off the bottom of the pool and came up. I gave the finger to a laughing Ryan.

I swam to the side and hoisted myself out of the water.

Water poured from my clothes and shorts, which felt ten times heavier now that I was out of the water. I grabbed the edge of my tee-shirt and wrung it out then tied it up around my stomach.

Ryan had climbed out of the water and was sitting at the edge of the pool again, hugging a towel.

Then of course he started crying.

I sighed, and I waved goodbye to Niall who was still in the water, then led Ryan around the house. I wrapped an arm around his waist and went through the back door, then up the stairs and started looking for his room. All of the contestants had their names on their room doors, and I realized there were more people then rooms, and that someone must have invited a bunch of strangers.

I found the one with Ryan's name on it and pushed it open. Thank goodness no one had decided to have sex in here.

I pushed the still sobbing Ryan into a chair and went to one of his bags, pulling out what looked like sweatpants and a shirt. I tossed them to him, then reluctantly grabbed a pair of boxers and gave those to him too.

“Go shower and get changed, I'm about to go bust some people out of my room.” I told him.

It was going to be a long night.