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Mibba

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Mainstream

Chapter Seven

The landline on my wall starts ringing, and I’m momentarily confused, because the only person who ever calls my extension is my father, who lives in the larger house on his property and is also currently at work.

I pick up the phone, not sure what to expect from the other end of the line. “Hello?”

“Katybird!” It’s Lina. “What condition is my vehicle in?”

I look over my shoulder and into my garage where her car has been sitting, untouched, since it broke down. “Uh... undiagnosed. Why?”

“Okay. Get to work on that. You left your phone at my house.” Which explains her calling my extension.

“I’ll be over in a little bit – maybe with your car, but probably not. You left your keys with me, right?”

“Duh. You can’t fix my car unless you have my keys.”

“Good point. Give me an hour. I’ll try to figure out the problem.”

“Okie dokie! See you then!” She hangs up.

-----

“Katy?” a male voice asks.

I stand up straight too fast and hit my head on the hood of Lina’s car. “Bad words!” I shout, placing my hands over the spot where my head met the hood, causing the large slab of metal to slam back into place.

“Are you okay?” Niall asks, appearing in my field of vision.

I pull off my work gloves and feign nonchalance. “Yeah, sure. I should probably find a stick or something to hold up the hood, though,” I say as I peer around my small garage, looking for said stick or something to hold up the hood.

“I could hold it up if you want?” he offers, cautiously walking forward.

“That would be great actually,” I agree, lifting the hood. I pull my gloves back on and lean over the engine once he has a hold on it.

“So what’s wrong with it?” he asks.

“I have no idea. When Lina called, it sounded like her battery was dead but I’ve tried jumping it, charging it, and I even replaced it but no dice. It has to be something else. The problem is that the only clue I have is that the engine won’t turn over.”

“So you’re a mechanic?”

I start laughing. “No!”

“Well how do you know how to do this stuff then?”

I stand up straight again, cautiously this time, and stretch my back. “I took a couple of classes in high school back in the States. It was a dual-credit course, so I got college credits – not that it made a difference since my credits didn’t transfer after I moved here. I’m not going to Uni anyway. I own a coffee shop downtown and that’s probably what I’m going to do with the rest of my life. Make coffee and pie,” I explain. “Speaking of food, do you want any? I have iced tea inside. And I might have cookies unless Lina ate them all. You can put the hood down now.” I turn around and throw my gloves on top of my toolbox. The hood of Lina’s car slams to a close.

“Don’t you want to see the world? Go places? Discover things?” he asks, following me into my house.

“That’s what books are for. Plus, I’ve already been to America – several times. I don’t need to go anywhere else.” My wall phone rings and I run to pick it up. “Help yourself to anything in the refrigerator!” I shout over my shoulder while I pick up the phone. “Hello?”

“Katy! We’re headed to your house. Lina was talking about you and Louis decided we were going to go examine your garden so we’re on our way. We’ll be there in five!” Liam tells me.

“Okay. Hey! Tell Lina to grab my mail when you get here. Niall decided to be a stalker so I’m not going to be rude and go get it while he’s here.”

“Niall decided to be a– ohhhhh! He hasn’t asked you yet?”

“Asked me what?”

“Nothing!” he sings. The line goes dead.

Goddammit. I walk back out to the kitchen where Niall is drinking chocolate milk through a plastic twisty straw. I pour myself a glass of iced tea and sit down.

“So Liam says you have something to ask me,” I say, taking a sip.

“When did you talk to Liam?”

“Just now. They’re on their way here. Apparently Lina started talking about my garden or something and now Louis wants to see it. Not that he’s going to see much of it. It’s getting to be too dark out,” I tell him. “That doesn’t answer my question though. What was Liam talking about when he said you were going to ask me something?”

“I wanted to question your thoughts on the existence of unicorns,” he states with a straight face. “Do you, or do you not, believe they are real?”

I stare blankly at him. “That can’t possibly be the utterly important question Liam was talking about.”

“Contrary to popular belief, questions about unicorns are utterly important and the whole fate of the world depends on you answering this one simple question,” he tells me. “Do you, or do you not, believe in unicorns?”

“Do you?”

“That’s not the question.”

“It is now.”

“Yes. I believe in unicorns,” he answers. “Now what about you?”

“I believe that they existed at one point. I believe that they used to be carnivores and used their horns to kill their prey and defend themselves but then after awhile their diets changed and leaned more towards omnivorous and then they discovered the beauty of vegetables and grass and they eventually lost their horns and became herbivore horses,” I educate. “I firmly believe in evolutionary processes between unicorns and horses.”

He stares at me. I stare right back.

“Your theory is evolution?” he finally manages to get out.

“Don’t ask stupid questions.” I stand up. I don’t have time for this. “Pie?”

"That'd be great!" he answers.

I stand up, walk to the fridge, cut him a slice of pie, and then put the pie tin back in the fridge. When I turn around, I trip over my own foot and crash into Niall's chest. Fortunately, he catches me before I fall any further.

"Whoa there!" he chuckles. "Are you alright?"

I push myself off his chest and stand up, trying to gain back my balance while looking up at him. "I'm fine," I reply, but neither of us moves. He leans closer until our lips are almost touching. I can feel his warm breath, and I close my eyes. Just then, the doorbell rings.

I turn my head down and take a small step back. "I, uh... should probably let them in," I mumble quietly. I then turn around abruptly and walk toward the front door to open it.

"Hiiii!" Louis shouts, running into my house.

Lina is next. “Here’s your phone; here’s your mail. I miss your bed,” she tells me before running past me and through my bedroom door, probably belly-flopping onto my memory foam mattress.

-------

“So what would you say if I asked you on a date?” Niall asks, shoving his hands in his pockets awkwardly.

“Is that what you’re doing? Asking me on a date?” I look at him but keep walking. He looks at the ground and shrugs.

“Niall,” I start, stopping and looking up at the sky. “I haven’t been on an actual date in such a long time. I haven’t been in a proper relationship since I was seventeen. You don’t want to date me.”

“But I really do, though,” he insists, kicking a rock. “But you don’t want to date me.”

I sigh. “I don’t think I’d be good for you,” I say.

He looks me in the eye. “Can’t I decide that for myself?”

“I’m not good for you, Niall. I’m not good for anybody.”

“Why? Is it because you don’t think you’re good enough? Is it because I’m your ex-boyfriend’s band mate? Am I not good enough for you?”

“No. It’s none of those. If it were really that easy I’d say yes,” I say, running my hand through my hair. “I wish it were that simple.”

“Then what is it?” he asks, taking a step closer. “Why won’t you say yes to just one itty bitty date?”

“You wouldn’t understand, Niall,” I say, walking away. Niall follows.

He grabs my arm and turns me toward him. “Then make me understand. Help me to. I really like you, Katy. I want you to like me, too.”

“I do like you, Niall. I just can’t like you the way you want me to. I’m not worth your time. Find someone else. You don’t want me,” I say, then turn toward home and run.

-------

It started with flowers.

The morning after, I woke up to a text from Lina saying that she opened the café and to only come in if my house burned down. Naturally, I was a bit pissed that I had slept through my alarm, but the part of me that missed sleeping in told me one day was fine and that I didn't need to beat myself up about it.

Of course, that didn't stop me.

I as worrying about what would happen if the café were to get robbed as I showered, then if someone were to have a heart attack and die while eating a muffin as I dressed in clean pajamas and made oatmeal. It wasn't until I was walking outside with a book and worrying about how Lina would handle a car crashing through the store that I realized there were flowers in my living room. Lots of them.

There were lilies, tulips, roses, and even bouquets of just baby’s breath. There were flowers there that I didn't even knew existed.

Then came the social media posts. Niall was posting pictures of everything he was doing on Twitter and Instagram. He had taken a picture of my living room filled with flowers and captioned it: “I don't know what you like best so I got them all.”

He never left a personal note. Instead he would post it online, never naming me, never tagging me. And I never stopped hearing about it. I'd be working in the café and teenagers would come in wearing their One Direction merchandise and talk loudly about Niall Horan’s mystery girl. One even broke down in tears at the thought of him pursuing a relationship that wasn't with her.

I'd be scrolling through Facebook and come across a Buzzfeed article about all his cryptic posts that somebody shared. I couldn't use Snapchat’s “discover” feature without seeing a “draw Niall’s girlfriend” interactive on Cosmopolitan or come across yet another theory on who it might be based on the female celebrities he’s been hanging around with recently on Daily Mail.

Finally, I got fed up with it. I told him as much when he came into the café all by his lonesome after I had closed, which was the only time I allowed the band inside so as not to get swamped with people who won't buy anything.

“You really need to stop what you're doing. It's not getting you anywhere, and I already said no. You're just drawing more attention to yourself by posting everything online,” I say as I shove a muffin across the counter at him.

“I will do no such thing,” he replies, taking a bite out of the muffin. “Only when you say yes will it stop.”

“Eventually you'll get sick of being rejected and stop. I'm a pretty patient person, so I can say no until you find someone else. I'll even find you another girl. I know lots of them!” I picked at my own muffin.

“I don't want another girl. I want you.” He tries stealing a bit of my muffin, but I slap his hand away.

“You've made that quite clear, but my answer is still no.”

“I won't stop asking until I get at least one date. If it goes horribly wrong, we don't have to go on another. It's just a date, not your hand in marriage,” he says, going after my muffin again.

“You have your own muffin! Leave mine alone!”

“I like the blueberry better than pistachio.”

“So do I!”

I was on my phone, scrolling through my Facebook feed and brushing my teeth when I realized that this is honestly the happiest I've been in a long time. I hadn’t gotten out of the shop until an hour and a half later than planned because I'd been talking to Niall, and I felt lighter than air.

My phone vibrates in my hand, and I look down to see a text from Niall.

I ran out of ideas.

It vibrated again.

Please?

I spit, then text back.

Okay.


Notes

I'm not sure what condition this chapter is in, but I also highly doubt that the two of us will finish this story together. I kind of want to have at it alone if I find the time, and I want anyone who cares to know as much. For now, however, here's Chapter 7. Regardless of response, Chapter 8 will go up sometime later this week. After that, I'm not so sure if or when another chapter will be coming.

posted 01.30.17

Comments

I love this :') think its fab and so well written!

Loving it! Cringey, Cheesy, Loving every bit!

Plz update I love it

yay i cant wait :)

So good to know you are both fine and writing! It'll be great to have you back :)