Stay with Me (A Niall Horan Fan Fiction)

Chapter 50

“Okay, I think it’s time for you to know the surprise.” Aarav smiled as he changed the gear.

I didn’t reply nor blinked.

“My best friend has thrown this big birthday party for his 24th birthday and I thought it would be a nice way to introduce you to him and my other friends.” He resumed.

I still didn’t respond as tears rolled down my cheeks.

“They’re really excited to meet you.” He said.

He didn’t get any response from me yet. This caused him to stop talking for a few seconds before I felt his hand on my right hand.

“Lily? Please, could you just pay a little attention to me?” He asked while shaking my hand.

I finally blinked and turned my head discreetly to my right to look at him. His eyes bored a deep request. However, I wasn’t able to converge my attention to it. Niall’s weepy face and his graduation speech reverberated in my mind. The feeling of living without him almost stopped my heartbeats. I’ve known this always but now that the moment finally arrived I seemed to be doing terribly bad at accepting it.

“It’ll be all right, Lily. Every time things don’t go the way you plan but adapting to the change is not so bad always.” Aarav said.

In normal situation, I would have considered his suggestion but now nothing was working to calm me down. As Aarav drove took twists and turns, the images of me and Niall being together laughing and eating and sleeping together crossed my mind. I smiled on my own remembering about the time Rita scolded me for not accepting his offer to pick me up for our first ever movie date or hang out whatever and then later Niall confessed that he actually me to take me to Forum since he doesn’t know the route, remembering about his response of our college serving nice chicken burgers and chocolate brownies when Sir Vincent asked how does he like the college, remembering about all those times when he imitated Sir Vincent aptly and remembering about all those times when he tried to pronounce an Indian word with his strong Irish accent. My heart crumbled realizing that I won’t enjoy these little moments that gave me infinite happiness anymore when my heart and soul craved for them so hopelessly.

“You know, I took a day off from office today literally just to go to this party with you. I’m this excited.” Aarav talked in an attempt to get my attention.

I was however in a different world where only Niall and I existed. I thought about the time he made me laugh crazily when we ran our way towards Forum to watch Underworld, the time when he dragged me to ride the Ferris Wheels with me and I almost screamed my lungs out making him deaf, the time when we watched the Australian Open final between Novak and Rafa together at my place and I felt so immensely happy to give him the pizza treat for Rafa losing even when I was supposed to be very sad, all those times when he caught me gazing at him shamelessly and we exchanged smirks with each other, the time when he first told me about Caroline and  behaved so weirdly for the whole day until night and of course the time I got fired from Marvin’s and blamed him completely for that and in return he found me a new and better job. I perceived that I’ve loved him all those while with all my heart.

“His house is a little far away like in Dum Dum but of course you’re with me. We’ll return at the same place together.” Aarav laughed.

Together? But I belong with Niall?

This word reminded me of all those times, Niall said that he belongs with me. No matter how many times he said I still had trouble believing him somewhere deep down inside my heart probably because of his past but I couldn’t believe it anymore right now. This separation of more than a month made me realize even more about the richness of love in my heart for him. The more I refused to accept the more I discerned deeply.