Heart | N.H.

twelve - riptide

I was in the middle of a conversation with Albert Pickenstein about whether we could have Mr. Martin arrested for teaching class in an especially boring manner that day when I next saw Niall. He was surrounded by a group of his other friends from the basketball team, but my traitorous eyes made short work of picking him out of the crowd. And my traitorous heart decided to accelerate in beats till I thought it might jump out of my throat. 

"I mean honestly, the Turks were a pretty interesting empire, but when you talk about them in a voice that sounds like congealed oatmeal, no one wants to learn about them," Albert was saying.

I know, I know. Albert just made a simile that compared Mr. Martin's voice to oatmeal. If that wasn't attractive, then nothing was--and no, I wasn't being sarcastic, I considered writing a form of art. Maybe Albert and I should be best friends. Maybe I should pay more attention to our conversation instead of staring at Niall, but I couldn't quite drag my eyes away.

"I think that he should let learning be more interactive; we'd learn more if he didn't just sit and lecture us and then hand out worksheets..." Albert trailed off, following my gaze to Niall. He stiffened a little bit. "Oh, I'm sorry, I'll, um, shut up now. See you around, Miracle."

"What? No, wait, Albert-"

Too late. Albert was gone, and Niall was standing right in front of me.

"Hey," he said, like everything was as normal as could be. "Sorry I scared off Frankenstein."

"Pickenstein," I corrected automatically. "Don't be a jerk."

"I might just be pointing out the obvious here, but you do realize he likes you, right?"

I frowned. "That's not true. We barely know each other."

"Oh trust me, kitten, it's true," Niall said. "The boy's normally too shy to even approach girls, but he's always talking to you."

"Maybe it's because I'm not particularly scary or mean. Unlike some people."

There was a bit too much venom in the words for me to pass it off as casual teasing, even if I wanted to. Niall stopped in his tracks, tilting his head as he looked down at me. "Miracle, what's going on? You being mean-spirited is like Callie being sweet."

I laughed at that. "I think you have way too much faith in me, Horan."

"And since when do you call me by my last name?"

"Since when do you call me by my first?" I retorted.

"Point taken. But really, are you all right?"

"Why do you always do this?"

"Do what?"

"Act oblivious to the fact that everything isn't all right. You did it before, too. Kept asking me why I was mad. Which I'm not," I added. "I'm just upset."

Niall ran his hands through his hair. "Damn it. Point taken. You know me too well for me to pull off the act, huh?" He gave me a small grin. I raised one eyebrow and tapped my foot. "Okay, fine, I'm sorry for going AWOL. Again. I really mean that."

"Niall-"

"Let's just forget about it. The kittens opened their eyes this morning, by the way."

I gasped in excitement. "No way! Did you name them?"

"I named one, and Greg named one. The other one's your choice. Here, I have a picture of her on my phone." He showed me a snapshot of the only girl in the litter. She had a fuzzy gray coat that was a shade darker than her brothers', and large pale blue eyes--though those would probably change color when she got older.