#asplitsecond

New York.

(Niall.)

(Jourdan Dunn as Brylee Smith)

September 2014.

                If there was one thing that Brylee had to live with for the rest of her life, she hoped to God and all that was above it was not Niall. Not only was he annoying, he was an idiot. Not the kind of idiot where they just have bad judgment every few days, but he was the kind who had no idea what was going on around him. He was oblivious to the fact that his last girlfriend, some redhead named Kassie with a K, was cheating on him with his neighbor. He had no idea that when he was 15 and his dog “ran away,” that his mom had hit the thing with her SUV going 50 down their road. Even though her car had fur on the wheels, he still didn’t know. More importantly though, Niall could not take the hint that Brylee absolutely without a doubt in her mind hated him. Not the hate where you’d rather see them die than succeed, but she couldn’t stand him. She hated the way he smiled at her when she got off the elevator and he was leaving his apartment. She could not stand the way he would offer to take her groceries when he saw her struggling. When she had to leave for a week because her great aunt died, she didn’t like that he took care of her 134 pound Great Dane that was ironically named Tiny. No surprise, Niall decided on the name for the canine when Brylee let him come over the day she got him.

                Brylee will swear up and down she hates Niall Horan with every bone in her body. But ask her mom, her doorman, and Niall and they’ll all tell you Brylee is so in love with Niall that she can’t stand it.

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@brysmith: all these leaves and I’m still fallin #thatwasawful #theresnotthatmanyleaves

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                “I have a favor to ask of you,” Brylee turned away from where she was trying to unlock her door while keeping Tiny under control, “and you’ll probably say no, but I would appreciate if you would hear me out.”

                She huffed, giving up on her door and dropped the dog’s leash. “What is it Niall? I have shit to do, you know.” She didn’t mean to come off so rude, but she had just gotten off work, picked up Tiny from the vet, and sat in traffic for a damn good hour.

                “Uhm, so, you know my dad? He works for this guy, who knows some dude, and like, basically, I need a date to a fancy charity dinner or something-“ Niall kept rambling, and Brylee couldn’t help but wonder how she ended up here. Listening to some 22 year old who lives off of Mommy and Daddy’s money go on about an expensive dinner that she didn’t want to go to. She didn’t want to, but she knew she would go on the excuse that she couldn’t find a good enough excuse. “-and so I would really like for you to go because I consider us friends, and you’re not that bad looking, so yeah.”

                She stared at Niall for what he thought was an eternity, and then finally he saw it, or maybe imagined that it happened because she hasn’t smiled at him in months, but he could have sworn he saw the right corner of her mouth twitch upwards. “Yeah,” she went back to stone face, “I guess I’ll go.”

                “Oh thank fuck, thought I was gonna have to ask the girl downstairs or something,” he tried to laugh, make a joke, anything to make her smile but she just stared at him. Eventually he felt awkward enough that he just turned around and walked back into his apartment.

                Brylee let herself in, finally, and had to jump so that Tiny wouldn’t knock her down, again. She walked into the kitchen, and it didn’t hit her until five minutes after she started cooking her dinner that she, Brylee Smith, had a date with Niall.

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@njRan25_: gorgeous date for the night ! the wonderful @brysmith lookin lovely in that dress !

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@brysmith: srsly questioning my life choices during this car ride…

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                The charity dinner was for some organization that didn’t interest Brylee enough. She had completely tuned Niall out on the drive over to the hotel, ignored him on their way up to the eighth floor, and only when they got to room 837 did she acknowledge his existence. Even then, she barely said two words to him. Niall just let it go, kept up his happy image, and was just grateful she hadn’t shot him down.

                She sat patiently on one of the beds in their room two weeks after Niall had asked her to be his date. She was constantly smoothing out the wrinkles in her too expensive gown that she hadn’t yet cut the tags off of. Niall was taking too long to figure out his tie, it was way too stuffy in the overpriced shitty hotel room, and if she’s being honest she would much rather be at home with Tiny and a tub of ice cream. When Niall had finally fucking figured out how to straighten his tie he simply stepped out of the bathroom, offered an elbow to his date, and followed her out of the room after she had given him a disgusted look.

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                “Niall, darling!” That was all Brylee had heard since they walked through the door. They had been here for an hour and had barely managed to make it 50 feet past the bar. She felt like a fish out of water, surrounded by middle aged men in Armani suits and their wives who all looked like they had serious cases of resting bitch face. Brylee wasn’t a bitch, she just came across as one to Niall. While she was with him she knew she had to make him look good, so she smiled at those who spoke to him and only gave her a judging look.

                She wasn’t stupid, she knew they were giving her looks because of one reason. She was here with Niall, which was all good and fine, but she wasn’t what they expected. Hell, Niall’s mom had leaned in to Niall when she saw the couple and had poorly whispered, “I thought you were bringing Natalie?”

                Brylee knew Natalie, she was six doors down from her and had a cat named Jasper that Tiny nearly mauled to death one morning. Natalie didn’t like Brylee because of that incident and she didn’t give a shit. Natalie was a middle aged man’s wet dream in this world that Niall lives in. Young, beautiful, nice body, white. She knew why Niall’s mom had given her that look and she acted as if she hadn’t heard a thing when Niall had started stuttering.

                “So, how does your mom know Natalie?” They were sitting at their table in the middle of the room, waiting for Niall’s dad to make his speech thanking whoever it was that put this dinner together. Brylee grew tired of poking at her salad that didn’t look the least bit appetizing, so she decided to finally speak.

                Niall turned to her, trying to hide the surprise on his face that she had actually spoken to him. “Well, Mom came over one day and had met Nat in the elevator. She invited her in, without even asking me, turns out she knows Natalie’s ex-boyfriend’s dad or something.” Brylee had just nodded her head as those around her started clapping as his dad took the stage. Niall’s mom was seated directly across from them, and even at such a huge table Brylee could hear her gossiping to the lady next to her.

                She didn’t need to hear at all, but she did. She heard how his mom was “disgusted” that her son brought “that girl” to such an important function. She heard how the woman next to her had asked how she, Brylee, could even afford such a dress. She finally had enough when the woman’s husband had leaned over and asked, “When did Niall start dating black girls?”

                That was it. Brylee quietly got up, straightened her sun yellow dress, and walked out of the ballroom with a stone face. As she hit the button for the elevator she heard someone come up behind her, and she didn’t have to turn around to know who it was.

                “Is there a reason you just up and left like that?” She didn’t turn around to face him, she could hear the slight anger in Niall’s voice and honestly, she didn’t have the patience or control to talk to him.

                “Ask your mother, Niall. I’m going home.” She stepped into the elevator, hitting the button for their floor and was only slightly relieved to turn around and see that he had stepped in behind her.

                “The hell do you mean ‘ask my mother’?”  She looked him in the eyes, taking note of the way his forehead wrinkled and the skin between his eyebrows creased as he got frustrated.

                “I mean ask your mom, she’s the one who was talking shit about me!” Brylee threw down her clutch as Niall hit the stop button and halted the elevator between the third and fourth floors. Giving him a ‘stop it’ look as she hit the button again for the eighth floor, Brylee let out a huff. They went back and forth for a minute, not exchanging words just looks, as they both hit their buttons until Niall hit the stop button for the sixth time and they heard the worst screeching sound mixed with an alarm.

                They had been in the elevator for about 45 minutes, and nobody had spoken. Once the alarm was cut off and maintenance was notified that a very rich man’s son was stuck in the elevator, they started working on getting the two out. Niall looked over at Brylee just in time to see her wipe her eyes of tears and shitty mascara. “Why are you crying? They said they’d be done in about 15 minutes.”

                Brylee just let out a laugh and shook her head as she looked over at him, “No, no. You don’t get it, Niall. I could not care less that we’re stuck in this fucking elevator.”

                “Then what’s the problem Bry? Cause I’d love to know. You can’t just run out of a dinner, while my fucking father is making a speech, and expect me to just know what’s wrong.”

                She took a deep breath before looking away from him, “Your mom was basically saying to the lady next to her that she can’t believe you brought me to this.” Glancing back over she caught the confused look he had on his face, “Because I’m black, Niall. She can’t believe you brought me because I’m black and obviously she’s living in the 1920’s.”

                Standing up from where he had propped himself back against the far wall, Niall started rubbing his face and vigorously shaking his head at her. “Why would she even say that?”

                “I don’t know, Niall. But I do know that I’m not sitting there and letting her humiliate me. It’s not right.” Niall just stared at her for a minute, they could hear the maintenance men and feel the elevator jolting back to life. “But I know that I’m not going to sit there and be the joke of the table all because of my skin color. I like you, okay? Even as much as I fucking like you, I’m not putting myself through that. Because you, or any other person for that matter is fucking worth it.”

                Right at that moment, as Brylee had finally let it all out and her hair was falling out of her low bun, the elevator doors opened to Satan’s mistress herself. Niall’s mother came storming in, pushing past Brylee to get to her son with “Oh Niall I’m so glad you’re okay!” Niall was assuring his mother he was fine as Brylee just silently stepped out of the elevator and headed toward the stairs. She didn’t turn around as she left, but if she did then she would have seen Niall trying to get out of the grasps of his mother as she told him, “I don’t know why you would go after her…”

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March 2015.

@brysmith:like I don’t fuck with yoouuuuu

@njRan25_ favorited this tweet

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