Brielle's P.O.V.

I was snoring, well, hopefully not snoring, but I was asleep. I felt like I was in a warm cocoon, wrapped in a ball of heat. I sighed and curled up even tighter, trying to absorb even more heat. Suddenly, the ball of heat was ripped away from me. I moaned and covered myself, trying to regain an ounce of heat.

“Get up,” a voice said.

I moaned in response and felt around for my blankets. They weren’t on the bed.

“Come on Bri, my mum’s coming,” Niall said.

That woke me up. I sat bolt upright and stared at him. “Your mum is coming?” I asked, horrified.

Niall nodded.

“Please tell me this wasn’t a sick trick to get me out of bed,” I begged.

Niall shook his head. “No, she’s coming in like an hour.”

“Crap,” I collapsed back on the bed then leapt up again.

I quickly found some nice clothes, and by nice, I mean I was wearing a dress. It wasn’t anything fancy, just a simple, knee-length spaghetti strap patterned with dots. I threw them on and ran to the kitchen. Niall followed me.

“Why are you freaking out?” he asked.

“Let’s see,” I said sarcastically. “My boyfriend’s mother is coming in an hour, and it’s almost lunchtime. I need to make food, and look presentable…”

Niall cut me off with a kiss. “Calm down, babe. My mum will love you no matter what.”

I wasn’t so convinced. “Can you take me to the store?”

Niall nodded and grabbed his keys, which were sitting on the counter. I beat him to the car and he drove to a store. The second he parked, I had run inside, reading to find some food. Niall caught up with me, only because I stopped dead, staring at the woman looking over the soups, eyeing the labels.

“What?” Niall whispered.

“That’s-” I couldn’t find my voice.

Then, the woman turned around and I heard Niall’s gasp as he recognized the face of my mother.

“Brielle?” she asked, her face almost smiling. Almost. Then, her face dropped as she saw who was standing next to me.

Niall, for his part, strode straight towards my mother. He stopped in front of her and stuck out his hand. “Niall Horan, ma’am. Nice to meet you.”

I was impressed that he could be so calm in front of my mother, when I was sweating at the mere thought of his. My mother was impressed to, I could tell.

“Niall,” she said, shaking his head. “You’re not from around here, are you?”

“No, Ms. Williams,” he said, smiling. “I’m from Ireland.”

“Ireland,” my mother said, smiling. “It’s a wonderful country.”

“It is,” Niall agreed, smiling warmly.

I decided to join the conversation.  “Hi mom.”

My mom’s face slightly dropped, but she managed to smile at me. “Hello Brielle,” she said. “You didn’t tell me you had such a lovely boyfriend.”

“Well,” I said, standing next to Niall. “He has his moments.”

Niall frowned, and my mother laughed. There was a slightly awkward pause.

“Well, we have to get going,” I said. “We have some things to get.”

I led Niall away from my mother and sighed as soon as we were out of hearing range.

“She wasn’t so bad,” Niall said fairly.

“That was a good day,” I said darkly. “Oh look- macaroni!”

I grabbed several boxes of Mac and cheese and some other things before heading towards check out. Once there, Niall insisted on paying for me. In ten minutes flat, we were back home and I was in the kitchen, cooking away. I felt Niall’s arms wrap around my waist.

“Nuh uh, blondie, get out,” I said.

Niall pouted. “You know, you’re blonde too.”

“Well, you will eat all this food before your mother is even here, so get out,” I said, concentrating on the meat in front of me.

Niall left and I was left with a pound of ground beef, rolling them into meatloaf. I popped them into the oven and sighed, washing my hands in the sink. I heard the doorbell ring and quickly dried my hands off before walking to the door. Niall was letting in a small blond woman, taking her coat. The woman took off her shoes, looked up and saw me, and squealed.

“You must be Brielle!” she ran towards me and caught me in a hug.

I was startled, but I hugged her back. I looked at Niall over her head and he shrugged at me. I narrowed my eyes at him and he quickly hung up his mother’s coat.

“Niall’s told me so much about you!” she squealed, letting me go.

“All good things, I hope,” I said, mock-glaring at Niall.

He raised his hands and hugged his mother.

“Hi mum,” he said.

“Niall, you didn’t tell me your girlfriend was so beautiful!” she said.

I blushed.

Niall smiled at me. “I’m sure I told you enough about her.”

I heard the timer for the oven go off.

“Oops, excuse me,” I rushed off, glad for the excuse to get away.

I pulled the meatloaf out of the oven and put the macaroni in a bowl, along with some potatoes in another bowl. Niall’s mother was a dear, certainly, but she also kind of overwhelmed me. I brought the food to the dining room table where Niall and his mother were sitting.

“This looks amazing, dear,” she said.

“Thank you, Mrs. Horan,” I said, setting the meatloaf in front of her.

“Call me Maura, dear,” she said fondly.

I could feel my cheeks turn slightly pink as I took my seat next to Niall.

“So, Brielle, tell me about yourself,” Maura said, digging in to her food. Like mother, like son.

“Well, I was going to be a doctor, but then I decided that it wasn’t for me, so I’m singing now,” I said.

We spent a good half an hour on the topic of music, which made me glad. Soon, afterwards, our plates were clean. I stood up, taking the dishes with me. I dropped them in the sink and pulled out my surprise. When I walked back into dining room, I could see Niall drooling at the chocolate cake I was carrying.

“Knew there was a reason I picked you,” he mumbled, before kissing my temple. As soon as he released me, he dug into the cake, giving himself a very generous serving.

“Knew there was a reason I didn’t tell you about this cake,” I teased, and was rewarded with Maura’s laughter and Niall’s slight blush.

After we finished eating, I took the dirty plates into the kitchen.

“Here, let me help you,” Maura said, rising out of her chair.

“No, it’s fine, you’re a guest here,” I said, and walked into the kitchen.

Maura joined me anyway. “It feels so rude not to help cook or clean up afterwards,” she said, drying the dishes as I washed them.

“Thank you for helping,” I told her, as I scrubbed the macaroni stain out of a plate.

“Thank you, dear, for making Niall so happy,” Maura said, which in turn made me blush.

“It’s nothing,” I said, hoping I wouldn’t say the wrong thing. “He’s very sweet.”

“He better be,” Maura said, suddenly stern. “I raised him to treat women right.”

“He is,” I promised, and continued washing the dishes.

We made idle chit-chat before Maura said she had to go. Niall and I walked her to the door, where she hugged us both at least eight times and kissed Niall on the cheek. I tried to put meaning into my hug, because she really was a lovely woman.

Then, Niall wrapped an arm around my waist and waved with his free one, and I waved too, as Maura drove off.

Then, I sighed in relief. “She’s really nice.”

“Yeah,” Niall said, whose eyes were a little wet. “I miss her when I’m on tour.”

“I would too,” I mused, and looked up to see Niall smiling down at me.

“I’ll miss you too,” he said.

“Not as much as I’ll miss you,” I said.

Niall smiled at me, slightly sad this time, because of the topic we were on. “Impossible.” 

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Tada! I really, really, really, liked this chapter. I have no idea why. Maura is just such a dear. Oh great, there goes my old fussy side. Anyway, you know CD Girl and Waiting for Superman? They tied.  I'm like, how does that happen? And BTW, I'm counting the votes for the actually writing part, not the little preview thing. So yeah.... I don't know what to do. How 'bout this- comment which one you want, and the one that has the most comments for it AND votes is the one I'll write first. Fair? I think so. Anyway, enjoy this wonderful chapter, because I really liked it.

Next Update: Friday

Love ya!

-11tay99