Chapter 5

"Yea, I guess I did," I giggled as I smiled at the blonde man. I was right, he did have an accent. An Irish one.

He smiled as he continued, "Yea, I saw you trying to make your way out of the hall. Good thing you didn't get trampled!"

I wasn't sure what to say to this guy. Who was he? We stood in silence for the longest minute of my life before he spoke again.

"I'm Niall, by the way," he said as he held out his hand with his other hand in his pocket. I took his hand cautiously.

"I'm Grace," I replied. His shake was firm and his hands were soft. As he smiled, I could see a light ring around his teeth. Braces.

"Grace. That's a nice name. Where are you from, Grace?"

"I'm from Valentine. It's a few towns over."

Niall nodded. I was getting ready to ask Niall where he was from when I felt a vibrate from my pocket. My phone. I pulled my phone out my pocket and checked the I.D. Mel.

"Hello? Mel"

"Grace! Have you heard about the train?"

I was confused. "What do you mean"

"I checked your train schedule again to make sure I'd be there on time to pick you up and it said that your train is delayed right now."

"Delayed? What do you mean?"

Grace signed. "It means that your train isn't going to come on time. There wasn't even a time up that said when the train might be there. It's because of the weather."

"The weather? What's going on with the weather?"

"Grace! Haven't you looked outside? It's a mess! Go look!" I stayed on the phone with Mel as I walked over the front doors of the theater and looked outside. It was a mess! The rain was coming down like crazy, the lightning looked pretty dangerous, and the wind was blowing like crazy!

"Holy shit. When did this start?" I asked into the phone.

"About 45 minutes ago. It'll hopefully stop within the next half hour. You should be able to get on the train once it stops."

"I hope so."

"Be careful though, Grace. I guess there are power lines and trees down everywhere."

"Okay, Mel. I'll keep an eye out and I'll keep checking the website. Thanks for calling."

"No problem, Grace. St…" Mel cut off. I had lost signal from the storm.

I turned around and walked back over to where Niall was standing. He looked confused. "Well, it looks like my train will be coming late. I guess I'm going to be hanging out here until the storm lessens up and I can get to the station." I realized that I sounded a bit desperate after I said that.

"Well, if you're not in a hurry you can join me upstairs at the grill. We can grab a drink or something while we wait."

I waited and thought it through. I could either sit down in the lobby, alone, and wait to hear about my train, or I could go upstairs with this strange blonde man named Niall. "Sure," I replied, "I'll join you."

A smile grew across his face, showing the lining from his braces. "Awesome! Follow me."

I followed Niall over to the elevator in the bottom floor of the hall. He pushed the button and we waited for the ding of the elevator. When the doors opened, I followed Niall into the elevator. The doors closed and he pushed the button labeled '4'. The ride up was quick as we walked off the elevator when the doors opened. Niall led the way over the grill and found us a booth inside. I slid into the seat across from Niall. This should be fun.

The waitress came over to take our order. "What would you two like this evening?"

Niall smiled at the waitress as he ordered. "I'll just have a water and a blueberry muffin."

He turned to me as in saying "Your turn."

"I'll have a hot chocolate with whipped cream, please." I smiled as the waitress nodded and turned to walk away. I turned my head and looked over the table to Niall. He leaned forward and folded his hands in front of him on the table.

"So, Grace. Tell me about yourself," Niall said as he stared at me.

"What do you wanna know?" I asked.

Niall smiled. "Anything. Tell me about your life at home."

I sighed. "Well…" I stopped when the waitress brought our things. She set them on the table and turned away. I started again. "Well, I live with my dad and his wife Amber. My parents divorced when I was fourteen and I'm an only child." I stopped talking and looked up at Niall. He was pulling apart his muffin, still staring at me.

"I'm listening," he assured me.

"I have a main group of four friends. Liz has been my friend forever. She's heading to her aunts camp in the fall to be a peer counselor. She didn't want to go to college. Mel is a year older than us. She'll be at her second year of beauty school in Mayville. Karen is a year younger than us and she's going to be a senior. That's about it." I took a sip of my hot chocolate. Hot.

I heard Niall chuckle from across the table. "What is it?" I asked.

"You have whipped cream on your nose." Niall took his napkin and reached across the table and wiped the whipped cream off my nose.

I started blushing. "Thanks," I muttered.

Niall sat back down and looked at me. "What about you, Grace? What do you plan on doing?"

"I'm going to college in the fall. I'm stuck between schools right now. I'm not sure if I want to go to a university in Boston or attend a community college in Valentine." I looked deep at Niall. I hadn't realized how beautiful his eyes were. They were like a perfect shade of blue. Not too dark, but not too light. They reminded me of the reflecting light that happens when the sun hits water.

"That's interesting," Niall said. "I hope you make the choice that's best for you."

I smiled.

"What about you, Niall. Don't think you're going to get off that easily. Tell me about yourself. I notice you have an accent. Where are you from?"

Niall sighed, folded his hands into his lap, and leaned back into the booth. "I'm from Ireland. I just finished up my studies back home and this trip was kind of like an award for myself. I have one older brother."

I nodded in understanding. "So, how did you end up getting tickets to Gone Away? It was an invitation only concert."

"My brother's friend is cousins with one of the members of the band. He got my tickets." He paused, "how did you get tickets?"

I smiled at Niall. "I won them off the radio. I was the fifteenth caller."

He smiled back. "I like it when you smile," he replied.

I blushed and looked down. I took my phone out and checked the time. I completely lost track of time. My train should be leaving in fifteen minutes. I quickly hit the internet button on my phone and went to the train website. While I was waiting for the page to load, I looked up and saw Niall finishing the last of his muffin. When the page loaded, I check my itinerary. What the hell. I read the bold printing at the top of the page.

Due to weather conditions and electric issues, Train 1653 to Mayville has been cancelled and will not be running tonight.

Please continue to check the page to see when the next train will be heading to Mayville.

I looked up worried and puzzled. Niall must have noticed because he asked me what was wrong.

"My train has been cancelled. I can't get home tonight." I didn't know what to do. There was no way I was going to get home and I wasn't going to have Mel drive 4 hours to pick me up.

"What are you going to do?" asked Niall. "Where are you going to stay? You certainly can't drive back."

I shrugged. I didn't know what I was going to do.

"You can stay with me," Niall said. I have a suite at the hotel connected to the theater. There's a sofa you can stay on."

Stay? With Niall? I barely knew him. I couldn't do that.

"Oh, Niall I don't think that's necessary. I'll be f…." He cut me off.

"What are you going to do? You need to be safe." He had a serious look on his face.

"Well, I don't want to make this a big deal for you. I'll get a motel room somewhere."

"No," Niall said, "you can stay with me. It's totally fine."

I thought about it for a while. "Fine, I'll stay. As long as it's okay. I'll take the sofa."

Niall smiled at my response. "Grace, I wouldn't have offered if it was going to be that big of a deal. You can stay."

I smiled a half smile. "Thanks. I need to make a phone call. I'll be right back." I got up and walked out of the grill, into the hallway. I dialed Mel's number.

"Hello?" Mel answered.

"Mel, it's Grace. My train was canceled for tonight, so I can't come home until tomorrow. I'm going to call my dad and tell him that I'm going to stay at your house tonight when I get back in town."

Mel was silent. "So you're not coming home? What time are you coming home tomorrow?"

"I'm not sure yet. I'll let you know, that way you know when to pick me up from the station."

"Oh, Grace. Is that going to work? You know how your dad is."

"Yea, I know. I'll be able to convince him."

"Grace, where are you going to be staying?"

I couldn't tell her I was staying at a stranger's house. "I'm staying at a hotel."

"Okay," Mel said. "Stay safe and keep me informed."

"I will. Bye, Mel." I hung up and dialed my dad's number. Here goes nothing.

He answered after the first ring.

"Hello? Grace? What's going on?"

"Hey, dad, I was just telling you that I'm going to stay at Mel's house tonight when I get into town."

"What? Why? Just come home."

I took a deep breath. "Dad, I don't want to wake you that late at night. Besides, I'd rather stay at her house. I'm going to be too tired anyways." I was hoping her would buy it.

"Well, I guess that makes sense. Just be careful, okay?"

"Yes, dad, I know. I love you. Bye"

"Bye, sweetie. I love you." I hung up and turned around just as Niall was walking out of the grill.

"Ready?" he asked.

"I need to go pay quick," I said.

"Nah, don't worry about it. I took care of it. Let's go." He placed his hand in the middle of my back and led me to the elevators. We got in and rode up to the next floor. We got out and Niall led the two of us down the hall to his hotel room. We stopped in front of a door at the very end of the hall. Room 118. I watched as Niall reached to his back pocket and fished his wallet out of his jeans. He opened it and took out his keycard. He folded his wallet and put it back into his back pocket. He looked up at me with his water reflecting eyes and smiled. There. I could see the braces again. He slid the keycard into the slot on the door and turned the knob.

"Well, here we are."