AUGUST | NH |

EIGHT

Archer

Holy shit.

Did I just do that?

I just kissed Niall Horan.

On the lips.

Sitting in my parked car in the driveway, I lean my head against the headrest and let out a long breath, bringing my fingers up to my lips hoping it would feel like it did not even twenty minutes ago.

When he pressed his lips to mine and said my name, I swear on everything that time just stopped. Nothing was moving and everything was frozen. The only two people standing in that doorway.

Niall and me.

Me and Niall.

"I just wanted to taste your fucking lips."

God, it's like I can still hear the rough drag of his accent falling from his lips... Like I can still feel the way he called me baby, the sound sweet like honey on a warm, cloudless spring day.

His lips moved with mine so perfectly that I'm not sure when I'm going to stop replaying it. The way they felt against my own when he moved down my jaw, the drag of his tongue across my collarbone—

"Shit!" Reaching up, I pull down the sun visor to my car and flip open the mirror, squinting in the low light. "Oh, fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck."

Tracing the outline of the faint purple mark with the tip of my finger, I bite my bottom lip as I think about all the tips and tricks I looked up back in high school when my first boyfriend gave me a hickey and I was petrified my parents would see it. Grabbing the keys from the ignition, I make a promise to myself to just wear t-shirts for the next couple of days. The last thing I really want to do is explain to my brother how and where something like that came from.

Just another reminder that not only was Niall eight years older than me, but his best friend shared my DNA. Not really a topic I wanted to talk about over a plate of waffles and bacon in the morning.

Speaking of bacon...

He told me to be ready at eight.

For breakfast.

Unlocking the door and slipping inside only to lock it again, I lean back against it, letting out a shallow laugh. Not only did I show up at his house and leave with a mark on my skin from him, I'm supposed to just be ready for breakfast? I'm supposed to look at him from across the table?

The entire night plays out in my head as I slip into pajamas, starting from the moment I walked into the bed and breakfast and all the way until this very moment. I don't know what it is, this pull that seems to bring me to Niall, I just know that I've never felt it before. Not with anyone that I've ever been with or even anyone that I've ever dated.

Shaking my head as I crawl under the blankets, I do my best to tell myself that even if that energy is there, it doesn't mean anything. People can connect in a million different ways.

This was nothing special.

________

Staring at the clock in the kitchen, I bite my lip as I watch it turn to 7:50.

Somewhere in my mind, I keep telling myself this could all be a lie, that there won't be anyone waiting for me at the end of the driveway when the clock strikes eight.

I want to say that I had a nice, relaxing night of sleep... Only that would be a lie. I'm pretty sure I tossed and turned and maybe got a solid three hours of sleep after I returned from Mission Peaches, as I so affectionately named it.