Water Under the Bridge ›› n.h. mature

Four

Niall Horan

"I need to go."

"Stay a little longer," she coaxed. She looked at me through her blonde bangs. I've never really liked bangs on girls but the options at that fundraiser were scarce.

"I really shouldn't."

It's about time to go see Kate. She said she needed to stay and help her parents until the party ended even though she was pretty upset. But the party has got to be over by now.

I brought my focus back to the girl on top of me. She leaned down and put her mouth teasingly close to me. "Are you sure about that?"

Hell, what's ten more minutes?

"I guess I can," I mumbled.

"That's what I thought," she said as she took me in her mouth. Fuck, that's good.

...

"Okay, now I really have to go. But thank you, uh..." Shit.

She stared at me in disbelief. "You forgot my name, didn't you?"

"No. No! Of course not...Stacy."

"Sydney."

"I knew that. I did!" I said as I pulled my pants on. "Um, thanks."

"Yeah, whatever." She laid back in the bed and rolled her eyes.

Well that's not the worst this has gone before. I slipped out the door. So Sarah most likely hates me, but let's be honest, I'll probably never see her again.

I parked a little ways down the street from Kate's house. I've never had to deal with the parking thing. Last time I snuck over I was about ten-years-old and it was the middle of summer. Kate was grounded for back talking. Whenever she was grounded, I would sneak in like this and we never once got caught.

I walked around to the side of the house that her bedroom is on. I reached out to the trellis that was coated in vines and grabbed on. I gave it a good tug to see if it could still hold me. Who knows for sure but there's no better way to find out than to try.

I pulled myself up and listened for it cracking and breaking. When I didn't hear anything, I kept on climbing as fast as I could until I reached her window.

"Kate?" I peeked in and whispered her name again. "Kate?"

Looks like she's not in here yet. I pulled myself through the window, swung my legs over, and hopped in.

Her walls haven't changed much, which is funny because of how much she has grown up. All the childhood drawings are taken down but other than that, this could be the room of a little girl.

The photographs around the room haven't been updated for years. None of them are recent based on her age in all of them. Except that I distinctly remember there being one of us on her shelf. My mum had taken a picture of us after our football game. We had purple popsicles in our hands. They were dripping all over us and covering our mouths. In the picture, Kate was looking at the camera with a huge grin and I was looking at her. It was in this silver frame with grooves around the edges. I never mentioned it after the first time when she said my mum gave it to them and her mum framed it, but I always liked the idea of being a permanent staple in this room. Except now I'm looking and I swear this is where it used to sit but I can't find it...

"Niall!" Kate was startled when she came through the door.

She scared me right back and I nearly tripped as I tried to back away from the bookshelf I had been searching.