Niall's Girl

Chapter Twenty Two

Chapter Twenty Two



I awoke in the morning, for the second time in my life and the second time in three days, spooning with Niall. And holy moly it was awesome. I didn't know what time it was and frankly, I didn't care. The hospital had called the school the night I was taken in and they had granted me sick leave for the rest of the week. Today was Thursday, which meant I only got to miss two days of school. Boo.

The happy news was that this meant I didn't have to get up, so I wriggled backwards and pushed my back further into Niall's chest, his arms subconsciously cuddling me tighter and I could feel his breath on the back of my neck. That wasn't the only thing I could feel, though. I was suddenly well aware of a certain something poking my thigh.

I unwillingly rolled out of Niall's grasp and my feet hit the carpeted floor. I looked over my shoulder and even though Niall had grumbled a little and rolled over when I got up, he was still sound asleep. Satisfied he wouldn't be getting up any time soon, I went and took a shower. The warm water soothed my nerves. Nerves, I hear you ask? Unfortunately, yes. I don't know what it was, maybe the fact that I knew it was getting more and more difficult to contain my feelings for the cute Irish boy. Or maybe the fact that I had awoken to Niall's hard on poking me. Probably both.

I scrubbed my body clean before carefully washing my hair, wincing every time I accidentally hit the massive lump caused when I hit the road. I was much more relaxed when I hopped out and I dressed in an oversized plaid shirt with black leggings. I didn't bother letting my hair dry; just scrunched it up in a messy bun before making my way downstairs. I entered the kitchen, looking around to find that we didn't really have anything in. My parents had been gone a few days now and I hadn't heard back from them so I guessed I would be the one having to do the groceries.

I left Niall a note:

Ni, went to buy food! Sausage sarnies when I get back okay? Ems x

I slipped on my chunky doc martens (Sadie said they made me look like a scary lesbian, but I thought they were awesome) and headed to the local Sainsburys. I was only gone half an hour, having bought sausages and eggs, bread and milk. I also bought a shitload of chocolate and at the last minute added some apples to my basket because I knew I should.

When I got back, surprise surprise Niall was still asleep. Lazy arse. I put some sausages into a frying pan and when they started sizzling I heard my phone ring from its place on the counter next to me.

"Hey Benben," I said cheerfully, seeing my best friend's name pop up on the screen.

"Just wanted to know how you are," Ben said, sounding quite worried. I had rang him from the hospital two days ago to tell him what happened, and he had panicked almost as much as Niall. I had pleaded him just to stay home, knowing he would cause a scene if he came to the hospital and would bug all the doctors with worried queries about if I had brain damage and if I would ever be the same again. He was pretty dramatic like that.

"I'm okay actually. Cooking sausages!" I said happily, flipping them over in the pan.

"No Em seriously, how's your head? Are your parents home yet? Do you still have concussion?" Ben shot what seemed like five thousand questions at me.

"Woah, steady on." I chuckled. "My head's fine, got a nasty lump that's all. No, my parents aren't over. No, I don't still have concussion. I think anyway. Just a bit of a headache but I'm about to drug myself up so I'll be fine."

Ben sighed, unconvinced. "Emma, I'm coming over."

"No!" I shouted before realising and lowering my voice. "I'm fine, honestly!"

"You shouldn't be alone." Ben said firmly.

"Im not al -" I started but he cut me off.

"Be there in five." He hung up before I had chance to argue again.

I thought back to the hotel room in London when Ben had pretty much threatened Niall. I was positive he wouldn't be too happy about finding him here. Ohhh... shit.

I had been going to wake Niall up when the sausages were cooked but I turned the heat right down, leaving them to sizzle because the doorbell rang. Ben didn't wait for me to open the door, just barged right in to meet me in the kitchen.

He enveloped me in a big hug. "You're alive!"

"I told you I was fine, doofus. Why aren't you at school?" I said, unravelling myself from his arms.

Benjamin shrugged. "Got the morning off and then this afternoon I'm meant to be in French but I was thinking about just quitting it before the summer exams." I nodded distractedly, trying to think about what I was going to do about Niall. "Hey, you cooked quite a lot of sausages for yourself, didn't you? Lucky I'm here to help now!" Ben said, poking the cooked meat with a fork.

"I uh..." I stammered. I had cooked the whole packet of sausages; I only wanted a few but I knew Niall could eat for Britain.

Ben looked over at me. "You what?"

I sighed, deciding just to get this over with. "They weren't all just for me."

Ben furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Who for then?"

"Niall." I didn't try to sugar coat it, or drag it out or lie. He was going to find out a sleeping popstar was in my house sooner or later.

My best friend's eyebrows almost disappeared into his dark hair. "He's here?" I nodded. "Where?" Ben said. My eyes flicked to the ceiling without permission and that was all Ben needed. He was out the room as quick as lightning and stormed up the stairs, two at a time with me following at his heels.

I thought he would check the guest room first but he immediately pushed open my bedroom door to see Niall sleeping peacefully, his face buried in my pillow. I yanked Ben by the wrist back out of the room and shut the door again.

"He's in your bed?" Ben hissed at me.

"Keep your voice down, he's asleep!" I hissed back.

"Why the fuck is he asleep in your bed?" Ben snapped, but thankfully kept quiet.

"We fell asleep!" I said, rolling my eyes.

"And why isn't he still in London where he belongs?" Ben glared at the door as if he could burn holes through it with his eyes.

"He came to look after me!" I whisper-shouted at him. "You're being ridiculous, Ben. He's my friend!"

"I'm sure he wants more than just being 'friends'." Ben said louder now, flinging his arms up in frustration and mimicking quotation marks.

"Oh fuck o -" I started but my bedroom door flung open to see a dishevelled looking Niall - his hair messy and his eyes sleepy. His t-shirt was half twisted but luckily I noticed the bulge in his pants was either not visible or had disappeared, thank god. I think Ben would have fainted. Or beat Niall up like he kept threatening.

"Ems?" Niall said, rubbing his eyes with his fist like an adorable toddler. "What are you - oh, hi." He said, finally noticing Benjamin who was glaring at him.

"Hi." Ben said through gritted teeth.

"What's uh, what's going on?" The blonde boy said, sounding a bit nervous now, looking at me probably for reassurance that my best friend wasn't about to chop off his balls.

"Nothing." I said quickly. "It's fine. Ben was just going to leave, weren't you?" I gave Benjamin an stern look but he ignored it.

"No, I'm not leaving, I came to look after you." He said firmly. "I'll be downstairs." He shot Niall another suspicious look before thumping down the stairs.

I pulled Niall by the arm back into my room before letting him go and sitting down on my bed in exhaustion, tugging at the roots of my hair. "Oh God.." I muttered. I glanced up at Niall who was looking uneasy.

He let out a small, uncomfortable sounding chuckle before coming to sit next to me on the edge of the mattress. "Your best friend scares the shit out of me." He said, resting his head on my shoulder even though it must have been pretty difficult since I was shorter than him.

"Yeah, sorry about that. He's just... protective?" I said, trying to defend Ben. I heard Niall chuckle and shrugged my shoulder to make him lift his head up. "Look," I said, looking into his eyes. "Ben's having some trouble accepting that we're... well, friends. Just friends, that is. He's always been like this if he thought a boy liked me. So just don't take anything he says to heart, okay? He's awesome usually, you'll like him."

Niall laughed. "Yeah, like him... That might be difficult since he's sending me death glares every time I look at him." I laughed too, glad that Niall was this freakishly optimistic boy and wasn't really unnerved by Ben's behaviour. "C'mon, I smell sausages." He grabbed my hand and pulled me up. We walked down the stairs, my hand still grasped in his. I knew it wouldn't exactly help the situation with Ben, but hey, I was holding hands with a boy I had obsessed over for three years and I wasn't just going to let go when he had initiated it.

We walked into the kitchen where Ben was dishing out the sausages onto only two plates. I rolled my eyes, unhappily letting go of Niall's hand so I could get another plate out. I snatched the fork from Ben's hand and put equal amounts of sausages on the three plates, before taking two from mine and adding them to Niall's. I handed the boys their plates and Ben headed silently to the living room. Niall followed after sending me a thankful smile for the extra sausages.

I laughed quietly, muttering "fatty". Niall glanced over his shoulder and glared playfully.

I encountered a problem when I reached the living room. We had two three-person sofas, arranged so they made a kind of loose L-shape facing the television in the corner. Ben and Niall were sat on separate sofas and when I walked into the room, they both patted the space next to them, telling me to sit down.

Immediately, Ben glared at Niall, but the Irish boy just took the glare and bit his lip, supressing a smile at the awkward situation I had found myself in. I glanced back and forth between my two favourite boys. Of course I wanted to sit next to Niall, I barely ever saw him and he had come all the way here. But on the other hand, Ben was my best friend and I didn't want to upset him.

I huffed at the immaturity of Ben and the amused look on Niall's face before plopping down on the floor in the middle of the room.

It was going to be a long day.

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I'm interested... Do you guys like Ben and Emma better together or are you more a 'Nimma' fan?
Not that it will change my mind about where the story is going, but I'm curious!

I wasn't going to update today, but I'm just a nice person so I thought I'd treat you;) Hit that vote button if you so wish?

I've attached a hilarious photo of Niall at the side because he was so adorable and it never fails to make me laugh! >>>>
-Laura xo