Crave You -N.H-

Chapter Twenty: Timeless [EDITED]

Chapter Twenty: Timeless.

        I close my eyes and imagine myself spinning in flawless, steady circles at the party. The dress follows my every move and my hands are intertwined with Niall’s. I open my eyes back to the ceiling. Happiness was much easier to fake in the depths of my mind in the middle of the night when the world sleeps peacefully. Sometimes sleeping forever seems like a good solution to my problem, but I know it would solve a single thing.

        Niall had been forcing me to see the doctor every day for appointments and tests. He never leaves me there alone and he never fails to make me feel better as sharp needles poke at me. I have been coping with the idea of leaving everyone behind now, knowing that it’s better that they don’t suffer much longer. Brad keeping Jeanie away was what was best and she needs nothing to do with anymore hospitals.

        I didn’t want the sickness and black clouds and depressing conversations to stain her childhood, losing her father and then her sister. It was already hard enough and she had no clue what was happening. The doctors had performed about a million test, and I...we were waiting to hear back from her.

        Praying for good news was hopeless, the feeling of deep sadness growing inside me knowing that there was no good news in sight. My stomach was rotting away from the feeling of darker days ahead of us.

“Hey,” Niall stands in the doorway with a glass of water. His bare chest barely visible under the dim light of the night time sky. He breathes slowly and walks back towards the bed, I reach out for him pulling him back down and into bed with me.

        The only reason I had even woken was because he left for a glass of water. Every time he leaves, I think he won’t return and everytime he always does. With him he brings his bright smile and blue eyes that shine even in the darkest room.

        “Hi,” I respond pressing my cold cheek into his warm chest. The only thing that came easy anymore was my love for him.

        “Sorry I woke you,” he whispers. He wraps his arms around my fragile shoulders and lifts my chin to his face. He kisses my nose softly and smiles at me like I’m the light of his life.

        “I was never really sleeping,” I admit to him.

        “Do you ever anymore?” He asks and I let a small laugh go.

        The laugh gets caught and I start to choke, cringing the pain back into my chest I sit up straight. Coughing the knot from my throat. He hands me the rest of his water silently, rubbing my back and waiting for me to take it. He pushes the hair back from my face and gives me a weak smile as a few pieces come loose in his hand.

        “Great,” I sigh “there goes my hair.” I knew the day was coming but it felt too soon and my heart wasn’t ready to deal with that stress.

        “Still amazingly beautiful though,” he says quickly and without faulty. He kisses me gently, the first kiss in what seemed like forever. I savor the taste on my lips and give him a small smile as he pulls back from me. “The dinner is in a couple days and you’ll look just as beautiful if not more.”

        “You’ve got to be fucking kidding, Mr. Horan if you think I’m going looking like this,” I point to myself and pull the covers up and over my head in a desperate attempt to disappear.

        “Don’t start with me,” he says crawling under the covers with me. “We’ve had this argument ten different times, in about ten different places all over the past week. I need a date,” he pouts.