dissolve. nh

Chapter 15

I woke up, warm and rested, feeling quite refreshed. I slowly opened my eyes and pushed myself up on my elbows, only to find that the bed was empty and cold on Niall's side. My brows furrowed, and I flopped down, stretching my arms out. That's when I heard a crinkled, and I rolled over, my fingers gripping the small square of paper. I blinked a few times, trying to let my eyes adjust to the bright light streaming through the blinds. When I could finally make out the letters, I read the note. 

'Morning, love. I'm out running, and if you're reading this, it means I'm not back yet. Go get some shorts and make yourself at home. ~Ni xx.' It made me smile at his thoughtfulness, and I couldn't help but imagine him as he wrote it; hunched over, brow furrowed and arm muscles moving as he hastily scribbled out words. He probably laid it out and left quickly, and I couldn't stop thinking about, well, him. 

I sighed, hoisting myself up in the bed and throwing the comforter back. I caught sight of another little yellow sticky-note on one of the drawers of his dresser, so I got out of the bed and padded over to it. I pulled off the piece of paper, smiling as I read it. 'Pick any pair of shorts, then go help yourself to food in the kitchen, love.' more of his hasty writing that made me tingle. I pulled it open and rifled through layers of basketball shorts and tank tops before settling on a pair of black ones that tied, and I pulled them on, tightening the drawstrings and folded them over so they wouldn't fall off. They still hung low on my hips, but at least they weren't hanging off of me. 

I got to the kitchen to see that he'd already made coffee, so I started pulling open cabinets to find the mugs. I finally found them and settled on a red one, pouring a cup and spooning coffee in. I opened the fridge, stocked full. My eyes widened at what all he had in here; fruits and vegetables, eggs, cheese, cartons of milk, juice, bottles of water...everything. I shrugged, pulling out a thing of yogurt and all the fruit I wanted, then proceeded to search for the bread. 

Thirty minutes later I was sitting on his couch, TV on in front of me, chowing down on French toast topped with strawberries, raspberries, chocolate syrup and powdered sugar. I clicked on cartoons like I normally would at home, shoveling more of the food into my mouth. There was some little part of me that wondered what Niall would think of all this, and the other part realized that I had food and I didn't really care right now. 

When I heard a chuckled behind me, I nearly fell off the couch. I whipped around to find Niall leaning against the doorway of the kitchen, clad in shorts of his own, a dark green tank top, the holes in the arms cut all the way down to about mid-ribcage. He still had his running shoes on and his skin glistened with sweat, his blonde locks looking disheveled and wet. A smirk was on his light pink lips, his blue eyes shining. He looked beautiful. 

"You scared me." I said, my cheeks flushing because I was pretty sure that I looked like a mess and he looked so good.

"Sorry." he mumbled, coming toward me and leaning over the back of the couch to press a kiss to my lips, catching me off guard because this was far from normal for us but it just felt so right. He pulled away before I realized that I'd reacted, pushing back with pressure on his own sweet lips.

"Mm, chocolate." He said, his tongue flicking out to lick his lips. The gesture sent shivers through my body and a heat rushing up to my cheeks and through my face.

"I found the syrup. I can make you some if you want?" I said quietly, but it came out more of a question. He shook his head, backing away from the couch.

"Nah, I'll just make some toast. I have work today, if you want to come."

"I don't have clothes!" I said, and he chuckled, peaking out from the kitchen.

"Your jeans should be in the dryer, and you can borrow a shirt if you don't want to wear the other one." He said, and I heard rustling when he disappeared.