Niam- What I've Done

Three: There's No Alibi

“What’s wrong with her?” Liam was sitting with me underneath the tree in the field with his arm around my shoulders. I’d just told him about what happened to Raine yesterday, and he actually seemed concerned.

“I don’t know. We don’t know what caused it, but she’s still not up from passing out yesterday. Her face is pale, she’s sweating buckets, and she’s limp. Mum said her temperature went back down to normal, though,” I added as an afterthought.

“That sounds like a kind of flu, but it’s never that bad at the beginning,” he commented, looking deep in thought about something. “She’ll probably get better soon, but if she’s not better in about a week, you should take her to a doctor.”

“Okay,” I leaned my head on his chest, enjoying the comfort I got from his presence. “Thank you,” I whispered.

He pulled me closer in response, and I pressed my ear to his chest. Something about him was just comforting, and though I felt stupid for being this close to him after only two days, I breathed in his scent and found refuge there.

“I can feel your heartbeat, Niall,” he mused.

“I can feel yours, too,” I replied.

“Well, yours is awfully fast,” he pointed out.

“I’m sorry,” I sat up quickly, a bit hurt, but he pulled me on top of him, landing on his back.

“That’s not what I meant,” he assured me. “It’s not a bad thing. I like you a lot.”

“Well, I like you too,” I told him, with my hands on either side of his head, avoiding his gaze. The position we were in was making me blush.

“Hey, don’t be shy,” he put a finger underneath my chin and used it to move my head so I was facing him. We stayed like that for a moment before he said, “You have pretty eyes.”

“Th- thank you,” I managed to say, turning a deep shade of red and getting off of Liam. He sat up and put his arm around my shoulders again, and we just sat like that for a while, talking about everything and nothing. Raine’s illness was still bothering me, because even though her temperature had gone down, I felt like she was seriously sick. The sun was out, weakly heating everything to about fifteen degrees Celsius. It was actually a bit warmer than usual. Most days it was only around ten degrees outside.

“So, Niall, where is your dad?” Liam asked cautiously, because he seemed to have noticed me not talking about him on our trip to the city the day before. “You haven’t said anything about him.”

Once again, I could feel that niggling distrust for Liam in the back of me head, and this time, I decided to listen to it. “Um… he left my mom,” I lied. “They’ve been split up since I was five.”

“I’m sorry,” he told me, pulling me closer. “My dad did the same thing.”

Suddenly I felt guilty for lying to Liam like that. Despite the fact that he was British, he seemed to be a great guy. He’d never said a mean thing to me.

“Liam?” I sat up and looked at him curiously. “Why aren’t you fighting in the war? Why are you wasting your time on an American boy- who should technically not be speaking to you right now?”

“Because,” he said, “I like you.”

“That’s hardly an answer,” I huffed.

He tilted his head to the side. “Fine. I enjoy being around you. I don’t know why.”

“Hmm,” was all I said in response, but my mind was racing a mile per minute. Was it okay for me to like this British boy since he was nice to me? I was so torn between loyalty to my country and loyalty to my friend.