Cigarettes and Hickies [n.h]

neuf

A pen was being traced over Ocean's forearm, as she began drawing small planets down to her wrist. It was the distance and size of them that fascinated her; it was some sort of meditation for her to think about them, as it made her problems smaller. She was just a body amongst the 7 billion people on Earth. She was just a dot amongst the Solar System. And she was unseeable amongst the universe. Drawing the planets on her arm, reminded her of that.

Suddenly, the door of the bathroom swung open and Ocean was cut short of her reverie.

Her eyelashes fluttered at the sight of Niall leaving the toilet. His hair was moist and the towel he was using to dry it was making water sprinkle from the ends. His damp torso glinted as the towel was rubbed on his belly and then travelled to the small chest hairs and settled there as he looked at Ocean.

She was resting her feet on the coffee table and was pulling her knee socks higher than they could allow as she took in his image. He was very different to Jasper; there were no symbols inked on his body -to which Ocean always had a desire for-, his hair was ordinary and his body overall seemed more toned than Jasper's. Niall wasn't exactly Muscle Man but it was clear, he enjoyed to excersice, as the faint outline of a six-pack was visible.

"Are you trying to seduce me?" Ocean asked as an eyebrow was raised in question. She was clearly appreciative of his body, but she disliked him so much more that those thoughts quickly vanished.

"Why? Are you seducible?" He smirked as he looked at her with a cheeky glint in his eyes.

However, Ocean wasn't sure if he was being serious. She recognised the quote of one of her favourite films, and so she was unsure if Niall had done that on purpose. Had he realised that she loved quoting movies? Or was he genuinely asking the question?

"You're not my type." She answered simply, the thought of it giving her too much of a headache to play along even if he had noticed her habit.

Niall laughed his throaty laugh as he heard her; his eyes squinted and his mouth parted as the sound rang across the room.

"My shirt's in the washing machine, remember? You idiot, you didn't give me another one." He finally said after he caught his breath and swung the towel over his shoulder and settled it around his neck.

At those words, Ocean remembered about the shirt and got up instantly heading to the kitchen and hoping her face wasn't as flushed as she felt it was.

After switching the shirt to the dryer, Ocean kicked the machine again. Niall, again, heard the bang and went to the join her trying his best not to laugh at her frustration.

"Are you sure it's on this time?" He mused as he watched her kick the drying machine again.

However, Ocean wasn't up for playing games and so she simply looked at him dryly as she answered, "This machine needs to be kicked. It never works." And with that she kicked the machine harder than the last time as though demonstrating it to Niall, thus making the machine begin to work. "See!" She emphasised, slightly surprised herself that it had worked.

Niall only shook his head at her and didn't say anything as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the doorframe.

Ocean shot him daggers as though testing him to say something, but he didn't. Ocean frowned having liked the idea of arguing with him. Somehow arguing with Niall made her feel empowered; whenever she fought with Jasper there was never an end to their discussion. They both added fuel to the fire but unfortunately that fire never ceased and it became destructive. Niall, on the other hand, knew when to bite his tongue.

So, they just stared at each other. The adrenaline that was building inside Ocean in anticipation for the argument had began to diminish and she slowly began to let the thoughts at the back of her mind consume her.