screaming color // n.h. au

part 7

cole blames the whole thing on niall. it's his fault, really. because he's the one who gave her the book in the first place.

he'd come rushing up to her at lunch, looking frantic, his hair windblown and his cheeks red. cole'd been a little bit worried when she first spotted him, but then he smiled.

"cole, you have to read this!" he slammed the book down on the table in front of her. april sat nearby, looking mildly amused.

"'gone girl,'" cole read from the cover. "isn't that a movie?"

"yeah, but you have to read the book," niall said. he pulled out the chair next to cole's and sat down, managing to brush against her in the process.

"sure," cole said. she picked the book up and put it in her backpack, and then she completely forgot about it.

forgot about it until two nights later, when she uncovers it searching for her favorite pen, which she coincidentally does not find and is sure niall probably stole.

and then she opens the book, and doesn't put it down until nearly 1 am, when she goes to take out her contacts and spots a spider on the ceiling.

cole has never been fond of spiders. she's never really been tolerant of them, either. this one is particularly massive – she'll swear later that it has at least 16 legs, not 8. double the legs, double the scary.

it doesn't really occur to cole that it's 1 am when she shoots out of her room and down the hallway, and it doesn't really occur to her that niall's probably asleep when she knocks once on his door and then pushes it open without hesitation. the door opens easily, but that doesn't surprise her - niall never locks his door, no matter how many times she tells him that he should, because someone could steal his laptop or something.

it does surprise her, though, that niall is sprawled out on his bed, shirtless and asleep. the blankets are caught low on his waist, just revealing the top of his boxers. the sight of him makes her breath catch, and she almost turns around. it's strange, seeing him like this. she shouldn't be here. but then he stirs. he shifts on the bed, lifting his arm in front of his eyes to block the light streaming in from the hallway.

"cole?" he lowers his hand and blinks at her. "what are you doing?"

"there's a spider in my room." she realizes then how pathetic she is, a 19 year old girl standing in her stocking feet in her sort of best friend's room at 1 in the morning because she's too afraid to kill a spider.

"well, what do you expect me to do about it?" niall grumbles, closing his eyes again. "i'm sleeping."

"niall! i can't go to sleep if it's in there!"

"then sleep here," niall says. he scoots over on the small twin bed to make space for her. "shut the door, i'm sleeping."

cole lets the door fall shut behind her and stands for a minute in the doorway, wiggling her toes on the carpet. then she remembers the spider.

"your feet are cold," niall mutters when she climbs into the bed beside him.

"deal with it," she says.

it will be months and months and months before niall will convince cole to wear socks to bed, months and months and months before "to bed" means four feet under one blanket, her bed or his, but not both.

but cole doesn't know that yet. all she knows tonight is niall's arm wrapped around her waist and the brief thought just before she falls asleep that maybe this is what's been missing all along.