1944 [n.h]

chapter eight

*Niall's pov*

Her lips.

Her lips put shame to every crimson rose in the world. Her teeth shamed every pearl lying on the seabed of every ocean. She put shame on every queen in existence, compared to her, they were inferior.

Every single aspect of her outshone every other thing in this world. All the colours of the sky became a dull masquerade compared to her. Every blade of freshly cut grass smelt of complete nothingness when faced with her. The hair of Rapunzel was thin and wiry in comparison to Lilly's.

And here I was. Here I was, a nothing from Ireland, kissing an everything from heaven. My fingers were tangled in her hair whilst her tiny, soft hands rested on my cheeks.

I was kissing her. And she was kissing me back and for that moment, everything else seemed obsolete.

Nothing else mattered to me in those moments. How could anything? My mind was fogged up with love for her, my head was numb and the only thing working were my lips. I couldn't feel my fingertips nor could I feel my toes. She'd consumed me, completely.

I wanted to hold her forever, she felt so small and so vulnerable against me. I wanted to pick her up and protect her from every bad thing out there, I wanted to teach her the ways of the world and I wanted her completely. A kiss, although beautiful in every single sense, wasn't enough.

*Lilly's pov*

I hoped he'd never pull away. I hoped he'd keep his lips against mine for eternity. Kissing a boy had never felt so special before. Not that I had anyone to compare it to, but if I had, I was certain this kiss would have put them all to shame. This was passionate, heated, this kiss put every other kiss in history to shame.

Nor Shakespeare, or Keats could sum up such a beautiful kiss that had just occurred between Niall and I. I would challenge them to describe the sincerity of this moment and the pure, raw feeling of his lips against mine.

I couldn't understand how I had lasted so long without kissing him, because now that I was, now that I was experiencing the soft touch of his lips, I never wanted to be without them, I never wanted to kiss another person for the rest of my life. I needed Niall and I needed him constantly.

Like all stunning moments though, ours ended.

Niall pulled away, resting his forehead against mine as he breathed slightly heavier than he was a moment ago.

A tired smile spread across my lips as I looked up to Niall. I can't believe I just kissed him, again. I just kissed Niall again.

"Hi." He breathed out and laughed faintly as his nose brushed against mine as I smiled up at him, blinking slowly like the entire world had completely slowed down.

My mother's shouts of my name slowly faded back in to my hearing, my mind re-joining reality as I tried my best to ignore it all and focus solely on Niall, I didn't want this moment to end, I didn't want to have to go back to reality. I wanted to look up at Niall tiredly and stay like this for longer. I didn't want to have to deal with the rest of the word.

"I'll come back for you." He whispered as I furrowed my eyebrows, unsure of what he meant. Before I could question his words, he had pulled away, aware of my mother storming towards us.

Within a moment I was back in my world. My mother was pulling me inside and Niall had disappeared. That beautiful moment had vanished, left in the past.

"What do you think that was?" My mother hissed, dragging me by the collar inside, past all of her companions with little shame and upstairs. She released her grip on me as soon as we entered the sitting room, leaving me to tumble backwards in fright.

But fright didn't even begin to cover what I was feeling. I was in a whirlwind of emotions and struggling to keep them at bay.

...

It had been over a week since I saw Niall. Eleven days to be exact. But it was after day five I gave up. I'd let the whole notion that he was going to come back to me and something between us was going to blossom eat away at me, before letting it fall to the wayside.

I had a life before Niall, and I'd have a life after Niall to, whether he came back to see me or if he didn't. He'd only been in my life, briefly, for six weeks and if he thought one kiss was going to drive me insane, he was wrong.

Ruth on the other hand, was a little more perturbed than me. Every single evening she walked in to the house, flopped down on my bed and asked one question. It was the same question every day and this time was no different.

"Has he been around?"

I let out an exasperated groan and sat up, leaning my back against my wall. "You know all too well he hasn't." I murmured and closed my eyes briefly, soaking in the last of the day's sunlight.

"Robert said Niall's been training real hard lately." Ruth mumbled, picking at her long shiny nails as I stared down at the rug, completely disinterested. "Maybe that's the reason he hasn't been around?"

"Or the excuse."

I was mad, fuming at niall. He kissed me and left me standing on my toes. He just ran, he left me to deal with my mother and the entire of the village, and just ran, like a coward. I kept letting myself fall for him, every time he kissed me, I let myself back in to his life. And I shouldn't have. I was immature, he was immature.

I shouldn't have even cared. I should have seen it coming. He'd done this to me before. He'd played me, hard. And I was stupid for believing this time could have been any different.

Ruth tutted and twirled her hair around her long, slender fingers. "Well I'm going to the pub tomorrow with a couple of the guys, meet me there?" She asked nonchalantly as she began to get ready to leave. I didn't bother to answer, she knew I'd turn up.