Convalescence

XIII.

~ mood for the chapter :)

Lili woke up the next morning feeling more refreshed than she anticipated.

When she turned off her lamp before bed, she expected to spend the whole night tossing and turning from anxiety.

From the moment she closed her eyes and laid her head on her pillow, there wasn't a doubt in her mind that she would be riddled with nightmares until the sun came up.

But it was a good omen for the day that she didn't open her eyes once during the entire night. Things were bound to be good from here on out.

She had even slept in later than usual - by the time she woke up and had some kind of breakfast, it was closing in on noon.

It was strange to be starting her day after the world had already been functioning outside her window for a few hours.

But waking up with a smile on her face and little to no nerves made Lili feel good. It was going to be a fun day spent with the boy she adored most in the entire world.

Her feelings were a bit confusing, though - she simultaneously felt no nerves at all, but was also more nervous than she'd been before their first date.

A lot of it had to do with how self-conscious she was, and those feelings were quite hard to just push aside and ignore.

All she'd ever wanted was to feel good about herself and be happy with the body she had, but it was easier said than done.

And who knows how many beautiful girls Niall has seen in bikinis throughout his lifetime? How could she possibly live up to these unknown women?

But was that really her main concern right now? Other women in the world wearing bikinis around Niall? What kind of pathetic train of thought was that?

She could guarantee he wasn't even going to think about thinking about other women today. She needed to get over this mindset that everyone around her was better than she was.

Lili pressed her feet flat on the cold hardwood floor of her bedroom and padded over to the washroom, flipping the light switch up. The light burned her tired eyes.

Glancing at her reflection in the mirror, she couldn't help but smile. She admired the curve of her lips and the apples of her cheeks. Her eyes were shining and were the prettiest shade of green she'd seen in a while.

All things considered, maybe she could see why Niall was always so quick to call her beautiful.

Smiling a bit wider, she leaned over and pushed the shower curtain to the side just enough so she could turn the water on.

Even though she was going to be swimming and getting covered in chlorine, she took a fast shower just to wake herself up and energize her body a bit.

She shaved her legs and underarms quickly, regretting not doing it the night before. At the last second, she decided to do more than just clean up her bikini line as well.

In the event that things got...hot...she wanted to be prepared. Not that she was expecting anything to happen...

Okay, so maybe it was something she'd thought about. Multiple times.

It wasn't as if she didn't want anything to happen...

It all depended on whether or not Niall had thought about it, too. She would never, ever do anything he didn't want to do or wasn't prepared to do.