Stranded with Niall Horan || n.h.

Chapter 7 - Our Very Own Titantic

After me and Niall grabbed a plateful of food (the buffet was all things seafood this time), we sat down at the table with the others. But as I was about to put a fork full of delicious grub into my mouth, Isabella and Chelsea got up simultaneously.

“Nina, we’re going to the bathroom…join us?” Isabella asked as she grabbed her purse.

Seriously? I looked at Niall, who had an eyebrow raised. I quickly stuffed some food into my mouth before I scampered off into the restroom.

“Well, I’ll just cut to the chase.” Isabella said as she screwed the cap back on her mascara, “Guess who’s officially going out with a hot British boy?” she asked excitedly.

“You?!” I asked with glee. Yep, you heard me. Glee.

“Ha, I wish. But I was talking about this one over here.” she said as she pointed to Chelsea, who’s normally pale face turned rosy. My mouth opened as I leaped over to Chelsea and took her hands in mine.

“My, my blushing beauty. Tell me everything.” I insisted.

“Well, we were playing songs for each other – either ones we wrote or ones we liked – and he sang me a really romantic song he wrote and then he finished…and there was just this moment, so I leaned in and kissed him.”

“Wait.” I interrupted. “You made the first move?”

She nodded happily. “Yes!”

“Aww.” I said adoringly. I was a hopeless romantic. I always rooted for the Romeo’s and Juliet’s in the world, minus the whole dying part.

Meanwhile, the boys were having a discussion of their own and it was freakishly similar to ours.

“So, how was everyone’s day?” Liam asked as he moved a shrimp around on his plate.

“Good. But guess who has a brand-new, one-of-a-kind girlfriend?” Zayn asked.

“Nice job, dude. I knew you’d snag her sooner or later.” Niall said as he reached his arm over the table and offered Harry a high-five.

Harry let out a laugh and high-fived the oblivious Niall.

Zayn scoffed. “It’s me. Me and Chelsea are together now, thank you.”

“Oh, my fault Zayn.” Niall said as he gave the high-five to its rightful owner.

"Great job Niall." Liam slapped his back.

“So, how did that happen?” Niall asked.

“Well...”

“They were basically serenading each other, and one thing led to another, and then bada-bing bada-boom…she kisses him.” Louis said as he interrupted the now blushing Zayn.

Zayn looked over at Louis and patted him on the back. “Thanks for giving Niall that…brilliant update.” He then focused on Niall again and added “She kissed me after I sang the song I wrote yesterday.”

“Does she know it’s about her?” Niall asked. Zayn shook his head. “Well, we better keep it hush-hush because here comes Lover Girl and her party of two.” Niall added in a low voice.

As we sat down in our seats, I looked over at Niall and asked “Do you know what I know?”

“I don’t know.” he responded. “Is what I know the same thing you know?”

“I think you four know what we all know, so I propose a toast.” Isabella said as she raised her glass in the air. “To the happy couple.”

Everyone said “cheers” in unison, and after the clinking of glasses and the sipping of beverages, we started our feast. As I cracked open a crab leg, an announcement came over the intercom.

“Good evening, passengers. I have just received word that a tropical storm is coming our way. We are going to go a bit off-course in attempts to avoid it. More announcements will be made when information becomes available. Thank you.”

Our table sort of brushed the announcement off. These things happen, and the crew seemed to have it under control. We ate merrily for a while, until we heard the side of the boat scrape viciously against something.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain. Our attempts to go off-course resulted in the boat scraping against some protruding, jagged rocks in the water. The crew is doing their best to assess the situation…but I order all passengers to return to their cabins and await further instructions.”

We quickly jolted from our table and ran off to the exits, as did about a hundred other people. The boys decided to join us in our cabin, which was probably a good thing because I’m sure we would have panicked if we were by ourselves. I don’t know about Isabella or Chelsea, but I felt strangely comforted when the boys were with us. As if we were free from harm. We waited anxiously on word from the captain, as an eerie silence fell upon all of us. Chelsea nestled her face into Zayn’s chest as they sat on the couch, while he stroked her hair absentmindedly; Isabella sat on the coffee table as Harry paced around the room nervously; Louis and Liam were looking out the window to see if they could see anything; Niall and I sat on the floor with our backs against the wall. It was all so surreal. Why, just a couple of hours ago, Niall and I acted out the infamous scene from the Titanic. And now, we had our very own Titanic-like crisis.

“Attention passengers, this is your captain. There was more damage done to the ship than we expected and the ship is sinking. We have sent distress calls to the U.S. Coast Guard and other nearby ships, but until we can be rescued I am ordering all passengers to put on their life jackets – located in every cabin closet – and come up to the deck. The situation is dire, but I urge you to remain calm and act quickly.”

As Liam ran out of the room, Louis pulled open the closet door and threw life jackets at us. Liam returned to the room, bearing extra life jackets, and distributed them to the rest of us. I slipped my messenger bag over my shoulder and put the life jacket on over it; I realized I couldn’t bring all of my possessions with me, but my bag did give me the sense that all was not lost. I looked around the room one last time. It was hard to believe it was going to be underwater soon enough. I closed the door behind me and followed the others up to the deck.

The deck was so packed full of people that it was hard to move. It was like a big, suffocating sea of orange life jackets. We managed to squeeze past the throngs of passengers and found our way to the railing. I looked over the edge and saw that the ship was indeed lower than it usually was. I slowly backed away from the rail, terrified. Niall pulled me into his chest and held me close, and I couldn’t help but sob. He shushed me gently and stroked my wet hair. Yes, it started raining while we were up there. The tropical storm we were trying to avoid ended up finding us anyway. So now, we were going to be in the middle of a huge storm, with only our skimpy, little lifeboats keeping us out of the water. Great. Just fan-freakin’-tastic.

Somewhere in the middle of the crowd, a man stood up on a box and bellowed through his loudspeaker. “Your attention please.” This immediately quieted the worried crowd. “We will now be boarding passengers onto the lifeboats. There is no need to rush, we have enough space for everyone, and the ship is not sinking as fast as we thought. If we board the lifeboats in a calm and quick manner, getting everyone off this boat and into safety will be much easier.”

Crew members began to set up the boarding sites and people filed on in a somewhat orderly fashion. There were a couple cases of people going hysterical, but overall, it seemed to be going along smoothly. There was no stupid rule of “women and children only,” so luckily families were not broken up like they were on Titanic, and there was no violin ensemble playing for us. So, the mood could have been worse. I didn't feel like I was going to die just yet. A gust of wind rushed past us and I shivered as the cold air brushed against my wet body.

Niall held me tighter as he kissed the top of my head and whispered. “I promise I’m not going to let anything happen to you, okay?”

I nodded into his chest. I looked over at Isabella and Chelsea to see them in the same position I was in. They all thought alike, and we were eternally grateful. We slowly moved closer and closer to the boarding site, but minutes seemed like hours and hours seemed like days. Finally, after what seemed like forever, it was our turn to claim a lifeboat.

We climbed into the boat, happy to finally be off the sinking vessel. A couple of families followed us into the boat right after one of the father’s chucked their suitcases into the deep, dark ocean (which seemed to be a popular trend among the passengers. Scattering their luggage into the water, I mean. I sort of regretted not doing the same). When our last passenger entered our boat – a member of the crew – the boat was lowered into the water. I looked at the cruise ship and it was halfway gone. There were not that many people left on the ship, but it still looked awfully daunting. We rowed a bit away from the ship and joined the other lifeboats in the middle of nowhere.

The rain came down harder, the wind came faster, and the waves grew higher. As waves of water crashed against our little boat, I looked down at my bare legs and wished I had changed out of my dress and into something warmer. I then started to fiddle with my life jacket a bit – it was a little looser than I preferred and it was better to be safe than sorry, right?

As I started to tighten it, the crew member shouted, “Everyone hold on…this is going to be a big one.”

Everyone grabbed on to their seats or to the edge of the boat and I tried to do the same just a couple seconds later, but it was too late. The force of the wave sent me flying into the ocean some distance away from the lifeboat. I managed to reach the surface of the water, only to have my eyes sting like crazy.

“Help…me!” I managed to cry out as wave after wave came over me, pushing me back into the murky deep. I struggled to keep my face above the water, and I was scared to death that every short breath of air I could take would be my last.

After Niall spotted where I was, he dived in as fast as he could and swam towards me at full speed. I don’t know how he did it, but in a matter of seconds, he grabbed me and pulled me towards him.

“Hold on to me.” he managed to shout over the clapping waves. I held the strap of his life jacket as the ocean continued to swallow us and spit us back out. Iit was a vicious cycle, really. As we came up for the third time, Niall tried to swim back to the boat. But the boat seemed to be farther away than it was a minute ago.

“Either the current is pushing them away…or it’s pulling us away.” Niall said as he struggled to swim towards the distant boat.

I attempted to swim to the lifeboat as well, and found it completely useless; the current was too strong.

Niall spotted a suitcase floating by. “Get on.” he said as he snatched it. I flung half my body over the suitcase as he tried to get on with me, but the weight of the two of us made the whole thing go underwater. He decided to stay off the suitcase and held on to the handle. Iit was really awkward just laying on the suitcase by myself, so I slid off and joined him in the water.

“What are you doing?” he asked as he started kicking his legs in the water. “Get back up there.”

I shook my head, flinging water droplets everywhere. “No, I’m not going anywhere without you. We’re in this together.”

Another huge wave of water smashed against our battered bodies as we held on tightly to the suitcase.

“Are you sure?” he asked when our heads emerged. I nodded and he sighed in defeat.

“Where are we going?” I asked as we swam in some odd direction.

“Wherever the current takes us.” he said as he looked back at the lifeboat one last time. I turned and looked at it too. I looked at it and I probably would have needed binoculars to make sure I was looking at the right one. And the ship, it was gone.