Lightweight

Chapter Eighteen

"Hey pretty girl, wake up," the chuckle of Niall's voice broke through the barriers of Annie's sleepy mind and arose her enough to break her partially out of her narcoleptic state.

Through fluttering eyelashes the view of Niall's smiling face came into view and Annie's lips couldn't help but stretch and form into a silly little smile. Her stiff body held rigid until her limbs began to stretch and loosen up and a tiny groan of exhaustion escaped from her lips.

"Ah, there's those beautiful eyes," Niall cooed and Annie couldn't help but note the way the sunlight danced off of his eyes, illuminating them as they peered down at her in earnest.

"You woke up before me," Annie mused and smiled up at him. The comfort and familiarity of her bed informed Annie of her surroundings and the memories of yesterday's proceedings flooded her memory.

*****

After falling asleep to the steady rhythm of Niall's heartbeat in conjunction with the breathing in and out of his lungs Annie finally woke up to see a pink sky. She didn't know how long she had been out but Niall had already woken up and was content as he watched her sleeping form on top of him.

"Nice of you to wake up," Natasha laughed and smacked Annie's butt as she walked by.

Only then did Annie roll off of Niall and onto her feet. She must have been asleep for some time for the sky to have transformed into the salmon colored hue that presented itself before her. How had she slept that long? It must have been from sheer comfortableness as Niall held her securely in his arms and kept the world from interrupting her slumbering state, who would have wanted to be woken up from that?

"Sorry," Annie apologized to Niall and he took her hand.

"For what?" he asked and Annie's heart melted.

"Hey you," Natasha called and walked over to her, completely disrupting whatever moment was being shared between Niall and her, "When was the last time you ate?"

"What? Oh, I'm not sure," Annie admitted and Natasha shoved a bag of chips and a sandwich into her hand, both of which she was unaware of their origin or how they had gotten onto the boat.

"You need to eat," Natasha glowered down at her and Annie looked at Niall who was watching the exchange in confusion.

"I'm not hungry," Annie protested teeth through clenched and tried to put the unwanted food down.

Natasha's hand shot out and stopped her from moving and putting the food away, "Eat or I swear I will shove that shit right down your throat if I have to."

"Can I please talk to you for a minute?" Annie asked in a harsh warning tone and eyed the many people who had now invested a keen interest in the exchange of words.

Natasha shrugged an agreement and they walked to the bow of the boat before quickly jumping off to the sand in order to get away from the group of prying ears who had all become very attentive to the transaction of words between the two of them.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Annie spat once they were in a safe distance away from the others.

"The same could be asked to you. Why aren't you eating?" Natasha shot back.

"I'm not hungry," Annie explained through gritted teeth. Why was this such a big deal?

"I don't care, Annie. I know what is best for you and I swear to god I will go on that boat and make that poor captain drive us all the way back to Connecticut if you do not take a bite of that sandwich," Natasha warned.

Annie tore away the plastic wrapping and sunk her teeth into the soft bread, not even caring about what lied in between the two pieces of starch. "Happy?" Annie asked with her mouth full and continued to chew.