Whenever You Remember (A Niall Horan Fan-Fiction)

Chapter 10

By five AM I was so exhausted that I almost passed out in the hot tub.

"Truth or dare?" Jake ducked under the water and re-emerged, his wet curls plastered to his forehead.

"Green Eggs, can we please go in and go to sleep? I don't want to play anymore," I whined.

"No," my brother glared at me sternly, his glassy eyes searching somewhere over my shoulder. "We'll sleep when we're dead."

I sighed and turned to Niall, who was supposed to be picking a truth or dare. The party was over, but Jake insisted on keeping the fun flowing. And that was how we wound up in the hot tub with cold beers in our hands. Zayn was the only guest left at this point. After our story time in the woods Niall and I had stayed up in the tree house for a few more hours as he dozed on my shoulder, then we rejoined the party as everyone was beginning to filter out. Zayn stayed behind to help clean up, but Jake decided that cleaning could be done in the morning while fun could only be had now. So he stripped and jumped in the pool. When he saw that none of us looked interested in joining in his skinny dipping he opted for a hot tub session instead. We joined him after he promised to put his boxers back on.

"Dare," Niall's starry blue eyes blinked sleepily, his lashes practically brushing his rosy cheeks as he tried to stay awake. The warm water seemed to have a lulling effect on everyone except Jake, who was slapping the surface of the hot tub like a curly headed seal.

"I dare you to moon us," Jake giggled like a little girl, his green eyes dancing as if his dare was the most ridiculously crazy thing to have ever been suggested in the history of mankind. "Bet ya won't."

Niall stood up lazily and turned his back on us, dropping his boxers for a few seconds before pulling them back up and sinking down into the hot water. He yawned loudly and rested his head on my shoulder as his eyes drifted shut.

Jake was in stiches and I found myself wondering just how much he had to drink. I'd never seen him this giddy before.

"He showed us his butt," Jake squealed, his loud laugh provoking Zayn to roll his eyes. "We saw his butt!"

"Mate, we saw a whole lot more than just your butt earlier," Niall mumbled sleepily. With each passing second he leaned more and more into me, the bare length of his arm pressing against mine bringing out goosebumps even though we were submerged in water whose temperature hit triple digits. I checked to make sure he kept his cast out of the water before relaxing into him.

Jake kept giggling as Zayn stood up, the water running down his bare chest as he climbed out of the hot tub. "I think I'm going to head home. Night guys."

"Don't go!" Jake launched himself at Blake and wrapped a hand around his ankle, his slim body flopped across Niall's lap and mine. "Please don't leave us."

Zayn easily stepped out of his grasp and Jake slid dramatically back into the water, his scream of "No!" ending in bubbles as his head disappeared underneath the surface.

"You should probably get him to bed," Zayn indicated the bubbling mass underneath the water. "Or lock him away from the rest of the human population for a few hours."

"Will do," I nudged Jake's body with my foot and he popped to the surface, a fountain of water dripping from his curls. "Come on Green Eggs, it's bed time."

"Not tired!" he scrambled out of the hot tub and took off at a scampering run across the pool deck, wet footsteps left in his wake as I slowly slipped out as well. I forgot Niall had been leaning against me and the minute I stood up he crashed down, his head tumbling under the water for a second before he pulled up in shock.