Stranded with Niall Horan || n.h.

Chapter 18 - Torn Apart

I remember the next morning as being wet. No, it wasn’t raining like it was last night. I was talking about myself. I woke up that morning, my face nuzzled into Niall’s chest, and my shirt clung to my skin because of all the sweat. I looked at his shirt to see and it looked relatively dry. It must have been me, me and this stupid ‘fever.’ I wondered what it was. I wondered what I could do to make it go away.

I turned back to look at Niall. His body moved up and down in accordance with his relaxed breathing. He looked so peaceful, like he was far, far away from here. I smiled. He reminded me of a fallen angel, sent to earth just to save me. 

A chill went through my body and it made my arms brush lightly against his. Our brief contact made his eyes flutter open. He focused on my face and let out a long sigh.

“Good morning beautiful.” he said as his fingers traced my cheeks. His hand rested on my shoulder for a small second, before he retracted it quickly toward him.

“Nina!” he exclaimed. “My God! Your shirt is damp!”

“I know, it’s the sweat.” I said flatly. As if I didn’t already feel unattractive, he had to make it blatantly obvious.

“Oh, Nina I’m sorry I didn’t mean to offend you or anything. It’s just…” he sat up and held his forehead in his palms, as his elbows rested on his raised knees. “It’s just so hard for me to see you like this. You have no idea how much I want you to get better.”

I bit my lip and lightly patted his back. “I know.” I said. “I’m frustrated with myself too.”

He turned to look at me. “Do you feel well enough to get out of this cave?”

“Don’t know. Where do you want to go?”

Niall shrugged. “Anywhere but here. It’s gotten too stuffy.” I looked around and agreed. He got up and pulled me up next to him. He bent down and grabbed a condom of water.

“Are we sharing?” I asked.

“No, this one’s all you.”

“Niall! C’mon, I understand that I’m sick and need to be hydrated but you need to take care of yourself too!”

“Hey, hey.” he said in a somewhat stern tone. “I managed to sleep without sweating out all of the very little water in my body, so it’ll be my word that we’re trusting.” He gave me a sideways glance before adding, “Besides, you don’t have to worry about me, I’ll be fine.”

I held onto him for support as we made our way to a palm tree that was not too far off from the ‘SOS’ we spelled out with rocks. Niall sat down, using the trunk of the palm tree to lean on. I laid down next to him, propping my head up with my hand.

“I remember when we made that.” I said, as I gazed out toward our word. “You had just broken your arm and I made myself in charge of it.”

“Yeah, except that I got like 99% of the rocks…”

“Only because you were being a gentleman about it! I could have pulled my fair share if you weren’t so macho.” I said as I slapped him. He had on a green shirt with toucans on it, but he didn’t button it so that the front of his chest was exposed. My hand lingered on his toned stomach.

He chuckled. “Fine, I guess I was being a bit stubborn.” He placed his hand on top of mine. “I remember that night… when I serenaded you and we danced under the stars.”

“I remember that night too. It was a good night.”

“It was a great night.” he corrected. He smiled at the warmth my hand had on his chest. “We’ve had some good memories together, Nina.”