Taking The Chance [A Niall Horan Fanfiction]

// Chapter Four //

I felt the train come to a halt as I slowly woke up. Although the shade on the window was pulled down, I still felt the sunlight diffuse through and warm my face. Raising my arms, I stretched my back, cramped from its uncomfortable position. When I regained full consciousness, I realized that something… or someone… was missing: Niall. I stood up a bit, peering around the car for him. He was nowhere in sight. The extremely cute blonde boy I have been lucky to travel with wasn’t sitting across from me, gazing outside the window deep in thought. At least, that’s the last thing I remember of him before I fell asleep.

Oh. Crap. I fell asleep in front of Niall. I closed my eyes and furrowed my eyebrows, completely embarrased. When I sleep, I snore lightly, my mouth hangs open slightly, and I drool a little, depending on how tilted my head is. I instantly raised my hand to the corners of my mouth; luckily there was no drool and I sighed in relief.

As I rubbed my eyes and yawned to wake myself up, I heard footsteps coming up the aisle of the car. “Well, good morning, sleeping beauty.” I smiled, hearing Niall’s familiar Irish accent. He scooted into his seat, holding a can of Red Bull and Fanta. “I got you a fizzy drink. You seem like an orange soda kind of girl.”

He handed me the can of Fanta. “Thank you,” I said politely, opening the can and taking a sip, “Refreshing. I needed that.”

He chugged down a large portion of his Red Bull, making a cute “ahh” noise afterwards. “It’s no problem. I figured you’d need that after sleeping for so long.”

My eyes widened. “How long was I sleeping?”

“For about an hour.” He drummed his fingers against the table. “It’s not an incredibly long time, but we’re only on this train for another hour and a half.”

“Oh,” I replied, somewhat disappointed. I was already bummed out that we probably wouldn’t see each other ever again, but I hoped that I would at least get to know Niall or obtain his Skype username while on the train. I wasted an hour of this valuable time sleeping! Now I only have an hour and a half left with him…

“You alright?” He asked, waving a hand over my face.

Blinking my eyes, I broke away from my train of thought. “Yeah, I’m fine. Did you say something?”

He raised an eyebrow before pointing straight. “I said we’re going to be going under the English Channel soon.” Surprised by his comment, I choked on my soda and started to cough loudly. He lightly placed his hand over mine. “Are you okay? Just breathe.” My throat ached, and I started to hyperventilate. Squeezing my hand, he looked at me, concerned. “Is something wrong?”

We’re going underwater. Under. Water. “Oh, um,” I paused, attempting to regain normal respiration, “I’m terrified of large bodies of water, even more being under large bodies of water. I-I don’t know how to swim, and it makes me nervous. Drowning and dying and stuff. I thought we were going over tracks, you know, above the water.”

“Hey, hey, don’t worry,” he cooed, holding my hand lightly with both of his hands now, “You won’t be able to tell that we’re underwater; it’s like we’re going through a humongous tunnel for an hour. Everything will be fine.”

Nodding, I closed my eyes and tried to even out my breath. I hesitantly smiled, feeling my muscles start to relax. I looked outside the window, absorbing the scenery outside. It was the last bit of scenery I’ll be seeing for an hour. “Okay, I think I’ll be good.”

“Good, just relax.” He then grinned, revealing his braces once again and giving me little goose bumps up and down my arm. I looked down and realized that Niall hadn’t let go of my hand. Not that I wanted him to or anything.