With Every Moment Left (Niall Horan) Book 2

Chapter 20

Niall’s POV

“Come on Niall, come play with us, we need a fourth member” Louis begs.

“Why don’t you go find Liam?” I ask from where Rachel and I were sitting on the side lines. The lads were trying to put together a 2-on-2 football game.

“He’s with Danielle today” he says, a pleading look in his eyes. I sigh and look at Rachel.

“Go” she says giving me a little shove to get me up. I look in her eyes, searching for any doubt but don’t find any and reluctantly turn back to Louis.

“Ok” I agree finally. The weeks had flown by, Rachel had been here for over a two months now and I could sense her health rapidly deteriorating. Some days we would do things with the lads while other days we would just hang out just the two of us and go for a walk if she was feeling well enough or watch a movie on the days she was feeling sick. Sometimes I couldn’t believe that just a couple weeks ago we had leaped out of a plane and now she struggled to climb the stairs herself. I think back to the first few weeks of her visit, a light smile playing over my face. Ever since that night, after our parents had gone to bed, I’d go to her room and we’d sleep together. Not always doing something, but just holding her in my arms helped me to fall asleep.

“Yayy” Louis squeals jolting me back to reality as he jumps up and down. “Thank you Rachel” he says running over and giving her a quick hug. I hear the gentle tinkle of her laugh as she hugs Louis back before he takes off back onto the football field. I look back at her one more time and she smiles and gives me a shooing motion and I turn back toward the field. We team up Zayn and I against Louis and Harry. I glance over at Rachel and she gives me a thumbs-up. We play for a while until Louis and Harry eventually concede. Despite what Harry says, he really isn’t that good at football. He could barely kick the ball in a straight line. I jog back to where Rachel is sitting.

“Eww don’t touch me, you’re all sweaty,” she says with a laugh jokingly pushing me away as I try to give her a kiss. I grin pressing a kiss on her cheek anyways. She stands up and jumps on my back. I’m momentarily shocked by how light she had gotten. It didn’t feel like I was carrying anything.

“What happened to me being all sweaty?” I ask jokingly as she wraps her arms around my neck and her legs around my stomach.

“It’s not like I’m not used to it by now” she says cheekily with a wink. I smile, grabbing hold of her legs as I head back towards the lads carrying her over. “Harry maybe if you spent less time trying to show off you’d be able to score” she teases Harry. He grins.

“Well maybe if there wasn’t a pretty girl for me to show off to, I wouldn’t have been so distracted” he replies with a wink. The boys had gradually grown to accept her more. I knew they were still wary because of the whole situation but they treated her like family now because they knew how much she meant to me. She laughs shaking her head at Harry, rolling her eyes and wrapping her arms around me tighter. Today was a good day.

We head back to my house where the lads had been staying for a few days. They had complained that they missed me and I was ignoring them so they had invited themselves over to my house for the weekend. We walk inside and I flop back on the couch. Rachel screams as I fall backwards and land on top of her.

“Get off me fatty,” she says jokingly attempting to push me off.

“But I’m comfy” I say jokingly before sitting up and pulling her onto my lap.

“Movie time!” Louis yells as he walks into the room carrying a few DVD’s in his hand.

“What are we going to watch?” Rachel asks.

“Umm we’ve got Poltergeist, The Shining, and Paranormal Activity,” he says looking through the movies with a smirk. Rachel raises an eyebrow.

“Horror movies huh?” she asks.

“Awww is little Rachel scared” Harry asks in a baby voice. “Well when little Rachel is scared she can cuddle up to her big strong man and he’ll protect you” he says shooting Niall a grin. I smirk slightly rolling my eyes. I pull Rachel closer to me.

“I’ll keep you safe” I say to her with a cheesy smile causing her to laugh.

“Of course you will,” she says with a smile, patting my cheek as Louis puts in a movie.

Rachel’s POV

The movie was coming to an end and I looked around the room seeing the petrified expressions on all the boys faces. I almost laughed. Little did they know I wasn’t scared by horror movies. I had always been fascinated with them when I was younger so my mom and I had made it a tradition to watch them together at least once a week. I feel Niall jump next to me as someone jumps out on the screen and I have to bite my lip to keep from laughing. I look down and see Harry and Louis cowering against each other on the floor by my feet, covering each others eyes. I grin wickedly as I creep my face in between their ears.

“Boo” I say grabbing each of their shoulders, jolting them slightly. They both let out blood curdling screams as they jump to their feet. Their screams cause both Zayn and Niall to jump also, which causes me to burst out laughing.

“Not funny Rachel” Harry sputters out recovering first from shock.

“You…should…have….seen….your….faces” I say gasping for air grabbing my sides trying not to start laughing again.

“Alright Alright” Zayn says turning off the tv. “I think it’s time for bed now.”

“I don’t want to sleep by myself” Louis whimpers looking around as if he expected something to jump out at him.

“You can sleep with me” Harry says as he begins to walk back to his room. Louis nods before quickly scampering after him.

“Goodnight” Zayn says heading to his room.

“I don’t want to sleep by myself either,” I say with a mock whimper, jokingly clutching Niall’s arm pretending to be scared. “Will my big strong man keep me safe?” I ask trying my best not to break character. Niall just shakes his head with a laugh.

“Come along then” he says picking me up in his arms. “Lets go to bed”

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