Guarded

||twelve||

It's Saturday morning and I've decided to go on a walk through the small park behind my house.

I spot Michaela and Jeremy walking down the path hand in hand. They're all smiles and giggles. I wave as I walk past, but they don't see.

Two arms latch around my waist and a head rests on my shoulder.

"Morning, Cassie," Niall says into my ear.

"How'd you find me?" I ask.

"I went to your house and your mum told me you went to the park." He smiles. "C'mon, lets go to the swings."

I take a seat on a swing and try my best to pump my legs and make me go higher. Niall doesn't bother to sit down and comes up behind me. He takes the two chains on my swing and pulls them back. He lets them go and I'm pushed through the air with the wind blowing my chestnut hair. Niall talks to me as he pushes me on the swing.

"You know, my Grandmum has never been so fond of anybody I've visited her with. She really likes you. She called me last night just to talk about you," he says.

"Really?" I reply. "She likes me? I couldn't tell." I laugh at my own sarcasm.

"Yeah." Niall laughs, too. "She adores you. She still thinks we're dating though."

"Oh, well. Let her think what she wants," I blurt out, not thinking about my words.

At the peak of my swing, I decide, for some crazy reason, to jump off. Niall rushes in front of me to catch me so I don't land on the hard wood chips. He doesn't necessarily catch me, but I land on top of him. He stares up into my brown eyes as I stare back down into his ocean colored ones.

"Oooh, what's going on over here?" A girl's voice says.

I look up to see Emme and Liam standing hand in hand. Emme has a huge smirk on her face. I immediately get off of Niall and stand up, fixing my shorts and shirt.

"We, uh,-" Niall starts, but doesn't know how to explain.

"I jumped off the, uh, swing and Niall was gonna catch me and, um," I help him out.

"I tried to catch her, but she just landed on top of me instead." Niall scratches the back of his neck. "Very awkward, very awkward."

"Oh, yes. Super awkward," I chime in.

Emme still has a smirk planted on her face and her eyebrow is raised. "Suurree," she says, slyly.

We sit in awkward taciturnity for a few long moments.

"Well, it was lovely seeing you guys." Liam breaks the silence. "We better get going. C'mon, babe."

"Later, Cass." Emme winks. "Bye, Niall."

We return the farewells and they both walk away.

"Well, that was fun," Niall says with a small chuckle.

"Oh, yes. Very fun." I giggle.

We stand there, looking at each other in complete quietude. There's something about when we just sit next to each other and not say anything. It's not awkward or uncomfortable. It's just nice and peaceful.

We walk back to my house and get some breakfast. My mum made double-chocolate chip pancakes for us.

"These are delicious, Mrs. Billoway," Niall says with his mouth full.

"Thank you," my mum says with a wide grin. "And it's Ms. Billoway, just by the way."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't-" Niall's face turns worried.