This Time

Chapter 16

I woke the next morning, feeling heavy lidded and sluggish. Rachel was being her usual loud self, very bright and annoying if you ask me. She shook everyone else awake, telling them in a delighted voice that it was time to get up.

I groaned and curled up against Niall, who wrapped his arms around me and kissed my head sleepily.

Rachel stood over us disapprovingly and kicked me until I got up, which caused Niall to reach his arms out like a child, making grabbing motions with his hands. I giggled and took hold of his hands, but instead of lying back down, I pulled him into a standing position in one swift motion.

After stumbling around a bit, he finally woke up properly by yawning and stretching for five minutes.

‘Come on Lucy.’ Rachel took my hand.

‘Where are you going?’ Liam asked as Zoe followed us. Rachel told the boys to clean up the campsite and make it look like we were never there. She then proceeded to tell them that we Atars, would go and find food. Their eyes lit up and they immediately started to dismantle the fireplace, eager at the thought of a hearty breakfast.

Zoe, Rachel and I trekked into the woods, giggling at the fact that they were about to receive flowers and roots to eat, seen as we weren’t exactly in a five star bed and breakfast.

As we walked, I brought up my theory again and the other two stopped.

‘Lucy, I didn’t want to say it in front of the boys, but I think you’re right.’ Zoe said, scowling.

‘There’s no other explanation for why he targeted you yesterday.’ Rachel added as she moved over to a patch of dandelions she had spotted.

I nodded stiffly, thinking over the previous day’s events. He had targeted me, not the others.

I was the reason Niall got hurt, the reason Zoe was still limping, the reason why Nicola....

I had to look upwards and blink furiously to keep the tears from flowing.

Suddenly, I didn’t feel like breakfast and it wasn’t because we were eating plants either.

‘Hey guys?’ Zoe said, shaking me from my thoughts.

Having both picked up on Zoe’s tone, Rachel and I looked up questioningly.

‘What do you think of Liam?’

Rachel smirked and looked at me as if to say “this one’s for you to handle”

I sighed and moved closer to Zoe, knowing exactly where the conversation was going.

At the Atar training camp, we had been trained in war, not love. I had to learn the hard way that it was much more difficult than smashing a concrete block with forcefields.

‘Zoe,’ I put my arm around the blonde girl.

‘I think Liam’s great... but one thing I’ve learnt about boys, or maybe just humans in general, is you shouldn’t try to control the path of a relationship.’

‘Just go with the flow and everything will work out.’ I winked at her and playfully punched her arm.

Rachel cracked up laughing and eventually Zoe joined in too. I just smiled at their lack of knowledge.

As we gathered more roots, the conversation got lighter until I mentioned something that completely soured the occasion. However, it needed to be said and probably not around the boys.

‘What do we do from here?’

We stood there in silence, looking into the distance. The boys might of been scared, but they didn’t have to worry like we did. We had the responsibility of protecting them, we had to lead them.

My stomach had a weird feeling in it, like it was hollowed out, but at the same time it felt heavy.

‘Sometimes you just have to go with the flow and everything will work out.’ Zoe quoted me.

She didn’t mean it jokingly, and none of us laughed either, but it did make me feel slightly better.

Once the roots were collected, we walked back in silence, feeling stressed out and tired.

Even Rachel didn’t try to lighten the mood. I guess she knew the dark cloud couldn’t be lifted.

At least, that’s what we thought.

When we reached the camp, it was completely empty and the boys had done a good job of covering out tracks. The only indicator was the fallen tree and the tiny blue flowers, but that would’ve meant nothing to Elicks or anyone else who happened to be passing through.

‘Where are they?’ I said, dropping everything I had gathered onto the log. My heart was racing and I could see the fear dawn on the other two as they dropped their roots as well.

‘Where are they?’ I asked again, panicking. ‘Niall?’ I screamed out.

‘NIALL?’ I repeated, feeling my stomach churn.

‘Yeah?’ I heard the Irish accent call back to me. The three of us sprinted in the direction of the voice, weaving through trees and jumping over bushes.

Suddenly, I heard something that made me stop. The other two girls skidded to a halt next to me and I held a finger to my mouth.

‘Hear that?’ I breathed, cupping my hand over my ear. There was a faint sound that I couldn’t quite pinpoint, but we slowly crept further through the trees, listening as the sound got louder.

A sudden burst of laughter made us all jump and I race towards it, breaking through the trees and into a clearing. I gasped at the scene, my hand jumping to my heart.

The sky overhead was a bright blue, the grass was a lush green and on the other side of the clearing was a creek, shallow and sparkling in the sun. Zayn and Liam stood to my right, while Harry and Louis were on my left. Niall was standing in front of the glistening stream with his hands behind his back.

‘This is gorgeous.’ Zoe said, running over to Liam.

Taking a hesitant step forward, I cocked my head to the side.

‘What’s going on?’ I asked, glancing at Louis, who looked like he was going to explode with happiness.

I kept walking towards Niall, who didn’t move but instead stood there and grinned.

As I approached the water, I faltered slightly. Was he going to push me in?

But as I stopped, he did walk forward to close the gap between us.

‘Lucy.’ He said, pausing to look over my head at the others before looking back down at me.

‘My whole life, I never thought I could feel so strongly about a person.’

‘You are inexplicably perfect and being apart from you is the most painful thing I have ever had to go through.’ He looked deep into my eyes and I felt my heart beat faster, but I didn’t look away.

‘I never want to be away from you again, so would you please do me the honour.’ He sunk down onto one knee and brought his hands out from behind his back.

‘Of becoming my wife?’ He raised the ring of a hundred tiny blue flowers. The stems were intricately weaved together and the outside was completely covered in the beautiful blossoms.

I held out my hand, feeling tears well up as he slid it onto my finger.

The inside had been smoothed with tree sap and it fit perfectly.

I looked down at it and couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. I then looked up at him and thought the same thing. There were excited whispers from behind me, but I ignored them and put both hands on his face, pulling him back up to my level.

I stared at his mouth and swallowed as I brought him closer. As I lightly brushed my lips over his, he pressed his body into mine.

With his chest so close, I could feel his heart beating and I knew he could feel mine too.

‘Will you marry me?’ He whispered, voice only audible to me.

Just before kissing him I answered with one short word.

‘Yes.’