Everything I Never Asked For

Chapter 18

NIALL'S POV

Jade stays close to me as we head down the trail. Our beams of light guide our way. The weather is warm even at night and the air is still.

"Whoa!" I yell stopping in place and Jade halts. I look to the right and flash my light into the trees. "I think I heard something."

"Really? I'm not falling for that." I turn and she looks at me with a raised eyebrow. "But nice try."

"You're good." I compliment and keep walking. The mellow sound of crickets and our shoes crushing the leaves are the only sounds when we aren't speaking.

"I'm going to go back if that's going to become a regular thing." I hear her say behind me.

"Shhh. You know you won't go back alone."

"I won't?" She challenges. I turn around and she almost bumps into me. I wait a moment and when she doesnt expect it I snatch her flashlight.

"You wont be going anywhere without this!" I speed walk a few steps away from her until she catches me by my collar.

"Hey give that back!" She begins to beat on my back. I stick the flashlight in the front of my shorts where she can't grab it.

"Aw you're sick!" She grimaces. She doesn't insist for it back anymore and just holds on to my shoulder. We aren't far from our destination and I can already see the clearing coming up. I try to avoid the plants because I really have no idea what poison oak looks like. At the end of the small trail, I can see the rocky bank adjacent to the dark lake.

"We're here." I turn my light out and the only thing keeping it from being pitch black is the moonlight and the stars above.

JADE'S POV

Niall turns off the flashlight and I'm about to say something but I'm speechless when I look passed him. The moon is full and bright, standing high in the sky like the queen of the world looking down upon her kingdom. Her light gliscens in the deep blue lake water as she admires her own reflection. The mountains roll all around as dark giants and all is silent during the realm of night besides a faint hum of crickets. I look up and see the moon's sea of jewels sparkling far up in the sky where they remain untouched. This is all so incredible I just have to gasp.

And I do when suddenly I feel Niall close to me in the darkness. He grabs my hand in his and his body is inches away from mine.

"Come with me." He nearly whispers. He walks away, tugging my arm to follow and I look at our joined hands with surprise. His hand isn't too big like a lot of guys' but it can easily cover mine completely. Why is he holding my hand? Kayla and Alex would be so pissed if they saw this. Frankly, I don't care anymore.

His small gesture warms my heart and I decide not to let go. Him and I with this beautiful scenary, it's quite romantic. He planned this just for me and I can't help but build I tiny soft spot.

When I catch up with him he begins to walk awkwardly. Does he know how to walk while holding someones hand? I'm sure his parents have walked him across the street hand in hand or something so maybe he's just nervous. He clasps my hand without locking our fingers and I find it cute because that shows me that he must be a noob at this. Something about him is just so innocent and fragile beneath his normal spunky attitude. He leads me down the rocky bank closer to the lake and stops near the edge. He takes a seat and pulls me down with him. The rocks hurt my butt so I have to adjust.

"Do you like it?" He finally says after a long period of silence.

"Yeah." I manage a smile. "I love it actually." He looks up at me and that sparkle in his eye shows me he's excited about making me happy. Our hands lay together between us, resting on the pebbles.

"So Niall, tell me about yourself." I ask, breaking the ice again. If we are going to be sitting here we might as well be talking.

"My name is Niall." He says and I bump his shoulder with mine.

"Because I didn't know that right?" We both let out a little laugh.

"What do you want to know?" He moves our hands on top of his lap now.

"I dont know.. how'd you meet Alex?" That's one of the least creepy questions I could think of. For some reason he starts giggling out of control.

"Oh my gosh, out of all things?" He wipes his eyes with his free hand. I nod. I'm suddenly glad I asked because now I know this is going to be interesting.

"Okay, so we were in English, it was my first year here in America, and it was the day after the soccer banquet that I couldn't attend. I didn't really talk to Alex because he was on JV and I was on Var, but I wanted to know how it went so I asked him, 'Hey Alex, how was the craic last night?'" At this point Niall loses it and I don't know what my reaction should be.

"I guess I said it too loud and the teacher heard so she sent us both to the principal's office. Everyone in the class was laughing and Alex looked furious. I, just having come in from Ireland, had no idea what I did wrong! Back in Ireland, craic means something like a fun time but then in the principal's office he explained that here there's the word crack that sounds exactly the same and it means cocaine. You can't believe how stupid I felt! We were let off fine and we all had a good joke about it. Since then, Alex started to talk to me more in that class and I vowed to never say craic again." He finally gets me to laugh when I understand why he thought it was so funny.

He would have a silly story like this. I could only imagine being foreign and having to get used to the American slang. It must be like learning a whole new dictionary.

"Why did you leave Ireland?" I ask him when he calms down.

He immediately stops laughing. "Erm." His voice gets serious for the first time. "My dad wanted to come here." Is all he says. I don't want to push it because I don't want him to start asking personal questions about my family.

"What about you? Why did you leave SoCal?" Great. He starts playing with my fingers and it soothes me.

"I couldn't stay there anymore." I vaguely say.

"Why is that?" He gives me a concerned look.

"Um." My mind swarms with different ways I can dodge the only answer that keeps trying to crawl out of my mouth. "Its complicated." I feel my eyes tearing from the sides already from just the brief thought.

"You can talk to me about it." He scoots in closer to me, closing the gap between us. "I'm hear for you. I can help you." Those words echo in my ears and everything inside me stops. I pull my hand away from his. Help me? What the fuck? Why does he just assume I need 'help'? Does he think I'm crazy?Why does everyone want to 'help me'? I'm so tired of people saying that! I don't need their help!

"Help me?!" I move away from him and he almost looks afraid of me. If I wasnt so angry, the frown on his face would make me sympathize him. My blood begins to race and I can feel heat fuming from my face.

"I'm sorry I..." He begins but I cant control my mouth.

"That's all anyone wants to do now a days. 'Help me'. I'm so sick of you people!" I push myself up and start to leave but before I can get far Niall grabs my hand and pulls me hard into his arms. He wraps his arms around my waist and holds me tight, his face nuzzled in my neck.

"Please dont go." His voice hums into my ear and begins to thaw my heart. "Please don't leave me again."

(5 VOTES & 5 COMMENTS ON THIS CHAPTER FOR THE NEXT UPDATE PLZ , let's do this :) More good stuff coming up <3 What did u guys think? haha ilyg u all have been so supportive! Xoxo)

(Originally imade a mistake on the previous chapter so if you read it and the prank wasn't between Niall & Liam, you might want to read over it again because I changed it shortly after publishing. Sorry! But it's worth it! Later last night, I also added that Niall's towel slips off a bit, OOPS ;) hehe.)