This Heist Can Only Go in One Direction

Chapter Five

Jasey's POV

"Please wake up, Jase."

Through the dense fog in my mind, his words broke through. He didn't speak for a while, and I began to feel myself slipping away once again, back into the darkness.

"We've got to get going." I heard another voice say. They moved beside me, and I heard them laugh. "Good thing you've been putting on more muscle lately."

Though still groggy, I began to make out individual voices. The more I listened, the more I could hear.

"Do you think she'll be okay?"

That had to be Stella. Hopefully Niall was watching out for her.

"She's tough." Someone else said soothingly. Louis, I think? "She'll be fine once she wakes up."

Now I was being pulled by my good shoulder, lifted up onto someone's back again. I felt them shift under me, and we began walking again. With every step he took, I was regaining feeling in my body and coming out of that fog. And unfortunately, getting feeling back meant feeling all the pain as well.

Liam stumbled, and shooting pain rocketed through my arm. I gasped, my eyes flying open to find Liam's face staring at my own.

"Guys! Guys, she's awake!" He slowly lowered me to the ground where I sat clutching my shoulder, face clenched in pain.

"Jasey, thank god you're alright." He breathed, smiling broadly. "When you didn't wake up this morning, I thought you never would."

"Jasey!" Stella squealed, running to my side. Harry and the rest followed, all gathering around me as I tried not to show how much pain I was in.

"This morning?" I asked quietly, referring back to what Liam had just said.

He nodded slowly. "You've been out nearly a whole day."

"Welcome back to the land of the living!" Louis joked, leaning on Liam's shoulder.

"How far have we gone?" I asked, finally able to speak clearer now that the pain was subsiding.

"I'd say a couple miles, if not more." Zayn said, looking around. "We should be able to start looking for roads soon."

"Have they been looking for us?"

"We haven't seen them." Liam placed Louis on my knee. "But we need to keep moving. Are you okay to walk?" I nodded with a laugh.

"I hurt my shoulder, not my leg." I reached my right arm up for Harry to help me up. Liam kept his hand on my lower back. He was awfully handsy today.

"We're heading towards that valley." Liam pointed. "We saw lights there last night. It should only take another day or two."

Already, I was noticing the cold. "Let's hope it doesn't start snowing." We set off, Zayn taking the lead with Niall and Stella right behind him. Harry and Luois followed them, walking in every direction but a straight line, and Liam and I brought up the rear.

"Hope I wasn't too much of a burden." I said, looking on his jacket. "Sorry about the bloodstain."

Liam smiled and glanced at his shoulder. "Don't worry about it! I needed a good workout anyways." I blushed and looked away when he looked at me, and the walk continued on like that, with him talking nonstop and me responding with my witty phrases. He asked me about what my life was like back home and what I did for fun. I told him how I worked a lot and mostly did schoolwork, carefully avoiding my home and family in the conversation. I explained how I never go to that bank, and how seeing him was completely a thing of chance. Then we discussed what he was doing in the states anyways and what life was like as a teen superstar. Talking to him kept me distracted from my shoulder pain. It seemed like that was his goal, because it felt like he asked a million questions, and asked one every time the conversation dwindled. Despite the horrible circumstances, I once again found myself having fun with these boys.

Suddenly it was dark, and we still seemed so much farther from our goal. We built a small fire on the side of a hill. Everyone gathered as close as we could, trying to fight off the cold.

"When we get back, I'm getting in a sauna and never coming back out." Louis said decidedly, huddling closer to me and Harry.

"Right there with you." Harry muttered through his hands.

Liam smiled at me. "Do you wanna take a walk with me?"

I looked up from the fire. Why did we have to leave? It was kinda warm here. And we had been walking all day, my feet were killing me. Was something wrong? Why couldn't he say it in front of everyone else?

"Uh, sure?" I stood, brushing the snow off of my butt. He led the way with Louis screaming "Close the gap!" at Stella.

"How's your shoulder doing?" He asked, breaking the first interrupted of silence we had had all day.

I laughed, my breath coming out in clouds in the brisk night air. "Same as it was 20 minutes ago, when you asked about it then."

He laughed quietly and looked at the ground. I watched his face carefully, trying to figure out from his expression how this was going to go. That's why when he stopped walking and looked up at me, I was concerned. He seemed troubled by something. I stopped beside him, waiting for him to speak.

"Look, I know I haven't been the most straight forward guy about anything. I haven't been that way ever, really." He started. Then Liam closed the gap between us, staring at our feet. "Yet for some reason, I was that guy two nights ago. I don't know how you did it, but you got me to open up. And that doesn't happen very frequently."

"Maybe you just felt like sharing." I mumbled, watching him carefully. He shook his head with a small smile on his lips and finally looked up at me, his dark brown eyes boring into mine. They almost seemed to smolder, and that worried me. What was bothering him? What was he so confused about, and why did it concern me? I had no idea, but him being this close to me sure wasn't helping this nervous feeling in my stomach.

"I don't know what I'm doing." He admitted, voice barely above a whisper.

"Do you, uh...want something?" I stumbled across the question, unable to look away. His eyes held my gaze, as if one look could keep me frozen in place.

"I think I do. But I'm not sure."

"Why not?"

He licked his lips, obviously debating what and what not to say. "There's...a lot of complications. So many ways this could go wrong."

I bit my lip, suddenly unable to breathe correctly. "Well...if you want it, why not just go and get it?"

He smirked, and I felt my heart twinge. Why did he look so cute when he did that? He asked with a cautionary tone, "Just go and get it?

"Well, I mean, yeah--"

I was interrupted by his mouth being pressed against mine. My last thought trailed away as Liam kissed me. My knees went weak as I leaned into the kiss and felt him wrap his arms around me, pulling me closer until we were pressed together. All I could think about were lips lips against mine, both hard and soft at the same time, deepening our kiss and making our mouths move as one. He pushed like he had been needing this, yet continued to hold himself back as if he were scared, unsure of what he was doing. So, I pressed back just as hard, raising my arms to encircle his shoulders--

--And let out a cry of pain as burning fire spread throughout my injured shoulder.

Liam caught me before I could fall, holding me upright as spots danced before my eyes. I could feel nothing except me being pressed against his chest while the pain continued to throb. He held me tightly, whispering soothing words as the pain finally began to subside.

"We need to get you looked at as soon as we get home." He whispered, face pressed against my hair.

I nodded, lost in a sea of emotions. This wasn't me. I wasn't the girl who fell head over heels for boys I barely knew. I didn't fantasize about the perfect relationship. And I certainly wasn't the type of girl who gets nervous and flustered around cute boys. So why, all of a sudden, was Liam different? What was it about him that was making my heart melt and turn into something like Stella's fangirling one?

It had to be the accent.