Damaged - N.H.

31

I woke up a few hours later extremely groggy and a little disoriented. My eyes fluttered open and I slowly turned my head to see Niall sitting up against the headboard watching TV.

"Hey, how are you feelin', love?" He asked softly, turning his attention to me.

"Tired. What time is it?" I asked, pushing myself to sit up.

"A bit after 6 pm." He replied.

"Our flight!" I gasped, realizing we should've been at the airport an hour ago.

"Will changed it to tomorrow." He quickly assured me.

"I can't believe I slept that long." I murmured.

"You needed it. Are you hungry?" Niall asked.

I nodded and he grabbed the menu from the table before climbing back into bed beside me, both of us looking it over together. After we decided on what we wanted, Niall called to order it and then looked at me after he was finished.

"Do you want to talk?" He asked hesitantly.

I knew we were going to have to talk about this at some point, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it right now. I don't think I could have a rational conversation about it. It was too fresh.

"Can we just...sit here?" I asked in response.

He looked at me for another moment before nodding. I know he probably wanted to talk, Niall was always more open with his feelings, but I just wasn't ready yet. I wanted to go ahead and start helping him heal, but I needed to help myself a bit first. I couldn't talk about my feelings yet.

I curled up against him, wrapping my arms around his waist and breathing in his scent. It always calmed me. I felt safe like this. He took a deep breath and wrapped his arms around me as well, placing a kiss on my head.

"I love you." He mumbled into my hair.

"I love you too." I replied.

We stayed that way, watching TV in silence, until our food came. Niall brought it back to bed and I decided to speak up as we ate.

"Did you tell Will what happened?" I asked.

"No, I wasn't sure what you wanted me to say." He replied. "He didn't ask many questions, just texted a couple of times asking how you are."

"You can tell him." I said softly, my attention focused on my plate. "As long as he'll keep it to himself."

I looked up at Niall when he didn't respond right away and he nodded. "He won't say anything. I'll let him know."

"I don't think I want to tell anyone else...not right now, at least." I replied.

"You don't have to do anything until you're ready to." He stated. "But please don't shut me out, okay?"

"I promise I'll talk to you about it when I'm ready to." I muttered.

"We can wait on talking about your feelings, but I need to know...are you okay still being here? Do you want to go home? I can cancel--"

"No." I interrupted him, shaking my head furiously. "You don't need to cancel anything. We're practically at the end of the tour anyways and I think this will be a good distraction. I want to stay."

His eyes narrowed in on me for a moment before he said anything. "Okay, but you'll tell me if you change your mind right?"

"Of course." I agreed.

He nodded understandingly. "I just don't want you keeping things bottled up, okay?"

"I know." I replied. "Are you...okay?" I hesitantly asked, wanting to let him have the option to talk about it.I may not be able to talk about my own feelings, but I can listen to his.