With Every Moment Left (Niall Horan) Book 2

Chapter 7

Rachel’s POV

I lay down feeling the cool grass tickle my legs. My skirt had spread all around me when I fell on the ground. What are you doing, I think to myself. When I had almost fallen, I swear there was a moment when Niall was going to kiss me. Just thinking about it causes my heart to speed up.These things weren’t supposed to happen to me. None of it was. Not my dad dying, not the cancer, and especially not falling for Niall, or even worse, him falling for me. Because for me, it would all end soon, but for him… No I couldn’t let him fall for me, when I was gone, it would just be too hard for him then. I feel a tear trickle down my cheek and I wipe it away.

“You ok?” Louis asks coming to sit down beside me.

“Yea, I’m fine” I reply sitting up and taking a deep breath hoping he didn’t see the tear. “Just thinking about some things”

“Anything in particular?” He asks raising an eyebrow, a smile playing at the edge of his lips.

I feel the blush creep up my neck again and my eyes flick towards where Niall was standing talking to Liam.I look back at Louis who is giving me a knowing look.

“He’s quite a lad” Louis remarks after a moment. “He’s tougher than you think, I’d also wager”

“I just met him” I start to protest “Besides, you guys are all so busy. Nothing is going to come of…”I say before I’m cut off by a finger on my lips.

“I’m sure we will be seeing more of you than you think” Louis says with a smile dropping his hand and standing up. He offers me a hand and easily pulls me up. Liam and Niall looked deep in conversation so we headed to where Zayn and Harry were playing in the creek. I sat down on the rocks near the edge, tucking my legs under me and watching as Louis joined the other two playing in the water.

“Not the hair” Zayn squeals as Harry splashes him.

“I’m fine, I can take care of myself” I hear Niall shout. I look back confused and see Liam grabbing Niall’s arm as he tries to walk away and whispers something to him. I strain to hear it but they were standing to far away. Niall gives him an angry look before tearing his arm out of Liam’s grasp and storming off. My eyes trail after him as he walks off. It was weird to see them fight. After a few seconds, Liam comes back over and joins the other boys playing in the water.

“Come join us” Louis calls out to me from the water.I smile back at him shaking my head.

“I can’t I have a white shirt on, it would get see through” I say with a laugh.

“That’s all right with me” Harry responds with a cheeky grin causing me to laugh again.

I stick my tongue out at him with a smile “I think I’m fine here”

Harry shrugs “Suit yourself” he says before going back to trying to get Zayn’s hair wet.

I hear the grass rustle next to me and look over to see Niall settling down next to me. He still looked upset and from his eyes I could tell he was far away from here. “You ok?” I ask concerned.

He blinks a few times snapping himself out of whatever he was thinking about. “Yea, I’m great” he says plastering on a smile. It was obviously fake. It seemed to forced and it didn’t reach his eyes at all. I decided to let it drop, however. I figured if he had wanted to tell me about it he would have, instead of just pretending everything was fine.

“So why did you pick us for the make a wish?” he asks changing the subject.

“It was the most unobtainable on my bucket list” I say with a shrug. “The some of the other things might be a stretch but there is still a chance. Meeting you guys without help would have been impossible”

He shifts his position so he’s facing me better. “What else is on your bucketlist?” he asks.

“Just random stuff. It’s stupid.” I say trying to play it off casually looking down at my hands which were folded on my lap. In reality, the bucket list was my last thing to cling to. Being able to finish the tasks was all that kept me sane nowadays.

“I highly doubt that” he says putting a hand on mine. My breath catches in my chest and my heart starts beating erratically. I look up from my hands and meet his eyes, gazing into those pools of blue that seemed to reach on forever. I’m not sure how long we sat there before I hear a sound at the edge of the forest. I break eye contact with Niall and look over to see my mom and Paul walking out of the woods.

“It’s getting to be dinner time boys, we have to go so we can get to the hotel and get food” Paul says as he walks over.

I feel my heart drop as I extract my hand from Niall’s and slowly stand up. This was it. They had come to visit the sick girl and now it was time for them to leave. They would go on to perform arena shows and meet hundreds of more fans and forget all about me. The boys freeze where they are in the water and look up at Paul with guilty expressions before filing out of the water.

“You boys are soaked!” he exclaims. “I thought I had told you boys to stay clean” he scolds. He starts leading them back towards the house scolding them as he goes and I start following behind.

“What, Rachel” Niall says grabbing my wrist and pulling me a few feet away from everyone else.

“Yea?” I ask

“Do you think I could get your number?”