The Player

Chapter 22

The next morning, Niall and I walked into class, but Maya wasn't in her normal seat. She wasn't even in the room. I looked around but she wasn't anywhere. 

"Maya's not here." I said to Niall. 

"What do we do?" he asked. 

"I'll text her and see if she responds, and if not I'm going to go over to her dorm and see if she is there after class." 

"Okay." Niall agreed. I sent Maya a quick text asking her where she was and if she was okay. Once it sent Niall and I took our seats. We sat through class but the only thing I could think of was Maya. When class ended I checked my phone, but I had no text from Maya. 

"She didn't text back. I'm gonna go see if she's at her dorm room and check on her. I'm kind of worried." I told Niall as we walked out of the room. 

"Yeah me too. I'll cover for you at your classes." Niall said. I thanked him and then gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before rushing out of the building. I walked over to where Maya's housing unit was and then proceeded inside to her dorm. When I got to the door I knocked. 

"Maya? Are you in there?" I asked. I knocked again. "Maya?" there was no answer. I jiggled the doorknob a little but it was locked. I knocked again, a little harder this time. "Maya. It's Ella, open up." Someone from across the hall opened their door and looked out into the hallway. 

"Do you mind? Some of us are trying to sleep." she said rudely. 

"Sorry. Do you happen to know where Maya is?" I asked her. 

"If she's not in there, then I don't know." she said.

"Okay thanks." the girl went back into her dorm and slammed the door shut. I knocked on Maya's door again and before I could say her name again it opened. 

"What are you doing here Ella?" Maya asked, her face was puffy and pink below her eyes. 

"I came to check on you. You weren't at first period. I wanted to make sure you were okay, especially because of yesterday." 

"What about yesterday?" she said walking back into her dorm leaving the door open. I followed her inside and closed the door behind me. 

"Um, well you kind of said you were in love with Niall." 

"Oh, that." 

"Yeah, if you don't want to talk about it right now that's fine. I just wanted to make sure you were okay." 

"I'm fine I guess." 

"You guess?" 

"There's just a lot going on in my life right now." 

"Like what?" she was silent. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to push." 

"Well first off the Niall thing. I'm sorry I threw myself on him. I don't know what I was thinking. It seemed like a good idea at the time. But I know how much you love him, and it's probably a whole hell of a lot more that me." 

"I'm not mad at you for kissing Niall. Yeah it was wrong, but I totally understand. Me of all people should know the way he can make you feel, and he's kind of hard to resist." I said with a laugh. Maya wasn't laughing. "Maya I'm not mad at you." 

"That's good. But I've been in love with him for so long, and watching you fall in love with him, and having him notice....that's what kills me. Because I wish that it was me he was noticing." 

"He does notice you, just not in that way." 

"Yeah I know. He thinks of me as a friend. I guess I'll take that." 

"I would too." 

"Thanks for coming to check on me, Ella." 

"Of course. I was worried." 

"Thank you." she gave me a hug and I hugged her back.

"So are you going to come to classes?" 

"I think I just need today to myself, but I'll see you tomorrow." Maya said. 

"Okay, see you tomorrow." I said, leaving her dorm room. I closed the door and made my way back over to my next class. Second period was already ending and everyone was switching classes anyways. Niall caught up to me in the hallway. 

"Hey, hey, how'd it go?" 

"It was good. She's okay." 

"What did she say?" I didn't respond right away. I wasn't sure I should tell him. 

"She said she wants to just be friends." I told him. It wasn't exactly a lie because there was some truth in that. 

"Oh, okay good. That's nice." 

"Yeah." I said nodding. 

"Hey, I got an idea." 

"What?" I asked. 

"You wanna ditch the rest of the day?" 

"Ditch?" 

"Yeah, I mean you've already missed part of the morning. We could go out, just you and me. We haven't had any good alone time since you got back from Maryland...." he said trying to persuade me. 

"Hmmmm...." 

"Oh come on Ella. It'll be fun." he said. 

"Okay." Niall smiled, grabbed my hand, and walked me along with him out the doors of the building and onto the sidewalks outside. 

"So where are we going?" 

"I don't know." he said with a smile. We started walking down a main street, towards and park. Once we got to the park, he kept walking towards the woods. 

"Why are we going to the woods?" 

"You'll see." we walked to the woods and there was a small opening and a pathway to that we started walking on. The pathway led all the way to a clearing in the middle of the woods, with a small little pond, and beautiful white flowers hanging in the trees all around us. 

"What is this place? It's beautiful." I said looking around. 

"I found it while you were gone. I thought it could be our special place." 

"Awww Niall that's so sweet. What should we call it?"  

"I was thinking Nella, for Niall and Ella." I laughed.

"A ship name?" 

"Yeah I thought it had a nice ring to it." 

He smiled and me and then brought me over to the pond. We took off our shoes and put our feet into the water. We sat closed together with our hands intertwined, and I just wished that someone was behind us to capture this moment in a picture. After sitting in silence for awhile, Niall turned to me, brought his hand up to my chin and turned it towards him. He swiped his thumb across my lips so that they parted.  

"You're beautiful, you know that?" I smiled. He then brought his lips to mine, moving them slowly, savoring the kiss. I then gained control and leaned myself into him so that he was laying on his back and I was on top of him. He kissed me with more passion than I ever felt before. In between two kisses he said to me...

"God I love you, I'm so in love with you." 

And in return I said.....

"I know, I love you too." 

                                                                                           

                                                                                    THE END