Capture My Heart (BK3: Niall Horan)

-Ch 44: Drunk, Dizzy + Delusional.

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR: Drunk, Dizzy + Delusional.

-Niall Horan-

There were a few things that I had been looking forward to all week about Saturday the fifth of November (today). The first one being that Ashley and I both had a day off, at least I was pretty sure that today was the day that Valerie had a wedding to attend so Ashley got the day off; which disappointed her massively for some unknown reason. This would also mean that we could wake up at any time and know we wouldn’t have to go anywhere, and personally I was quite looking forward to waking up to a bed with a presence beside me again. So it was needless to say that I was overcome with heavy disappointment as I realised that in fact, no, I was very alone under the covers. Which the more I thought about it, annoyed me further. I wanted to turn over and for her to be there, and her skin would be warm, her hair messy, her eyes sleepy and her kisses blindingly innocent. But I turned over and there was nothing, just empty space that she had previously occupied.

I groaned to myself as I forced my eyes open, the winter sunshine pushing it’s way through the half drawn over curtains that I knew she had opened whenever she had got up. It made my eyes hurt a little and I found myself squinting as I stifled a yawn. I wanted to go back to sleep, but I also wanted to go and find Ashley, and that was a very hard decision.

So I lay there for a few minutes, thinking, listening, and tracing my fingertips over the space I wished that was not there. I almost found myself falling asleep again, but then I pushed myself with great effort to turn over and view the clock and the fact that it was almost lunchtime and I was hungry made the decision for me. Before I had time to protest against rising I pushed the covers off and threw my legs over the side of the bed.  My bare feet landed on the carpet, it was soft and I pressed them a little further so they sunk into the comfort. Rubbing my hands over my cheeks as if stretching my face into something a little more awake, I sighed heavily as I stood up, throwing on some joggers and a t-shirt.

The house was too quiet as I made my way down the stairs, I was aware that it was unlikely that anyone but Ashley and I were here – and that was why it was quiet. But she always had the TV or radio on in the morning, and if not, there was just the sound of general movement in the house, the feeling of presence.

“Ash…” I called out, it was supposed to be a shout, but turned out more like a despondent groan that wouldn’t be audible more than a few walls away. Rounding the last few steps I padded across the foyer, my bare feet shocked slightly by the coldness of the tiling. I walked for a while longer, passing through the lounge that seemed to be untouched since we had last been there, a spare room we still had done nothing with, and the kitchen looked pretty empty, too. My hunger was ever growing in evidence in my stomach, but I was determined to find Ashley first, if only for the quite selfish, cheap hope that I could get her to cook me something, since I wasn’t really in the mood for effort to eat.

Although when I did find her, it was clear that it was not the most appropriate situation to begin kissing her to persuade her to cook for me, then to maybe request that she return to bed with me, not at all. “Oh, afternoon.” She grinned as she turned around in her seat at the dining room table we hardly used. Her hair was plaited over her right shoulder, and she had makeup on which was kind of unusual for a Saturday that we had no plans for. But it was becoming clear to me that I was alone in this, since her there, in company spoke otherwise.

I kind of mentally congratulated myself that I’d made the decision to get dressed before I came downstairs as the stranger in our household came into my vision. “This is Sam,” Ashley said, motioning in the direction of a girl maybe a little older than me sat opposite her at the table. “She’s my new PA, but I don’t really like that term, so more like a co-worker.”