Recluse

Chapter 12

Niall comes up for air, breathing heavily from laughing so hard. He's laying on my bed, watching my every move as he answers, "I don't know, she just amuses me. All of that twerking and stuff. I used to have extremely blonde hair that kind of looked like her."

My hands freeze and I turn to face him, a smirk on my face, "What?"

"Yeah, I used to bleach my hair. I was awesome." He comments. I laugh before turning back to the task at hand, "Yes, you must have been."

Silence lies between us for several moments as the song plays.

So La Da Di Da De

We like to party

Dancing with Miley

Doing whatever we want

This is our house

This is our rules

And we can’t stop

I finally untangle the knot in my hair. Ugh, now my once-straight hair is wavy and frizzy. I turn around to curse Niall out, but he interupts me with the weirdest question he's ever asked me, "Can you twerk?"

I laugh, "No, I cannot,"

He smirks, "Try it."

"I'll try it if you try it." I challenge.

"No way."

"Do it." Now I'm the one smirking.

"Never."

"Pleeeeaaaaaassse." I drag out the word.

He sighs, "Ya know what, sure."

"Really?"

He nods and bends down up against the wall. It's obvious he is very unskilled at twerking (like myself) because his entire body just bounces up and down. 

My face is red and tears sparkle in my eyes from laughing so hard. Niall lays on the floor and laughs with me. We both lay side by side and laugh as hard as we can, forgetting for a moment that my family is downstairs and can hear us.

Fatal mistake.

I hear a knock on my door, followed by a voice, "Madison? Can I come in?"

"Ummm, I'm changing, give me a second." I respond shakily, sharing a wide eyed glance with Niall, who looks terrified.

I mouth, "Under the bed."

He nods and rolls under my bed, pulling down the bed skirt to conceal himself. 

I jump to my feet and look down to make sure he's not visible. I sigh with relief before swinging the door open. My mother walks in, "Whatcha laughing at? I could hear you from downstairs."

"Well I was skyping Brett and we were twerking." I lie coolly. I begin to giggle at the memory of Niall's twerking fail. 

Somehow she believes me and smiles, shaking her head, "You kids are weird. I'm glad you and Brett are talking again, though."

"Yeah." i nod. I drum my fingers anxiously against my leg. Why exactly is she in here?

"So..." She lets out an anxious sigh and smooths her hair, "This is hard for me to tell you, but.... John is in the hospital."

A gasp escapes my lips and I find myself shaking, "What happened?"

"He had a stroke... Olivia's a wreck and me and your father are gonna go to the hospital for the night. Did you want to come? If not, Jeff can stay home with you." She responds softly.

Wow, my Uncle John is in the hospital... A part of me longs to go to the hospital to be with my family during this tragic time, but Niall's here and I can't just leave him.... 

"I-I think I'll stay home." I reply, voice quivering.

"Okay, baby." She answers sympathetically.

"Do you think he'll be okay?" I dare to ask.

"Let's hope so. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" She kisses the top of my head and smoothes my hair.

"Okay. Love you, mom."

She slowly stands up and leaves the room. I try to bite my lip to hold back tears, but they come rushing in too fast. My vision goes blurry and soon I'm full on sobbing into my hands. 

I hear a rustling sound and soon Niall is out from under my bed. He gets himself comfortable in my bed and then pulls me to him. I gladly melt into his arms, sobbing into his chest as he strokes my hair and tells me how much he loves me, and how sorry he is. I hate to be this upset during our sleepover, but I can't help myself. My Uncle John is a good man, and he half-raised me. As a kid, he used to come over to play with me every weekend. I was even at his house when I got my first period, and I was extremely embarrassed, but he made it okay by buying me what I needed and then taking me out for ice cream and mini golf. He has always been like a second father to me. I used to speak with him everyday, tell him about any of the drama or problems going on in my life. But now that I live in Shallowhaven, I haven't kept in touch. It pains me that I haven't talked to him in so long and now he could be on his death bed.

After about an hour of crying, I begin to calm down. Niall's soothing words and kisses on my neck are beginning to relax me.

"I'm sorry that I'm being all sad and ruining this... I wanted this to be fun for us." I sniffle.

"Hey, hey, shh. It has been fun. Just being with you is good enough for me." He whispers lovingly into my ear, kissing along my neck.

"You could be one of those characters in a John Green book, you know that?" I mumble back.

"Why is that?"

"You always know exactly what to say. And you're a beatifully charming boy that the messed up chick is falling in love with." I respond and he chuckles.

"I guess that's an interesting way to describe us, but I'll take it." 

Silence fills the air and I can't help but ask, "Could you sing to me?"

At first, he doesn't respond. But slowly, he nods and asks, "Any particular song?"

I shrug, "Anything."

He whispers, "I didn't write this, but I like it. Reminds me of you."

He begins to sing softly into my ear, 

Come away with me in the night

Come away with me

And I will write you a song

Come away with me on a bus
Come away where they can't tempt us
With their lies

And I want to walk with you
On a cloudy day
In fields where the yellow grass grows knee-high
So won't you try to come?

Come away with me and we'll kiss
On a mountaintop
Come away with me
And I'll never stop loving you

And I want to wake up with the rain
Falling on a tin roof
While I'm safe there in your arms
So all I ask is for you
To come away with me in the night
Come away with me

I fall asleep to the soothing sound of his voice, and a feeling of deep affection for Niall James Horan.

(Alright I made this one adorable. I was planning on skipping this but nah, it's cute XD so the NEXT one will be the extremely intense chapter. Get ready ;D

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