Trouble. (niall horan au)

chapter 26 - group therapy

He continued to lean there looking smug, so I decided to make this as un attractive as possible. "I'm molting," I shrieked, spitting and hissing as I peeled myself out of my clothes.

"Sexy."

When the shirt had dropped into a soggy lump of cotton on the floor, I dropped down beside it and began wriggling around like a snake. It was only after I felt the cold tiles digging into my skin did I fully realize what I was doing. My nerves made me irrational, and the sudden closeness and the undressing only amplified this. I slowly got to my feet and faced the laughing Niall, trying to gather my shattered dignity that lay with the pile of clothes.

"How can you tell me that my recreation of a snake shedding a layer of skin wasn't a bit of a turn on."

"I'm pretty sure I could find a way."

He stared at me for a second, blue eyes wide. This was only the second time he had seen me in my underwear, and I thought the room was too small to divert his attention, and the light was too bright to hide anything but skin skin skin. But he seemed pleased in a way I couldn't even begin to describe.

"I could admire you for a long time, sweetheart," he said airily, "And I hope I'm the only one to continue to do so." His soft words suddenly took on an edge, "I'll be damned if anyone were to try."

He begrudgingly handed me a towel and watched me wrap it under my arms. I padded after him out the doorway, leaving a trail of tiny wet footsteps on the wood. "Try telling that to my doctor. He says my body is great."

"I'm taking you to another doctor."

We crossed the barrier from our safe bathroom zone back into the real world, with our skin both still pink from the warm water and me in a fluffy white towel that Niall was playfully tugging on the bottom of. Immediatly though, I froze at the sight of three figures sitting around Niall's coffee table in the living room.

"Ah," Zayn mused, "If it isn't Mr. Sexually Frustrated himself with his sidekick Ms. Sarcastic Comeback."

I took in the sight of Zayn leaning back in the recliner, his sneakers kicked up on the coffee table and that omnipresent cigarette in his hand, the smoke curling around his dark eyes. Harry sat at his side, licking a striped Popsicle. And there was someone I had only met once; a small, slight boy whom I recalled being named Louis.

"Your girlfriend doesn't have any clothes on," Louis pointed out, glancing up from over a notebook. A pair of glasses sat on his nose.

"Good observation skills," Niall said, sliding in front of me to in an effort to hide my obvious lack of clothes. "Now why are you two here?"

"Did you guys just have shower sex?" Louis continued bluntly. Niall gave his friend wide eyes before he not so subtly shoved me into his bed room across the hall. The door was immediatly slammed shut, and I could tell by the groan of the wood that Niall was now leaning on it.

"Nobody told me our weekly book club was today!" I called over my shoulder, taking this time as my cue to change. Wandering over to his dresser, I pulled open several drawers, smiling when I found one dedicated solely to all the things I had ever left over here (whenever I visited I liked to wear his clothes) (he liked it too) - all of it neatly folded. Unfolding a shirt, I brought it to my nose. Damn it, he even washed everything, it smelled like his detergent. I dug around for a suitable outfit while listening to their muted conversation.

"I didn't know you guys finally agreed to my book club idea ," Harry said in awe, "Did you read The Fault In Our Stars like I suggested?"

"Damn it, Harry," Niall sighed, "Can you just like- not for a minute."