All Night

Chapter Four

"Sit down and I'll get you some water. Kitchen this way?" The guy says, pointing towards the direction of the kitchen. I can't believe all that just happened. Shaun was drunk and showed up at my door just to torment me.

My head throbs but I nod anyway and lean back on the lounge with my head in my hands, trying to slow down my breathing. My mysterious neighbour comes back into the room with a glass of water and a damp towel.

"Sorry, I went through your kitchen draws to find the towel, I thought it would help your head," he says, passing me the glass of cold water and sitting down beside me.

"It's fine. Thank you by the way. You don't need to do this, or that," I gesture towards the door, referring to what happened earlier, and take a drink. The cold water makes its way down my throat and I feel a little bit better.

He shakes his head, "It's really not a problem, he was way too drunk to be dealing with anything right now." He lifts his hand with the damp towel up to my forehead and dabs on the spot stinging the most. I give out a little yelp in surprise and flinch away from him.

"Sorry, I'm just trying to clean it. It doesn't seem too deep," he reaches up to dab it again and I try to stay still for him as he pats my head gently. The towel is warm and sending a calming sensation down my body.

"Not to sound ungrateful or anything but who are you?" I ask him, eyes closed, trying to ignore the pain. He lets out a little chuckle.

"The names Nate. I just moved in across the hall." I can feel his breath brush my cheek as he speaks which sends shivers straight down my spine. I open my eyes when he moves the towel away from my face. I look into his eyes again and his face is even more gorgeous than before. His jawline is sharp and his body is built up which was shown under his tight white shirt paired with a pair of blue jeans.

"Well, thank you Nate. For everything," I reply knowingly. He nods and smiles at me. There's a moment of silence before he breaks it.

"So was he a crazy ex-boyfriend or something?" His eyes are cautious, wondering if he's asked the wrong question.

"Not exactly. Well I mean sort of but like, it's complicated," I reply, sighing. It was complicated. I thought we were getting somewhere and the way I felt for Shaun was weird and different to the way I've felt to anyone else. We were only hooking up but it felt like more than that. It felt like we had a stronger connection but it's clear now that he doesn't feel the same way and my heart has been torn. My eyes begin to tear up again at the thought and I turn away from Nate.

"Hey, no don't cry. I'm really not good at this. Just let me take one more look at your injury and I'll be on my way," he says rushingly. I turn back to him and wipe my eyes.

"No, I'm sorry. I'm such a mess," I look from my hands back up into his eyes. 

"Do you want to go get it checked out? You know, just incase?" He asks but I shake my head.

"How do you know how to do any of this?" I motion towards the towel which he is now reapplying to my head.

"I'm in the Army, Air Force actually. I'm a Captain," he says casually. My jaw drops, not expecting that to come out of his mouth.

"Oh," was all that fell out of my mouth. He finishes dabbing and puts the towel down on the table in front of us, leaving the blood side facing up. I wrap my arm around my stomach as it growls at me for not eating sooner. Nate notices and smiles.

"I think that's my cue to leave," he chuckles. I laugh along with him but a part of me doesn't want him to go.

"Wait, do you like chinese food?" I ask just has he's about to stand up.

"Yeah but it's getting late, don't you think you should get some rest?" He asks warily. I probably should but I needed to eat and I felt safe when he was here anyway.

"What I need is to eat," I laugh, "Please stay. It's the least I can do in return for helping me." He rolls his eyes and sits back down.

"Well if you insist." I get up and grab the menus to the 24 hour chinese restaurants in the area. We order within 10 minutes and the food comes within the next half an hour. We scoff it down while talking and watching stupid movies on the TV. I haven't been able to relax this much in a long time and Nate made me forget all about Shaun but a part of me felt like this was wrong but the other half of me didn't care, it was happy. And that's all I cared about right now.