Voir Dire (N.H.)

thirty-two

If you had asked Kelsey what her plans for her weekend in Vegas were, they wouldn't have included this: standing at the door of Niall's hotel room at five in the morning with last night's mascara clinging to her cheeks, wondering if it was too late to turn around and run the other way.

It wasn't too late. Not yet, because she hadn't knocked and he didn't know that she was here and she hadn't stared into those gorgeous blue eyes that always seemed to hypnotize her. If she really wanted she could keep it that way; she could go back down the elevator and into her starched white hotel sheets, and get on a plane again in a few hours like last night night never happened. But somehow she was stuck. Her feet cemented in place in front of the white hotel room door. And as much as her brain told her it wasn't too late to forget last night ever happened, the rest of her body resists.

Niall had first proposed the idea of meeting up again last night after their...encounter...at the after party. But proposed wasn't the right word, Niall's words had been more urgent than that, borderline begging.

"I just need a few minutes to speak to you," Niall had pleaded. "I need to explain. Please let me explain." Niall's eyes begged for forgiveness.

Kelsey had turned away, making her way toward the door, every second she spent with Niall bringing her closer and closer to disaster.

"Room 502. 5 am. Please Kelsey just give me a chance to explain."

Kelsey hadn't said anything back. Instead, she'd made her way back to the dance floor and was met by Mallory's "where have you been?".

Kelsey had tossed and turned all night over this. She knew it was wrong, going to see Niall. She knew what was at stake. But she was like an addict, and Niall Horan was her drug of choice. Twenty minutes with him in a glammed up bathroom had rekindled every feeling that she'd tried to bury since she let him go months ago.

Kelsey inhaled deeply. She couldn't let this weekend ruin everything she'd sacrificed so far. But she had so many questions, and those questions could only be answered by doing exactly what she wasn't supposed to do. She raised her hand to knock.

"You came," Niall said with a grin as he opened the door and Kelsey entered the doorway. Her hair was half curled from last night, some remnants of mascara clinging to her lashes, but in the early morning light, all Niall could think about was just how beautiful she was.

He wondered how he ever made it through the past four months without her, but then realized he hadn't. Not really.

"Yes," she replied softly, glancing around the room as if she was being followed. She seemed scared, hesitant and Niall wondered just what had transpired that had made Kelsey so afraid.

"Let's go," Niall gestured out the door.

"Where exactly?" Kelsey raised an eyebrow, wondering where on earth Niall thought the two of them would be going, especially with Niall still dressed in a fluffy white bathrobe. His hair was tousled as if he'd just rolled out of bed, but his eyes seemed brighter this morning, as if he'd gotten a lot more sleep than Kelsey had.

"Somewhere no one will find us," Niall whispered, his voice creating goosebumps on Kelsey's arms.

The staircase was somewhere Niall and the lads had discovered back in the One Direction days. A rickety, metal roof-access staircase that was used once or twice a year. The stairs weren't pretty, but the view of Las Vegas from the rooftop was, and that was exactly what Niall wanted to show Kelsey in the early morning light.