Trouble. (niall horan au)

chapter 30 - enemy infiltration

"Club her over the head!" I shouted. Niall began reaching for a lethal looking vase. "Wait, wait, kidding," I said, "No murders before breakfast, please. Try being reasonable."

Niall spread his arms out as though for a hug. "The day is young and so are we," he announced calmly, briefly shutting his eyes, "Let us come together and abandon these human shells to unite our souls. Leave negative energy behind." Maggie shoved him again.

"Okay, that's enough," I exclaimed, trying to dramatically rise to the rescue, "Don't touch him." I had stood up too fast, and the floor suddenly spun out into space. I took a heroic break to throwup in the waste-basket (and by that I mean I missed completely and sprayed a very important and irreplaceable looking picture that said 'grandma and me').

"Stop it," I tried again, moving forward unsteadily and wedging my way in front of Niall.

"Hello, hi, good morning," I said calmly, trying to keep Niall behind me, "I'm sensing a bit of aggression, coming mostly from you. You know what would be a good way to channel that emotion?"

She froze and stared at me icily, smoke curling from her nose. "Slaughtering my enemies."

"Ah, well- no. I was going to say write about it in a Feeling Journal," I glanced back at Niall, who still looked wide-eyed and as perplexed as I did. "Right, Niall? We both write in ours."

"Like hell I do," he said with laugh, "Why the fermented fuck would I-" I gave him a pointed look. He nodded slowly, grasping for my wrist. "Oh, right. I uh- write in there about, um, any erotic dreams I had involving Abbey and a tank of exotic dolphins." I mentally facepalmed.

"How healing," I said with thumbs-up, "Do feel free to share an entry some time, I am very excited to hear the details."

"How funny," she seethed, thumping the empty water glass on the desk and almost cracking it in half, "You two are so fun- always joking around." She grabbed a fistful of Niall's shirt from over my shoulder, yanking him towards her and sandwiching me between them. "But I didn't forget how terrible you were, even though you brainwashed everyone else. People don't change that easily, Horan. So when you wake me up in the morning, dragging my best friends hung-over, unconscious body through my window, I'm allowed to get upset."

"This would be a weird threesome," I said, my voice muffled as I tried to peel them apart, "Can I sit out for the first couple minutes until I feel aroused and ready."

Maggie ignored me. Pulling him forward until their faces almost touched, she said, "You are going to be her demise."

"Oh, just kiss already," I chimed nervously, "I'll look away."

"I won't let myself," Niall said, his face looking calm. But I felt his hand tighten around my wrist, and the widening of his stance. He was getting defensive. "I'm not looking to hurt her. And I think people need to understand that."

She released him so suddenly his head recoiled and hit the wall. Spinning on her heels, she sped out of the room, shouting, "I understand that, and if you didn't make her so happy, then I would be able to say that are terrible for her."

The door slammed shut at the same time my knees sagged and I stumbled backwards. "Whoa, whoa," Niall said, catching me under my arms and hoisting me up, "Caught you."

"She can't talk to you like that," I frowned, trying to fight Niall off weakly as he directed us towards the bed. We flopped down on our backs, the mattress groaning beneath out weight. There were fake stars stuck on the ceiling. I looked at them and wished they were the ones I saw last night, outside in the motel pool, when I admired the fact that stardust had made the boy with floaties on his arms clinging to the wall. "She can't touch you like that either." One of the fake stars was peeling off. "How did we even get here." I noticed that I wasn't wearing the same clothes as I had on in the motel, and glared at Niall with a start, cheeks flaming.