Avery Holmes
Despite what I originally felt towards Marcus, I decided to not be so quick to judge and give him a shot. It had only been two days, but so far he'd proven himself to be a worthy bodyguard- although he had shot me some crude comments and spent his time looking at me too much.
"Niall, we should go to the pool soon." I suggested. "I think Darcy and Harry are up there with Oliver, and Aimee's going to want to see her new best friend." I giggled, setting a plate in front of my daughter, who was at the table and ready for her lunch.
"Yeah, okay." He nodded. "Aimee, want Harry to teach you to swim again?"
She nodded enthusiastically.
For my past few days, all we had done is spend time together in the living room, or up at the pool. So far, all that Harry had gotten accomplished was being incredibly frustrated after trying to teach Aimee to swim, but it was a work in progress.
"I think I'll join, too." Marcus said, crushing his empty soda can in his fist, startling me.
"You can take a break if ya want," Niall suggested, but I could tell that something was bothering him.
"It's fine, I wouldn't miss out on seeing your girlfriend in a bikini." He shot me a smug look and then stalked off to his bedroom. I was frozen in my spot and glanced down at Aimee, who thankfully was too busy eating her peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
"Ave, a word in the kitchen, yeah?" Niall asked.
"I know." I said as soon as we were alone in the kitchen. "I think he's just trying to mess around, he's not actually serious. It's fine." I rubbed my temples, already feeling a headache forming.
"It's been what- three days? I'm so sick of the comments." Niall groaned. "You need to stop egging him on, too." His eyes narrowed at me, taking me back.
"Excuse me?" I nearly laughed.
"Just don't pay him any attention." Niall said, obviously aware that I was taken aback. For the past three days, it had been like this- we'd been less affectionate, and he'd been on edge. All because of this bodyguard that meant nothing to me.
"Whatever." I muttered, spinning on my heel and returning to the grand room. I wasn't sure if I should have been mat at Niall or not, because I knew he was trying to watch out for me, but come on. I wasn't egging Marcus on at all, and we'd barely even spoke.
"Everything alright in there?" My head snapped to the right, where Marcus now stood in swimming trunks. His chest was incredibly toned, but I willed myself not to look. I nodded curtly and sat next to Aimee.
"I swim good." Aimee told me. "I good at swimming."
"Of course you are, baby." I smiled. "Now eat all your lunch and we can go up to the roof and swim with Uncle Harry." She nodded, her pigtails bouncing around as her head bobbed. I tried not to look, but I could tell that Marcus was watching us.
"Unca Hally teached me to swim." Aimee said. I chuckled and nodded.
"Maybe he should teach Zayn." I suggested to her, stealing a Cheeto from her plate and sticking it into my mouth, which made her pull a face at me.
"He scared." Aimee said, taking the last sips of her juice box. "'Kay, I'm done!" She decided, hopping down from her seat and running into the bedroom to grab her swimsuit.
I laughed at her and checked her plate to make sure that she had ate everything, and only for a second I looked up at Marcus. He was leaned against the wall, arms across his big chest, smirking at me.
"Aren't you going to go to the pool?" I asked, slightly anxious.
"I don't know, I'm enjoying the view." He shrugged. I gritted my teeth together and gave him a quick glare before following Aimee to the bedroom, closing the door, and locking it. Who did he think he was?
"I ready!" Aimee said proudly. Her bikini top was perfectly fine, but the front of the bottoms were saggy, and it took me a minute to realize that she had them on backwards. I laughed and helped her switch her bottoms around so that they were on properly.
"Do you know where daddy is, babe?" I asked her. She shrugged and grabbed her floaties that Harry had bought her at the store yesterday. I frowned- where did Niall run off to? Maybe he had already gotten changed and left for the pool.
"Let's get you a towel, Aims." I suggested, grabbing a pool towel from the towel rack and slinging it over my shoulder. She was already struggling to put on her floaties and flip flops at the same time, determined to learn how to swim.
"Ready!" Aimee screamed at the top of her lungs, making me cringe. She ran ahead of me into the living room, and I just hoped that Marcus had gone up to the pool. Despite how much he's helped out, he still put me on edge.
To my satisfaction, Marcus wasn't there when we went to the living room. I assumed that everyone was at the pool, so Aimee and I walked down the hall and climbed the flight of stairs to the sunny deck.
When Aimee saw Harry, her face lit up in an instant. She ran up to Niall, who was lounging on a pool chair, threw him her towel, and then jumped right in. I wasn't too worried about her now, since he got her floaties it wasn't like she was going to drown.
"Hey," I smiled. Niall scooted over for me to sit next to him and opened his arms to me. I decided not to bring up what happened in the kitchen for now.
"I was wonderin' when ya were comin' out here." He admitted. "I see Aimee's ready for lessons." He chuckled.
"That's all she talks about, how Harry is teaching her to swim." I laughed.
"He's gonna be a great dad someday." Niall said.
"Mhm." I nodded, feeling awkward. Were we just going to forget how he blamed me for Marcus's attitude?
I sat there in his arms for five minutes in total silence, watching everyone, when Niall spoke up.
"So what do ya think we should do about Jake?" He asked.
"I... I honestly don't know." I sighed, leaning back on his chest. "I don't want to risk Aimee getting taken away from me." I looked up at him and I could just tell that saying that made him mad.
"It's so stupid." He shook his head. "You were trying to protect her!"
"I know." I said, biting my lip. "I'm not going to do anything. I'll just try to forget everything that happened to me. I mean, he'll be in jail for helping Kate, right? That's enough."
Niall looked at me like I was crazy.
"What!? You're just going to give up like that?" He nearly shouted, making me flinch. "No. No, we're going to get him in jail for the time he deserves. He needs to rot in there."
"Niall, stop." I groaned. "You can't make choices for me. I'd rather not risk losing my daughter, she's everything to me." I could see by how red his face was that he was angry.
"No, I won't hear it." He shook his head. "I can't believe that you're willing to just let this all go."
"The whole reason I was doing this is so that I could let it go, Niall." I narrowed my eyes at him. "I want Jake to be in my past and the whole reason I was doing this was so he could be locked up and I could get rid of him. But right now, what's important is that I keep my daughter. And as long as he gets jail time..."
"You won't be getting the justice you deserve, though. Won't that always be in the back of your mind?" He asked.
"It's not about justice now, Niall. If you haven't noticed, we have two killers after us. There are other things to worry about." I sat up and shrugged his arm off of me, sick and tired of this mood he's been in. "I'm going swimming."
I didn't give him time to respond, stalking off to the pool and hopping in. The water was still warm, which was nice considering that it wasn't blazing hot outside. Louis, Liam, Harry, and Aimee were all together in the shallow end, with Marcus a bit farther from them.
"I can doggy paddle, mommy!" Aimee said, being held up by her pink floaties. I smiled, but I was just in a bad mood from Niall. We never had any arguments lately, so this was definitely different and I didn't like it.
"Everything okay over there?" Liam shot me a glance.
"Uh, yeah." I shrugged, dunking my head back to get my hair wet. I didn't really want to talk about it.
"Hey Marcus, you wanna play Marco Polo?" Louis hollered over to Marcus. He shrugged and walked over to us, since the water was shallow enough to walk in. "I'll be it first, I guess. You gonna play, Aimee?"
"Uh huh!" She said, although I doubted she even knew how to play.
"Alright, I'll give you five seconds to spread out!" He shouted, closing his eyes and counting to five. "Marco!"
"Marco!" Aimee shouted, laughing as we all shouted Polo back at him. I saw him go in the opposite direction of me, towards Marcus, who was trying not to laugh.
"Marco!"
"Polo!"
This time, Louis advanced closer to Marcus, on the other side of the pool. I stole a glance at Niall, who had shades on so I couldn't see what he was looking at. Right as I turned back to the group in the pool, I saw Louis reach out in front of him and hit Marcus, who was laughing like crazy.
"Alright, alright!" Marcus held his hands up. Beside me, Aimee swam over to me, her floaties still on her arms. Marcus closed his eyes and started the game off, now going in my direction.
"Marco!"
"Polo!" I tried to say quietly, but he seemed to be closing in on me.
"Mommy, watch this!" Aimee said, spinning in a circle. I tried to shush her a little as I turned around, now trapped in the corner of the pool. I screamed as I felt arms wrap around my waist and my body pulled in to a rather fit one.
"Okay, you got me!" I laughed, but Marcus didn't let go of me just yet.
"You're really hot." He whispered in my ear, winking at me. We were facing Niall, who was watching us no doubt. I couldn't help but blush at his comment, and it wasn't like I tried it. Finally, I wriggled out of his grip and swam over to Aimee as Niall took of his shades and got up out of his chair, heading back downstairs.
"Uh, I'll be back!" I said. "Harry, do you want to watch Aimee or should I take her with me?" I asked. Aimee pouted and paddled over to Harry as fast as she could.
"I can watch her." He smiled.
"Keep an eye on her at all times, make sure she stays in the shallow end and keeps her floaties on." I instructed him sternly. He held her and nodded, kissing her cheek.
I hopped out of the pool and dried off as quickly as I could, then rushed down the stairs. The air conditioning made me shiver, but I kept running down to the main room, despite the cold.
"Niall?" I called out. The only one in the main room was Darcy and Zayn, who were both on their phones. I quickly waved and then walked into my bedroom, where I saw an angry Niall sitting on the edge of the bed.
"Niall..." I trailed off, closing the door behind me and standing in front of him.
"Save it, I saw all of that." He said.
"I didn't do anything wrong!" I protested. "We were playing a game!"
"I saw the way he held you." Niall argued. "And I saw you blushing. You and I both know you liked it, whatever he said to you." I closed my eyes and sighed.
"I couldn't help but blush, it wasn't because I have any sort of feelings for him. I've only known this guy for a few days, and I'm not exactly that fond of him."
"Really? How am I supposed to believe that? You two were gettin' all cuddly right in front of me!" He roared, standing up abruptly, making me start to panic. I kept my hand on the doorknob, a bit scared.
"That's not what happened." I said, angry tears forming in my eyes.
"I'm your boyfriend, he should have never held ya like that! Especially in front of me! And you just stood there and blushed!" He pulled at his blonde hair, which was sticking up in all directions. "What exactly did he say to you?"
"H-he said I was hot..." I trailed off, realizing how bad this all sounded.
"What?" Niall fumed.
"It was all him!" I tried to say. "He held me there, I couldn't do anything about it!"
Niall shook his head, not having it. He stormed up to me, and I tried not to show how scared I was. My hand was trembling, and I tightened my grip on the doorknob, twisting it so all I had to do was swing it open and run. He could turn out just like Jake, I reminded myself.
"I don't want my girlfriend messin' around with other guys!" He said. That stung, a lot more than I'd hoped. My shoulders fell and dropped to my sides as disappointment washed over me.
"What kind of person do you think I am?" I asked, barely whispering. Niall rubbed his forehead, still angry but slowly getting over it. Now, instead of being entirely afraid, I was angry. What exactly was he accusing me of?
There was a knock on our door, and it made me jump. I turned and opened the door to see Zayn standing there.
"Anybody up for a game of Monopoly?" He asked. I turned back to Niall and looked at him for a few brief seconds before turning back to Zayn. "I'm sorry, did I interrupt something...?"
"No." I said, shaking my head. "No, you weren't interrupting anything." I didn't even turn back to Niall before following Zayn out into the main room and shutting the door behind me.
a/n:
OH NO, THERE ARE TROUBLES IN THE KINGDOM
things are gonna get in-10-nse (hah, get it?) soon and i'm so x-ited (i'm gonna stop now)
VOTE/FAN/COMMENT
LET'S GET TO #1!
- x Delilah