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Avery Holmes
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I woke up in Niall's arms, my mind filled with good memories of the previous night. I tried to squirm out of his grip to go to the bathroom, but the more I fought against him the tighter he held me.
I giggled and turned so that our chests were touching, looking up at his sleeping face. His blonde hair was tousled and his mouth hung slightly ajar. Something that I loved about seeing him sleep was how peaceful he looked.
I nuzzled myself in his warm chest, closing my eyes and trying to fall back asleep. It was probably fairly late by now, but since we had such a late night last night, I figured we all deserved to sleep in. Aimee was still under the covers in her own bed with Timmy tucked safely under her arm.
"Mmm," Niall grunted, turning over with me in his arms so that now I was basically laying on top of him. I giggled and kissed him on the lips as his eyes fluttered open, a goofy grin plastered on his face.
"What time is it?" He asked, his voice deep from sleep. The peaceful boy that was sleeping moments ago was replaced by a man with worry wrinkles covering his forehead.
"Uh... I think it's ten something." I said.
"Is Aimee awake?"
"Sound asleep." I smiled. He grinned and blushed.
"Good."
"Good?" (if i see some sort of tfios comment, i'll die. just because people repeat things doesn't mean it's from tfios, gosh.)
"Yeah, good." He chuckled. "Because then I can do this without an audience."
Suddenly hands cup my cheeks and before I know it I'm rolling on the bed and Niall is now on top. If it weren't for the fact that he was supporting his weight up, I would probably not be able to breathe from being squished underneath him.
He kisses me and with everything happening and the fact that I was half asleep, it took me by surprise. I smiled and kissed him back, wishing that we were alone in the room so Aimee wouldn't potentially wake up to us making out in a bed.
"I think this is a record," I finally admitted once we pulled apart. "It's been five minutes since I woke up and we've already made out." He laughed and rolled off me, keeping my one hand in his and playing with it.
"We'll have to try to break that record sometime, then." He smirks.
"Hey, I'm not complaining." I giggled, curling up in his chest. "You do seem... off, though. Is everything okay?"
"'Course." He assured me. "Everything is good."
"You sure?" I raised my eyebrow, not completely convinced. "You seemed pretty eager to kiss me, even though you woke up only two minutes ago."
"Just want to make some memories." He shrugged. Something about his demeanor was sad, but I couldn't point my finger on why.
"We have plenty of time to make memories, Horan." I said, sitting up and stretching.
"You never know." He said. "The future isn't set in stone, anything could happen."
Even though he was probably just blabbering, I couldn't help but hang onto his words. I wanted to figure out why he was being so jumpy and careful. Last night he tried to get Aimee to sleep in our bed and he locked the windows, and now he was saying something about not having time with me?
"Well," I cleared my throat. "I'm gonna get Aimee up and make breakfast."
"No, no." Niall stopped me. "I'll do breakfast. I'm thinking we'll eat something special."
"What's the occasion?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No occasion." He insisted. "Just wanted to have a nice meal."
I tried to push away any negative thoughts and gave in. It wasn't everyday that you had an incredibly attractive man offer to make you breakfast, so I was going to take advantage of the opportunity.
Before I could go to Aimee's bed, Niall was already there waking her up sweetly. I had no clue why he was doing this and figured that I was just looking into things too much. I was so used to everything being bad that I was just being ridiculous thinking that anything was wrong.
"I gotta pee." Were the first things out of Aimee's mouth. She hopped out of bed and ran to the bathroom, forgetting to close the door like always. Niall kissed me before heading off to the small kitchen to start breakfast while I stayed in bed, puzzled as ever.
By the time I actually got my lazy butt out of bed, Niall had eggs, bacon, and glasses of orange juice sitting on the coffee table next to a note. I frowned and grabbed the piece of paper, peering down at it.
went to talk to sam, be back soon !
- ni x
I sighed, now more confused than ever, as I got Aimee and brought her to our makeshift table. She babbled on and on about her dream last night and I pretended to be interested, but really I was curious about what Niall was hiding. It was obvious that he was hiding something.
"Mommy, I heard a noise!" Aimee said, tugging on the sleeve of my shirt and interrupting me from my thoughts. I looked to where she was pointing- the window that faced the woodsy area behind the Motel 6.
"What kind of noise?" I asked, standing up and approaching the window. All I saw where some trees from the forest. Clearly, there was nothing there.
"A noise." Aimee said. I chuckled and patted her head, assuming that she was playing pretend again. She loved playing pretend a lot, and recently her favorite game was pretending the stuffed animals from the claw machine were people that needed rescued.
"It's nothing, baby girl." I promised. "Come on, you love bacon! You've got to eat something."
"I'm not hungry." She insisted. "I'm scared." She pointed to the window once more and I gave her a blank look. Whatever game she was playing, it wasn't funny.
"There's no reason to be scared. You know, sometimes the wind makes noises outside or shakes the window. It's probably that." I looked her in the eye and waited until she finally nodded.
"Okay, mom." She said.
"No, I'm mommy. You're not allowed to call me mom, it makes me feel old." I chuckled, kissing her on the forehead as she dug into her eggs. I placed my dishes in the sink, still not able to get Niall or the noise out of my head.
"Hey, Aimee." I said once I returned from our mini kitchen as an idea entered my head. "How would you like to go see Harry?"
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"Anytime." Harry smiled. "I understand that it would be difficult getting it on with a three year old in the room." He smirked. I slapped his shoulder and made sure that Aimee hadn't heard his perverse comment.
"We aren't doing that." I said. "I just need her to stay here for a few minutes so I can see what Niall and Sam are talking about. He's been gone for at least twenty minutes."
"So you're basically going to eavesdrop?" Harry teased.
"Basically." I admitted. He chuckled, crossing his arms over his check.
"Well, I'll be glad to babysit. Just to let you know, I'm fifteen an hour. Service like mine doesn't come cheap." He joked. I rolled my eyes.
"Thank you." I said sincerely. "I promise I won't be long, just a few minutes. I owe you one!" I waved both Harry and Aimee goodbye and shut the door behind me, now determined more than ever.
"Okay, Sam's room is..." I walked down the hall, feeling guilty for eavesdropping but not enough to stop myself. I sighed when I reached Sam's door, not completely sure what I was going to do. Obviously, my plan wasn't well thought-out.
I pressed my ear to the door in an attempt to hear what they were saying. All I could hear were muffled voices, too far away to make out. It frustrated me that Niall couldn't just tell me what was on his mind. Weren't we supposed to tell each other everything?
I sunk down to the bottom of the door, my ear still pressed firmly against it. I could hear a few words, but when put together they made absolutely no sense. Whatever I was hearing was wrong.
"Ugh," I sighed, closing my eyes as I rested my head against the door. This whole plan of mine was stupid and something that I little kid would do. If Niall and Sam saw me right now I would be mortified.
Sighing, I crawled over to the window and peered in through the blinds. It wasn't much use, though, because all I could see was a couch blocking my view. I felt like a creep by spying on them, but I just wanted to find out what was up and why Niall couldn't tell me about it.
"Screw this," I whispered to myself as I stood up and knocked on the door. Seconds later, the door opened and revealed Niall. He looked shocked and a bit off, furthering my suspicion.
"Ave?" He asked, scratching his head.
"We need to talk." I said boldly.
"Now isn't a good time." He sighed, rubbing his temples. "Can we talk later?"
"No." I said stubbornly. "I need to talk now."
"Alright.." Niall finally agreed. "Talk."
"What are you hiding from me?" I blurted. "And don't try to deny anything, because it's obvious. I can see it in your eyes, your actions, your words... you're hiding something from me."
Niall's gaze dropped to the ground and he stepped out of Sam's motel room, closing the door behind him. I waited for him to speak, but he said nothing. For someone who was trying to cover something up, he was doing a terrible job.
"I don't want to worry you." He finally said, his voice barely a whispered. "The last thing I need is to scare you."
"Scare me?" I whispered back, not following. "Niall, you can tell me anything and you know that. Whatever is bothering you we can work through together. And why are we whispering?"
He sighed again, looking past me before stepping closer to me, holding me against him. I could hear his heartbeat drumming fast in his chest as it rose and fell quickly. His hands raked through my hair and a kiss was delivered on my forehead.
"Come on, Sam has some pizza in his room." He said rather loudly. I frowned as he took my hand and pulled me into Sam's room, closing the door, not stopping until we were in Sam's room with the door closed.
"Avery... nice to see you?" Sam said, looking up at me from his spot on the ground. There were papers scattered around the room that made it look like he was in the middle of something.
"If you're going to lie, Niall, don't lie about pizza. You got me excited." I teased, smirking at him. He sighed and nodded, pulling me down on the ground with him and setting me on his lap.
"She knows that we're lying, we need to tell her." Niall explained to Sam. "Maybe it would help if she knew, you know? She could give us some ideas that we can't come up with ourselves."
By this time, I was beyond puzzled. Sam furrowed his eyebrows, looking down on the papers on the ground. The words were too small for me to read from where I was sitting, so I had no clue what was going on.
"We can't." Sam said. "It's best to keep this between us."
"She already knows, we have to!" Niall argued. "Come on, Sam."
"I don't think it's a good idea." Sam persisted.
"Guys?" I said. "I'm right here."
Sam sighed loudly, rubbing his eyes. Come to think of it, he looked like he hadn't gotten any sleep last night. And if I thought back to last night, Niall did his fair share of tossing and turning. There was definitely something very wrong, and now the anticipation was making my anxiety grow.
"Avery, we have something to tell you." Sam said reluctantly.
"Yeah, I picked up on that." I snorted. Now is not the time for sarcasm, Avery.
"The woman that was at the club with Niall is named Natalie." Sam began. "She left a note in Niall's pocket that... explained some things. She had drugged Niall that night, but you already know that. What you don't know is that she is connected with Jake and Kate."
"What!?" I gasped. "How?" My heart was beating faster than ever.
"She only explained some of it in the note, not all of it." Sam continued. "But her aunt Shirley is the same Shirley that works here. Natalie knows that we're here and she told Jake and Kate about it. Right now they're somewhere watching us and if we leave they will follow right behind us."
"Why are they doing this?" I demanded, tears springing in my eyes. "They just want us to stay here?"
"Not exactly." Niall said. "In the note, Natalie said that I need to meet them at Lakepoint View on the 7th and give myself up. If I do, everyone else will be safe."
My head was spinning.
"No." I said firmly. "I will not allow it."
"Relax," Sam said. "We're not doing that. We've just got to come up with a thorough plan before the 7th. I've been trying to contact people but nobody is picking up. The service here is absolutely terrible."
"Aimee kept saying that she was hearing something." I remembered. "We're being watched!" Niall clamped a hand over my mouth.
"Another thing, they've hacked security cameras. The only places we're safe to talk about this is the bedrooms and bathrooms." He said. I nodded, eyes wide and full of fear.
"Are we going to be okay?" I asked as he wiped the tears off my cheeks.
"I promise that we will be okay." Niall said.
I just wished that I could believe him.
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a/n:
oh snap
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AND IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR A GOOD BOOK TO READ, I SUGGEST YOU READ 'IMPECCABLE' BY @JerryTheGiraffe bc it's fab