× Horan

It was Monday the next morning and I was wide awake.

In the mornings of important days that were filled with tests and required sporty footwear and suffocating conversations, I was harder to wake. But today was different.

The blinds on the window were closed, but the sun was still finding a way inside and blinding me. It was rare to have it be sunny in London, and whenever it was, it found a way to annoy me.

I looked across the room without moving and saw that James still hadn't come home from the bonfire, his bed still a mess of blankets from when he got out of it the morning before.

Our hall is what any university kid's room would look like. There was a cork board next to my bed with a calendar tacked on it that was flipped to the month of August with my class schedule and when I should study, if I were to ever study. I had my small collection of snapbacks hanging up along the wall and some road signs I had stolen in my teen years. My desk was cluttered with my homework and loose papers as well a skyscraper tower of textbooks I payed an arm and a leg for that I don't even use. There was a mini fridge in the corner of the room stocked with soda, beer, and James' large collection of "God's gift to man kind" as he likes to call Lunchables.

Then there was all of James' shit all on his side. Stuff from comic books to this tattered old blanket he sleeps with to his god awful array of cologne and random crap he insists on keeping like a Sports Illustrated poster with a nearly naked woman posing on a beach tacked on the wall and a navy blue beanbag chair that smells like cat piss.

After five minutes of laying in bed and trying to fall back asleep, I moaned with frustration as I found it useless.

When I shifted my position, I felt something on my upper body. I looked down and saw a hand on my chest, wrapped around my torso loosely. I grabbed it and flung it off me, hating the soft touch on my skin.

I sat up and rubbed my eyes. The sleeping body beside me stirred and curled into herself before going still again. I couldn't remember her name. I couldn't even remember if she even told me. It didn't matter though, it was irrelevant.

I met her in the lobby of the Hall after dropping Lynn off at her place. I was pretty sure we only exchanged two words before we were on each other. I didn't really remember coming back to my room, but I wasn't surprised. My room was where I always ended up with a girl.

Right then, my laptop dinged and I tugged on my boxers from the night before and got off the bed, walking over to it. It was a request to chat over Skype with my brother, so naturally I pressed ignore. There was no way in hell I was going to talk to him so early in the goddamn morning.

I was left with the biggest hangover that I've had in years, except the last time it was due from too much alcohol. This time... this time it had something to do with Lynn Mercury.

I didn't know why, but she could give me the biggest nuisances sometimes. All last night after I had dropped her off, I just kept thinking back to when she ran away from the fire like she had seen a ghost.

A soft voice spoke through the quiet room, breaking me away from my thoughts.

"Come back to bed?" the girl asked with a sleepy smile on her lips. She wrapped the sheet around her naked body and propped herself up on an elbow. Her blonde hair was a mess and her brown eyes were looking into mine, almost pleading for me to keep her company under the sheets.

Before I could respond, the door swung open and a stumbling James came in, slamming the door shut behind him, loud enough that I was sure the people next door could hear.

"That was such a sick party!" he shouted as he grabbed the wall so he could prevent himself from falling over. He looked around the room and his eyes landed on the naked girl in my bed. "Hello," he said in a low voice, nodding his head in her direction. "What's your name?"

A look of horror was on her face, clearly at a loss of what to do next.

"You should probably leave," I told her tiresomely.

She was looking at me like she didn't hear me correctly - like she expected me to stand up for her or something. But I didn't, and she knew I wasn't going to which was why she nodded her head timidly and wrapped the sheet closer to her small frame and got out of bed. I watched her as she picked up her clothes from the floor and walked around James cautiously, who was still watching her with lustful eyes.

She looked over her shoulder one last time at me, like she thought I would change my mind. When she got her answer, she left the room.

I knew she was thinking how much of a dick I was, but I didn't care. I knew I was. But that was what I did. I slept with girls, sometimes they don't even make it as far as sleeping in the same bed for the night, and then they would leave. It was strictly one night stands and they all knew it when they get in the bed.

I wasn't any better than they were. Or at least that's what I kept telling myself. We all wanted the same thing in the end.

"Bro," James slurred, walking over and slumping into his computer chair, leaning over so far I thought he might fall off. "Mate, when are you going to snag one of these girls you bring here? Like, keep them, I mean."

"Keep them?" I asked, raising my eyebrow at him.

"Yeah!" His voice was breathless, like he was still drunk and really tired. And I had no doubt that he was both of those things. "Like as a girlfriend. That one that just left was fit."

"I don't do girlfriends," I said indifferently. "And you should stop talking about girls like objects, like things to be owned."

James snorted. "Look who's talking. You don't give them any respect; you will literally hook up with any pretty girl who looks at you the right way. You don't bother to get to know them or even know their goddamn name. I swear, I think the only woman you treat at least a little decently is Mercury."

I spun in my chair and glared at him. "What?"

"I mean, you treat her like shit, don't get me wrong, but at least you don't look at her like you want to fuck her," James said. He looked bored of the conversation, looking at his nails as he sat in his chair, but he continued to explain anyways. "You treat her like a person you just happen to dislike. But a person nevertheless."

"You're still drunk," I accused him.

"Maybe, but I'm right," he said, a small smile on his lips. "Like when we were scrimmaging against the girls in California, you just abandoned the game to go see if she was alright. Then you proceeded to yell at Reese for knocking Lynn down, almost like you cared-"

"Okay!" I shouted, wanting him to shut up. "Okay, I get it. I'm a douchebag."

"At least you know, Horan. At least you know."

James stood up and climbed the ladder up to his bed. He missed his footing on one of the wooden rods and his foot went through the opening and he giggled like a little kid before continuing up to his bed and falling face first into the pillow.

"Oh, by the way," he said, peering down at me. "Coach texted the team saying that practice is at noon. I'm not going, so have fun without me."

My eyes went big. "Fuck," I said under my breath. I reached for my phone on the nightstand and saw that there was a text from Coach. I looked at the time and saw that it was almost eleven thirty. "Fuck!"

Quickly, I changed into some clean clothes and made my way across the room and opened the door. I was about to step out when I saw the white sheets the girl had wrapped around her. They were laying right in the doorway with a pink sticky note on top.

I picked up the note and threw the wadded up cloth into the room and closed the door, walking down the hall.

I had a great time last night. See you around, Morgan.

I rolled my eyes and crumbled up the paper and threw it in the trash as I walked into the lounge. I hope she didn't end up like Abby and cling onto me. It was hard enough to deal with one blonde in my life, I didn't need another.

× × ×

On my way to the arena, I could only imagine how everyone else must be feeling. They were sure to be hungover and extremely pissed off, I already knew before I even pulled up into the lot that this practice was going to be literal hell.

By the time I got there - late, of course - I was right. The lads were having a roll with Coach about practice being last minute and that it was the afternoon after the bonfire. There were maybe only twelve of the seventeen players even there, the others probably running late like I was or slept through Coach's text with a hangover. I also noticed that Lynn wasn't one of the people on the field.

A whistle blew through the argument and everyone went silent as Coach stood tall in front of us. "I know its last minute and that the bonfire was last night, I don't necessary like this either, but it's needed. I won't be here on Wednesday for our practice so I had to squeeze it in now. We have one week exactly for our next game, we need as much practice as we can get. Now get out on the field and start stretching."

Practice was tiring, it always was, but today just seemed more so. Lynn had showed up twenty minutes late and Coach had us playing scrimmage again with the whole field, subbing in players when needed.

I currently had the ball and was making my way down the field. From the corner of my eye I saw Lynn running alongside me from the other side of the turf, wide open. I knew I was supposed to pass her the ball-Coach would want me to pass the ball- but I was flying. No one was around me so I just kept going.

I would have made it, too, the goal was only a few feet away. But that was until Thomas came out of nowhere and snatched the ball right out from under my feet, taking me off guard and losing my balance. I fell as soon as Coach blew his whistle.

"What the hell was that!?" I heard him shout along with some very angry profanities. I stood up and saw Lynn glaring at me, along with some of my other teammates. "Horan, get your ass over here right now!"

I sighed heavily and obeyed, walking up to him. He had his clipboard in one hand and the other on his hip. I didn't need to look at his face to know that he was furious.

"You know the rule. No matter what, even if you're wide open, you pass the bloody ball," he shouted, his green eyes turning into the color of dark moss. "Lynn was open, Matt was open, and William was open. Three options and you took none of them."

I knew it was probably a bad thing to do right then, but I looked away. I wasn't sure if it was because the heat from Coach's eyes was too intense to look into, or if it was because something over his shoulder caught my attention. It was probably the latter because when I saw what it was that caught my curiosity, Coach's words seemed to float away into orbit.

Lynn was standing there, pulling her shirt up to wipe sweat from her forehead, her bare, tanned stomach exposed to the world. The elastic of her shorts were rolled up so they were hanging loosely around her hips, and her black sports bra peeked out from underneath the hem of her shirt. I caught myself staring as her stomach muscles moved with her actions, but I didn't even bother to look away.

Or at least, I didn't until Coach's words were finally coming back down from space.

"-listing to me!?" was what he saying as I turned back to face him. Then he turned to face the whole team. "Everyone take five!" Once again, his cold gaze landed on me again. "When you get back, you better work as a team or so help me God."

My teammates piled off the field and toward their water bottles. Lynn walked by and checked my shoulder as she continued through the doors and into the building. Without thinking, I followed after her.

"Lynn!"

"Don't bother!" she shouted, her voice echoing off the brick walls. I was right on her heels when she spun to face me. "I get that you're trying to stay the star of the team. I get that, really. But it's not going to mean shit if you keep hogging the ball and jeopardizing our chances to win."

She was just as angry as Coach was, that same kind of fire in her eyes like last night at the bonfire. For some reason I felt like I had to explain myself to Lynn more than I did to Coach.

"I just-"

"I came here to win. I came here so I can make it, to live a dream I had since I was little. You're not going to take that away from me just because your ego is bigger than your common sense. I left my friends, my grandma, and my home for this!"

"Lynn-"

"I've been here for six days and I've already made two enemies - one of them being my own teammate, no less. This was the stuff I had to deal with in high school, Niall! It shouldn't have to follow me two years later across the world! It shouldn't have to effect what I want to achieve in life!"

"Lynn, just listen to me-"

"No! You need to get your shit together because I can't keep-"

This time it was my turn to interrupt.

Before I could stop myself, I cupped her face and leaned in and kissed her.

It was a blitz attack neither of us were expecting. We were both taken by surprise as my head started to spin and I could feel her quickened heartbeat against my chest. But she responded almost immediately by arching into my chest, the kiss growing hungrier by the second.

This wasn't my plan - I didn't even know what my plan was, but it sure as hell wasn't this. I had every intention to pull away from her, but she just smelled so good - peppermint maybe? It was like the world and all its biology and nature just fell away and any practical thought I had about anything went with it. That little part of my brain kept telling me that I needed to stop, but the larger part kept telling me to continue and make it last.

I needed more.

I bit down on her bottom lip, making her mouth open for me. Pushing her up against the wall, I felt her hand go up, wringing her fingers through my messy, damp hair. Her lips were so soft against mine, so smooth. My mind was going haywire with all these impious thoughts.

My hands wandered her body - that image of her pulling her shirt up flashing in my mind like a nightmare I couldn't shake - starting at her collarbones and then trailing a hand down her stomach and to her lower back. She was so soft and toned and felt so fucking good under my fingertips.

Lynn ran her fingers down my spine, pulling me closer until there was no space left between us. I opened my mouth against hers with a low moan I couldn't keep from escaping. Every sense of warning that was blaring in my head didn't even come close to the satisfaction I was feeling from the taste of her lips.

I was all pure logic and artificial, cool detachment until she touched my skin. Then something not only stirred in me, but it took over my thoughts. The rest of my world became an unimportant blur that was banished into the far recesses of my mind.

I was mentally ticking off the things I normally did to get a girl into my bed - surprise her, creating a barrier so she couldn't move, letting her know I was enjoying myself, letting my hands wander. It was what I did to any girl that was willing, any girl that I didn't absolutely despise.

So maybe that was why I finally jumped away from her, what I was doing finally going to my brain and mentally slapping me hard across the face.

I stumbled back, not entirely believing what just happened.

The kiss left the two of us breathless. The only sound in the empty hallway was our ragged breathing. Lynn was leaning against the wall, a hand up to her face and fingers on her lip as she stared at me. Her shirt was slightly pushed up and hair coming out of her ponytail.

What did I just do?

"I, uh-" I started to say, but stopped, afraid of what might come out of my mouth.

Instead, I ran away from her. Yeah, that's what I really did. Like a little boy on the playground running away after getting a peck on the cheek from a cute girl. I ran straight into the men's locker room, not wanting to face or admit to the act I had just committed.

Minutes passed and I was sure our five minute break was long up, but there was no way in hell I was going to go back out there.

"Niall?" I heard someone say though the empty locker room. Jace appeared from around the corner. He must have seen the fear in my eyes because he took a seat next to me. "What did you do?"

I said it before and it sure as hell wouldn't be the last; Jace Layton was the type of guy who knows you better than you did, so I wasn't even a little bit surprised to know that he knew that I had done something.

I didn't want to tell him. What I really wanted to do was pretend that nothing happened, go back out there and act like Lynn and I just had a fight and that was it. But that would have been classified as a fairytale, and I know more than anyone that fairytales don't exist.

"I kissed her," I admitted finally, knowing Jace would find out sooner or later. "I don't... It just happened. She was yelling at me and she wouldn't shut up and let me talk. And I just fucking kissed her."

Jace sighed beside me. I didn't know what he was thinking, and I was kind of scared to find out. Instead of saying anything, he just hit me in the back of the head like the idiot I was.

I nodded at him like that was exactly what I was expecting. And it was. Again, like I said before, Jace was a loyal friend but he wasn't afraid to hit you when you fucked up. I did believe this was a time where I fucked up.

"I can't go back out there," I told him, rubbing the back of my head where he hit me.

"What am I supposed to tell Coach?"

I thought back to the night I picked Lynn up at the airport and the phone call I had with Coach. "Just tell him that I'm cashing in a favor. He'll know what I'm talking about."

"Skipping practice isn't going to fix anything," he said. I looked at him, pleading with my eyes. "Alright, fine. But Coach isn't going to like it very much."

"I owe you one," I said before I grabbed my things from my locker and booked it out of the building as fast as I possibly could.