× Mercury

"Have you ever done a juice cleanse? It's just so renewing, you know? It helps release the natural healing power of your body by clearing built up toxins. Oh, and yoga. God, I love yoga."

I leaned my head back against the couch and closed my eyes. He must have thought I wouldn't listen because he insisted on keeping an arm around my shoulders to make sure I stayed put. Hearing him talk about healthy living and kale drinks and what not to do with your body was so exhausting that I almost had a beer just to get through the agony.

God, help me.

Jamie was sitting across from me on the other couch with Jace. I tried to tell them with my eyes to save me from this guy's conversation, but they didn't pay me any attention as they were too engrossed in their own drunken banter.

Clearly God wanted me to suffer.

We were in this little sunroom just outside the living area, but I could see Macey in the throng of dancing people just a few feet away. Beyond that, I saw Emily in the dining area sitting with Reese, no doubt talking about the time she took out a man three times her size with only her hands.

I was glad my friends were having a good time, even if I wasn't. They were only here for one night and they had to make the most of it. They left Coach Sharp at the hotel with her tears as she watched Nicholas Sparks movies.

The guy next to me continued explaining about his taste buds and his improved psychological connection to food, probably thinking he had my full attention when the exact opposite was true. He removed his arm from around me to express something with his hands, but then it went right back on my shoulders and I groaned. It was odd because he was so animated but his naturally sad, blue eyes take away the excitement.

"Have you tried yoga?" he asked, but then continued to speak before I could even answer. "Yoga can be very beneficial to you in many ways. It can even help with football."

At first, the party seemed promising, but as the night dragged on, I knew it was anything but. It was like any other party; dancing, drinking, making out, drunk stories... the only interesting part of the night was watching the girl in the kitchen a half hour ago doing body shots.

Or at least it was until someone shouted over the music and a messy haired girl appeared in the doorway of the sunroom. Her big brown eyes locked on me and her face showed relief.

"Lynn!" the girl shouted, obviously out of breath. "Oh god, you need to come with me. I don't know what to do and he keeps asking for you."

"What?" I asked, removing the guy's arm from around me and sat up.

"He's freaking out. Abby's there right now but he keeps asking for you," she said frantically. I noticed that the strap of her tank top was falling down her shoulder and she wasn't wearing any shoes. "Please, come with me."

I got off the couch without further questions and went with the girl through the sweaty bodies and up the stairs to the second floor. We walked down the long hallway of closed doors and pushed the last one open.

I stopped in the doorway from the sight.

The first thing I noticed was how dark it was inside; the only source of light was from a lamp on the nightstand set on the lowest setting. The room was really small, like the only things that could fit in the room was a queen sized bed, a large dresser, a wooden desk, and maybe a book shelf. It was cluttered with all kinds of random stuff like picture frames to magazines and clothes on the floor, beauty supplies and stuffed animals littered any flat surface. Whoever owned that bedroom had absolutely no organization skills whatsoever.

Abby was standing in front of a figure who was sitting on the edge of the bed. Chloe was there, too, standing off to the side, probably the only spot with nothing on the floor, watching the scene with wide eyes. I wasn't sure what was going on, but I knew that fake blonde hair anywhere.

"He's panicking or something," the girl who brought me to the room explained. "We were, uh, we were on the bed when suddenly he just started pushing me away. He was breathing heavy, like, it just wasn't normal. Then he started asking for you and I just-" she stopped talking, at a loss of anything else to say.

Without hesitancy, I walked right over to Niall and gently pushed Abby away.

"Niall," I whispered his name softly, squatting down in front of him to get his attention.

From the sound of his name, Niall looked up through his hands. Of what I could see through his fingers; there was panic in his eyes. I put my hands on his face and removed his shaking ones so I could look at him fully.

He was burning up. Sweat was visible on his forehead and his hair was plastered on his skin. I didn't have to put my hand over his heart to know it was thumping rapidly - I could practically hear it pounding.

I felt Abby and the girl looming over my shoulder and I glared at them. "You need to back up," I snapped.

When they listened, I put my focus back onto Niall. "Take deep breaths," I told him, pleading for him to do as I say. "Can you count to three for me?"

He shook his head quickly.

"Okay, okay. Then just breathe in and out steadily. Niall, you have to do this."

He just kept shaking his head back and forth and I knew that nothing was going to work in that bedroom.

"We need to get you out of here," I said and stood up, grabbing Niall's hands to bring him to his feet. He could barely stand so I had to wrap his arm around my shoulders as mine went around his waist.

Abby started spitting out questions like what was wrong and where I was going, but I ignored her. At the moment Niall needed to get out of that room, out of the house, and outside where there was fresh air and all the space he needed.

Getting him down the stairs was hard since the party was very much alive, but I managed. By the time we were on the ground floor, Niall had leaned completely onto me, his head going down to the crook of my neck. I could feel his hot breath on my skin and from the shakiness of it I knew the panic in him wasn't getting any better as the time passed.

Finally getting to the front door and stepping outside, I helped Niall lean against the white porch fence located under the roof awning and made him sit down.

It had started to rain sometime during the party, the showers making everything in its wake sleek and shiny. Small pellets of water slipped their way under the awning, landing on my hands and face. The fresh, sweet smell of the rain was comforting and I could only hope it was doing the same for the boy in front of me.

"Hey, look at me," I said, grabbing Niall's face and forced him to look me in the eyes.

When he did, I could almost see the panic leaving him. I rubbed my thumb over his cheek and wiped away a rain drop. I continued to hold his face until his breath became regular, his eyes never looking away from me once as I did so.

"What's wrong? What happened?" I heard Abby ask from behind me. "Is he okay?"

"He will be," I assured her. From my news, she got down to Niall's level and looked at him like an animal in a zoo. "I'm pretty sure he was having a panic attack."

"What!?" she asked, horrified.

"Do you need something?" I asked Niall, ignoring Abby for the second time that night. I needed him to respond to me, to do something, to say something. I needed to know if he was alright. "Some water?"

Niall nodded and leaned his head back against the wooden fence, closing his eyes.

I quickly ran into the house and to the kitchen. The girl who was doing the belly shots earlier was gone and the only people in there were two guys looking at a phone screen. I grabbed a red solo cup and quickly filled it with water from the tap before running back outside.

I handed Niall the cup. He took it and tipped his head back, downing the drink.

"He..." I heard Abby say a few feet away from us, watching Niall intently. "He pushed me away. I just wanted to help; wanted to know what I could do to help... But he pushed me."

"When someone's having a panic attack, they'll do everything they can to get out of it," I told her. As much as I disliked Abby, seeing the concern on her face I knew she needed some reassurance that it wasn't necessarily her fault for his actions. "He just needed some space and you were in the way of that."

"How come he asked for you?"

Looking at Niall again, I saw that his eyes were open slightly and was staring at me.

I stared back at him. Why did you ask for me?

I didn't respond, I just reached up and brushed the damp hair away from Niall's face. I noticed he had a lot of freckles that I didn't pay much attention to before. There were two on his left cheek and a bunch scattered along his neck and even more that trailed down under the shirt he was wearing. I found myself counting them as I gazed upon his peaceful face.

"Can you take me home?" I heard him say, just soft enough for me to hear.

"Yeah," I said, slightly surprised by the request. "Of course."

I stood up and reached my hands down for him to take. I was well aware of Abby watching our every move as I lifted Niall up onto his feet, helping him stand by putting my arm around him once again.

"Do you have your car keys?" I asked.

He nodded and dug in his back pocket and handed them to me. "I'm parked just down the block a bit," he informed, and then he seemed to consider it for a moment. "I think..."

The rain drenched us immediately after stepping out from under the awning. It wasn't until I could see Niall's car a few feet ahead of us that I remembered my friends were still inside, probably wondering where I ran off to.

I looked at the many buttons on the key he gave me and found one that had an unlocked symbol and pressed it. I heard a click noise of the car and assumed that it had worked.

"Open the back door," Niall instructed in my ear. "I need to lie down."

I did what he asked. He climbed in without any help and plopped down on his back, knees up and resting his arm over his face. I closed the door after him and took the driver seat and turned the car on.

If I was being honest, I was a little scared. This was a really nice car, a car that I didn't own, a car that I wasn't used to driving since the steering wheel was on the opposite side. I didn't want to be responsible if I were to crash. I was lucky enough that it was passed one in the morning and prayed that there wasn't anyone on the roads for me to crash into, but that only meant there were probably drunks on the street to make it worse.

Before I pulled away from the curb, I quickly grabbed my phone and sent a text to my friends and Jace that I had left with a friend and to not worry about me.

Once I pressed send, I put the car in drive and took off, praying I didn't crash on the way to the Lee House.

× × ×

"It's fucking dark in here," Niall observed as he opened the door to his room and stumbled in. I followed in after, leaving the door open ajar to let in a little light.

On the way over - successfully with no damage, I will add - the power had gone out, leaving the campus and the surrounding area in darkness. But even through the darkness of the room, I could tell it was rather clean, just as it was when I was there the other day.

Except there was something I hadn't noticed before.

"Is that a night light?" I asked, nodding toward the rectangle plugged into the wall

"Uh," Niall said, obviously caught off guard. He was standing in front of a small dresser, looking over his shoulder at the light. "Yeah, it's James'."

"Then this is James' bed?" I continued, pointing to the bed the light was next to; the bed with the Irish flag at the foot.

Niall shook his head. "No, it's mine."

"So-" I stopped myself, knowing I shouldn't push it.

Niall looked uneasy and I knew I shouldn't press with the questions. When I didn't continue what I was saying, Niall's shoulders relaxed; probably glad I dropped the conversation.

I made my way across the room and opened the blinds to get as much moonlight I possibly could to at least see where I was walking. I sighed deeply when I realized the moon was on the other side of the building and the angry clouds were overcasting any light that would have been coming in.

"Do you have any candles or something?" I asked him, looking around the room for something to use as a source of light. I wasn't a huge fan of candles, but it wasn't like I was going to be staying very long anyways.

"No." Niall said.

I wasn't exactly sure what to do, I brought him home, and he was doing okay from what it seemed, so my job was finished for the night.

"I'm going to go," I said as I started toward the door.

"No!" he pleaded, eyes locked on me now. "I mean, uh, it's poring outside and it's dark and your Hall is a long walk..."

"I'm already wet, Niall."

Suddenly, the sadness in his eyes vanished and changed to mischievous, a shrewd smile playing on his lips. "Oh, really?"

"I'm leaving," I told him solemnly and continued to the door again.

"No, wait!" he pleaded again, this time grabbing my wrist to stop me.

I paused in my tracks, not because he grabbed me, but because of the tenderness in his touch and the sound of his voice. The combination of the two made me hear him out.

"I'm sorry, I just... I don't like the dark," he explained, letting go of my wrist and looking down at his hands. "Can you stay? Please?" The pleading in his voice had changed to something like helplessness.

"Niall, I don't think-" I stopped what I was about to say as a strike of lighting flashed through the window and the building trembled with thunder.

The idea of walking in this weather probably wasn't a good idea, or that's what I told myself when in reality the wide eyed boy in front of me was the reason why I found myself sighing deeply, even though I knew it was a terrible idea.

"Fine, I'll stay."

Relief washed over Niall but he didn't say anything in return. He looked absolutely exhausted and completely wasted. It was a long night for him, I could imagine with winning the game only six hours ago and then having a panic attack shortly after. Things like that would wear anyone out.

"You should probably get to sleep," I told him as his eyes started to droop.

He nodded in agreement and ran a hand down his face as he stood up. "You can sleep in my bed," Niall told me. "I'll sleep in James'."

"I don't want to kick you out of your own bed," I said, standing in the middle of the room awkwardly.

"I think you should sleep in my bed. I don't know what the fuck James does during his free time while he's in his," Niall told me.

"Well, to be fair, I don't know what you do in your bed, either."

Niall just rolled his eyes as he climbed up the ladder and pushed the duvet back to crawl inside. I played with the wet shirt sticking to my skin from the rain and looked around the room again, feeling a little uncomfortable.

"Do you..." I started sheepishly. "May I borrow something to wear?"

He laughed lightly at my discomfort and pointed to a dresser against the wall. "The top two drawers are mine. Take what you want."

I opened the top drawer to see a bunch of folded up boxers and briefs. I found myself silently laughing at a pair with four leaf clovers on them. I pushed those aside and grabbed plain black ones and went to the next drawer. I didn't pay much attention to the shirts, not like I could with the dim lighting in the room even if I wanted to, so I just grabbed the first one I saw.

I looked down at what I was wearing and then back at Niall, wondering if he had already fallen asleep. Before I could even say anything, Niall read my mind and said, "There is a bathroom just down the hall," he told me, pointing in the direction where they're located. "There should also be some clean towels for you to use to dry off."

"Thanks," I said and left the room.

I walked down the hall where he had pointed. I found the bathrooms and saw clean towels folded up on a stack and I grabbed one. Peeling off my wet, clinging clothes from my body, I started to dry off the best I could from the rain.

Once I had changed in the clothes I took of Niall's, I stared at myself in the mirror. The green shirt was too big; the bottom hem went down passed my hips. I didn't like how my boobs looked in the shirt since I had to remove my bra due to it being dripping wet. The black boxers were big, too. I had to roll the waistband down once before they stayed on my hips.

I grabbed my wet clothes and went back to the dorm.

The room was deathly silent when I got back - no hum of Niall's laptop, no creaking from the floor as I strolled across the room. It even sounded like the rain had lessened, though the lightning and thundering had not. I looked up at Niall to see him in James' bed, his back to me. While I was gone, he had ditched his shirt and they now lay in the middle of the floor. The glow from the natural lights from the window reflected off his skin and I had to look away from his toned back before I started staring too long.

I dropped my wet clothes by the door so they were out of the way and pulled back the blankets and climbed into Niall's bed. It smelt like him, and it was kind of nice. It was like a woodsy smell mixed in with his personal smell - that certain scent everyone has that belongs just to them. I pulled the covers closer to my chin and closed my eyes.

His bed was really comfortable and it only took seconds for me to find slumber, my mind oblivious about the night still ahead.