× Mercury

"Who's that?"

"Thomas Minor," I told my brother as he was pointing to a dark skinned guy with black hair running around with a soccer ball on the field in front of us. "He throws big Halloween parties every year."

We were standing on the sidelines before a game, warming up before it was time for the people to come and find their seats. We were going against Loughborough University today and the team seemed more on edge than any other time before. I didn't understand why that was, but then again, I didn't really bother to ask anyone. I figured if it was a big deal, someone would tell me.

Above us, angry gray clouds covered the sun and I knew that we were only moments away from being doused with the classic London showers.

"How about him?" Anders asked, pointing to a tall, black haired, blue eyed player.

"That's Jace Layton," I said with a smile. Jace was standing in the middle of the pitch talking to Niall, who was leaning down and adjusting his knee brace. When Jace saw our eyes on him, he looked over and grinned. "He's pretty much my only friend here."

Anders looked around the field once more, finally pointing to a brown haired, brown eyed boy making trick shots at the goalie. "And him?"

"Matt Reid," I told him just as Matt kicked the ball up in the air, did a cool spin thing, and struck the ball into the goal, right past the goalies fingers. "He's in my English class and my sub in soccer."

"He seems pretty good with his footing," Anders observed.

I nodded. "He's our best corner kicker."

There was maybe a half hour before the people started to come into the stadium, and across the field on the other side of the pitch, I saw the Loughborough team in their purple and silver jerseys enter from the opposite side of the arena. From the looks of them, they seemed mean. They were big and burly, tall and rugged. Over half of them have either full grown beards on their faces, or stubble along their sturdy jaws.

"Hey Anders," I said as I shoved him with my shoulder. He looked away from the pitch and down at me. "I think I'm going to go to the locker room and get my things on. I'll see you after the game, okay?"

"Yeah, see you then," he said before giving me a big bear hug. "Kick their butts for me."

I smiled over my shoulder as I started making my way into the building. Once inside the girl's locker room, I changed out of my jeans and sweater and started tugging on my maroon jersey and shorts. Then I slipped on some baggy blue sweat pants and a matching track jacket before I started pulling my hair up into a pony tail.

Carefully, I removed the necklace of my dad's wedding band from my neck and placed it in the locker before locking it up. There was no way in hell I was going to risk losing it on the field.

Grabbing my earbuds and phone, I sat in my little cubby and pulled my knees up to my chest and started flipping through my song choices.

Before every game I liked to blast music in my ears to help me focus on the game coming up. It helps to remove everything else from my head; all the petty problems I might have at that moment. When I was at UCLA, the whole team knew not to disturb me when I was in my cubby, knowing that if they did, I would be grumpy throughout the game.

A song started blaring through my ears and I stopped my search for a tune and leaned my head back against the wall and closed my eyes. Nothing else mattered at that moment, nothing but the lyrics in my head.

It wasn't until five songs later did I feel a hand on my shoulder, making me jump out of my skin. I knocked my head against the back of the cubby in surprise and quickly dropped my headphones around my neck and looked to see who the intruder of my bliss was.

"Christ, Niall," I breathed as I grabbed my chest, right where my heart was pounding through my ribs. "Scared the shit out of me."

"Sorry," he said, although he didn't seem like he meant it that much. "Coach is about to give us his pep talk in the men's locker room. Said to meet him there in ten, figured you would be in here."

Sighing, I squeezed out of the small cubby and removed my headphones. I stuffed them into my gym bag and grabbed my cleats before heading to the door. Before I could get very far, Niall cursed under his breath from behind me.

Turning around, I looked at him cautiously as he leaned against the side of one of the lockers, examining his knee through his brace.

"Are you okay?"

Niall looked up, brows furrowed in discomfort. "Yeah, it's just... my knee is really sore for some reason. It's fine, I'll be okay."

I identified well enough with my messed up ankle that it was a bad idea to play if it was acting up on you, so I knew that it wasn't going to be okay, not for the sake of the game, anyways. If Coach catches wind that Niall's knee isn't where it should be, then there is no doubt that he would bench Niall for the game, not wanting to risk anything for his star player. So really, there was only one way to fix the problem. Make sure Niall's knee is no longer in any pain.

I dropped my cleats on the floor where I stood and walked the short distance to one of the benches in the room and patted the seating, looking at Niall.

"Sit," I ordered.

"What?"

"I'm no masseuse," I told him honestly. "But I did learn a few tricks with my ankle, so maybe it could work for your knee. So sit down, Ireland."

After a moment of intense staring, Niall finally obeyed and took a seat in front of me. I then dropped to my knees and took position to his left leg and started undoing his brace. I never really noticed Niall's scar before, I had always been too far away to really get a good look at it. It was a faint white line about a foot long starting at the top of his knee cap down to the top of his shin.

I wasn't exactly sure how this would work for a knee, but I just decided I would do what I always did on my ankle, but this time I'll just do it a little higher.

A doctor once told me that knee pain doesn't always come from the joints, but the muscles that surrounded it. So I placed my left hand below his knee, and my right one on top, making sure to avoid the thin white scar. Kneading the tension in his muscles, I dug my fingers into his skin, up his thigh, before squeezing with increasing persistence.

"Oh, fuck..." Niall cursed softly.

I panicked. "I'm sorry! Did I hurt you? I didn't mean-"

"No," he interrupted; his breathing suddenly shallower than it was a few moments ago. "No, but if you get any closer you'll be in blow job city."

I gaped at him.

"It's just a reflex, Lynn," Niall assured me.

I already knew that. Health class: number one source of all boner information. There was a possibility that it wasn't because of me, but from my hand running up his thigh, there was a pretty good chance that it was.

I quickly snatched my hands off him and leaned back on my heels.

Niall reached out and grabbed my wrist gently. "No, don't," he said. "You have magic fingers or something because what you're doing is working."

Taking a deep sigh, I nodded, even though I knew this was a very, very bad idea. But this time when I placed my fingers against his leg, I made sure to stay away from his thigh. I firmly pressed on his knee with my palm, massaging forward a couple of inches until I grasp a muscle with my fingers and thumb.

As I gently squeezed the muscle, Niall flinched away.

I looked up to see if I had hurt him that time, but found that Niall's face was only inches away from mine. His blonde hair was a mess and his eyes were dark.

And then I began to melt, because his hand reached around to the hair tie that held my curls back. Very cautiously, I felt the pressure leave me as he drew the elastic from my hair, slow and steady, careful not to tug on any of the wild strands. Then the next thing I knew his lips were brushing against mine - soft and gentle, something that totally didn't add up to his persona. I froze at the motion, a shock running through my blood like hot sparks on asphalt as thousands of memories rushed through my mind.

My lips parted to object him but all that came out was a soft, breathy whimper.

Niall must have taken that as my answer because he used my small cry to suck my bottom lip into his mouth. This time, I didn't even try to protest.

His fingers splayed across my back tightly while his other hand reached up to cup my cheek, pulling me in even closer. Niall's finger tips were electric; they must have been, for wherever they touched my skin, tingles in a frenzy of static rushed through me.

The kiss quickly grew deeper as I sat up straight on my knees, wanting more - wanting him.

Niall's tongue poked at mine as he gained entrance, my arms wrapping around his neck. I tugged him closer to me, my fingers played with the small hairs along the nap of his neck. His lips were soft and warm, and moved slowly with mine. They tasted like mint and I was craving for more.

Between his legs, I could feel his boner against my stomach.

That must have been enough for me to come to my senses because in no time I was on my feet in front of him, breathing heavily, face flushed.

"Shit," Niall whispered, he, too, realizing what had just happened. His eyes were no longer dark, but bright blue and wide with comprehension.

I started backing away and shaking my head. "This can't be happening," I breathed out and then my eyes locked on Niall. "You can't keep doing this."

"What!?" he snapped and stood to his feet.

I could see the fire in his eyes, and I understood then that maybe I wasn't the only one between us that had a dry wick that sparks flame whenever we were together.

"Why do you always act like the victim in all this, Lynn?" he shouted. "Let's not forget that you start this sometimes, too, and not to mention that you don't stop me!"

"I shouldn't have to stop you! This shouldn't even be happening in the first place!" I retorted right back as I ran a hand through my hair and turned around. "I have to go; I can't deal with this right now."

Then Niall's hand was around my wrist again for the second time that day.

"Wait," he pleaded. "Maybe that's our problem. We never deal with this; we never talk about it."

"Let me go," I said tirelessly, running out of the fight in me, and along with that, the flare that had started to rise. "Coach is expecting us."

When I removed my wrist from his grasp, in a flash he was in front of me again, this time blocking the only exit in the room. "I can't let you leave. Not again."

"You can't let me?" I glared.

My vision went red and I knew that flicker of a flame hadn't entirely extinguish because out of nowhere I was shoving him, throwing myself against the barrier of his chest, his back hitting the door behind him roughly.

"Move out of the way, Niall!" I shouted. "Why do you even want me to stay so bad?"

And then he was at me again, pushing me backwards and pinning my body against the row of lockers. Niall was invading my space so intently I almost thought he was going to rip my clothes off then and there. His hair was a mess from running his hands through it, even more so then when he first came into the locker room, and I couldn't even imagine what mine looked like.

The blood boiling through my veins changed its course and shot straight to my heart, my pounding heartbeat thumping faster and faster. My anger had changed to pure astonishment. I stood stock still as Niall looked down at me.

"I'm not going to give you the choice of fight or flight this time," he said deeply, his hot breath fanning over my face. "You never say what you're thinking and it drives me mad. We get close and then you run me right off the road because you're just as scared as I am. It builds and builds and then shit like this happens. We need to talk about this. Now, or it will never happen."

I was panting and for the life of me I couldn't understand why. I could feel the cold medal of the lockers on my back, seeping through the polyester of my soccer jersey and making my skin crawl with goosebumps. Or at least that's what I was telling myself because I was pretty sure it actually had to do with Niall's chest pressed against mine.

"You have literally changed my whole view on everything I ever believed in, Lynn," he finally spoke, his palms coming up to rest on the lockers beside my head. "Fucking everything."

The flame inside me was flickering like crazy and I was finding it hard to restrain it. Soon I would lose all sense of control and the heat would overtake my entire being. And I knew when that happened, there was no stopping me.

One of his hands left the locker and cupped my cheek, the pad of his thumb brushing against my bottom lip.

"It's just so hard to be so close," he breathed out. "And not kiss you."

He squinted through hardened eyes that had reminded me of the ocean at Santa Monica beach, but now they looked dark and frightening. Every muscle in his face was tense and without a word he communicated strong hope, realization, and plea. And he was standing between me and the only exit...

"Niall, I..." I started to say. I closed my mouth and continued to stare at him, at a loss of words. "I can't keep doing this. We can't-"

"You're running scared," he accused.

"I'm being theoretical, which is your job," I deadpanned.

A wicked smirk grew on Niall's lips. "You don't think I thought up hypotheses, projections, compiling data, and every possible scenario I could think of? Because I have, spread sheets after spread sheets in my mind filled with models and concepts just to come up with a reason not to feel this way. But no matter how I crunch the numbers it just kept adding up to you, and I... I didn't want it to."

The silence in the air was thick. I didn't dare make a move, afraid that it might set off some kind of balance. Niall's hand was soft against my cheek, and I wasn't sure if the room was getting hot, or if it was just me.

"Every scenario I play out with you and me ends badly," he continued. "But someone once told me that I needed to stop chasing chemical reasoning and do what I honestly feel is right. There isn't a way for me to narrow this down to a science, because I tried and came up disappointed. I finally stopped overthinking everything."

I knew this was the part for me to say something, anything really, but I wasn't even totally sure what Niall was trying to get at. Not to mention that my head wasn't exactly wrapping around his words wholeheartedly, my brain too clouded from his implausible nearness for me to really think about anything else but his body pressed against mine.

I was clawing at the invisible wall in front of me that always hit when Niall and I got too close, balking at the inevitable display it would bring. My hands were by my sides and I could feel my fingers start to twitch. I never in my life felt like I needed to run more than I did then.

"You sparked something I can't just turn on and off, Lynn," Niall pressed as his thumb moved away from my lip and down to cup my face. "It's driving me bloody mental."

You need to decide if you want to be with me or not.

Harry, oh God, Harry! I forgot all about him! I was trash, utter trash for not thinking about him once during all this time. For the first time since Niall pinned me to the lockers my head was clear and I finally understood. There was way too much at stake.

My eyes never wavered from Niall's as I said, "Get off me."

After a few solid heartbeats, Niall nodded and backed away.

Finally able to breathe regularly, I slipped away from Niall and stepped out of the locker room. I made my way down the hall to the men's locker room, ignoring Sam's nagging voice in the back of my head.

If you don't want to be with Harry, you're going to have to man up and leave.