On the Run

The air in the motel room was warm, as there was no air conditioner. No matter what Niall did, sweat still pooled at his brow, and looking over at Gianna, he knew that she felt the same. He imagined that she wasn’t used to conditions like these, because her father would never stand for her to live that way, so it had to be worse for her than it was for him.

“There’s got to be a way to cool down,” Gianna said, fanning herself with a spare sheet of paper. Niall had thought the same thing, but there was nothing they could do. They were hiding out.

Ever since the group had split up, Niall and Gianna had been cooped up in that motel room. Both of them knew that leaving could mean that they’d be spotted, and them being spotted would lead to death for Niall, and that was the best outcome. They had to stay hidden, because going out in the open was far too dangerous.

Niall bit his lip, thinking as hard as he could for a way to bring them some sort of relief. It was such a small problem, and with all the problems they had, he wanted to be able to fix this one.

Standing from his place on the rough, wooden chair, Niall grabbed onto Gianna’s hand, pulling her up from the bed.

“Where are we going?” she asked, chuckling as he dragged her across the room.

Niall smiled back at her. “You’ll see.”

He kept his grip on the tip of Gianna’s fingers, guiding her to their room’s small bathroom. He knew she’d be curious as to what he was doing, but he hoped she’d go along with it.

With the door pushed open, the two were met with a less than clean bathroom, with a dingy yellow floor and completely see through shower curtain. Niall dropped Gianna’s hand and gripped onto the plastic curtain, pulling it to the side.

Luckily, the bathtub wasn’t quite as dirty as the rest of the room, so Niall turned on the water to the coldest setting and stopped up the plug as he waited for the water to fill the tub. Gianna simply stood next to him, slowly catching onto what he was doing.

Once the tub was filled, Niall rolled up the end of his athletic shorts and sat at the edge of the tub before dipping his feet into it. The feeling of the cool water immediately soothed him, shooting over the parts of his body that weren’t even dipped into it. It felt so relaxing that all he could do was sigh, and it only took a few moments for Gianna to follow suit.

Gianna swung her leg over the tub, almost hitting Niall with her dainty toes, and all he could do was laugh at her. She chuckled back and took the seat directly next to him. Her toes brushed into the water and she smiled as she gently moved them back and forth, brushing over the cool surface.

When she dipped her feet in, she let out an audible sigh, while she dipped her head back. Niall couldn’t help but smile at how beautiful she looked, because there was something about her that just had him so entranced.

Sometimes, he thought that she just had to know how he felt about her, because honestly, how could she not? He’d been the only one to offer to stay with her. He was the one that always did everything he could to protect her. It had to be obvious that he was absolutely mad for her.

“That’s much better,” Gianna said, smiling as she dipped forward and cupped a bit of water in her hand. Her hand lifted up, only a small amount of the water left, and hovered over the tops of Niall’s thighs.

“What are you doing with that?” Niall asked, looking at Gianna with wide eyes and a smile.

“Nothing,” she replied before pulling her hands apart, causing the water to go splashing down onto Niall.

He pulled back, brushing the water off himself, and leaned forward, doing the same with his hands as she had. In just seconds, he had a handful of water floating above Gianna’s head, ready to splash down onto her.

“Don’t you dare,” Gianna said, chuckling as she raised her hands up in defeat.

Niall smiled at her, tilting his head to one side. “Too late.”

With that, Niall pulled his hands apart and turning Gianna into a wet mess. She stood up, gasping as she held her hands out at her sides.

“That’s it,” Gianna said, ready to turn away from Niall and towards the tub. “You asked for it.”

Before she could turn around, Niall grabbed onto her hands, forcing her to look at him. She smiled at him and all he could do was smile back, basking in the glow of her deep brown eyes. He wanted so badly to tell her how he felt, but he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to gather up the courage.

“What are you looking at?” Gianna asked, chuckling at him.

Niall shook his head, flashing her his wild smile. “Nothing.”