Crashing Down (Dark N.H A.U)

Chapter Eighteen

"I'm just stating facts." Louis shrugs his shoulders.

"Eleanor." Niall says, completely ignoring Louis. It's hard to tell if he is mad or not. "What happened? Are you guys fighting?"

"We were just joking around." Eleanor glances at Louis. She also looks nervous. "We seemed to take it a bit far."

"A bit far?" Niall looks around the destroyed kitchen.

"You held Francesca down while Lola dumped melted butter on her. That's seems more than a bit far." Harry smirks and then adds, "I now understand Louis' comment."

"You are all adults, but you are acting like children." Niall looks at each of us annoyed. "We are going to have to clean this up. You do realize that?" I watch as Niall brings his hands up to the back of his neck. "We can't bring an outsider here to clean. You got flour, eggs, and water everywhere." As Niall continues to treat us like children I pick up the hose. Niall looks over at me at the last second. Niall points at me and says, "don't you dare!"

"Get 'em!" I yell.

I turn around and turn the water all the way up. I squeeze the sprayer and water shoots towards Niall. Niall comes running towards me, but I decide hitting him with water is better than running. Niall gets to me within a few seconds. He grabs me by the waist and pulls me away from the sink. As he is moving us away I see Eleanor and Lola throwing flour at Harry and Louis. There is a small pile of flour on the kitchen island. I grab as much as I can and drop it on Niall's head. I then press my flour covered hand to Niall's cheek. I start laughing uncontrollably at Niall's expression. He is doing his best not to crack a smile.

"You think that's funny?" Niall picks me up and throws me over his shoulder. "Let's see how funny this can get."

As we walk out of the kitchen I yell, "save me!"

The others are too distracted to notice me. Niall doesn't slow down until we get to the pool. I try to wrap my arms around Niall, but it's not helping.

"Niall, don't you dare!" I try to sound threatening.

"You were loving the water a few minutes ago. I thought this would be better!" Niall reaches into his pocket and I hear some things drop to the ground. As Niall takes off running he pulls me lower and instinctively I wrap my legs around his waist. He jumps and we submerge into the water. Niall clearly jumped into the deep end, because it takes us a couple seconds to emerge from the water. I drop my legs from Niall's waist so we can both tread lightly.

"Who's laughing now, Francesca?" Niall smirks.

"Me!" I then splash Niall and move my hands to his head. I dunk him under the water for maybe a millisecond. He is too strong. My smile drops when Niall's head pops out of the water. He almost looks afraid. "Niall, I'm sorry. I was just playing around."

"I know, I'm fine." Niall is not fine.

"You don't have to lie."

"I know you can't drown me. I know I'm stronger, its just-" Niall looks away embarrassed. I bring my hand to his cheek and force him to look at me. There is a vulnerability to him that I haven't seen yet. "I get flashbacks and I'm taken right back to being a kid and mum beating the shit out of me."

My hand drops from shock. "Niall, she, she didn't." I close my eyes trying to wrap my mind around the fact that Niall's mother was this sick. "Did she try to drown you?"

"Yeah." Niall clears his throat as I feel like I just got the wind knocked out of me. I knew he was going to say yes, but to hear him confirm it. I just don't understand how a mom could do that to her child. "Hey, hey, hey. Don't cry over this. She didn't succeed. I'm still here."