The new start
Chapter forty-three, "The promise"
After half an hour we got out from the café and we were on our way to do my favorite thing in the whole world, bungee jumping. I have always loved heights and there is actually a reason why I chose to do this today. Bungee jumping is all about trust, if you don´t trust each other it won´t work. Maybe I sound like an expert on bungee jumping but the truth is that I have only done it once with my dad. Even if it was a long time ago I remember everything. The feeling just when you jump, the feeling when you think that you are going to fall but then you don´t and the best feeling of them all, when you have done it. I searched bungee jumping on my phone and it actually was one pretty close from here. Niall don´t know what we are going to do, all I have said was that it was going to be a surprise.
“Why can´t you just tell me what it is?” He asked and looked very expectant. Just like when a little boy is waiting for his presents on Christmas. I smiled, this was so funny.
“You will see when we get there.” I giggled and Niall sighed. I looked down on my phone and realized that we soon was there, if I had read the map right. My sense of direction is really bad but I didn´t want to ask Niall for help and ruin the surprise. Then I saw it, it was a huge bridge and a couple of people was standing in line to try. Everyone looked a bit nervous, one of them shook so much I wondered if he would fall. But in the middle of the line a little girl was standing, she looked more exciting than nervous. She reminded me of when I was here with dad. Even the eyes shined like mine had. I turned around to face Niall to see what he thought and he looked terrified. His eyes were wide open and it looked like he was about to pass out any minute.
“Niall, what´s up?” I asked and looked at him with worry eyes.
“Nothing it´s just that I am very afraid of heights. I hate them almost as much as I hate pigeons.” He said and tried to smile. But it looked more like a grimace. Was it wrong of me to take him here?
“Oh, should we go?” I asked and knew that I sounded too disappointed for him to say yes.
“No, isn´t that what life is about, facing your fears?” He asked and smiled. I got so happy that I hugged him and practically ran over to the queue. Niall was quiet when we were waiting for our turn and I really wanted to cheer him up, but I couldn´t come up with one good thing to say. All I could think of was how excited I was to do this.
“Two.” I heard someone shout when it was our turn and they made us ready to jump. We had all kinds of different belts and strings around us and we were so close that I could feel Niall´s heart pounding.
“Don´t look down, look at me.” I said and Niall looked up. We were so close that I could feel his breath on my cheek. It was warm and smelled minty. I smiled, and Niall squeezed me hands so hard that I thought that they would crack.
“One…two…go!” The man that had shouted two screamed. In the next second I felt the wind blowing and the nice and warm thrill of pure happiness and excitement. When I looked at Niall I saw that he also looked happy. His eyes were shining in even brighter blue then before and his pink lips showed a little smile. But then something happened. The rope that we were hanging in slowly began to break. The happiness was washed away and replaced by fear. Pure fear was shaking around in my stomach and it felt like I had to vomit. No, I wanted to vomit. Vomit up that damn fear. But Niall made me look into his eyes. They exuded confidence.
“It will be okay. Close your eyes and think of something good, in ten seconds you open them and it will be over.” He said and now it was me squeezing his hands as hard as I could. But then a wave of safety flowed over me. If I was with Niall I would be safe, I thought and closed my eyes. I didn´t come up with something good, the only think that was in my mind was Niall. Niall and his blue eyes. Niall and his beautiful lips. Niall and his strong arms around me. I smiled and counted to ten before I opened my eyes. Surprisingly it was over, I was in the water and I hadn´t even felt us landing. I didn´t even feel the cold water around me, maybe because my whole body had numbed, but the more realistic option was because I had Niall´s arms around me. I hadn´t felt this safe since…No I have never felt this safe in my whole life, I thought. When I looked up the whole bungee jump gang was standing beside a ladder and looking worried. I don´t think they were worried for us, more for the money or for the customers they would lose. Niall and I swam together back to the ladder where Niall let me climb up first. Before we even had taken a breath the bungee jump gang embraced us with all kinds of blankets and hot drinks.
“Thank you, but we are fine.” Niall and I said with fake smiles before we sank down on the ground and looked out on the sea.
“Thank you, Niall.” I said and he looked surprised at me.
“For what?” He asked and I laughed. The truth was that I didn´t know how to say it. It would sound too pathetic if I said “for saving me.” So I tried to ignore the question but Niall kept looking at me with his beautiful eyes.
“Well I don´t know… I guess for making me feel safe.” I said and blushed. I wasn´t used to thanking people or giving complements, I often did everything by myself. When Niall didn´t answer I looked at him again, hoped that the red color on my cheeks would have gone away. Then I realized that he was as red as me, how cute? I had never seen a guy blush. Suddenly I felt his hand on the top of mine. That warm thrill I had felt too many times today went through my body. I hated it, the last time I had fallen in love it had ended up with a million hearts broken. I can´t let that happen. I pushed away his hand and got up on my feet. He looked at me with sad eyes and I couldn´t stand to see him like that so I turned away my head.
“Let´s go to the next activity and I think you will like this one a lot better.” I said and waited for him to stand up. If I would look into his eyes I would drown and then I would be like a robot. I wouldn´t be able to keep my hands in control and that´s something I don´t want.
“I hope it will go better this time.” He said and I smiled. Then I realized that his accent wasn´t like the rest of the boys. It was more Irish or something.
“Are you from Ireland?” I asked and couldn´t stop smiling. That was so sweet.
“Yeah, haven´t you noticed until now?” He asked and I shook my head.
“Well, I am from Mullingar, County Westmeath, in Ireland. I moved here for about a year ago but my dad and my brother Greg still lives there. My parents are divorced. What about you? ” He explained and I nodded like I understood how hard it must be. But if I am going to be honest I want my parents to get divorced too and I want my mum to move far, far away. But of course I didn´t say that
“Well what do you mean what about me?” I asked but I knew exactly what he meant.
“Tell me something about you.” He said and pulled his hand through his weat hair.
“Well I am from Reading and we moved here. I don´t have any siblings and my parents aren´t divorced. Pretty boring, I know.” I said and sighed. In my whole life I had wanted a sister, a big sister. A sister I could tell anything to and a sister that always stood up for me. But that´s just dreams.
“You are not boring, Amy. Stop it. You just need to learn how to open up yourself,” He said and our arms touched. That damn it thrill went through my body again and I wanted to smash it with a flapper. I cannot fall in love with Niall, I cannot fall in love with Niall, I thought.
“Here it is.” I said when we were standing outside the restaurant me and my dad had been to when we were in London. If you ask me this is the best restaurant. I haven´t called or anything but I really hope they will make one of their big contest even if it´s last minute.
“Are we going to eat?” He asked and I laughed when I saw his shining eyes.
“Kind of” I said and walked into the big restaurant. There were only a few tables available and I looked to see if the man I knew still worked here. If he doesn´t, I am screwed. I was just about to give up and tell Niall that it won´t work when I heard a familiar voice behind me.
“Amy darling, you look wet. It was a long, long time since we met.” Donald said with his weird accent. I had no idea how he always makes his first sentense like a rhyme. It must be really hard. I turned around and got three kisses on my cheeks before he looked at Niall with probing eyes.
“What do we have here?” He said and walked around Niall a few times.
“This is a keeper Amy, just look at his eyes, wonderful, wonderful!” He exclaimed and we laughed. But I totally agreed with him, Niall´s eyes are like heaven. Just when I was about to talk Donald started again.
“So what brings you to our little restaurant, my darling? And where is your daddy?” He said and it looked like he couldn´t stand in one spot, he had to walk around all the time which made me miss my old life even more. Miss when dad and I had come here and he always served the chicken to me and the salad to dad.
“Well, I wondered if you could have a last minute contest. I want to challenge Niall.” I said and laughed. Niall looked at me with eyes that said “what is this?” which made me laugh even more. But I think Donald was the happiest. His eyebrows went up and down like they did when he was happy and he made his special sound.
“Ladies and gentlemen” He shouted and jumped up on a chair. Everyone in the restaurant looked up with angry looks but Donald didn´t care.
“Today is a big day, today I will arrange my first food contest in ten years. Our participants are the handsome Niall and the gorgeous Amy. They will eat as much chicken as they can in five minutes with only hands. Who do you think will win?” He screamed and the memories from when dad and I had done this came streaming over me like a cow that runs for food. But it wasn´t bad or sad memories, no, the memories made me happy. I looked at Niall who looked thrilled to begin. Donald put out two large plates of chicken on one of the tables that were available. When I looked around I saw that the guests no longer looked at us with angry looks, now they stood up and clapped their hands.
“I will totally win” He said and I laughed.
“We will see about that.” I said before I walked over to the chicken.
“Okay everyone, there is one rule in this game and it is that there are no rules, you can do whatever you want, hit the person beside you, punch the person´s chicken or whatever you want so should we start?” Donald screamed and I prepared myself by swallow as much saliva as possible.
“Yes!” All the guests screamed and Donald nodded happily.
“Ready…set…go!” He shouted and Niall and I started eating. I could already see that he was much faster than me, I am pretty sure that he was twice as fast as me. I tried to think of a plan. The only thing I could think of was to throw his chicken all over the room. I stopped eating and without Niall even noticing I grabbed his chicken and splashed it on the floor.
“Are you kidding with me?” He said but couldn´t keep himself from laughing. Then he started tickle me, first on my throat which didn´t work because I am not ticklish there but then he started tickling me on my stomach and almost died because it tickled so much. When he had kept going for seconds I couldn´t stand it anymore so I fell down of the floor and carefully crawled over to the other side of the room where I tried to come up with a plan. While Niall started eating on my chicken I slowly and quietly sneaked up to him. When I was right behind him, I grabbed his shoulder and made him turn around before I gave him a kiss, a quick little kiss that made my body all warm and cozy. In the middle of the perfect kiss I thought of how Harry had broken my heart, how it had hurt. How it had felt like my whole heart had been crushed by an ax a hundred times, how every part of my body had hurt. I let go of Niall and ran as fast as I could out from the restaurant. I will never ever fall in love again I promised myself and continued running towards the school.
“Why can´t you just tell me what it is?” He asked and looked very expectant. Just like when a little boy is waiting for his presents on Christmas. I smiled, this was so funny.
“You will see when we get there.” I giggled and Niall sighed. I looked down on my phone and realized that we soon was there, if I had read the map right. My sense of direction is really bad but I didn´t want to ask Niall for help and ruin the surprise. Then I saw it, it was a huge bridge and a couple of people was standing in line to try. Everyone looked a bit nervous, one of them shook so much I wondered if he would fall. But in the middle of the line a little girl was standing, she looked more exciting than nervous. She reminded me of when I was here with dad. Even the eyes shined like mine had. I turned around to face Niall to see what he thought and he looked terrified. His eyes were wide open and it looked like he was about to pass out any minute.
“Niall, what´s up?” I asked and looked at him with worry eyes.
“Nothing it´s just that I am very afraid of heights. I hate them almost as much as I hate pigeons.” He said and tried to smile. But it looked more like a grimace. Was it wrong of me to take him here?
“Oh, should we go?” I asked and knew that I sounded too disappointed for him to say yes.
“No, isn´t that what life is about, facing your fears?” He asked and smiled. I got so happy that I hugged him and practically ran over to the queue. Niall was quiet when we were waiting for our turn and I really wanted to cheer him up, but I couldn´t come up with one good thing to say. All I could think of was how excited I was to do this.
“Two.” I heard someone shout when it was our turn and they made us ready to jump. We had all kinds of different belts and strings around us and we were so close that I could feel Niall´s heart pounding.
“Don´t look down, look at me.” I said and Niall looked up. We were so close that I could feel his breath on my cheek. It was warm and smelled minty. I smiled, and Niall squeezed me hands so hard that I thought that they would crack.
“One…two…go!” The man that had shouted two screamed. In the next second I felt the wind blowing and the nice and warm thrill of pure happiness and excitement. When I looked at Niall I saw that he also looked happy. His eyes were shining in even brighter blue then before and his pink lips showed a little smile. But then something happened. The rope that we were hanging in slowly began to break. The happiness was washed away and replaced by fear. Pure fear was shaking around in my stomach and it felt like I had to vomit. No, I wanted to vomit. Vomit up that damn fear. But Niall made me look into his eyes. They exuded confidence.
“It will be okay. Close your eyes and think of something good, in ten seconds you open them and it will be over.” He said and now it was me squeezing his hands as hard as I could. But then a wave of safety flowed over me. If I was with Niall I would be safe, I thought and closed my eyes. I didn´t come up with something good, the only think that was in my mind was Niall. Niall and his blue eyes. Niall and his beautiful lips. Niall and his strong arms around me. I smiled and counted to ten before I opened my eyes. Surprisingly it was over, I was in the water and I hadn´t even felt us landing. I didn´t even feel the cold water around me, maybe because my whole body had numbed, but the more realistic option was because I had Niall´s arms around me. I hadn´t felt this safe since…No I have never felt this safe in my whole life, I thought. When I looked up the whole bungee jump gang was standing beside a ladder and looking worried. I don´t think they were worried for us, more for the money or for the customers they would lose. Niall and I swam together back to the ladder where Niall let me climb up first. Before we even had taken a breath the bungee jump gang embraced us with all kinds of blankets and hot drinks.
“Thank you, but we are fine.” Niall and I said with fake smiles before we sank down on the ground and looked out on the sea.
“Thank you, Niall.” I said and he looked surprised at me.
“For what?” He asked and I laughed. The truth was that I didn´t know how to say it. It would sound too pathetic if I said “for saving me.” So I tried to ignore the question but Niall kept looking at me with his beautiful eyes.
“Well I don´t know… I guess for making me feel safe.” I said and blushed. I wasn´t used to thanking people or giving complements, I often did everything by myself. When Niall didn´t answer I looked at him again, hoped that the red color on my cheeks would have gone away. Then I realized that he was as red as me, how cute? I had never seen a guy blush. Suddenly I felt his hand on the top of mine. That warm thrill I had felt too many times today went through my body. I hated it, the last time I had fallen in love it had ended up with a million hearts broken. I can´t let that happen. I pushed away his hand and got up on my feet. He looked at me with sad eyes and I couldn´t stand to see him like that so I turned away my head.
“Let´s go to the next activity and I think you will like this one a lot better.” I said and waited for him to stand up. If I would look into his eyes I would drown and then I would be like a robot. I wouldn´t be able to keep my hands in control and that´s something I don´t want.
“I hope it will go better this time.” He said and I smiled. Then I realized that his accent wasn´t like the rest of the boys. It was more Irish or something.
“Are you from Ireland?” I asked and couldn´t stop smiling. That was so sweet.
“Yeah, haven´t you noticed until now?” He asked and I shook my head.
“Well, I am from Mullingar, County Westmeath, in Ireland. I moved here for about a year ago but my dad and my brother Greg still lives there. My parents are divorced. What about you? ” He explained and I nodded like I understood how hard it must be. But if I am going to be honest I want my parents to get divorced too and I want my mum to move far, far away. But of course I didn´t say that
“Well what do you mean what about me?” I asked but I knew exactly what he meant.
“Tell me something about you.” He said and pulled his hand through his weat hair.
“Well I am from Reading and we moved here. I don´t have any siblings and my parents aren´t divorced. Pretty boring, I know.” I said and sighed. In my whole life I had wanted a sister, a big sister. A sister I could tell anything to and a sister that always stood up for me. But that´s just dreams.
“You are not boring, Amy. Stop it. You just need to learn how to open up yourself,” He said and our arms touched. That damn it thrill went through my body again and I wanted to smash it with a flapper. I cannot fall in love with Niall, I cannot fall in love with Niall, I thought.
“Here it is.” I said when we were standing outside the restaurant me and my dad had been to when we were in London. If you ask me this is the best restaurant. I haven´t called or anything but I really hope they will make one of their big contest even if it´s last minute.
“Are we going to eat?” He asked and I laughed when I saw his shining eyes.
“Kind of” I said and walked into the big restaurant. There were only a few tables available and I looked to see if the man I knew still worked here. If he doesn´t, I am screwed. I was just about to give up and tell Niall that it won´t work when I heard a familiar voice behind me.
“Amy darling, you look wet. It was a long, long time since we met.” Donald said with his weird accent. I had no idea how he always makes his first sentense like a rhyme. It must be really hard. I turned around and got three kisses on my cheeks before he looked at Niall with probing eyes.
“What do we have here?” He said and walked around Niall a few times.
“This is a keeper Amy, just look at his eyes, wonderful, wonderful!” He exclaimed and we laughed. But I totally agreed with him, Niall´s eyes are like heaven. Just when I was about to talk Donald started again.
“So what brings you to our little restaurant, my darling? And where is your daddy?” He said and it looked like he couldn´t stand in one spot, he had to walk around all the time which made me miss my old life even more. Miss when dad and I had come here and he always served the chicken to me and the salad to dad.
“Well, I wondered if you could have a last minute contest. I want to challenge Niall.” I said and laughed. Niall looked at me with eyes that said “what is this?” which made me laugh even more. But I think Donald was the happiest. His eyebrows went up and down like they did when he was happy and he made his special sound.
“Ladies and gentlemen” He shouted and jumped up on a chair. Everyone in the restaurant looked up with angry looks but Donald didn´t care.
“Today is a big day, today I will arrange my first food contest in ten years. Our participants are the handsome Niall and the gorgeous Amy. They will eat as much chicken as they can in five minutes with only hands. Who do you think will win?” He screamed and the memories from when dad and I had done this came streaming over me like a cow that runs for food. But it wasn´t bad or sad memories, no, the memories made me happy. I looked at Niall who looked thrilled to begin. Donald put out two large plates of chicken on one of the tables that were available. When I looked around I saw that the guests no longer looked at us with angry looks, now they stood up and clapped their hands.
“I will totally win” He said and I laughed.
“We will see about that.” I said before I walked over to the chicken.
“Okay everyone, there is one rule in this game and it is that there are no rules, you can do whatever you want, hit the person beside you, punch the person´s chicken or whatever you want so should we start?” Donald screamed and I prepared myself by swallow as much saliva as possible.
“Yes!” All the guests screamed and Donald nodded happily.
“Ready…set…go!” He shouted and Niall and I started eating. I could already see that he was much faster than me, I am pretty sure that he was twice as fast as me. I tried to think of a plan. The only thing I could think of was to throw his chicken all over the room. I stopped eating and without Niall even noticing I grabbed his chicken and splashed it on the floor.
“Are you kidding with me?” He said but couldn´t keep himself from laughing. Then he started tickle me, first on my throat which didn´t work because I am not ticklish there but then he started tickling me on my stomach and almost died because it tickled so much. When he had kept going for seconds I couldn´t stand it anymore so I fell down of the floor and carefully crawled over to the other side of the room where I tried to come up with a plan. While Niall started eating on my chicken I slowly and quietly sneaked up to him. When I was right behind him, I grabbed his shoulder and made him turn around before I gave him a kiss, a quick little kiss that made my body all warm and cozy. In the middle of the perfect kiss I thought of how Harry had broken my heart, how it had hurt. How it had felt like my whole heart had been crushed by an ax a hundred times, how every part of my body had hurt. I let go of Niall and ran as fast as I could out from the restaurant. I will never ever fall in love again I promised myself and continued running towards the school.
Notes
Hello guys! I know that Niall isn´t afraid of heights for real but you are just gonna have to imagine that just like you have to imagine that they all are sixteen years old. Now that I have said that I don´t have so much more to tell you except that I will try to write tomorrow too ;) Well then, hope you liked this one/ kisses EWhat do you think Niall will do now?
Do you think Amy will keep her promise?
@stolemyheart
Did you die because of your beauty or something? :0
4/27/14