The Voice

Niall told us he was giving us the music tomorrow, and he told us to research the song extensively and make sure it was alright with us, something we agreed with him on. Of course I agreed. I was in no position to disagree, and I knew that.

Instead of trying to find something better, I listened to the song over and over again. I had the lyrics memorized already, just trying to listen to the music, and by listening, I was able to start the slightly different version I wanted to create. I wanted to add a little touch of my own, so I wanted to see how it sounded with a little more guitar parts added in.

Before I knew it, I had the first verse and chorus. As I progressed, I began hearing the idea in my head—piano, electric, acoustic . . . yes. And just as I started getting into the second chorus, there was a knock on my door. If I wasn’t me, I probably wouldn’t have heard it.
In an instant, I was at the door with it open, wearing a sultry smile on my lips as I stared up at Niall. “Yes?”

He had to force back the emotions he really felt inside, even in his eyes, as he smiled at me. “Ready to discuss this?”

“There’s really not much to discuss,” I assured him, and I stepped aside to gesture him in. As soon as the door was shut, I careful started taking his shirt off. He wasn’t surprised, at all, but he actually laughed when I very obviously took in the sexy sight. “Although, I feel like you’re trying to tell me something.”

This made him laugh again. “No, Evie. I don’t want you to let me. I’m begging that you don’t, more accurately.”

That made me smile, and I was able to focus more on what I was doing.

Maybe I haven’t mentioned it before, but Niall’s working out over the years had paid off. He was sexy before, but now? Everything more defined, the way his muscles rippled out through his skin . . . every part of his body was toned and ready to go.

He smiled. “Hmm. You know, this is gonna hurt. I think a kiss would make it better.”

I cocked an eyebrow at him. “Oh? What happened ta putting it all behind us last night?”

“I’ve been thinking about that decision all day, and I think that maybe it’ll be easier on us if we take every completely safe moment we can,” he said. “What do you think?”

“That puts us at more risk of getting caught,” I reminded him. “I mean, I’m alright with it, but won’t it ruin your career as a judge?”

He sighed. “I’m not sure. I’m more concerned about your career, though. Maybe we should stop . . . . You’re right.”

I quickly found something to change the subject. “Hey. Wanna see something that might, honestly, make you disgusted with what happened last night?”

“Nothing could make me disgusted with what happened last night,” he said, and his confidence in his statement made me smile. “Show me what you think would, though. I wanna see.”

I got a cotton swab covered in alcohol and began rubbing it over the bite mark, which made him actually moan a little in pain. It wasn’t very loud, so no one would hear it, but still. It hurt him.

He watched it, though, and when he did, he saw the black that began leaking out of the wound. More than that, the cotton swab had black on it as well. I used a dry cotton swab to clean up the excess that was leaking, and I prepared another one to continue.

“Is that the venom?” he asked, but unlike what I imagined his reaction would be, he had a huge grin. “That’s pretty cool, actually.”

I rolled my eyes and laughed a little. “You would think so. And yes. It is the venom.”

There was silence for a few moments, but it wasn’t really awkward because we were both busy. I was nursing his wounds and making sure I got the venom out whereas he was just watching in wonder.

“Pretending I don’t have feelings for you is hard,” he informed me, eyes still glued on my work. “It’s impossible to do when it’s just you and me.”

Finally, I was close to finishing with his wounds by using lots of gauze and Ace bandages, as well as medical tape. Despite the fact that I was busy, I still smiled. “I couldn’t do it. It’s a good thing I don’t have to. Ha.”

He laughed. “Alright, lucky. Now, down to business while you finish up. You’re perfectly fine with the choice, right?”

“I love it,” I admitted. “I’m actually working on the changes I’m making to the music.”

His eyebrows rose in question. “Changes?”

I knew it would be easier to just show him, so as soon as I finished securing the last Ace bandage, I gestured for him to follow me over to my desk, where I had some of the music written.

“You write,” he whispered, and this made him smile. “Wow. This looks really intense. Are you planning on changing it to piano parts?”

“Unless you think I shouldn’t, yes.”

“I think it could be a good idea, but I’m not gonna give you a solid yes until we work with it some,” he murmured. “As soon as you get done, show me what you’ve got downstairs, and I’ll get a copy to the band so you can practice it some this way before you actually have to perform it.”

This made me a little nervous, but instead of showing my emotions, I simply nodded and set the papers back down. When I turned around, I turned to see him standing so close to me that I couldn’t breathe without my entire chest pressing against his. It was really exciting, especially when I looked up to see his blue eyes burning in desire.

“Right now, I would very much love to kiss you,” he informed me in the most choked and lustful voice. “Can I?”

I shook my head. “No. We really do need to try and fight this as long as possible. Think about it, Niall. What if this does compromise your judgment? What if you’re too scared of what might happen if I don’t get to the finals that you’ll do anything in your power to make sure I do?”

“I’m capable of putting this behind me to put through whoever is most deserving ta be there,” he assured me. “And, fine. If it makes you feel any better . . . I’ll get another judge’s perspective. I’ll talk to one of them about everything, and whatever their opinion is, mine will match. Always.”

“That would help, but even still, that judge will tell you to not let anything come of this until after the show is over,” I pointed out. “Niall, I really wanna kiss you. I wanna let you kiss me, but this is what’s best.” Carefully, I stood on my tiptoes and kissed his cheek softly. “Until this show is over, nothing more can happen.”

With a sigh, he stepped back and nodded. “You’re right.”

“So, before you go, there are a couple things I wanted to ask you about,” I said.

His eyebrows rose, but he didn’t ask what it was. He just pressed his lips together and waited on me to speak again.

“Earlier, when Noah was talking about Max . . . you got sad, even though you know it’s not Max I have feelings for,” I murmured. “Why?”

“Because if it was Max, you could talk all about it to Noah,” he said, but some of the joy left his eyes and was replaced by sadness. “If you were with anyone else, there wouldn’t be restrictions. You wouldn’t have to wait. When you saw the person, you could kiss them and be happy without hiding and lying.”

“And one day, I’ll be able to do that with you,” I reminded him. “Until then, I’m happy with how things are. Honestly, Niall, I’m glad it’s you. You’re someone special, and I wouldn’t want it to be anyone else.”

Though he tried to hide it, I could see the bashful smile pulling across his lips. “Uh, what else was there?”

“Why did it hurt you to just sit there?”

“It hurts me to see you and not hold you or kiss you, or even say what I wanna say to you,” he sighed. “You say that one day things will be that way, and you’re right, but it’s hurts that they aren’t that way now.”

“But when the time comes that things are that way, it’ll be that much sweeter,” I said, and though I didn’t like to think about it either, I was actually right. “If it makes you feel any better, it’s hard for me, too.”

“It does and doesn’t at the same time,” he decided. Even though we were talking about sad things, he was able to genuinely smile at me. “I’ll try and focus on the good, though.”

I walked back over the bed, where his black shirt was laying, and handed it to him with a sheepish smile. “As much as I love seeing your sexy self standing there shirtless, despite the bandages I’ve caused you to need, it’d probably be best if you put it back on.”

He smiled back at me. “You’re probably right.”

While he cautiously and very slowly put it back on, I began pondering when other instruments could come into my personal composition of the song.

Niall surprised me when he grabbed my face in his hands and kissed my forehead, breaking me out of my thoughts and sending me spiraling into new ones—thoughts about the two of us.
“I’ll see you later, Evie. If anyone asks where I’m at, tell them I had to grab something from the store.”

“Where are you really going?” I asked.

He didn’t say anything, not until he was at the door, and when he got there, he turned and flashed me a smile. “I need to talk to the judge who is gonna help me, the only one I can trust with this.”

My eyebrows rose. “And which one would that be?”

“I don’t think I’m gonna tell you that,” he decided, smirking a little as my mouth fell open. “Bye, Evie. See you tonight.” And in just a few short moments, he was out the door and running down the stairs.

“Niall!” I heard Brinley call after him. “Where are you going?”

“Out!” was all he said before the front door closed behind him.

I couldn’t help but laugh as I walked out of my room, barefoot and happy. It wasn’t surprising to find Brinley there with her eyes dark, especially as she looked at me. “Well, hello.”

She glared at me. “You’re so stupid, walking around here like you own the place.”

“There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being comfortable at the place I’m staying at,” I shrugged. “This is who I am. Nobody said you had to like it.”

“You’re right, I don’t,” she said back, her terrible attempt at a comeback.

With a small roll of my eyes, I began walking past her to head back to Noah’s room. I needed to ask him something, and she was in my way.

She didn’t have any intentions of moving either, and she actually pushed me back into the wall. It didn’t hurt, but it pissed me off. “I’m not stupid, Everit. I see what’s going on here.”

My eyebrows rose in disbelief. “Really? Well, I’d love to know what’s going on here, but tell me later, when I actually care about what you have to say. I’m busy right now, so if ya don’t mind moving out of my way . . . .”

She tried to pin me against the wall, but obviously, I was easily able to push her off of me. Actually, I kind of pushed her a bit hard because she slammed into the wall loud across from me loudly enough that everyone came rushing out of their rooms to see what was going on.

Brinley gaped at me. “What’s your problem? A simple ‘excuse me’ would suffice!”

“You can try to pretend that I just pushed you for no reason at all, but they’re not stupid,” I informed her. I looked over at Noah. “Can I talk to you about something?”

He seemed hesitant, mostly because I looked to Madi, who had come out of his room with him. Still, after his eyes narrowed and I shot a smirk at him, he sighed. “Alright.”

I began practically skipping away into my room with him following slowly behind, and I could hear Kiley laughing about how interesting we were together. Caleb mentioned something about us having, erm, intimate feelings for each other, but Kiley quickly shot that down. As I was closing my door, I heard her say, “She’s into someone else, and he’s most definitely into her.”

Uh oh.

I started biting on my bottom lip. “Crap.”

“What?” Noah asked, but he was hesitant. “Please don’t go into the fact that Madi was in my room. We were just showing each other the music we listen to.”

I shook my head. “Not yet. I’ll get into that. Right now, I have a problem.”

“Don’t worry, Ev,” he said, and my eyebrows pulled together a little. “Kiley won’t tell anyone. She came to me to ask me about it, ask me if I thought she was right, and it makes sense.” He smirked at me. “That’s why things got so tense when we were talking about your friend, Max. Niall didn’t like it ‘cause he’s falling for you, hard, and you’ve already fallen for him.”

I grimaced. “Is it that obvious?”

“Is it obvious that you’re in love with him?” he snorted. “Most definitely, unless you’re talking about things pertaining to this show. Then, you’re strictly business, and somehow, he is most of the time. But, at lunch today when he got so mad at Brinley for talking to you like she did, Kiley noticed that he would do anything in his power to protect you. No one else was even looking at Niall because they were too focused on seeing if you were gonna kill her, but Kiley noticed.”

I let out a quiet sigh of relief. “I mean, it’s not like he’s gonna do anything about it. We’re just ignoring it and moving on with the competition.”

“So you have discussed it!” he almost exclaimed, but thankfully, he remembered people might hear. “Ev, whether you’ll admit it or not, once this show is all said and done, you and Niall are definitely gonna get together.”

“I could say the same for you and Madi,” I shot right back. “She lives, what, twenty minutes away from you?”

He smiled sheepishly. “Yeah. But, alright. I’ll tell you anything you wanna know about Madi and me if you tell me everything I wanna know about you and Niall. Deal?”

And that’s exactly what happened. Just like that, I spilled the beans. I left out the parts regarding my past, but besides that, I told him pretty much everything. He did the same, except there wasn’t a whole lot to tell. He had a serious crush on Madi, already, but he didn’t want to bring it up because he didn’t think she felt the same.

There’s nothing wrong with giving them a little push, right? Just a small nudge in the right direction.

Anyways, after we talked about all of that, I asked him what I originally meant to ask him—if he would listen to my arrangement once I was done and tell me what he thought. We listened to the song a couple of times, and he agreed to tell me what he thought.

Then, we went our separate ways to work on our individual songs that, honestly, terrified us both. There was so much I had to do with this song, and rewriting it like this was a risk. So, I was scared, but I also realized that Niall wouldn’t let me do anything he didn’t truly believe was the best.

That’s how I kept myself motivated to continue perfecting my personal arrangement of the song.

Notes

The lyrics are from Stay the Night by Zedd featuring Hayley Williams of Paramore. I absolutley love Paramore, and this song is just wonderful.

So sorry I wasn't able to post earlier! But here you wonderful readers go. :)

Thank you for all the feedback I've gotten. It's been wonderful, a real day brightener. :) I hope you guys continue to enjoy this!