Charly

The branches of a tree knocked at her window repeatedly and she could hear the thick and heavy reaindrops smashing against the glass as she slid deeper under the covers of her bed.
A weather storm was going on outside and Charly had no interest in going out like Lisa, Lou and some of the others. She just wanted to crawl into her bed and hide under her blanket from the storm. It didn’t matter how old she was and it probably never will, she didn’t like weather storms. It seemed like it took her forever to fall asleep.
And that’s why she grunted in frustration just about an hour later. She couldn’t believe Lisa had woken her up just as she had managed to fall asleep. The next second the felt a hand on her shoulder, rocking her back and forth. “What?”, Charly asked angrily and looked over her shoulder. “You have to leave”, Lisa said. “I have to what?”, Charly asked in disbelief. “You have to leave. I brought someone with me…from the club. THE cutest guy ever. Finnland is the place where hot men come from”, Lisa gushed over her night out. “Why don’t you go to his place?”, Charly asked. “The hotel was closer”, Lisa waved her off. “But…”, Charly started to disagree, but Lisa interrupted her. “Do you want me to get laid or not? I promise I’ll be nicer after that”, Lisa said.
After the last few days with a, what Louis called, a PMS-Lisa, her argument didn’t sound so bad. “Alright, but don’t you dare do it on my bed”, she said and got up. She quickly grabbed her hoodie and the keycards to all the rooms and walked out, passing a Finnish, really handsome, guy who would soon be smiling even brighter than right now. “Thanks”, Lisa said smiling, handed her the spare keycard for the next morning and closed the door behind the man. “And where do I sleep now?”, Charly mumbled to herself and looked at the keycards in her hand. She figured since Niall had the double room to himself this time, he would have a spare bed left for her. Hopefully he didn’t bring someone up to his room as well. She figured, she just had to try and hope for the best. Charly walked to the end of the corridor and quickly got in. It was all dark inside, so he probably wasn’t back from the club.
She silently closed the door behind her. When she turned around to walk into the bedroom, she ran right into someone. Two high pitched screams escaped into the dark room. Charly found the light switch and Niall appeared in front of her. “Charly? What are you doing here?”, he asked surprised, with a hand on his racing heart. This had scared the crap out of him. Charly needed a moment to slow down her own heavily beating heart. “I thought you were still out with the others. God, Niall, you scared me to death”, she said, panting heavily.
“Sorry”, Niall apologized, which was sweet, given the fact that she was the one “breaking” into his room. “Lisa brought a guy to our room and kicked me out. I kinda hoped I could stay at your room for the night”, Charly explained in a whispered tone. Besides their screaming, everything around them seemed asleep, so she didn’t dare to speak up.
So many thoughts ran through Niall’s head right now. Charly in his hotel room, in the middle of the night, with not very much clothes on, wanting to stay the night. He had imagined, even dreamed about that, that’s why he wasn’t sure if it was really happening right now. “Niall?”, Charly asked confused. He had been silent for quite some time. “What?”, he asked, still a bit shocked and confused from before. “Can I stay the night at your room?”, Charly asked again and had to smile lightly. He looked cute with his hair standing in all directions. “Yeah, sure. Come in”, Niall said and she followed him into the bedroom.
They both stood in front of the big double bed and looked at it in silence. A loud thunder stroke through the air outside and Charly jumped. “Oh JESUS CHRIST!”, Charly let out and her hand rushed to her racing heart. “You really don’t like thunder, huh?”, Niall asked amused. “Absolutely not”, she replied. “So how are we doing this?”, Charly asked to distract herself. She had forgotten that Niall had requested a king size double bed instead of two single beds. “I don’t know about you, but I’m sleeping in the bed”, Niall said. “Oh, what a gentleman you are”, Charly replied sarcastically. “Oh, should I sleep on the floor then?”, Niall asked unsure. “Don’t be ridiculous. We share the bed”, Charly said and crawled onto it. Niall lay down on the right side and Charly on the left. A bright lightning struck outside and you could hear the wind howl around the building. “For god’s sake”, Charly grunted frustrated and got up again to draw the curtains. It was almost completely dark inside the hotel room. She got back into bed again and pulled the blanket up to her nose. “You’re really frightened”, Niall said as if he just now realized it. “Would you mind holding me?”, Charly asked. “Huh?”, was Niall’s eloquent reply. “As a child, whenever a thunder storm was going on outside, I would sneak into my parents bed and cuddle up to my mum. I felt protected and safe from the thunder storm”, Charly explained. She felt weird asking him that favor since they had never been THAT close, but she was so frightened: It wasn’t like she wanted to sleep with him and used the thunderstorm as false pretences.
“Alright. I give the best hugs after all”, Niall said with a cocky smile. “I know you do”, Charly smiled and moved closer to Niall, as she thought back to when Niall had helped with her panic attack at the stadium in Switzerland. She rested her head on his left arm and he put his right one around her upper body. Niall couldn’t believe his luck of having Charly that close to him. He even smelled her hair. “So, do you wanna tell me the whole story behind your fear?”, he mumbled to distract himself. “I don’t know…I guess…yeah. We had this big beautiful tree in our garden with a swing on it. I loved that tree, I even thought that ferries lived in it and talked to them”, Charly told. Niall chuckled at the thought. “Shut up, I was little and believed in everything my dad told me”, she playfully slapped his chest. “No, it’s cute, really”, Niall quickly said, but couldn’t stop grinning. “However…I loved that tree and the swing very, very much. One day, there was this big, awful thunderstorm going on and my parents and I were watching it through the window. All of a sudden a big lightning struck right into that tree, cut it in half and that one half even fell towards the house and ruined a part of the roof. My dad had to cut down the whole tree and I was so sad. Also seeing the tree cut in half and falling down scared me so much that, I guess, from that moment on I was afraid of thunder and lightning and so on. I know it’s stupid childhood stuff”, Charly ended her story. Oddly enough, at that moment you could hear another loud thunder outside and Charlys whole body twitched. Niall pulled her even closer and Charly put her head in the crook on his neck. “I think, we better sleep now”, Charly mumbled and felt her eyelids getting heavy. “Goodnight, Charly”, Niall mumbled. “Goodnight, Niall”, Charly replied likewise. “Charly?”, Niall whispered. “Yeah?”, she asked. “I’m going to the anniversary party of my grandparents in 2 weeks. It will be pretty boring, typical family stuff. Would you like to come anyway?”, he asked, his heart pounding loudly. He hoped she wouldn’t hear it, laying so close to him. It was silent for a few moments, painful long moments for Niall. “Yes, why not. Sounds fun. I always wanted to visit Ireland”, Charly said, almost half asleep. The warmth of his body and his arms wrapped around her made her feel safe and comfortable. Niall smiled brightly, which she couldn’t see in the dark room. Now he could happily go to sleep.
“Thank you for letting me stay here”, Charly said a few moments later. “Any time, love”, Niall said and kissed her hair. At the sound of Niall’s steady heartbeat, Charly quickly dozed off. Niall wanted to stay up just a little bit longer to enjoy this moment with Charly, but the weariness was too strong and he quickly fell asleep too.

Notes