Heart | N.H.

twenty - backpfeifengesicht

"I'm dying. I'm dead. Everything is fading to black. Can't breathe. Tell King that I love him," I panted, clutching Niall's arm dramatically.

"Miracle, we literally just walked from the car to the tent."

"Yes but it's cold and I'm hyperventilating from fear."

He patted me on the back. "You'll be fine. We've been training for this. And look, everyone's come to cheer you on."

He pointed to where the rest of our friends were seated. When I looked over, Louis stood up and started cheering, waving his arms in the air. Harry attempted to do a cartwheel and landed on his butt. Callie started to talk while she was drinking and spewed water all over Annika, who whacked her on the shoulder in return.

It was a rather dismal cheerleading squad, but it made me really happy.

Niall nudged me. "Did you invite Mrs. Randolph?"

"Yes. She told me off for how inconsiderate I was. She said the cold made her bones ache and that I was unbelievable selfish to ask her to support me. She said that it shouldn't be her problem that I'm stupid enough to sign up to run a race in December."

"So she's coming?"

"Yep."

Nearby, the race announcer picked up his megaphone. "Would all participants please line up at the start line?"

I felt my stomach do a slow flip in my gut, and swallowed hard. "Hey, kitten? Miracle?" Niall snapped his fingers in my face. "Look at me. You're going to be fine."

"Right." I licked my dry lips, nodding feverishly.

"I'm going to go sit with the others. And I'm gonna text Liam; so rude of him not to show up to give you moral support."

I scoffed. "Let's be honest, Zayn's only here so he can laugh if I trip and fall on my face."

"No he's not, he's here because we're all your friends. And you're not going to trip. You're going to blaze it. Like, um, not like a cigarette- whatever, you know what I mean." Niall put his hands on my shoulders, forcing me to look directly into those winter blue eyes, eyes that never failed to hypnotize me. "Understand?"

"Yes," I managed weakly.

"Good." He joined everyone else on the benches, flashing me a thumbs up before bending over his phone to type out what I assumed was a strongly-worded text message to Liam.

Slowly, I made my way over to the start line. A brown-haired boy in navy sweats looked up as I approached. "Hey," Liam said. "Did you manage to keep it from Niall?"

"He has no clue. He's pretty pissed at you for not showing up to support me, by the way."

Liam snorted. "Figures." He took his ankle into his hand, stretching out his calf. "You okay there? You look like you're about to be sick."

"I am," I mumbled.

"Miracle, you'll be fine. You really will."

I gave him a shaky smile. "Right then. Let's do this thing."

"Not quite yet." He chuckled. "Gotta listen to all the annoying speeches about what a great cause this is first."

I shivered and hugged myself. "Can't they save those for after the race? I'm freezing."

 "Oh come on. You're one of the few people who's doing this race for actual charity purposes. Might as well bask in the glow of the goodness of what you've done."

I frowned. "I'm not doing this because-"

"I know you're not. I was kidding." Liam gave me one of his signature smiles, the one that was so warm and kind that you instantly felt that everything would be all right. "Okay, how about this? If you run this race, I will personally make sure you receive one of my specialty ice cream sundaes tonight."