i.
Should Y/N be out in the middle of the woods at twelve in the morning when she has a nine o'clock class the next day?
No.
Is she though?
Well, yes, but to no fault of her own, she would like to add.
Niall had said he'd be out here though; he'd said to meet him right past the large thicket of fiery colored leaves for this damned photography project. Something about the moon hitting the trees just perfect for the lens of the camera that he was meant to bring, so it's not even like she could do it without him. She'd have to wait for him to show up, which would be all fine and good, if not for the unsettled feeling overcoming her the longer she paces back and forth in front of the thick trunk of a tree. This is the perfect set up for a horror movie, she realizes but tries to shake off that creeping feeling that something is watching her every move. Convinces herself that she's nothing but paranoid and needs to opt out of scary film next movie night.
She's not dressed for midnight in the woods, that's for sure; the soft pajama shorts she wore ruffled in the strong autumn breeze and dead, crunchy leaves skate against the bare skin of her calves. The loose-knit of the sweater allows air to penetrate through and add to the goosebumps already all over her skin. Y/N shivers, clutching her phone tight in her hand as she waits for Niall to finally fucking reply – she'd messaged him twenty minutes ago. His life was about to be something akin to a horror film if he doesn't respond within the next three minutes because otherwise, she's not fucking staying here.
It's not like it's a terrible spot to be – the moon is bright and shining white light down upon her, and there are small twinkle lights wrapped around the branches of some of the trees, connected to a generator. The grounds used to be for camping so there isn't supposed to be anything too dangerous out here and there's also a small bench she could be sat on, but she's too jittery to sit anywhere right now. Y/N thinks she might actually quite like it if she weren't alone here at night but right now she would rather be anywhere but. Just wants to take this picture, get home, edit the shit out of it, and turn it in like they were supposed to by noon tomorrow and if Niall fucked her over it's going to take a lot more than him apologizing to make it up to her. Especially if she's being blown off for Samantha again – she's going to castrate him.
This happened only sometimes, where Niall would disappear on her both physically and electronically when she most likely needs him the most. Once she got caught in an intense brawl between two guys at a party who thought she was someone different (apparently she had a doppelganger that enjoyed bopping around from guy to guy) and started a drunken fight over who got to give her a drink. She'd texted Niall about ten times telling him to get to Alpha Sigma Whatever's house immediately to save her but he never answered, which led to her calling Liam until the sound of his Ghostbusters ringtone stirred him awake. Then in his plaid pajama pants he scouted her out, told the boys off for being idiots, and tucked her away in his car to take her home.
She woke up to ten different calls from Niall in a panic, asking if she was alive at the very least but she ignored him to give him a bit of a scare. Turns out he'd been balls deep in Samantha and passed out, as he usually does, so this was the defining moment where she decided to take him off of her emergency contact list.
Though she had no choice to not call and text him now, as he was the only one who knew she was out here and also the one who was supposed to bring his fancy camera. Y/N's plotting his demise at the exact moment she hears something scampering in the distance. Sounding similar to that of a small animal scurrying about but with the intensity of it's rummaging through leaves, it resembled more the sound of a small animal trying to get away from something. Perhaps it was the sharp munch of a shoe pressing into the assemblage of wilted leaves caking the ground, that sparks a bit of excitement inside of her, because that must mean Niall was on his way, didn't it?
