Stockholm Syndrome |n.h

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Family. The word never really held any meaning to me before, and if it did it was bad. Uncle Henry for example. He was a drunk and abused his wife. I used to spend weekends over there when my dad had overnight projects and it was scary, something a seven year old girl shouldn't have to go through. Or Aunt Lucy. She was a perfectionist. Always had to have her hair up and lipstick on, never once did I enjoy her presence. She would always scold me on my posture, outfits, makeup, hair style, you name it and she has pointed it out. Or grandma Harris. She was abusive to everyone, even me. Not badly to me though, luckily I was her favorite grand child so all I got was a few slaps.

Never once did I ever dream about introducing a boy to my family, but to Niall, his family is everything. His family was spending every Sunday together laughing and having get togethers in the back yard. His grandparents would bring him a gift every time they would see him and his friends were close to his loved ones.

I never had that. I grew up by myself. I guess in a way, Kyle raised me. He was there when nobody else was, he made me happy and I had a good time with him. He was all I had, really. But now I have Niall. And hopefully his family too.

"Ahh here it is. The castle of chaos." Bobby jokes as we pull into the driveway of Blondie's childhood home. Niall gives me a reassuring look and gives my hand a squeeze. He doesn't have to talk for me to know what he is saying.

"Okay, I'm going to warn you, the cousins are crazy, aunts and uncles think they are funny. Trust me they aren't but laugh anyways. The grandparents don't even care if they know you or not they will just give you a big hug and a wet sloppy kiss." Greg explains with a smile from ear to ear.

I laugh and hold onto Niall's arm as he helps me out of the car. "Sounds amazing." I grin. "So was this a get together just for me? Or why is everyone here?"

"It's almost Christmas, silly!" Maura cheers. "We always do this, it's almost a tradition. The whole family comes over and we are just with each other for a week, then after Christmas we go home again. It's refreshing to forget and have fun, you know?" Maura's explanation takes too long and right when she finishes, we are at the front door. Shit.

Niall notices my trembling hands and wraps his arms around my waist in a hug. "It will be fine. It's just my family." He says as if it's nothing.

"In my dictionary, family has a bad definition." I breathe and the door opens. Before Niall can reply, or get me out of the way, I am trampled by a sea of people. "Niall!" I call for him, hoping he will get everyone out of the way before I have a panic attack.

"Guys! Please! Give her a minute!" Blondie calls from outside the circle of his family. "She gets panic attacks easily!" It seems this is all he needs to say before everyone takes a step back.

"Sorry hun, it's just been a while since our little Nialler has brought a girl home." I smile nervously at her. "Aunt Sarah." She extends her hand and I do the polite thing and shake it, even though everyone is watching me and I feel like I can't breath.

"Evanna." I introduce myself.

"Okay, if you'll excuse us, we should go put our bags down." Niall has his arm around my waist and leads me inside the house. I don't have much time to notice anything about it because when we reach the stairs, we are bombarded with nerf gun pellets. "Hey!" Niall laughs and runs up the stairs without me. He grabs the child in his arms and flips him around. "Is that any way to treat a lady, Josh?"

I giggle and walk up the rest of the stairs and stand next to Niall and Josh.

"I'm sorry." Josh blushes and pulls Blondie's sleeve so he will put him down. "I'm Josh! And I like to play with water guns, but I can't do it in the house." He frowns and it's the cutest thing ever.