Somewhere In Between // Niall Horan

Prologue

   “You okay, mate?”

   Niall looked up to find Liam hovering over the couch that he was currently sprawled across.  He was too absorbed in his thoughts that he didn’t even hear Liam enter the living room of his flat.  “Yeah, why’d you ask?”

  “I dunno,” Liam fiddled with the hem of his shirt.  “You’ve been acting really strange lately.  I just thought – never mind.”

   Niall hoisted himself up from his slouched position, ignoring the cramp in his back.  “What?  You thought what?”

  “Nothing,” Liam merely shook his head.  “Hey, wanna go grab some drinks?  It’s only nine o’clock.”

   Niall hesitated before answering.  “Eh, don’t really feel like it,” he finally replied.  He turned down a drink?  Liam raised his eyebrows questioningly before wordlessly going into the kitchen; now there was no doubt in his mind that something was up with Niall.  

    And Liam was right, as much as Niall hated to admit it.   Niall was acting differently.  The happy, carefree Irish lad the fans were used to was barely visible anymore.  Away from the public eye, he was becoming gloomier, moodier, more irritable.

    There was something wrong with him.  

    Maybe it was from the fame or expectations or all the negativity.  The pressure was suffocating at times, but Niall never thought it’d affect him this way.  Sometimes, he had days where he just felt like curling up in a corner to cry about nothing in particular.  Sometimes, he didn’t  feel like being a popstar or teen heartthrob.  Sometimes, he was frustrated and angry at the world for no apparent reason.  Oh, he wasn’t bitter or anything.  Niall loved his job.  Singing for a crowd of millions was absolutely amazing; he was living his dream.  He just wished  there was a simpler way of doing what he loved without getting depressed by it.

   Bothered by these unpleasant thoughts, Niall sighed heavily and sank back into the couch cushions.  “What am I doing?” he muttered under his breath.  Grabbing a fistful of hair, he groaned loudly and tried to figure out a way to fix his problems.  The boys hated the sudden personality change, and to be honest, so did Niall.  He needed something to let him forget about reality for a while, dull the pain, and be himself again.  The solution came to him quickly.

    “Liam?  You know, I actually do wanna get those drinks.”

~~~

    The club was insane: girls wearing dresses that barely covered their bodies were purring at any man that came near, wasted couples were hungrily sucking at each other’s faces, and the dance floor was overflowing with drunk people wildly flailing about.  It was madness.

    But instead of energizing him, the scene only made Niall feel drained.  He’d only been here for half an hour, but he was already getting a headache.  Niall rubbed his forehead wearily and looked at the drink in his hand; it was doing nothing to numb him.  He still felt as empty as he did when he came in.  He left the half-finished drink on the bar counter, something he’d never done before, to go find Liam, who was downing another shot.  “Hey,” Niall shouted over the din of the club.  “I’m gettin’ a headache.  I’m gonna get a taxi and head home now, okay?”  

    Liam looked at him in disbelief.  “Already?  You only had one drink.”

    “I just don’t feel like partying, that’s all.”

    Liam shrugged, which Niall interpreted to mean whatever.  Lightheaded and nauseated, Niall went outside and was immediately hit with a blast of cold January wind.  He quickly strode over to the row of waiting taxis lining the curb and slid into the backseat of the first taxi he arrived at.  The middle-aged driver craned his neck and asked, “Where to?”  Niall gave him the address to his flat, and the man nodded in response, turning the key in the ignition to start the engine.  The driver began to enter the address into his GPS, but the screen went black before he finished.  “This damn thing keeps dying on me,” he sighed, hitting the GPS against the dashboard in hopes of getting it to turn on again.

    Niall peered over the front seat to take a look.  “Is it not working?”

    The driver shook his head in defeat.  “Nope.”  He unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the car door, letting the cold seep in.  “I’m going to borrow my friend’s GPS.  He’s parked a few cars up, and I don’t think he’ll need it,” the man informed Niall.  “I’ll be right back.  Sorry for the delay,” he apologized before stepping out.

    “No worries,” Niall assured him, but he hoped it wouldn’t take long.  He just wanted to go home as soon as possible so he could lose himself in a peaceful sleep.

    But he never thought that peaceful sleep would arrive so soon – because what Niall wasn’t counting on was the drunk driver carelessly speeding towards him.

    The taxi driver hadn’t been gone for even a minute before Niall realized that he was directly in the path of a drunk driver who just pulled out of a parking spot near the club.  He saw it at the very last second.  “WHAT THE FU–” Niall’s frantic scream was abruptly cut off as the other car slammed into the stalled taxi, tires squealing and metal crunching as the vehicles collided.  His head was flung sideways and hit the window with a loud thud.  His eyes were watering and started to turn blurry, but through shards of broken glass, he somehow managed to spot the stunned taxi driver racing to the scene.  In the distance, people were coming out of the club to observe the commotion.  He heard shouts of panic and screams for an ambulance, but the noise was getting dimmer by the second.  Niall’s head was throbbing painfully and his vision was going dark.  He was drifting off rapidly, hardly being able to hear the familiar voice of his best friend yelling, “OH MY GOD!  IS THAT NIALL IN THE TAXI?  SOMEONE GET HELP NOW!”

    Before he lost consciousness, all Niall could think of was how much he’d miss the boys and how he forgot to tell his family that morning that he loved them.

    And then everything went black.

~~~

 A/N:

And there's the prologue!  Hope you're excited for this because I definitely am!  School is pretty busy right now, so it is likely the first chapter won't be up until February.  Stay tuned!  Special thanks to haybaylee for making the cover (on the side)!

Catherine