it hurts. // n.h.

Photos

I let the sun bathe down on my back as I looked through my newly developed photos. I was into photography for as long as I could remember. My parents first thought it was a phase but I slowly sunk into it deeper and deeper until they finally figured out this was a permanent thing.

As I was going through one of my photos my earphone that was blasting music got yanked out of my ear.

"Hey! I was listening to that!" I shouted as my head snapped back to see who did it. My eyes met a pair of light blue ones. I instantly knew who it was.

"Sorry. I just wanted to talk." He said while sitting down next to me.

Niall had a tough life. His mom passed away when he was seven. Seven has been Niall's unlucky number. A lot of bad things have happened with the number seven growing up. It doesn't surprise me that he absolutely despises the number. He doesn't even want to say the word. He just calls it 'that number' whenever he uses it in math.

I have taught Niall basically everything he knows. His dad doesn't care enough to take him to school. I've been teaching him since we were six. He came up to me one day and asked me to teach him how to read. And ever since then I've been teaching him everything.

Niall's dad treats him like crap. He always shows up with scars and bruises everywhere whenever I see him but he always denied that his dad did it to him. He would always use the same excuse, "I'm really clumsy." But I know Niall better than that.

"So what's up?" I asked him.

"My dad... I mean... I uh... Hurt myself this morning." I glared at him as he showed me his arm.

"Bullshit." I said as I took his arm in my tiny cold hands. There was a cigarette burn shown clearly by his wrist and cuts all the way up and down his bicep.

"I told you, I'm a clumsy kid." He gave me a small smile as I pushed his arm back carefully.

"Niall, no clumsy kid has ever burnt them self with a cigarette. And even if they did, I know you wouldn't even go near a pack of those things." He looked into my eyes and I could see him fidget uncomfortably.

"You can tell me anything Ni. Remember? We're in this together?" I held my pinky out. He smirked a little remembering the silly promise we made when we were kids. He slowly reached down and connected our pinkies.

"Forever." He shyly put out the familiar word. I smiled and rolled my head back closing my eyes.

"What did he do this time?" I asked while enjoying the sunlight heat up my little body. He hesitated a little and then told me everything.

"Well he tried waking me up this morning but I was so tired I just closed my eyes and fell back to sleep. I woke up to this sharp burning feeling in my arm and saw my arm being prodded with a cigarette. He started yelling at me calling me a lazy ass and a bunch of other nasty things and I stood up for myself thinking he'd stop but he didn't. He picked up razors and grabbed my arm. He sliced them until I was bleeding blood down to my hand." I cringed at the words that came out of his mouth.

"But hey, this is nothing." He gave me a fake laugh.

"Niall. You need to get help. You can't keep living like this. He's going to end up killing you." I gave him a serious look and locked my eyes back with his arm.

"That's the thing. He said that if I ever tried to get help he'd kill me. And that's enough to keep me quiet." He sighed and took my phone out of my hand. Silently scrolling through my new frames if photography.

"You know you don't have to live like this." I peeped. He just passed me a raised eyebrow and continued scrolling.

"I mean. You could move in with me." He just laughed and tossed my phone back to me.

"Those are really good. Have you thought about starting your own professional studio?" He asked.

"Have I thought about it? Yes. Do I have the money? No." We both laughed a little and then he laid down on the blanket that was spread out in the grass. There was only one thing separating my house from Niall's and that was the pond and grass field. We named it the green poopy pond. Well Niall did, I just went along his side and allowed it.

I remember in the summer times when we were kids we would always swim in it. Once, we were out there messing around and I went a little too deep. Niall didn't really notice until I was dragged underwater by a large snapping turtle that connected itself on my foot. He quickly swam over to me and somehow got me out of the water without the turtle attached to me. Niall laid me out on the sand bar and gave me CPR, but didn't really know what he was doing since we were only 10. Luckily, I became conscious again but only with the help of Niall. He saved my life. The turtle left behind a scar on my foot to help remind me of Niall and why he's such a good friend.

"You know, I really like this scar." I said pointing to my left foot. He gave me a weird smile and chuckled.

"Now why would you like that?" I smiled a bit and thought of the memory once more.

"You saved me. It shows how good of a friend you are. Without that scar I would probably forget all about that. But I'm glad it's there."

"And it helps you remember how dumb of a child you were going out there too deep like that." He chuckled.

"Don't ruin the moment." I slapped his stomach only to hear him groan in agony and turned to his side.

"Niall. What did he do?" My hands were now unbuttoning his shirt but he grabbed my small hands trying to pull them away. I was too quick for him and already had his chest open to me, revealing a deep knife wound.

"Niall, oh my god!" I looked at it then to his face to see the pain washed away by fear. A tear fell down my cheek seeing what his father has done. How could anyone be so cruel and mean? Niall didn't even deserve it. His dad was always like this.

"Shh. Hey, hey. It's okay. I'll be fine." He said pulling me to him. I hadn't realized it but my eyes were practically melting with tears.

"No Niall. You won't be. He will continue to do this to you. You cant continue to let this happen." I pushed away from him. We just sat in Silence for a while until he spoke up.

"I could really use a good cleaning of it though." He said looking into my eyes. I shook my head in agreement and packed up the blanket. I stuffed it under a fallen tree and we both walked back to my house together.