two different worlds || niall horan [completed]

~Chapter 31~

Please read the authors note at the end!!

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Chapter 31

We spent the night in the stall. A couple more times she had gotten up but fell down every time. I stayed awake the whole time and let Niall sleep on my shoulder. I watched her intently. Every three hours, different vets would come around and check her vitals, heart rate, excreta. As much as it pains me to say this, but it kind of helped me. Even though my scholarship got terminated, I still aspired to one day be a vet.

Around 7a.m, something changed. She stood again. As I prepared to see her fall, she took a shaky step forward, towards a water bucked that was hooked up to the wall. I shook Niall awake.

“Niall, wake up!”

“Mhm, what?” I laughed as he rubbed his eyes. By now, Talia was standing up right and had made her way to the bucket. She lowered her head and began to gulp the water down. Niall gasped at what we were seeing. After she took her fair share of the water, she cautiously moved backwards and slowly laid down, gently this time.

I smiled so wide that my cheeks hurt and tears were streaming down my face. Niall kissed my forehead and then I crawled over to Talia who was nibbling on her hay. I stroked her face, planting kisses every inch that I could reach.

After I finished, I crawled back just in time for Noah to walk in. “Hey, how was she last night?”

“She got up a couple times, but fell back down after about 20 seconds. Until 15 minutes ago.” I told him, grinning. Niall rubbed his hand over my arm soothingly. Noah cocked an eyebrow at me, urging me to continue, “She got up, walked up to the water bucket, drank, walked back, and sat down gently. It was amazing!” I gushed.

“That’s remarkable. Usually you don’t see that until day six or seven. I’m really glad you didn’t give up on her.” He told me, smiling. Just then, Talia began to stand again. Once she stood fully, she took a couple cautions steps towards us. Once she reached us, she stretched out her head, begging for a pet. Hobbling over, I ran my fingers down her neck, running my fingers through her tangly mane. Noah handed me a hard brush and I began to brush all the dirt off her. She stood up the whole time. After I finished, she slowly lay down again and drifted off to sleep. All the standing was really putting at toll on her.

“That was really amazing.” Noah told me truthfully. I nodded eagerly and latched onto Niall’s arm.

“As much as I don’t want to say this, you need to get back to Trent.” Niall muttered quietly. I nodded, tears coming to my eyes.

“I’ll be back tonight.” I said in general, mainly to Talia. Noah nodded and I grabbed my crutches and limped my way back to the car that Liam had left for us. I chose to sit in the back since I had more room for my awkward cast. It covered my whole lower but stopped right before my knee. They didn’t feel the need to put one on my thigh because it was only a fracture and they had paced a metal rod there. Kind of weird to think about.

As we pulled into the parking lot, I saw Trey and Debby talking to Christina and Amanda. Kristen was nowhere in sight. They heard me slam the door and all turned to look at me. Debby had a sympathetic look on her face, while Trey’s was hard. Christina wore a smirk on hers and Amanda had a blank face.

Niall handed me my crutches and we made our way over to the building. By now, all of the students have gotten used to Niall being around so they didn’t pay any attention to us. A few of my classmates sent me sympathetic looks as they saw my cast. I gave them a small smile in return.