My Beautiful Fairytale

[4]: Lonely

[A/N: Friendly reminder that this story was edited and character names have changed! If you are lost you may want to go back a chapter to refresh :)

Kolya is now Kieran
Noah is now Niall
Krish is now Cris
Scorpio is now Sergio]

Kieran POV:

A few months passed in the blink of an eye. Niall was in a few of my classes, like math and foreign language as well as science. The kid excelled at science and foreign language. Math, not so much. He's asked me a lot of questions with simple answers. I guessed it was hard for him to think simply because the dude could literally figure out a complicated question as fast as I could say 'ABC.' I decided because he helped me with science, that I'd help him with math, and it became almost a routine, we'd become acquainted through school work. Who would've thought.

"Kieran," someone asked behind me as we headed to our lockers for dismissal. I turned around, Isaiah waved the others ahead and stood by my side. It was Cris, shifting awkwardly. "U-um I have a favor to ask of you. I-it's for Niall."

I raised an eyebrow curiously. "Yeah?"

"Niall is in serious need of comfort. Not only me, I'm not nearly enough. It's hard to explain without spilling a lot, but he hasn't really had friends for a long while, and he's always kept everything from his family, so they don't know when he needs it. B-but, you guys are the closest thing to friends he has a-and I was hoping you and Isaiah could, um, visit him with me a few times, just to make him happy and know that people care about him. You're the only others that—um, you know, care about what happens to him."

Isaiah and I glanced at each other. I could tell Isaiah liked Niall being around. He wasn't bad company, he was funny when he was in a good mood, except neither of us knew what this was about. Did something happen?

I frowned. "Sure. I will. Zay?"

Isaiah nodded immediately. "Of course."

Cris sighed in relief. "Niall had an incident. He's, u-uh, in the h-hospital now, getting the treatment he needs," he explained shakily. Zay and I stiffened. "He didn't cause the incident. U-um, he was a big part of...of it, though. Someone else caused it and-and I, uh, watched the whole thing," he said sourly, like he was upset but angry at the same time.

"What happened?" Isaiah asked.

Cris hesitated. "I'm not sure I'm the one to tell you."

"When can we visit him?" He asked.

"Today. I-if you're alright with that. H-He has tests and blood work tomorrow and Thursday."

"Let's get our stuff," I said. "We'll go. Come on, Zay."

He nodded. "We'll meet you outside, Cris."

I smirked, but said nothing when Zay joined me. I saw that, Zay, but I wouldn't say anything. He'd never leave me alone if I did.

---

Cris led us, practically running, down the hallway.

He threw open the door, shouting Niall's name.

Niall himself jumped with a book in his hands, looking at us, but cringed and held the side of his head. "Cris, stop yelling," he said quietly.

"Sorry. Kieran and Isaiah are here," Cris replied, quieter this time.

Niall, as if noticing us for the first time, stared at us shocked. Then guilt flashed across his face. "You didn't have to come," his voice was just above a whisper. "I didn't mean to take time out of your day."

"It's alright," Zay said. "We were worried. You're normally never absent."

Niall frowned. "How long was I out again?"

"Three days," Cris said. "Day one was Saturday, day two was Sunday, and day three was Monday."

"What day is it?" He asked. "Bailey has dance on Tuesdays," the guilty expression crossed his face again. "She's going to miss it because of me."

"No she won't," Cris said carefully. "Melanie's taking her."

Niall cringed again, his hand covered his head again. "And Mom'll miss work because of that. She's going to fall behind."

Cris groaned. "She won't mind if she misses work because her son is in the hospital. Okay? She's worried just as much as we are. If I had a choice I'd skip school."

The guilt was radiating off Niall in waves. He frowned, staring at his hands holding his book. He sunk down against his pillow, pouting.

"This sucks," he grunted. "If the asshole just left me alone this wouldn't have happened," he glared bitterly at his book. "If the asshole just left my brother alone this wouldn't have happened. If he just left us all alone Mom wouldn't be suffering at all. If he just..." He trailed off, slamming his fist into the bed, then glared angrily at the wall like he wanted to punch it.

"If he just went away?" I offered.

Niall glanced at me, and nodded gently. "If he just went away, I wouldn't have to deal with any of this."

He took a deep breath, and swung his legs over the side of his bed, sitting. He wasn't wearing a hospital gown. He was wearing jeans and a white t-shirt. I...got the feeling he put up a huge fight and refused to change.

Cris glared at him. "Don't you dare."

Niall cast a glare at him. "I need to stand. Alright? I won't do anything crazy."

Cris gave him a 'you better' look and didn't say anything else. Niall noticed and stood, stretching his arms. "Hm," he smiled, humming. "That feels good," he winced and his hand flew to his head. Although I didn't know exactly what was wrong, I had a pretty good guess.

Cris glanced at the clock. "Don't you have to eat in a little?"

He made a face. "Yeah."

"I guess you'd want some chips?" Cris asked innocently.

"Yes," he said immediately. All three of us grinned, and I handed the small bag of lightly salted chips to him. The bag of baked 50%-less-salt chips we stole from school, but still better than hospital food. He laughed happily, taking them. "Man, you guys are the best."

"You won't get yelled at for having those, right?" Zay asked. He shook his head, opening them happily.

"Thanks guys," he said seriously. "for coming, I mean. I really appreciate it."

"It's no problem," I assured. "We don't have hockey right now, so we have nothing better to do."

"Besides," Isaiah continued. "We were planning on talking to you more often anyway. You're pretty fun to be around."

—

Almost an hour later, Niall's nurse ushered us out, saying he needed sleep. In that hour, Niall looked like he became more comfortable around Isaiah and I, and I was glad. He wasn't someone I wanted to scare away, he was someone I'd want to keep around.

Isaiah stretched, walking out of the building behind me. "I've got to go home. I need to start dinner."

"Okay, see you tomorrow Zay," I said as he walked away. He gave a wave over his shoulder, indicating that he heard me.

Cris walked up to me, with his hands in his pockets. "Thank you for coming with me. He probably doesn't mean that much to you as he does to me, but he's been so upset."

"It's not a problem," I said honestly. "I haven't known him long, but so far I've found that he's pretty cool. I'm happy we could be friends."

Cris nodded, sighing. "He feels so guilty, making us worry like this," he paused, thinking about something. "I don't know if I should be telling you this, but he's not had friends for years. I'm almost positive he's needed a few friends to open up a little."

"I'm sure it takes time," I said. "I can tell he's working on it, though."

He nodded, noticing the time on his phone and paled. "Crap, I have to go. Like now. See you at school, Kieran. I'll keep you updated!" he said, running away hurriedly. He almost seemed scared or panicked.

I frowned at his retreating figure and unlocked my car. I wondered what was going on with him or his family that might make him scared to go home. Maybe I was overthinking it again.