The screams of fans deafened Niall as he closed the door to the apartment complex, drawing his sunglasses down over his eyes and waving to the fans. The other boys had left earlier for the interview as he was waiting on a call about his knee. Before he could walk any further his phone vibrated in his pocket, checking the caller ID he smiled, it was Liam.
“Hey mate.” He greeted with a grin, using his other hand to sign the pieces of paper that girls were frantically thrusting at him.
“Niall! How’s the knee?” Liam greeted, evidently they were on a break in the interview.
“Good need an op but they said they can do it when I’m available really, how long I got to get there?” He checked his watch, and flashed a smile at a few cameras as he walked along the pavement.
“Break just started so you’ve got about twenty minutes until the next part we’re needed in...then another break before the performance. Don’t miss that or management will go spare they’re already annoyed enough you had to wait for that call.” Liam sounded a little exasperated.
“Cool should be there in time.” Niall smiled, it wasn’t his fault he’d dislocated his knee a few too many times.
“Bye!” Liam called from the end of the line before hanging up.
Niall locked his phone, putting it back in his pocket as it began to vibrate again. He answered it quickly and held it to his ear.
“Hello?” It was more of a question as he mentally face-palmed, he didn’t check the caller ID again.
Glancing across the road he waited for an answer, watching his feet as he stepped off the pavement.
“Niall!” A familiar accent shouted as he instantly recognised his brother Greg. He opened his mouth to reply but a force suddenly hit him, sending him stumbling back onto the pavement as people around him gasped, the following crash almost sickening as his phone slipped from his hand. Picking it up quickly Niall hurriedly said goodbye, turning around to see what had thrown him backwards.
Where he had been standing the curled body of a girl, around his age, lay crumpled on the floor, a metre or so behind her he could see the front end of a car a substantial dent in its bonnet and the windscreen smashed into tiny shards of glass.
He gulped, she was conscious but a section of the windscreen had pierced her side and the blood had begun to seep onto the tarmac. Slowly he bent down, shouting over his shoulder for someone to call an ambulance.
“Thank you.” Was all he could manage as he sat by the girl, astounded by what had happened, certain that she had saved his life.
“Don’t.” She smiled and, although he did not know her Niall knew that she was a strong person and had known exactly what she was doing, it was no accident that he hadn’t been hit.
“But you were hit instead of me and..” He began to say but the girl made a small shushing motion, halting the words in his throat.
“It’s better that these fans see someone they don’t know die than their hero and idol, I have nothing left but there’s over nine million people who would miss you. I’m worthless but you’re not. Seeing your hero die in front of you is the worst thing imaginable, I know, and nobody deserves it. I saw that car and I knew that when it hit you you would die, it would have snapped both of your legs and most likely given you substantial brain damage if you did survive, otherwise the internal bleeding would kill you almost instantly, but I also knew I had a chance, if I ran, to push you away and maybe then I might die but the angles were different and the damage wouldn’t be so bad.”
Niall could only nod as he looked at the girl, if she wasn’t covered in blood and tarmac she would be beautiful, a silent tear sipped from his eye and fell on her face. Perhaps the fans had done the kindest things for him but now he realised a girl who he knew nothing about had willingly given her life for his.
