Imagines, Wishes, and Anything Else That Comes To Mind

Let Me- Niall

  She walked through the halls, laughing when she was supposed to, and saying polite hellos to the right people. Her friends flanked her on either side, making sure to do the same, making sure to let the outsiders know that everything was alright.

  She sat in her desk, barely making it through class. She raised her hand enough times to receive a participation grade, but not enough to prove that she was really interested.

  He had witnessed her downhill spiral. He had watched as she slowly crawled into herself for shelter and pushed the rest of the world away. 

  As her feet carried her, not too quickly, but not too slowly down the sidewalk and away from the school he fought within himself. His palms warmed up and he couldn't stop shifting the weight on his feet.

  "Hey." Niall's voice sounded quiet and shy as he willed his feet to fall into step with hers.

  "Hey." Her long brown hair lifted off of her shoulders for a quick second as she turned her attention to him. Her eyes which used to be a heart stopping green appeared dull and uninterested, just like they always did now-a-days. 

  There was an awkward silence between the two, but she kept an indifferent smirk on her face, making it hard to tell what she was thinking. The autumn leaves stirred as they passed by, and then found a new resting place once the breeze moved on.

  Niall cleared his throat, his thoughts moving faster than he could form words. "How are you?" He glanced at her sideways to see if there was any change in her demeanor, yet there was none.

  As if she was an automated voicemail greeting she repeated the words "I'm fine" that she had been reciting for days.

  Another silence fell between the two of them, a stray car to his left driving the opposite way making the only sound.

  The air grew thick even though the wind had picked up.

  She drew her cardigan tighter around herself and sent side glances at him, clearly aware that there was something that he wasn’t saying.

  But instead of prompting him she kept the same smirk on her face and focused her eyes back on the straight path of gray in front of them.

  She could feel her heart picking up speed, not in some obnoxious way, but she could tell that the soft thud that she had grown used to, sounded a bit more like the tapping of a drum.

  Niall shoved his hands deep in his jeans and opened his mouth to say something…and then took his hands out of his pockets, and closed his mouth.

  The suspense of unspoken words had both of them feeling warmer than before, and they soon found themselves not walking at all. The display window locked in by walls of brick beside them was darkened and deserted, just like the rest of the street.

  He stepped in front of her, forcing his eyes to meet hers.

  “I know you aren’t okay.” It came out more rushed than he had hoped, but he held his breath as he waited for some type of reaction.

  He was the first one to call her out.

  He was the first one to question her.

  She stared back at him, eyes unchanged and attitude still the same. “I’m fine Niall…”

  There it was.

  If she had said it to anyone else he would have believed her.

  But Niall could hear that tiny hint of pain as his name trailed off, and the distant look in her eyes had evaporated and been replaced with a watery glaze.

  He chewed on the inside of his cheek and looked her dead in the eyes. “Don’t lie to me.” He paused, giving her a chance to try and push the idea that she was fine one more time.

  He ran his fingers through his hair, backward, and then frustrated with himself he brought his hand forward again. “I don’t care if everyone else gets the bullshit story that you are fine, but I know that is a lie. I can see what he is doing to you. You never smile, you don’t laugh anymore, and you can’t seriously be convincing yourself that you are happy?” He didn’t notice that his voice had begun to rise, but he couldn’t hold it in anymore.

  “He…he is killing you. Every good part of you, every part of you that I…love is being stripped away because of him. And I can’t stand by and watch anymore.”

  She tried to cover up her trembling bottom lip by biting it, but her wet cheeks told a different story. “You don’t know him. You don’t know about us.” Her voice cracked on every word, and the end was punctuated with a huge gulp of air.

  Niall pulled at his hair again. He had too many emotions and not enough ways to let them out.

  He paced for a second, trying to formulate some coherent sentence when her small voice hit his ears. “Why do you care anyway?” Her eyes were filled with an arsenal of tears and she had given up on trying to hide her trembling lip.

  He scrubbed at his face before smacking a fist into the wall. “God dammit, why do I care? Because I care about you. I can’t bear to sit here and watch you just…give up on yourself.” He stepped closer to her, leaving no space between their bodies. He could feel her heat pumping on overdrive. “And even if you give up on yourself, I refuse to give up on you.” Niall shook his head as if the thought alone was enough to disgust him.

  “Give me a chance to prove to you how amazing you really are. Allow me to be the one who brings back your smile. Let me,” he held her hands in his, and held them in the tiny space between their chests, “be the one to show you love.”

  Her vision blurred and the last brick of her wall tumbled over as she threw her arms around his neck and cried.

  She cried and gulped for air, and he stood there and held her.

  And once the tears dried up and the sobs turned into silent sniffles, he kept on holding her.