Inked Armor (Punk Niall)

Chapter 15

I guess you never really know somebody until they’re at their weakest point. Until there’s nothing to hide them from the world, when they’re sitting right in front of you and telling you things that they’ve never said out loud. You never know somebody until you really know them, they’re whole entire story and how they got to where they are today.

I guess I never really knew Niall until now. Until he let me into his heart, with open arms as I did with him. I don’t know how long we sat there as Niall told me things I’d never imagined would be real, moments when I was sure he would break down and shed his emotions. But he never did. And I knew he wouldn’t, I learned before that he’s too proud to be seen as weak, even though his eyes were drawn out and tired from so many memories.

Memories. Pictures and mental videos of our past, good and bad, beneficial and forgetful. My memories are full of my parents and better days. Like the time we went to go pick up Lucy for the first time, or when I won the spelling bee in fourth grade. I can remember the happiness in all my memories, a smile coming on my face as I think about the excitement and anxiousness of these pictures in my mind. Of course there were bad ones, like my parents’ dying, but usually the good overlooked the bad and I still managed to laugh.

Niall’s were different. His were full of tragedies, too many people coming in and out of his life and being tossed around from place to place with questions that had no answer. There were good times with his brother- Greg was his name, and Niall would always smile when he mentioned them, the love and appreciation for his brother clear in the rosy cheeks that bloomed bright.

But then there were the stories of men always coming into his house, greedy smiles and sausage fingers that would exchange green paper for strange-looking plants in plastic bags. His father was never around, always recruiting new men and finding places to deal while his two sons were at home all alone.

“He’d come home a few times a week to make sure we were fed and everything but he didn’t actually care. Truth be told if we weren’t around it’d make his life a whole lot easier, he just never admitted it out loud.”

How could a father not love his children? His own flesh and blood, DNA and genes? How could you not do everything in your power to make them safe and happy?

It didn’t make sense that someone who seemed to have it so together, so figured out, really never did in the first place. I guess nobody in the world does, we all come from certain backgrounds that could make or break us. Niall just chose to handle his differently.

Due to the neglect of their father, Niall and Greg made friends with the wrong crowd and became rebellious and defiant. Out of boredom they would cause fights or steal from local shops, living a life of no rules and coming close to getting kicked out of school numerous times. They weren’t bad kids with bad intentions, sure they drank, but Niall or Greg swore to never try drugs of any kind. They didn’t want to be anything like their dad, getting consumed in the toxins like it was all they needed.

The brothers had met Zayn when he moved from Bradford to their neighborhood at age fifteen, and they all got on extremely well and protected each other like family. Always backing each other up if an argument turned into a full-fledged riot, and also doing regular things like going to Zayn’s house and playing FIFA until their fingers ached and their bellies were sore from laughing.