Learning to Love [Niam]

Chapter 10

Hey, so I'm going to continue the contest on which other ship should you guys would like to see in this story. I would like to put them in by next chapter, so if you guys can please comment your favorite ship, that would be greatly appreciated. :) So far, Zouis got 1 vote.

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As soon as we got to the school, I dropped his hand. He gave a sad, puppy dog look and he was pouting slightly. It was so adorable. I sighed and dragged him by his arm to the side of the school. I made sure no one was around before I started explaining.

“A lot of people wouldn’t approve of us being together, even if we’re not together technically. Anyway, the school is homophobic. It would not be good for us to be holding hands or basically having anything more than a platonic relationship here. The people are horrible here. They will bully you so much. Trust me, I-I know.” I whispered the last part to myself. I was hoping Liam didn’t catch it, but hope just wasn’t on my side.

He looked very confused. “What do you mean? I haven’t seen one person bully you for your sexuality.”

I snorted. “I’m the star of the school’s cross country team, or I used to be. Everyone knows not to even touch me when I’m in season. I usually bring the team in quite a bit of money. That doesn’t stop people’s snickering or the rude comments or the nasty remarks or the humiliating notes. When season is over though, it gets a lot worse.”

“How come I’ve never heard anyone say these things about you? I’m around you most of the time.” He asked.

I shrugged. “I don’t know you that well, but you seem like the type of person that tries to see the good in everyone, so maybe you just block any mean comments out?”

He took a few moments to contemplate this idea. After a minute or two he froze. I got really concerned and shook his shoulders. That seemed to bring him out of his trance and he began to freak out. “My first day of school, I let all four of your friends know that I am gay.”

I laughed at that. “Those morons are completely harmless!” He joined in the laughter, more out of relieve in my opinion though. After a minute or two of laughing, I continued. “I may call them morons, but those g-guys mean the world to me. They are the only ones w-who cared enough about me after I came out. They are the o-only ones that didn’t desert me.” I looked down and mumbled that last part.

I felt Liam’s hand lift my chin up, I only flinched a little and then blushed a lot, and I was met with his brown eyes. He spoke very slowly. “Now you have one more moron that you can count on.” He gave me a big, adorable grin. I smiled right back at him.

The bell rang right in the middle of our moment. Liam sighed and I rolled my eyes at him. “Come on. Let’s go or we’re going to be late.”

The day was going pretty good. Nothing big had happened so far, but, of course, something bad eventually did happen.

It was the last class of the day, gym. Liam and I got all the way to the locker room, when I realized I didn’t have my gym bag with me. I blushed and I turn towards Liam. “I-I don’t have any gym clothes. I-I forgot to ask you if I could borrow some.”

He just chuckled. “It’s fine. I always keep an extra pair in my car. I can go get it.”

I stopped him. “No, it’s fine. I can go get it. Can you just tell the teacher what I am doing?”

“It’s no problem.” He handed me his keys and I jogged off into the parking lot.

I was back in the locker room with the clothes about five minutes later. I was in a rush to put the clothes on that I got changed right out in the open with my back facing the door that leads to the gym. It was such a stupid move and if I was thinking more clearly and wasn’t in a rush I wouldn’t have made that mistake.

I was just putting on my shorts when the door opened up and someone walked into the room. “Niall, coach just sent me in here to c-Whoa.”

I quickly turned around and was face to face with Liam. I grabbed at a shirt and tried to put it on, but I was shaking so bad that the shirt just fell from my hands. I just kept backing away from Liam until my back hit the wall. The only thought that was going through my head was he saw it and it was on repeat. I started shaking even harder and it was getting harder to breathe.

Liam must have sense that what was going on. He very slowly moved forward. Every time he moved I flinched. Once he was right in front of me, he slowly reached for my hand. I slid down the wall at that point and he crouched right in front of me, still holding on to my hand.

He started stroking my hand and was whispering things like “It’s going to be ok.” Or “I’m not going to hurt you.” Or “Breathe, love, breathe.” I can feel myself calming down with each stroke, each word.

When I my breathing was back to normal and I had stopped shaking for the most part, I made eye contact with him. I could feel tears threatening to spill down my cheeks.

He squeezed my hand. “We don’t have to talk about this right. We won’t say a word. We are just going to get up, tell the teacher you are not feeling well, and we are going to go home ok. Then we will discuss what’s on your back.”

I burst into tears at the mention of my back. I flung myself into his arms and he held me for who knows how long. I don’t care though. All that matters is he saw it. He saw the scars I was trying to hide, the word that is forever scarred into my back. He saw me for what I really am because of that word.

DAMAGED