When Love Heals - A Niall Horan Fanfic

Chapter Twenty Five.

Lydia had to quit her job. She had to once again think about deferring her university application until yet another year. She had to watch her diet.

She was miserable.

She tried to keep her hopes up and tell herself to be optimistic. But truthfully, she knew that this was worse than the last time. And the last time had been pretty bad. She could tell that the tumour was already significantly more concerning to the doctors than it should be at such an early stage; she had seen the worry in Doctor Hanson's eyes that he had unsuccessfully tried to hide.

She knew that this time she probably wouldn't make it out alive.

***

"Niaaaaaaaall!" All the boys cheered when the boy himself walked into the hotel room. He had just arrived in New York after a nine hour flight and he was exhausted, not to mention already anguished about the whole Lydia/cancer/brain tumour situation.

"Hi," he mumbled, taking a step back when Zayn came over to give him a hug. "Sorry," he muttered after seeing Zayn's dejected expression. "I've had a long day."

"We have too, y'know." Louis called from the space lying next to Harry on the bed. "We've had bloody rehearsals all day and you don't see us acting moody."

Niall could see his vision turning red with anger but he tried to hold it in. He was so overwhelmed with anger and sadness and he was honestly trying his hardest not to take it out on his best friends but right now they were making it very difficult.

"Yeah, moooooooody Niall!" Louis taunted, Harry joining in to create a little "moody! moody!" chant.

"I had literally the worst day," Liam sighed. "I spilled a coffee on my jeans and then I dropped my phone and it smashed..."

Niall could feel the rage building in his chest. Like that was 'literally the worst day'? He would take that day over the past few of his any day.

"It was terrible..." Liam mused, before snickering. "I wanted to cry."

And then Niall snapped.

"You're all fucking idiots, y'know that?! You're moaning about your fucking days that were completely perfect compared to mine!" He screamed, his face slowly turning pink. The other boys stared at him in shock as they continued to listen to his rant. "You're sitting here moaning about having to dance and breaking your phones? Stop acting like little brats and think about how good you have it for once! Other people aren't that lucky!" Niall shouted.

After a moments silence, Harry spoke up quietly. He knew that something was up with Niall, or else he wouldn't be this worked up. "What's happened mate?"

And then Niall just broke. His legs crumpled and he slumped down the wall to the floor, bringing his knees to his chest and resting his forehead on them as he started to cry.

The other boys hadn't seen Niall cry since bootcamp. And it was pretty horrifying to see the normally happy, bouncing around boy sob so hysterically.

Immediately they were up and crowding around him. Zayn sat next to Niall against the wall and wrapped an arm around his shoulder. Liam rubbed Niall's knee as he whispered soothing words. Harry reached over to the bedside table to grab the tissues as Louis rested his own cheek against Niall's shoulder, waiting for the sobbing to subside.

"Sorry," Niall hiccupped after five minutes or so. He lifted his face and the other boys could see it was all blotchy from the crying, his blue eyes red-rimmed. "I didn't mean it, you're not brats." He apologised, ducking his head in shame.

"It's fine, Ni. We're not mad," Zayn said softly, taking a tissue from Harry's outstretched hand and gently wiping Niall's red face with it.

"You gunna tell us what's gotten you so upset?" Liam asked, leaning his chin on Niall's knee.