Ruined

Chapter 3

Mallory's POV

Niall Horan. Brunette brainiac to blue-haired punk. What a lovely change. Even though this change was great, I wondered what had happened since he left.

As I stood up and walked into the party, I started asking around. I had to find him. No one seemed to know where this boy was. Feeling sweat forming at my hairline, I decided to go outside. The back door was conveniently just a few steps away.

The soft feeling of the grass comforted me. Too bad there was still all of this noise. Not only was there a lot of noise from inside, I could now hear a low creaking noise. It reminded me of a rusty old swing being rocked back and forth. I decided it was probably a drunk teenager, so I sat down in the grass and stared up at the sky. The moon seemed to grow bigger by the second. Soon, it was all I could see in the void of darkness.

This made me remember back in sixth grade, when Niall did a project on outer space. Although he was extremely obnoxious in how he shared his knowledge, something about this subject began to intrigue me. Space was so amazing. It contained millions of huge balls of fire, but all we saw were little dots. This fact made me think. If we could mistake the size of the stars in space, could we be mistaken about how big some things could be to others? Could one harmless word really cause a death? Could a death really cause someone to completely change?

'Overthinking is a horrible thing' I thought.

I sat up and looked out into the yard. Seeing nothing, I decided to walk around a bit. I closed my eyes and cautiously stuck my hands out in front of me. A few trees appeared in front of me. The creaking noise from before started up again. As I walked towards the noise, I began feeling mosquitoes nip at my skin. My skin began itching as I finally heard the sound growing nearer.

Something hit my foot and I felt myself plummeting towards the earth. Someone's hand wrapped around my arm and softened the fall.

"Mallory."

"Niall."

I heard his sigh ring through the air, "What are you doing out here?"

"I could ask the same."

"I guess I just needed some air..."

"Me too."

He helped me up off of the ground and, although I couldn't see anything, I felt his eyes on me.

I became curious. "How did you know I was out here? How did you know I was falling?"

"I could see you. I'm in the dark a lot. My eyes have adjusted."

"Oh..." I paused for a second, "I'm not gonna lie, I can't see a thing out here."

"No kidding. You were walking around with your hands in front of you and your eyes closed. You tripped over a tree root." Although his words were full of sarcasm, his tone remained quiet and bland.

"Hey! Shut-up! I was just being cautious!"

"You obviously forgot about the fact that there could be things growing out if the ground."

"No one ever accused me of being a genius."

Both of us grew silent.

For a minute or two, both of us stood silently. The noise of the party was just a whisper. I began wondering about his past again. I remembered back to when he used to get beat up. Is that why he changed? To save himself from bullies? Well, if it was, the way he talked made it seem as though it didn't work.

His words rang through my head as I remembered what he had said earlier. "Now I'm just the freak of the town again."

I didn't understand and I needed to know. I felt the words coming up. I tried to contain them but I couldn't.

"Hey, uh, what happened when you left?"