Promise Me a Dream (A Niall Horan Short Story) EDITING

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The next day, Carol went back to ignoring Niall. She didn’t want to get too attached to him anymore because she knew it will only hurt both of them when the time came for her to go. She tried her best to avoid Niall but it was very difficult because Niall did all he can to get her attention. “You’re being selfish!” Niall shouted when she gave him a cold shoulder once more in the corridor. She turned around to look at Niall in surprise. He looked really upset, but even more than that, sad. “Why do you keep ignoring me? Do you think I’ll leave you just because you’re sick?” Niall shouted but he wasn’t angry at all. Everyone in the corridor started to look at them because they’ve never heard Niall talk like this before. “Answer me!” He shouted again but Carol just began to cry. She turned away from Niall and started to run to the back of the school. Niall followed and caught up to her just outside the back door.

Carol wiped the tears from her face and turned to Niall. They stood there looking at each other when the bell rang but they ignored it. Instead, Carol lost control and wept loudly in Niall’s arms. He held her tightly and let her drown all her fears and worries away. After a while, she got tired and stopped to look at Niall and break away from his warm hug. “I’m sorry,” She began to say. “I… I don’t want to ignore you. But I…” she tried to look for the words to explain how she felt.

“You don’t want to make friends because you’re afraid to lose them,” Niall told her instead of asking. She looked at him, surprised that he knew exactly what she felt. Niall just smiled at her and that made Carol feel good because after everything she did, Niall still wanted to be her friend.

“I’m really sorry,” She told him again. Niall looked at her and told her he had an idea.

“Hey,” Niall said excitedly. “Why don’t we start again? Pretend that you’re not sick and try being friends normally? You know, let’s have fun! What do you say?” Niall proposed. Carol wanted to tell Niall it wasn’t as easy as he thought it would be. Knowing you can die any moment is not something a kid like her should be worrying about. It’s difficult and you just lose the hope for tomorrow. You decide to shut yourself away from the world because every moment you spent happy is a moment you’ll regret leaving. But isn’t that true for anyone, sick or not? She thought about this long and hard while Niall looked at her expectantly. She looked at his face and his huge smile that showed his crooked tooth and knew what she wanted. Niall gave her hope. Not the kind of hope that would make her believe her sickness would just go away and leave her healthy. It’s the kind of hope that made her feel protected and loved no matter what happened. It made her feel that even though leaving Niall would hurt her the most, and even Niall himself too, it would still be better than not having Niall at all. So she agreed and did what Niall wanted.

None of the following days passed without a special memory. Carol made a lot of new friends once she started being the good kid she really is. She went to join Niall in the school play where he acted as Peter Pan but only took a minor role since she only wanted to see Niall act and sing the songs given to him. She adored Niall’s voice like everyone else did and was really proud of him. Carol had a talent of her own too, or at least that’s what she told Niall when she aced everything in French class. Of course, Niall knew she was from France but decided to let her have her glory. He bought ice cream for her when she won the French quiz bee in class. Aside from that, every weekend, Niall took her to places he knew to find foods Carol has never eaten before.

Unfortunately, each day also made Carol weaker until a time came when she spent more time in the hospital than in school. She began doing medication which Niall didn’t understand. The only thing he knew was that it made Carol even worse. He wanted it to stop but his mother told him it’s the only way they can hope to make Carol better. Of course, Niall didn’t believe any of it. He became worse when, in one of his visits to the hospital, Carol was forced to lose all of her hair. She spent the entire day crying while Niall learned every bad word he can say to the doctors. He was devastated, but he smiled whenever he’s in front of the weak girl because he knows Carol will only feel sad if she sees him cry.

After spending so many weeks at the hospital, Carol’s doctor told her parents that her health is failing rapidly. They didn’t tell both Niall and Carol but, somehow, they knew about it. They didn’t need the doctor to tell them because they can feel it. Niall never left Carol’s side until one day when she’s supposed to be taken into intensive care and Niall wasn’t allowed to visit for three days. He promised he’ll be back as soon as he can visit and then went home where he planned one last way to make her friend happy. Niall got his and Carol’s parents to prepare a picnic.