Thorn (n.h)

XXVIII

ROSES POV

I blatantly avoid Niall for the rest of the week. All calls are dismissed, I hide in my dorm and only emerge for classes that I absolutely have to go to. Sometimes Paige, Louis, Liam and I hang out, but otherwise I stay shut up in my dorm room.

My bruises are fading, which is good, the quicker they fade then the faster I can forget the entire ordeal and move on with my life, if anyone can ever move on from Niall.

My phone beeps as I sit on my bed with a book open on my cross-crossed legs, I jerk away from my thoughts and grab the phone gingerly. It's a text from Niall saying he wants to talk, I roll my eyes and decide to actually text him back, saying we don't need to talk.

My phone rings a few minutes after hitting send, of course, it's Niall.

"What?" I snap upon answering.

"Please, just let me talk to you, I just think its time to tell you some stuff," Niall sounds tired and I feel like a mother bird and my heart melts.

"I don't think so," I trail off and look around the room, "you nearly broke his nose."

"I get that okay? Can you please meet me somewhere?" Niall is practically begging, in a comical universe he'd be on his knees begging, I laugh a little at the thought.

"Where?"

~

I pull into a parking space and look around trying to find Niall's truck, there he is in the front of the lot, leaning against the hood. He told me to meet him at some restaurant which I thought was the weirdest place to talk at.

I walked up to him and he perked up when he saw me, the street lamps making him shine a little as if he was glowing just at the sight of me.

"Rose," Niall pushes himself off the truck and I stop a few feet from him.

"You wanted to talk?"

Niall smiles and nods to something behind me, "there's a park over there, I figure we could walk and talk."

We walk a while before Niall pipes up, the only sound had previously been our shoes cracking against the rocks on the trail. "Howmare you?"

"I'm alright," I say crossing my arms over my chest and watching my feet, "you?"

"Nervous," he chuckles and I stiffen a little. I don't know what to expect with him anymore, he could want to talk about anything at this point.

"Well, I don't know how to help with that," I reply and he chuckles again.

"Maybe we should sit," he leads me to a bench and we sit side by side on the cold wood. His body is turned slightly to me, his hands clasped together, his left leg bouncing nervously, "I think it's time to tell you about my family."

"oh," defiantly not what I was expecting.

"After my father got arrested for drunk driving, he was put away for a while, then he admitted himself to a institution. My aunt and uncle was given custody of my brother and me," Niall explains and looks at me for reassurance.

"It's ok," I whisper and put my hand on his knee.

"Slowly they began to beat us, the both of us, they had kids of their own that they treated just fine, but us they hit for every little thing. As we got older, they would," he stops and laughs, trying to get rid of his nerves, "well pretty much what those guys did to you they did to Greg and me," he chokes back tears and I am frozen, I have no idea what to say.

"Well, Greg turned 18 and he moved out, I was like 16 maybe 15. He sued our aunt and uncle they went to jail for a few years and I was put into foster care until I was 18," Niall looks up at me and puts his hand on mine, "They were nice but the whole ordeal obviously fucked me up."