Privilege

THIS IS NOT MINE. I DID NOT WRITE THIS STORY. 

Chapter One:

Niall descends his father’s dented Subaru and looks up at the ring of imposing dorms and can’t quite believe he is there. Everything he saw was nothing less than perfect. The stone and brick buildings topped by shingled roofs and spires, tradition and pride oozing from every single brick stone; cherry trees lining the seed walks which with no doubt would burst forth with big, beautiful blossoms in the summer.

Niall closes his eyes for a second to take it all in before he got overwhelmed. The sound of expensive cars popping, the loud giggles of girls nearby as they united and squeled in joy, the sound of the water from the fountain in the middle of campus. He inhaled the smell of a new beginning.

“A new beginning,” He whispers as he opens his eyes and looks around in awe. How did he end up here again? oh yeah, thanks to good grades, superb lacrosse abilities and of course, his father’s insistence and a recommendation from a former student here. (his older brother’s cooler ex-girlfriend; Nathalie)

“What was that?” His father, John, asks as he pulls Niall’s single bag out of the trunk of the car. His attention is quickly averted as a shiny limousine pulls up next to them, and Niall swallows, reminding himself where he is.

A man gets out of the driver seat; in uniform and with a stoic expression. He walks up to the passenger seat and opens the door. Out steps a tall boy with a cocky smile clad in a gray-blue uniform; he has blond, slightly curly hair and striking honey brown eyes. Niall feels himself blush when he looks towards him and his father.

He suddenly feels self-conscious because of his clothes, his father and their beat-up car. The guy looks at them with a raised eyebrow for a second before dismissing them as he fishes out his phone and begins clicking away. Meanwhile, the driver begins unloading bag after bag from the trunk, and Niall can’t help but think it’s a little over the top. But what does he know about the rich.

“Are you sure about this, bud?” His father asks him, and Niall feels himself tense up. Out of everyone in Niall’s family, his father had been the one not to doubt him for a single second. Even his brother, Greg, who’s idea it had been in the first to follow Natalie’s footsteps - she had transferred there for her junior and senior year before continuing on to Harvard and undoubtly glory - had blanched when he’d seen the ridiculous tuiton. However, his daddy had been there from day one. He had used hours on the phone with the financial aid department; he’d sent in Niall’s lacrosse tapes all the while reassuring him that he was going to “take ‘em with storm”.

He can’t feel doubt now.

Niall looks into his father’s eyes - a clear blue just like his own - and he realizes he isn’t doubting Niall, he is doubting himself. He is doubting whether he can survive at home with Niall’s pill-popping mother now that Niall is gone as well. His mother, pale and thin, grouses about how everything bad happened to her, tearing Niall down, tearing Greg down, tearing his father down. Greg already made his escape when he left for college in New York, last week. Now it was only his father left to deal with his mother.

“I don’t have to go,” Niall says with a dry mouth and his voice almost cracks. “Just say the word and we will drive right back. It’s alright.”

He is lying. It’s not alright. He doesn’t know if he’ll survive seeing this place so close and then have it ripped from him. He already feels physically ill just at the possibility.

His father’s face softens.

“I could never do that, bud,” He says and squeezed Niall’s shoulder. “But I appreciate the offer.” Niall feels sweet, cool relief flood him. he smiles.