Time Capsule

Chapter 53

Time Capsule

Chapter 53

*

*

Niall...

We drove in silence, the tension in the car could kill a man. All of our emotions were running thick. We were all angry, frustrated, and just plain pissed. Well...they were. On top of all those emotions, I was feeling flat out depressed. Since I got my anger out on Nick, I was left with all the other emotions. The guilt was eating at me. I worked so hard to push all my self hatred away. I finally managed to forgive myself and forget, and he just pulled everything back out from the basement. 

I was a horrible person to her. Believe me, I know. But to hear someone else say it, especially someone I associated with to do a lot of those things, it really fucking stung. I could feel it weighing on my heart. It hurt more that any of the injuries on my body. He's right, Niall. You're sick, like him. You don't deserve her. 

The thoughts started seizing my mind. I immediately shut them down. No, you're wrong. You only made mistakes. It's in the past now.

Louis' voice thankfully broke me from my thoughts. "I can't believe the audacity of that fucking asshole." He mumbled.

Harry hummed in agreement. "Yeah, him and all of his fucking friends can rot in hell for what they did to her." He spat. His comment caused me to wince in my seat. "Niall, you okay?" I looked to see Harry looking at me through the rear view mirror. I shook my head and he frowned in response.

"What's wrong?" Louis asked as he quickly glanced in the mirror before focusing back on the road.

I laid down on the backseat, and stared up at the roof of the car. "It hurts." I muttered out.

"Yeah, I know. My fists are throbbing." Louis chuckled.

"No. I mean, it fucking hurts." I took a deep breath. "The guilt is crawling back and eating away at me. He's right. I'm just as bad as them."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on." Louis started. "You are nothing at all like them. They do what they do because they're just straight up fucking assholes. You were hurting, and you made a dip-shit mistake. But you apologized, moved on, and bettered yourself. You're way above them. Don't belittle yourself." 

"Yeah, I agree. You've made it your mission to make it up to her, protect her, and always be there for her." Harry added.

"It's not only the guilt from all that." I sighed as some of the anger started to creep in again. Half of it at Nick, and half of it at myself. "She was doing so well, and this is just going to break her again. You guys saw how shaken up she was!" I shouted. "And all I did was fucking sit there! I sat there while he had his nasty little fingers all over her!" My voice rose to a scream. I sat back up and pounded my fist down on the seat next to me. "I just fucking let her sit there and take it, while I just sat and faced forward, ignoring the fact that he was most likely doing something to her. I'm just so fucking stupid!"

"Niall, calm down. You did what you could without getting in trouble-"

"Fuck getting in trouble! I would sit and rot in prison if it meant making sure shit like that didn't happen!"

"Niall, listen, if we're gonna sit here and play the blame game, then it's my fault!" Harry said, his voice progressively rising too. "I was sitting only a few people away from her and I could've made more of an effort to lean over and make sure she was okay!"

"GUYS! Stop it!" Louis yelled before lowering his voice. "It's no one's fault, alright? It happened and there's nothing we could do about it except be there for Annabelle right now. We already took care of Nick, and that's all we can do. What's done is done."