Niam One-Shots || [Book 1]

[170] Orange Juice

Prompt: Niall struggles with an eating disorder, constantly being belittled by someone he thought he could trust until someone finally saves him from his demons.

Contains: Mentions/Scenes of Bulimia

The inside of a toilet bowl. A familiar image for Niall as he threw up his food and orange juice from lunch. The pain traveled through his body like a tidal wave and he hissed at how much of a struggle this was. It wasn't helping that his older brother by a year, Zayn, was standing over him with an evil smirk on his face.

“Wash up good before you leave. I'll see you tomorrow, little freak.” Zayn pushes the stall door open and soon leaves the bathroom with a grin sprawled across his face.

Niall flushes the toilet after disposing of the contents in his body, tears dripping from his eyes as he rested back against one of the stall walls. He eventually finds enough strength to stand up and exit the small space, going over to the mirror and sink to stare at himself in disgust.

“You're so fücking ugly...” Niall mutters to himself before slamming his fists against the ceramic sink bowl. “Zayn is right when you try to look your best. There's no choice even when your own parents can't even understand how I'm feeling or what your brother is doing to you. There is an easy way out of this, but you can't even manage to do that right!” Niall screams at the top of his lungs and feels his heart clench at the effects of his purging moments ago. He couldn't handle any of this anymore.

He thought he was alone, but someone exited one of the stalls, and he couldn't help but cry all over again. Tears dripped down his face even at the sight of who it was. Liam Payne, captain of the football team, who looked concerned and innocent.

“I followed you two in here. I noticed that something has been going on, and I finally took the chance to find out.” He sighs shakily, doing his best to not touch or provoke Niall in any way. “I can't understand what you're going through right now, but it doesn't the fact that your own brother is making you do all of this like it's a funny joke. You're... you're hurting body in so many ways and it's sick.”

Niall sighs and holds the middle of his body in his arms, small tears still flooding down his rosy cheeks. “I-I... I can't tell him to stop. If I don't, h-he forces food down my throat and I have to spit it all up before he leaves my side. I can't control h-him...”

Liam's heart breaks at hearing this, bewildered by how vulnerable and destroyed this poor boy is. He doesn't deserve to go through this pain and suffer through without a single ounce of help from other people. “You need to tell somebody that Zayn is making you do all of this, making it seem like it's okay to do. There has to be some-”

“I can't,” Niall cries out and shakes his head. “I can't tell anybody or even try to let people know of the evidence I have. He'll hurt me even more and really destroy me...”

Liam sighs and closes his eyes for a few seconds. “I understand. Come here.” He takes Niall's dry wrist to the full body mirror and stares at him. “Look at yourself for me, c'mon.”

Niall sighs and looks at himself, holding back on shuddering and looking away for Liam's sake. “Why am I doing this?”

Liam smiles a little and stands closer to Niall's side, still staring into the mirror and at the broken boy himself. “To tell you the truth. To tell you that our bodies don't define us one bit, that our bodies are imperfectly perfect. The way you look isn't an issue at all, and I am being completely honest.”

Niall can feel himself slowly break down again, clenching his fist as he tries to fight back the tears. Instead, he finds himself burying his head into Liam's neck as tears drip from his eyes.