Words [Niall Horan] AU

Chapter 2: Home

I begin to slowly walk home from school thinking about my day. It was pretty good to be honest and I kind of like it there now since I made some new friends.

Peyton’s really bubbly and sweet, Liam’s defiantly the smart one, Louis’s funny and the prankster of the group, Zayn is apparently the mysterious one but I think he’s really caring and gets exited really easy and Niall’s the leader of the group from what I saw. He seemed pretty off today and Zayn said he had a rough morning so I assume he’s a little happier usually and he seems to be a care free kind of person in my eyes.

Nobody’s realized I’m deaf which is quite strange for me. I don’t care if people do but I want to see what people think of me without knowing I’m deaf so there’s no sympathy towards me. I’ve grown up with that entire life and it’s good to know people genuinely like me for me as a person and not just because they feel sorry for me.

I hand touched my shoulder and my instincts kicked in which was me elbowing whoever was behind me in the ribcage. The hand dropped and I turned around to see Niall groaning on the floor.

“Shit! I’m so sorry Niall! My instincts kicked in and I didn’t know who you were,” I apologize and crouch down to his height.

“I was calling your name for like 2 minutes while running to catch up to you. Didn’t you hear me?” Niall asked.

“Well technically no…” I say truthfully.

He sits up and looks at me confused and I stand up to help him up.

“I’m completely deaf in both ears,” I explain.

“But how can you understand me then?” Niall asks me.

“I can’t hear the words you say to me but I can see them, I lip read,” I shrug.

“That explains so much!” Niall says as we begin to walk down the street again.

“What do you mean by that?” I ask.

“You needing us to look at you when talking, your accent, why you didn’t answer Louis’s question the first time and you not hearing me call your name multiple times,” Niall explains.

“Well it’s either lip reading everyone or have an interrupter following me around which I don’t need,” I say.

“Fair enough, look I’m really sorry for this morning. I just got some news in the morning and it was a rough start to the day,” He says.

“Do you want to talk about?” I ask while placing my hand on his forearm.

He was startled at first but shook it off as we entered a park with a playground since we both had nothing to do.

“Well my dad proposed to his girlfriend well fiancé now last night and told me in the morning. He didn’t even ask me before or anything,” He yells throwing his hands into the air.

“Do you not like his girlfriend?” I ask as we sit facing each other on the bench.

Niall seemed stunned and shocked by my question; he had to think for a moment.

“It’s not that I don’t like her, I just don’t want my dad to marry someone else. It’s like his completely letting go of my mum and I don’t want to do that. She’s my mum,” Niall says and I could tell he was really upset about this topic.

“I can handle him dating someone; I can handle him dating another hundred people! But my dad getting married is different; the last person he married was my mum. She passed away when I was 6,” Niall sniffles and I pulled him into a hug while rubbing soothing circles on his back.