Somewhere In Between // Niall Horan

Chapter 10: Treated Unfairly

❝ Every child is affected thus the first time he is treated unfairly. All he thinks he has a right to when he comes to you to be yours is fairness. After you have been unfair to him he will love you again, but will never afterwards be quite the same boy. ❞

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   The racket that derived from the rage of emotions surrounding Niall kept bringing him from his jumbled thoughts back to Neverland.  He closed his eyes and shoved a hand in one of his pockets, grabbing the cotton lining for something to hold onto.  The gentle, calming breeze whispered in his ear the words that refused to leave his mind.

   You’re stuck in a mentality that doesn’t allow you to fully enjoy your life.

   You’ve gotta find some middle ground between fame and normality.

   Don’t expect me to give you a logical reasoning to make you feel better.  I think you need to do that yourself.

  Whitney’s philosophical-sounding advice surprised him.  Niall didn’t expect for her to actually comfort him, but she did and he was grateful.  It didn’t make his problems disappear, but it lifted some of his burdens and allowed him to breathe a bit easier.  As hard as he tried to maintain his manliness and suck it up, Niall just needed to rant to someone.  He already felt better.

   The way she reacted to his sullen complaining proved that he’d found a real friend.  Niall snapped at her, broke down in front of her, and unloaded his heavy feelings to her even though they still didn’t completely know each other yet – and yet there was never once an indication that Whitney was taking the matter lightly.  She encouraged him to allow her to help, suggested the potential causes of his problems, and told him of her own conflicted feelings to ease his inner battle.  He thought she’d act as her annoyed self, but she showed him differently.  Now he could see that she truly was caring, friendly, and supportive.  Niall silently gave thanks that his match was a person like Whitney, someone who didn’t care about his status and fame in the real world but talked to him as a normal friend.

    Friend.  

    That was what he needed, wasn’t it?  Just a friend to help him through the tough times.  The boys weren’t here, but Whitney was.  She was that friend.

    Their conversation had ended rather abruptly.  “You probably want to be alone for awhile,” she’d said as soon as there was a lull in their dialogue.  “I’ll go find Bree and see what’s up with her combination.”  Niall watched the outline of her body shrink smaller and smaller as she walked away from their tree.  Her brown hair fluttered on her back, like silk rippling in the wind.  The familiar maroon Harvard sweatshirt hung lazily off her shoulders as her slim figure squeezed through Neverlanders running around.  Whitney was quite tall, but she was easily consumed by the crowd in no time.  Niall’s eyes followed her until they couldn’t see her anymore.

    His mind shifted back to evaluating his problems.  Whitney told him that she wasn’t a therapist, but she did give him cryptic advice that made him question himself.  “So I’m stuck in a mentality that doesn’t allow me to fully enjoy my life,” he whispered to the breeze.  “What the hell does that mean?”  His fingers tugged at the cotton still in his grip.  Was Whitney implying that he was a pessimist?  That he wasn’t looking at the bright side of things?