❝ She was a lovely lady, with a romantic mind and such a sweet mocking mouth. Her romantic mind was like the tiny boxes, one within the other, that come from the puzzling East, however many you discover there is always one more... ❞
~~~
Dad issues. He almost could have seen it coming, but it still caught him off guard. “Tell me,” Niall encouraged her. “You can trust me.”
Whitney hesitated. “I’ve never told anyone,” she admitted. “There’s nothing you can really do about it, anyways.”
“Hey,” he said, gently placing a hand on her shoulder. “I’ll just listen, okay? It’s what friends do.”
She sighed and leaned forward, readjusting herself on the branch so she wasn’t against the sturdy trunk but touching shoulders with Niall. “It’s just...I never really had a good relationship with my dad,” she mumbled. “Mostly because we had such similar personalities. He and I just didn’t get along very well.”
Whitney shook her head and looked at Niall with downturned eyes. “I didn’t care about my dad and I arguing all the time. I could defend myself.” She brushed some hair from her somber face. “What I couldn’t stand was the way he treated my mom. God, he was stubborn. My dad never admitted he was wrong even if we all knew he was. He jumped to conclusions and always assumed that everything was my mom’s fault. He’d laugh and scold her so much that I actually had to scream at his face to shut up. I used to come home from school to find her sitting on the floor and crying because my dad threatened to leave her.”
Her voice was starting to waver, something Niall had never heard before. She was struggling to keep her cool composure, but she was losing. “There’s nothing worse than seeing your mom cry, especially when it’s because of your dad,” Whitney swallowed. “And then my dad would tell me not to comfort her. ‘She’ll be fine,’ he said. ‘Just get her a glass of water and leave her alone.’” Whitney stopped suddenly, making Niall wonder just how much shit she had to see her parents go through. Her eyes were adamant against letting any tears escape, and he knew she’d been strong for too long. Niall scooted as close to her as he could on the narrow tree branch and comfortingly folded his hand over hers.
“It’s funny, you know,” Whitney sighed, picking at tiny pieces of tree bark with her free hand. “Dads are supposed to be the head of the house. The protector.” She scoffed. “He never even tried to listen to us. You think I’m easily annoyed? You should’ve seen my dad. Say anything remotely annoying to him and he’d be so pissed that he would storm out of the house to blow off steam and wouldn’t return for hours. Days, even.”
“I’m sorry,” Niall whispered. He knew the words meant nothing, but he said it anyways. Just to show her that he was listening and that he cared for her. Whitney gently squeezed his hand to show him that she knew.
“I got into a lot of arguments with my dad. I didn’t want him to hurt my mom anymore, so I took the heat. It was...yeah. It was hard. I hated hearing my parents argue.”
YOU ARE READING
Somewhere In Between // Niall Horan
Fanfiction[DISCONTINUED] Whitney Davies has been oblivious to the world for three years, but you can't blame her. It isn't her fault she's stuck in Neverland. Not the Neverland you know and love, though. This is a different place, where there aren't any...
