Tainted Attraction (Ziall)

Chapter 3

After talking with Louis a little longer on the phone he explained to me that my month with Zayn Malik would be the upcoming month since the guy had a trip to make across the world or something like that. I had dreamed about seeing the world, but I knew that was impossible. But hell I was going to at least get out of this city. After all, that was the end goal.

When I was younger and still lived with my parents we lived on the outskirts of the small town. Everything was pretty run down and my school was s.hit. There would be days where I wouldn't get up to go to school and it would take hours for my parents to notice that I was still home.

They just didn't care.

But then all of a sudden, one day, my parents started caring and yelled at me to get up. I thought things were looking up, but I guess they were starting to care because the school had called and they would get in trouble. So again, they never really cared about me. They only cared about themselves and their alcohol.

I don't know where things went south because I remember being very young and having the best time. And then we moved into a smaller house and had to put our dog up for adoption and sometimes I was told not to answer the phone because the bad people would call again and ask for money. I know now that they were debt collectors.

My parents had good jobs which is why I was so confused when we were hurting for money. More and more my mother would stay home and use up what little money we had on box wine that she would drink by herself in a night. Some nights I would go hungry.

And the one time that I tried to make myself some food, when I was twelve years old, my father caught me rummaging through the cabinets. I had found a box of macaroni and he just slapped it out of my hands. It fell all over the floor and when I went to go pick it up and salvage something to eat, his boot connected with my side.

I don't think I could breathe normally for at least a week after that.

But it didn't stop there. The beatings got worse and I had a hard time hiding the bruises from my teachers at school. And my mother? She didn't do a damn thing. I remember calling out to her from my room because it hurt to much to move. My dad had just come home angry from his job and took it out on me. She wouldn't even come to me. All she did was just sit by her box of wine and drink until she couldn't see straight.

I find it funny now- it's kind of messed up that I do- that the bruises I'm now trying to hide are from own afflictions. Yeah, I do this to myself. But what else can a sixteen year old runaway do to make money? I take precautions. I don't think I'm in any danger.

So here I was, in this god forsaken city, walking down the street on my way back to my place. I was a little uneasy about having all of that money in my pocket, both from Zayn and from Liam. I hurried my pace and was rounding the corner to my street in no time. I lived in a sort of run down apartment complex. Okay, it was really run down, but it was what I could afford and still keep my head above the water.

It was really dark out by the time I got to my door on the second floor of the complex. The stairway was outside and each place had a small balcony. I spent a lot of hot summer nights just sitting outside and looking up at the night sky. Sometimes I thought about how things could have been different, but when I sat down and counted the money in my pocket. I wouldn't have it any other way.

"Seventeen hundred." I sighed, looking over the money in my hand. I brought the money to my face and smelled it. I don't know why. It was just something people did when they had that much cash on hand.

"Looks like a good weekend there, Niall."

I jumped, quickly stashing my money inside of my coat pocket. I looked up to my landlord who was leaning against the wall beside my front door. "Hey Harry." I nodded and he pushed away from the wall. I knew I was safe around him, so I pulled my money out of my pocket and counted up this months rent and utilities. "Here. And the interest is in there from last month." I counted my money again and I had a thousand left. I could actually start saving some money.