Leave Me Alone! (Niall Horan)

Chapter 13

“He raped me, okay Lou?” she said, finally snapping from Louis’ questioning.

“What?” I stuttered out, not being able to perceive what she was saying. She turned around slowly, and had a horrified look on her face that I knew what happened to her. She was shaking in Niall’s grasp, but when she turned around, she was dead still, and eyes were bulging. “Hannah?”

“No, no, no,” Hannah kept whispering shaking her head, like she was angry at herself for letting me find out. How could she not tell me? “Please tell me this is some horrible nightmare?”

“Hannah, please tell me who hurt you,” I pleaded, slowly making my way over to her as she backed up, slowly approaching the wall of Niall’s bedroom. Once her back hit the wall, she fell to the floor, hugging her legs to her chest, completely zoning out. No matter how hard I tried, she wouldn’t open up. “Please Hannah; I just want to know who’s caused you so much harm.”

“It’s that bloody bastard you call a best friend,” Niall spat at me, getting tired of hearing my plea to a wall of silence. What?

“What are you talking about?” I ask, confused by what he’s yelling at me. He can’t mean Aaron, can he? He and Hannah have always been so close.

“You can be so daft sometimes Liam,” Niall exclaimed with a huff. “Aaron’s the one who hurt Hannah.”

“That can’t be,” I said, looking to Hannah, hoping she was going to tell me this was all a huge misunderstanding.

“I knew you wouldn’t believe me,” Hannah said, putting her hand in her hands. No, I’m not going to lose her trust. I may not be fully convinced, but I’ll at least hear her out. I mean, this is my best friend we’re talking about. I can’t just run down the stairs, and throw accusations in his face.

“Hannah, it’s not that I don’t believe you,” I said, truthfully. “It’s just a lot to take in. Can you at least tell me what happened after I left?”

She nodded her head, and took a deep breath before speaking. I can already tell I’m not going to like where this conversation is going to take us. Although, can you blame me? The topics of this conversation are things that no person should ever have to go through.

“After you left, Mum’s work schedule got even busier,” she started explaining. “And you know me, I’m not a real huge fan of people. So the only people I had left were you and Aaron. You were on tour, so I was left with only one person I truly trusted. Turns out that was a crock of shit. At first, we started to get really close. So close in fact, that we started to date.”

Yep, I don’t like where this is going. Aaron knew that my sister was off limits, and he went after her anyway. I shut my eyes while clenching and unclenching my fists, trying to calm myself down. But the rest of her story proved to do the total opposite.

“He was really sweet the first week or so,” Hannah continued. “But one day, he came over when Mum was at work. I did have the door locked, but since we’ve been friends forever, he used his spare key. Hey came upstairs, and unleashed all of hell upon me.”

“Did you try breaking up with him?” I asked, curious to know the answer as to why she put up with him for so long if that’s how she was treated.

“Why do you think he raped me?” she mumbled, probably hoping I didn’t hear. Oh, but I did.

“That son of a bitch,” I said through clenched teeth, probably looking like the hulk right now. “I trusted him to watch after you, and this is what he does. He destroyed everything about who I knew my little sister to be. Are you at least okay?”

“I am now,” she replied, trying to give me a fake smile, but I can see right past it. She’s broken, and it’s all entirely my fault.

“What do you mean “I am now”?” I question, just realizing what she said. She looked over to Niall, who nodded his head to show support for her. Maybe I shouldn’t have lashed out at him as harshly as I did. Something tells me that he’s the reason that she has this newly found confidence. Niall walked over to her, and whispered something in her ear that I couldn’t hear. But to respond, she nodded, and held onto his hand. I heard him countdown from three in a whisper, and when he reached one, Hannah raised the sleeves of her arms, and Niall did the same with his shirt, showing cutting marks that are etched into her skin. Okay, that does it. I feel like I don’t even know the monster that’s downstairs, unaware that I know what really happened while I was away.

            Once Niall explained both of their situations, I rushed over, and pulled both of them into a hug. I know that they felt that I was doing this out of sympathy and pity, but I wasn’t. I was doing this out of remorse. I shouldn’t have let this happen. While it would have been hard to help Niall with his problem, I still could have been there. I mean, for God’s sake, I’ve noticed that he hasn’t exactly been himself for the last couple of months. The way that he’s locked himself away in his room, probably feeling sorry for himself, and taking that private time to unleash pure torture onto himself, or that he wasn’t eating as much because he felt insecure because of what people were telling him.

            Hannah’s wounds I took more personally. They were caused by a person we were closer to than family. And nothing stings worse than a betrayal by someone that close to you. As I glanced at each scar on her arm, I couldn’t help but feel responsible. Each gash made me cringe a little more each time. I brought out of my thoughts by Hannah, who wiped away what I assumed to be tears from my eyes. I didn’t even realize I was crying.

            “Hannah, I am so sorry that this happened to you,” I said, now feeling the tears stream down my face. “This is all my fault.”

            “Liam, none of this is your fault,” She said, placing both of her hands on my shoulders, looking me square in the eye.

            “How can you say that?” I asked her, looking at her astonished by her words.

            “You’re not the one that laid a hand on me,” she pointed out.

            “True, but I left you alone with that creep,” I said.

            “Liam, none of this is your fault. Now promise me you’ll stop blaming yourself,” Hannah demanded. I let out a small whimper, to which she chuckled at, but finally gave in, accepting her terms.

            “Come here,” I said, pulling her in for the tightest hug of our entire lives.

            “It’s nice being this close again,” she said, enjoying the close quarters as much as I was. I was about to agree with her, but then I heard a girlish scream from down the hall, and down the stairs. Shit; Dani!.