Renegade-N.H-

Gold Standard

I feel like I'm going insane, but standing in the door frame, speckled with bruises and cuts is Niall. His blonde hair is pressed to his forehead, stuck to a cut that's ripped into his eyebrows. His eyes are still just as dark as they were the night before, scary dark. He's changed from his clothes and is wearing a plain grey shirt down that looks like it barely fits him.

"Get out," I spit without thinking. A week ago I didn't have any problems besides a broken heart, and a dead set of parents. Easy problems compared to a pyscho set of brothers and a wolf bite searing into my leg.

Niall had been nothing but sweet and kind since the day he came into my life but last night was terrifying. He flipped so quickly from compassion to aggression that I had barely time to blink.

"You need to let him explain," Louis says quietly from the left of me.

"No I don't."

I'm so angry with him, so angry with the thought of him knowingly putting my life in danger by fighting over him with his younger brother. I wasn't a game to be played, I wasn't a prize to be had.

"Harley if you do one thing today, listen to him."

I meet Lou's eyes as he expresses his concern from across the room. My fear of Niall wants Louis back at my side but my stubborn thoughts just want to punch Niall in the face instead. Louis goes to leave, wanting to tell him to say I bite my lip because I know I shouldn't. Whatever Niall has to say he's going to say it, I needed to be strong.

"I'm sorry that happened yesterday love," he says so sweetly that I almost believe that he's sorry. But he's not, I can feel it coming off of him just like the faint smell of sweat and blood.

"All I can hear is the laughter..." I whisper "running through my head like a broken record." I look up to him and his eyes drop to the floor.

"Delcan is a broken individual, he's got issues that run deeper than you know."

"I think I deserve to know," I suggest, or more demand from him. He rubs his hand along his jaw and breathes deeply through his clenched jaw.

"I can't explain this to you Lee," he says in such a restricted tone, "Even if I tried you wouldn't believe me."

"Try me."

I was so angry with everything, with him. The way he looks at me now was sincere almost scared of what he was about to tell me. His words are like venom as they leak from his mouth.

"I can't tell you, you won't be able to handle it."

"You don't know me," I say angrily.

"I do though, more than you think."

A billion questions are flying through my aching skull, none that I can ask him without causing a fight but so many that I need answered. The way he says it, more than you think. What does that mean, what was I missing from all of this?

The pounding in my head wouldn't cease, I could barely even understand anything that was coming from him. My eyes were glazed over but I could still see him standing there with worry etched into his features. He steps closer but I fend him off with my hand, completely aware of his concern but not wanting it from him.

I grip tightly against the sheets and wait for the pain to pass, my knuckles turning white from it. I curl my leg up into my chest and rest my head against the cool skin that is there but it doesn't help the way I want it too. He hands me the glass of water I pull my shaking hands from the sheets and wrap them around the cold glass.

"Is it your head?" he asks and I nod, I couldn't work up the words that he needed to hear, so I just nodded. I took a long drink of the water and handed it back to his open hands.

His blonde hair is drying now but the bruises on his face are coming into life. Dark, a few splattered along his cheekbone just underneath his left eye. The cut above his eyebrow is dark brown with dried blood little bits of his hair stuck to it.

"Where's....where's Declan?" I ask him. He swallows loudly and sets the glass back on the table next to us.

"Gone," He says simply standing back up and pushing back against the wall.

"Those things he said last night-" I mumble.

"Don't worry about him," He says in a dark tone that scares me more than it should.

"I got harassed by your brother and his stupid friend last night... then got attacked by a damn wolf and... all you have to say is don't worry about him?" I snap so angry that I could say a billion more things but nothing seems to want to come out.

I scream for Lou, which only makes Niall sigh deeply at my side.

I doesn't take long before Louis is standing in the door frame, changed from yesterday's clothes he has on a shirt that he found in Carter's room and a pair of clean jeans. He looks at the both of us, then to the floor.

"I just want to go back to sleep," I say quietly and Louis nods to the door insisting that Niall leave from it. He does eventually, but not before turning back to look at me.

"Happy Birthday," He says to me with a weak smile. Louis closes the door behind him softly and walks over to the side of my bed.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on?" I ask and Lou just sighs at me. He looks conflicted but he kneels down beside the bed again helping me lay back down on the pillow.

"For you to understand we're gonna have to go see Nan."

**Damn H, give him a chance girl.