My Collection of One Shots (One Direction)

Those Nights (Niall Horan AU)

I have been working on this for like two weeks now. I know it's yet ANOTHER Niall oneshot, but it's a late birthday present for my friend. Bebz, I wanted to have this finished by your birthday or at least by your party, but once again I was late. Shocker. I really hope you like it though because I know you and you like tear jerkers, and this may very well be one of those. (Knowing you you'll cry like a baby) But I hope you love it either way. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEBZ I LOVE YOU!!!! XX :D

P.S. Play the song on the side when it's sang. Or just listen to it throughout the entire story. It's obviously based off of this song. x

It’s quite a simple story honestly.

But then again, it also isn’t.

They had been best friends since she was twelve years old when he moved in next door in the beginning of the summer. It wasn’t questioned or something that anyone thought much of. It just happened. Sure he was a few years older, but they were neighbors, he needed a friend in this new town and she just needed someone to talk to. So after they first greeted each other, it wasn’t a surprise that they fell into an easy routine, getting up early and him walking with her into town to buy her a quick breakfast, the two talking and getting to know each other better. That would lead to them returning home and spending the day in his backyard, up in the tree house that the previous family had left behind. Sometimes her parents worried, wondering why he had taken a sudden interest with their daughter, a boy nearly four years older than her, what could he want with spending time with a twelve year old girl.

But these fears vanished quickly. He was trustworthy and so was she. As it has been said before they were both just looking for a friend.

So yeah, their story was kind of simple.

Her name was Valerie.

His was Niall.

She was the wallflower from New York.

He was the fun loving boy from Ireland.

It just worked.

Time continued to pass and soon their first summer with one another came to an end. When school started up the following year, Valerie was worried her new friend would suddenly be lost, despite the close vicinity of their home lives. But the age gap showed no issue once more as they still spent time with each other almost every day. It didn’t matter that he was nearly finished with high school and she was only in middle school.  Every time the sun set, they had just grown that much closer.

Still, time moved forward. Days came and went, turning into weeks, and months. The next time Val worried about losing her friend was when Niall graduated. She was afraid he would go off to college now and forget about his new best friend. Who would pick her up from school when her parents weren’t home, or sit up on the roof with her at night just to talk because that’s what they did? He was going to leave and she was going to be alone.

But he didn’t.

For some unknown reason, he chose to go to school within the area, not moving out of his parent’s house like every teenager dreamed of. His parents weren’t thrilled with the idea, but every time he was questioned he just shrugged it off and claimed it was what he wanted.

Val was confused but didn’t press the matter. Because she had her best friend. And all was right with the world.

It was when Valerie turned sixteen and Niall was turning twenty that things started to get rough.

Their friendship was still strong. They still did everything they could together. But it was the life at home that was difficult.

Niall’s parents were going through a divorce. Both he and his brother were adults now so it shouldn’t have been such a hard hit. But Niall still lived there and with the constant fights and conflicts surrounding it, it got rough for the Irish lad. Sometimes their rage was turned on him, telling him that he was nearly twenty and to move out. They even brought his best friend in sometimes, bad mouthing Valerie and telling him that she wasn’t worth his education or him staying here. That he should just forget about her. Most of the times the words were out of drunken fury, because they had always liked the young girl that their son was attached at the hip with. But on it was on those nights that Niall would lose it and storm out of the house, usually ending up at Val’s, the two sitting side by side on her window seat in her bedroom until the early hours of the morning talking in the dark room, the only light coming from her muted television.