Long Way Down {Niall Horan}

Three

I slowly opened my eyes to the smell of brewing tea down the hall. I was confused for a second when I saw my surroundings, but then remembered the circumstances. This was my new home. I lazily sat up and threw my legs over the side of the bed, stretching my arms out and yawning. The sun peeked through the white curtain on the window, leaving the room bright and full of life.

I stood and zombie-walked to the dresser where I pulled out a pair of ripped jeans and a t-shirt that read "Not a Morning Person". I changed into them and slipped on a hoodie before brushing my hair and walking out of my room.

"Well look who finally decided to get up!" Louis exclaimed from the table before sipping his tea. I merely groaned in response before slumping down into the chair next to him. He slightly laughed, setting down his mug.

"How'd ya sleep?" Quinn asked before joining us at the table and handing me some drink of my own.

"Good I guess," I shrugged before taking a small gulp of the hot tea in front of me. That was a lie. I kept having these nightmares about my parents-in-law coming to murder me in my sleep... not exactly great during the middle of the night. Louis was about to say something when he noticed a figure trudging toward them. The three of us watched as the messy, blond haired man made his way to the fridge, not saying a word to them.

"You need something?" Quinn asked, turning in her chair to face him. He moaned, leaning his head against the door as he searched for food.

"Why is there nothing here to eat!?" He half-yelled, his voice weak and tired.

"Maybe because you ate it all?" Quinn said, not impressed. Niall made a shushing sound, pointing a finger at her but not taking his eyes away from the fridge. She rolled her eyes before turning back the correct way in her chair. "You're free to go to the store and get more!"

He groaned even louder now, slamming the door. Niall then walked over yawning and plumped into the last chair, rubbing his eyes.

"Is little Nialler tired?" Louis asked as if he were talking to a baby whilst messing with the younger boy's hair, making it look even worse than before. The blond groaned once again, pushing Louis' hand away and dropping his head to the table top.

"I HATE mornings..." He yelled into the small, white breakfast table. I slightly laughed as I sipped my tea and leaned back in my seat. Just then the front door swung open to reveal Liam and Zayn in the door, holding bags.

"We come bearing food!" Liam yelled as they sat the Walmart bags. Niall sat straight up, head craned to look in the kitchen. Quinn laughed as he stood and basically ran to the kitchen to rummage through the plastic sacks full of food. Soon enough he was sitting back down with cereal, a donut, two pop tarts, and milk.

I didn't understand how he could be such a mess and stuffing his face with food, but still look so good doing it. If I did that nobody would even go near me, much less fangirl over me twenty four-seven. Must feel nice to have people literally pay their life savings to see you for like ten seconds.

"So what do you guys wanna do today?" Zayn asked, leaning against the counter and nibbling on his own breakfast. Quinn looked to me with raised eyebrows as if asking me what I thought, but I honestly didn't care so merely shrugged, shaking my head.

"We probably shouldn't go anywhere with a large amount of people," Liam noted, earning a nod from a few of the others.

"We could go on a hike!" Quinn suggested excitedly, "I know a great place near by! It doesn't take super long and it's easy and there's a little restaurant nearby called Ma and Pa's with great food and we should totally do that."

She seemed pretty set on that idea- so although I could tell not everyone wanted to, we decided to go on a hike.

About two hours later we were wandering through the woods next to a creek. The hike was called "Roaring Runs" and I have to admit: it was pretty gorgeous. The path was full of roots and rocks you had to look out for, but other than that it was great.

At the top there was a waterfall where we decided to stop and sit there for a while. A few other families were up there, one girl wanting a picture with the boys. She was super nice about it though, which I could tell the band was grateful for.

After sitting for about five minutes I couldn't stop thinking about the call I'd received the night before. I had to tell somebody. I just couldn't decide on who. Zayn seemed like I could trust him, but I probably knew him the least of the boys at the moment. Liam was responsible and would probably tell somebody else, which I absolutely didn't want yet. Harry could would probably care, but I wasn't so sure if he could keep a secret.

That left Louis, Niall, and Quinn. All of them had good reasons to tell them, but I decided on Quinn since she was a girl. And what happens between girl friends, stays between girl friends. Most of the time anyway.

I grabbed her hand and dragged her down away from the guys a bit, telling them we'd be back soon. I could tell she wanted to know what was going on, so I just got right to business, "Can you keep a secret?" I stared into her eyes, telling her I was serious. She was confused for a few moments before she slowly nodded. "Okay. So, you know about what happened, right?"

"Yeah..." She answered softly, concern filling her eyes now. "Why?"

I sighed before continuing, "I got a call last night from my parents-in-law. Apparently they saw the news last night about me and Niall and they think I love him so they said they were coming here and coming to get me and hurt me but not only me, you and the guys too and I don't know if they can actually do that but I'm just really scared." I blurted out fairly quickly before taking a deep breath.

She was slightly taken aback, but quickly recovered, "Oh my gosh, Mal, we have to tell somebody!"

"No! No, Quinn please don't. Not yet anyway, I don't want to cause trouble if this is nothing. I don't want to ruin their time here." I slightly nodded towards the boys.

She stared at me for a few seconds, her eyes filled with confusion, but concern at the same time. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes before replying, "Alright, I won't tell anyone. But you need to soon, okay?"

I thought for a moment then sighed, nodding before we made our way back to the others and then as a group, hiked down the mountain.