Amaranth || Zianourry Niall centric

Pity

⚇ loneliness ⚇

Rain pelted the windows harshly. The taps were the only sound in the house besides the soft breathing of the boy lying in bed without movement. To everyone else, these combinations of noises would be equivalent to silence. However, to the one in bed, it's the loudest place in the universe. Endless screaming that doesn't happen on the outside, but forever mentally.

Niall turned his head on his pillow, looking at his digital clock. The numbers looked normal, but they were shouting at him.

3:44 AM, he read through his thoughts.

It's not that he was staying up to binge shows on Netflix or browsing his dash on Tumblr, he just couldn't do anything.  There was no LED screen preventing his sleep or another person distracting him. It was all in his head.

"I'm crazy," he mumbled, tightly grasping the curls that stuck to his head and giving them a tug.

That was how the next four hours passed. The desperation of trying to dream- to relive his past without the feeling of drowning. It just couldn't happen. No matter how long he lay still or if he shuts his eyes as tightly as possible, nothing worked.

All those pills and medication. He was sick of it all, but he had to take them. Things would be so much more worse if he didn't have all these empty capsules- or they could make things be so much more better.

By the time he felt fatigue, it was already time to go to work. It seems crazy to go to work as an adolescent because parents usually take care of their children, but Niall didn't have that. The happy Christmases and family breakfasts didn't exist. They all ended sooner than wanted in the blue-eyed boy's opinion, but there was nothing he could do about it.

The two bedroom, one bathroom, plus kitchen and living room, was all there was in Niall's life. For now, he lay still in his bed letting his eyes droop down for the first time in forever. As he was about to rest, his alarm yelled at him, annoyingly.

Letting out a sigh, he pushed himself out of the comfy home of softness and out onto the cold hard wooden floors. He shivered under the breeze that went through and desperately wanted to fall back into his bed again. His arms wrapped around his own body, trying to create some friction.

"It has to be hot every morning for the past few days and today it has to be freezing?" Niall muttered to himself, clearly showing irritation.

He worked five days a week and had a break yesterday. This schedule has been going on for the past year and half. It occasionally changed when he covered for another employee. They say being constant doesn't exist, but here it is.

A phone vibrated near the Irishman and he knew exactly who it was. He'd given out his number at least four times in his life and this one person, whom he hated the most, always had to give Niall a wake-up call, literally.

Slowly moving to the phone as if waiting for it to stop ringing, he picked up and mumbled a very soft: "Hello?"

"Your shift started a minute ago, where are you?" His manager's voice was nasally and not something you'd want to hear every morning.

"Home," the other replied, picking at the end of his sweater sleeves. He quickly thought of a lie. "Woke up late after not sleeping the whole night."

It's half true, Niall thought to himself.

Grabbing his uniform from his closet, he hears a sigh on the other side of the line. "Fine," his manger said. "Try and get more sleep."

Niall gave an, "Alright," and dressed out. He was glad he had people who were "understanding." As much as he hated his manager, they knew what was going on in his life. Everybody lets him slack and do nothing when he needs it.

All out of pity.

As Niall was leaving out his door with his worn out uniform he'd worn everyday, he was dragging his feet while he was at it. He lived on the second floor of his apartment and all the neighbors practically saw him every morning. The way his eyes gave a tired mood and feet raising ever so highly per step, they knew about him, too.

Everybody knew this life more than he probably did.

"See you soon," Niall said to his apartment while in his car.

The ride there was equally as painful. Out of all days, the streets today were still- almost empty. It was almost like nobody was in town. The word to describe this wouldn't be 'unusual.'

¡¡¡¡
a/n:
lol I said one shots but this story has been laying around forever.

Please let me know if the any unusual names are in this(you don't recognize) because this was a fic that was supposed to be for another ship