Mute Musician (Ziall Horlik) AU

Chapter 19

Niall's POV

Friday night came a lot faster than I realized it would. Luke, Calum, Michael, Ashton and I had all been practicing all week or this big gig we had. I didn't think it was such a big deal, but according to Luke, they hadn't had a a gig in awhile and they really wanted to promote the band because non of us really wanted to go to uni anymore. I don't know why they named the band what they did, but I'm a late arrival to this party so I have no say in why they called the band 5 Seconds of Summer. However, I was very excited for Zayn to finally see me perform.

The whole time we've been together I've been so sucked up and how he played his music and how he is that he doesn't really see me perform. I was little nervous because Luke and I were going to be singing a lot of the main parts and I wasn't that confident in my voice, but I figured it might impress him a little bit. He's heard me play before, but he's never seen me perform. To me, performing is such a different aspect than watching somebody just play for fun or practice. When you perform, you become somebody that you're not. You become somebody more confident then your actual self, somebody that you dream of being. The stage opens that up for me and I guess that's why I've always enjoyed that. I know that I'm an outgoing person and have a lot of friends, but being on stage and performing is something that brings the deepest parts of me out. The real parts of me that I want people to see. I know he will probably see the difference of me when we're alone to me when I'm on stage to me when I'm with my friends, but I'm not nervous about him thinking that I'm different. I guess I'm just a little nervous to see if he likes what I do as much as I like what he does.

The week went by pretty fast, but then again I was busy with rehearsals with this new band that asked me to play last minute and Zayn was busy trying to play piano with his now busted fingers. They weren't broken, they were just very sore and I can imagine that that doesn't help when you're trying to addition for the International Orchestra Symphony. I had been keeping in contact with his sister to hear more news about his grandmother and apparently she's doing better. Zayn knows the same information I do, I was just letting Doniya know how her brother was handling things. I know for a fact he probably wasn't letting on to her that he was punching walls and crying a lot and whatever else he was doing the he thought he was dealing with things but he wasn't. I felt the need to tell her just because I know how much she loves her brother. He seems to be more focused in school now that he heard his grandmother is recovering, but I can still see parts of him that get preoccupied with his thoughts and make him come crumbling so fast that I can't pick up the pieces fast enough.

We shared a lot of happiness during the week. Like just this morning when I was asking him what I should wear to the gig and wrote down on his white board numerous times that I should go naked because he would want to see that performance. Of course I took the whiteboard and tried slapping him with it that just ended up with us both snogging each other until we were both late for our first class of the day. I didn't end up going naked to the gig. I ended up wearing some of Zayn's black skinny jeans that had rips all the way down then and one of his pretty cool artsy shirts that was just a t-shirt, but of course he said that he cut his own sleeves off of it.

"Now don't come crying to me if they boo you off the stage. Sometimes crowds like these are tough considering its a Friday night and everybody wants to get drunk, hook up and not listen to crappy music." The owner of the bar said to us as he led us to the back stage area where we could all get ready. Luke was sipping on a beer while Ashton was struggling to stop drumming on things. Calum was listening to some music and not paying attention to what the owner was telling us. I think know I was the only one that was actually listening and nervous about this whole gig.

"Who says we're crappy?" Luke asked under his breath that caused Ashton to snort and look back at Calum to see if he had heard. He was in his own world and didn't, but the moment between all of us made me feel like we were a real band. Even if they had been playing together longer than I had been with them, I felt like these were my friends and we just now shared something that made us feel more together.