Learn To Live Again

"Mommy and daddy are in a bad persons hotel for yelling a lot." She tells him.

Niall looks up to me and says, "Really?"

"Yeah, they've been in jail for about seven months. I've got custody of the three of them." I explain.

"You have to tell us your secret now!" Jackson says, jumping up and down.

"My secret is that I'm sing in a very famous band with four other guys." He tells us his secret.

"Does that mean you can buy lots of candy??" My little sister questions.

"All the candy I want." He answers, my sister's face lighting up.

"What band?" I ask, once my siblings are in a different room.

"Have you heard of One Direction?" He asks me.

"Yeah." I nod my head.

"That's the band I'm in."

"Eeepp! Really??"

Niall had a nice laugh at my reaction. It had taken about a week of Niall hanging out at our house for him to figure out that we didn't have much money.

"Michelle, why do you only have stuff to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches?" Niall asks me.

"That's all that my siblings like to eat?" I tell him, coming out more like a question than a statement.

"I know that you're lying, so tell me the real reason." He sees through my lie.

"I kind of got laid off of my job about two weeks ago." I manage to squeak out.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"There wasn't really a chance to bring it up, you know." I shrug my shoulders.

After that Niall took all of us on a very large shopping trip. He also got me a job as his stylist's personal babysitter, which pays enough to keep my family afloat.

A month after that was when he asked me out for the first time. Saying he was nervous is a huge understatement.

Then Niall announced that him and I are dating six months after out first date.

I turned on the TV so I could watch One Direction's interview. Niall told me that he was going to tell everyone that him and I are dating sometime during this interview.

After while of the interviewer asking random questions he asks, "So, guys. Who's taken and who's single?"

"I'm taken still." Louis says.

"I'm taken, as always." Zayn tells the interviewer.

"I am happily single." Harry answers.

"As everyone knows, I recently became single." Liam says, looking slightly sad.

"I'm happily taken by the best woman ever." Niall answers, wearing such a proud smile.

"Really, Niall?" Niall nods. "Who is she?"

"Her name is Michelle."

The interviewer kept asking questions about me, and Niall gleefully answered all of them. A lot of people were mad that I took "their baby", but Niall and I didn't really care.

Right now, it's two years since our first date, so Niall and I are celebrating our anniversary. Niall's having a good time, but me, not so much.

"Princess, your siblings are perfectly fine. My mom does know how to take care of kids." Niall tells me, already know why I'm not enjoying myself. Did I forget to mention that this is the first time I've been away from my siblings since my parents got arrested besides them going to school? Well, it is.

"Ni, I know that. I just...you wouldn't understand." I sigh, not knowing how to explain myself.

"I won't ever understand, will I?" Niall asks, anger visible in is his eyes.

"You know it's not like that." I shake my head.

"But it is. That's all you ever say when it comes to your siblings."

"Because it's true! You wouldn't understand! You haven't been through what we've been through. You haven't seen the things we've seen. You haven't had to do the things we've had to do." I tell him.

"Well, why can't you just explain it to me?"

I take a deep breath and say, "My parents are in jail, which you already know, but I didn't tell you why. They started going through some problems a little over five years ago. It was all pretty normal for the first few months; disagreements, yelling, sleeping in different rooms. But then things took a turn for the worst. They stared to get physical. Not only to each other but to us kids too. I was seventeen, Christian was ten, Jackson was six and little Lily was only three.

"I had to start taking care of them. It was difficult trying balance school, a social life, having a boyfriend, three kids and controlling my parents. I did that for almost three years. Eventually the next door neighbor over heard my parents and called the cops. Next thing I know, I've got custody of my three siblings. I was told my parents would be in jail for a minimum of ten years."

"How come you never told me?" He questions. "I would've brought them along if I had known."

"I had to try to go without them. I thought I could do it, but my mind was thinking the worst." I frown.

"Baby, as long as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, you'll never have to worry about anyone hurting your brothers and sister." Niall says, looking me straight in the eye.

And that's when I knew that I was finally living again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AN: I finally finished this! Yay! For those of you that don't know, this is my gift to you guys in celebration of my first wattpad birthday, which was on the 11th of February.

If you want to know, Niall and Michele (and Christian and Jackson and Lily) live happily ever after!

I hope you guys like this!

-CookiesandBrownies