The Way To My Heart [Niam Ziall Larry] (Discontinued)

Chapter 16: Nightmare

I poked Louis' shoulder endlessly. "Hey guys, you know this is not your bedroom," I said jokingly. Louis pulled away from Harry and turned around with a gloomy, irritated expression on his face.

"Oh if it isn't our magic leprechaun," his voice is sounding so sinister, definitely mocking me. I know he was joking so I just laugh it off. This leprechaun joke is definitely ridiculous. I get used to since I've joined the band. Growing up, I rarely hear those but now it's getting more often and often to the point that it's just a natural occurrence. I do hope that the fans don't think that I'm a descendant of a leprechaun because that would be ridiculous.

"I'm sure you're hungry," Harry interrupted me and Louis' taunting contest.

"I definitely am." I replied right away with my mouth salivating from the scent I smelled coming from the oven. It smells like some kind of tasty feast. Harry pulled out a thirteen pound glazed turkey. The turkey has a crispy golden brown skin, which made me gulped. I ran my tongue on my top lip then down to my bottom lip. I am definitely going to massacre that turkey and have a relief feeling inside my stomach.

"Niall, you're drooling," Louis snapping his fingers at my face. He interrupted my deep inner thoughts on what I'm going to do with the innocent turkey. Well, I can't help it. I'm hungry, I'm always am. Don't judge me!

The dinner went smoothly with no awkwardness. We ate like nothing happened. There was laughing here and there, threw food to each other, which made Harry really mad but Louis tried to calm him down with all that ruckus. I saw exchanged glances from Liam to Zayn and vice versa. I guess they started to start whatever they want to start. Oh God! That is so weird. I have to admit that I'm a little bit sad. Oh well, as long as they're happy, who am I to stop it?

Harry started cleaning the dishes, as he usually does after every meal. Liam and Zayn fight for the remote in the living room. I followed Louis on the stairs going up. I called up to him. "You need something, Niall?" He looked surprised though.

"I need to talk to you." I said calmly. I'm really not sure if Louis will give me the answer to my question. Louis is not the one to talk about being serious. He's always goofing off and play jokes on us. So I really don't expect anything from him.

I took deep breaths. I kept thinking on how should I start it without making him uncomfortable because what I'm about to ask him is really a delicate subject to me.

"You okay, Niall?" he asked, looked concerned at me.

"Uh, yeah. I just wanna know what you know." I looked down. I can't look at him directly. I'm afraid what he knows would kill me and my weird relationship with Liam. Then I looked up once again and he squinted his eyes indicating he's a little confused by my question.

"What do you mean?"

"Liam told me that... you know..." I trailed off. My heart is beating so fast that I could have a heart attack right here right now. My hands are starting to sweat profusely.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He said in a flat tone and a blank expression on his face. Somehow, I felt insulted. How could he lie in front of my face? My fist start to clenched together, my brows are closing in on one another. Wait, Niall! Pull yourself together. It's not wise to hit Louis. Just imagine what Harry might do to you if you hurt his Boo Bear. There was one time that Harry went on rampage when some fan girl touched Louis inappropriately. The girl was hospitalized, almost lost her arm. But luckily, our publicist has a major pull on the media so that chaos just disappeared into thin air.

Harry does scare me a bit so I decided to cool my jets before I hurt somebody. I just can't believe Louis would lie to me. I know he's a prankster, I just didn't expect him to be a liar.

"I hope you're okay, Niall. You've been glaring at me for quite a while. It's starting to creep me out," he said then chuckled awkwardly. "Oh, I'm sorry. Just a thought comes into my mind." I decided to fake a smile instead. There's nothing I can do about it. I will not force the truth out of him. I just see Louis differently from now on.

I swung open my door and saw the ripped shirt on the floor. I felt my cheeks reddening, my chest becoming restricted and the air seems to be having a hard time getting into my lungs. My blue eyes starts to water and tears starts to stream. What am I going to do? This is a gift from Greg. When it comes to gift that came from my family, it has a very strong significance to me. Even the keychain that my dad gave to me on my seventh birthday, I still have it. The birthday card that my mother gave to me on my eleventh birthday, it's still on my memory box. All of their gifts have a unique significance to me. I hold on to these very dearly because when I'm away, it's the only thing I can have closest to my family.

I crouched down on the floor, picking up the ripped shirt and hugged it. The intense emotion that I've been holding on for the past couple of hours, I let it all out at once. I sobbed quietly. I didn't want the lads to know what's happening right now. I don't want to burden them with my feelings. I'm sure they have their own problems; I just want to add more to it.

"I'm sorry, Greg. Your gift to me has been destroyed," I hugged the ripped shirt, sobbing. "I'm sure you knew how much I love this shirt. This shirt brought me such luck in my life. You just don't know how much." I cried and cried until I drain up all the tears inside my eyes. I don't care if my eyes got swollen the next day. I just want to mourn this shirt. Crying for hours is really exhausting so I climbed up on my bed and lie down until I get comfortable with the shirt on my arms hugging it tightly. That night was the worst yet of my life. With this, I find myself getting drowsy until I fell into a deep slumber.

"How could you do that, Niall?!" Greg said, harshness in his voice shot a hole deep inside my heart. I was stunned to see him, waving the ripped shirt vigorously. "I really saved up for that shirt and this is how you're gonna repay me!" He yelled at the top of his lungs. His voice almost shattered the glass on my window. My heart stopped and breathing seems to be a difficult thing to do. I stood there in horror while my brother went on and on about how I took the family for granted.

"Since you've become so famous, you distanced yourself to us like you were ashamed of us!"

"Greg, that's not my intention. I'm working all the time that's why I can't go back to Mullingar as often as I wanted to," I said in a calm, low voice. But it seems Greg doesn't understand my point.

"And now, you see us as an obligation?" He raised his brow at me, insinuating that I see them as a burden, which is not. I love my family and I want to give them the life that they deserve.

"That's not what I meant..." I responded back, observing carefully him. His gaze is so dark like a hawk ready to strike his prey. It scares me to see Greg in this condition. Sure, we have petty arguments when we're younger but this time it's different. Having this kind of disagreement is ripping me inside out. If only he could understand why I'm doing this. I tried asking my father, Bobby, to retire from his butchering business and let him just take the money that I earned so he could just relax but he won't take even a single penny from me. And although my mother, Maura, won't accept my money as well. She said that I should just keep it for myself and for in case of emergency I could use it somewhere else.

"Niall, you can't just shove money to people, especially us. We're your family!" He said bitterly. Hearing him say that hurts me even more. It felt like my heart was squeeze very tightly and it would explode into tiny pieces in any moment.

The hurt the most was the last statement of my brother before he stormed out of my room. "Niall, I wish you were never born!"

Those words echoed to my soul. There were no words how hurtful I was hearing that from my brother. Why would he say something like that? I'm sure he can't be that mad because of the shirt. Then I ask myself, when was the last time I bothered to give my family a quick phone call? I can't even remember. Maybe, Greg was right. This fame is getting into me and I'm forgetting the people I left behind. The people who loves me so dearly, the people who keeps supporting me from the very beginning.

All of a sudden, Greg running out of my room begins to move slowly and he fades into thin air.

That's when I knew that this was a...

Nightmare.

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