When the stars align

Chapter thirty three

Niall's POV:

The next few weeks are torturous.
It's as if everything we've worked towards, everything Skyler has become, was all for nothing.

She retreats into herself, becoming even worse than she was at the begining. Jumping at every sound, scared of everything, silent all the time...

She wakes up every night screaming and doesn't allow any one to get close enough to comfort her.

It kills all of us to watch her like this, everyone tries to include her in everything we do, encouraging her to talk to us, but there's nothing we can do.

All of us were extremely shaken up by the news of Dylan's death, especially Liam.

The moment he had entered the room back then, I immediately knew something was wrong. But nothing could have prepared me for this.

We all feel as if we have also lost someone we loved, even though we've never even actually met him.

Tonight is one of our biggest shows yet. Madison Square garden. As we usually do, for the big shows, we don't stay at a hotel, rather we sleep on the tour bus in the parking lot of the arena and spend the day rehearsing and preparing.

We wake up early to train with Mark, all of us tiptoe around the bus as we get dressed, careful not to wake Skyler.

I am a little late getting ready so I tell the other boys to go on without me.

At first I think Skyler's asleep, but when I pass her bunk I see the light from her phone shining through the crack in the curtains.

"Skyler," I call softly. She doesn't reply but after a moment I pull the curtains back slightly.

She is lying on her side, scrolling through her phone, eyes glassy and clearly not even focusing on what she is doing.

"Skyler," I say gently, sitting down on her bunk.
She doesn't reply, doesn't even look at me.

I want to comfort her so bad but I don't know what to say.

I can't look at her eyes, I remember thinking this when I just met her. Her eyes are so laced with pain, it hurts to even look at them.

I place my hand on her shoulder and feel her flinch, but I don't retreat, stroking it softly.

She doesn't look at me but after a moment the hand that she was using to hold her phone goes limp and the phone drops onto the bed, her eyes still stare straight ahead to where her phone was.

"It's okay," I whisper.
I don't even know myself what I mean, because it's not. But I want to comfort her.

I see a tear trickle down her cheek, but she still remains expressionless and unmoving. I don't think I have ever seen a sadder sight than the one in front of me.

Another tear falls down her cheek, then another one and another. Soon she is sobbing silently, hot tears coursing down her cheeks.

The worst part of it is that throughout it all, she stares straight ahead, same blank expression, frozen and unmoving.

Her eyes are wide, tears falling hard and fast and all can do is watch her in silence.

She closes her eyes tight after a bit and after a while her tears start to die down and I realise she has cried herself to sleep.

I cover her with the blanket and leave the tour bus.

I wish there was something we could do, I want to take her pain away but I know I can't.