Truly, Madly, Deeply- One Direction
Peace- O.A.R
I Miss You- Blink 182
*HARLEYS POV*
I wake up to the sound of my phone's alarm, signaling to me that it is 5:30. I'm a natural-born cuddler, so as I flutter my eyes open, I realize that my head is resting on Niall's chest and my right arm is gripping the fabric of his shirt. His chest is soft, yet muscular despite the fact I know he doesn't work out. He smells amazing, comforting as if being at your own home. His breathing is smooth and peaceful and reminds me of a beautiful piano ballad. I almost don't want to move. But I know I can't. I shouldn't even be here. I could get fired so quickly from this.
I turn my alarm off quickly so I won't wake him. I look at his face, which is angled towards mine. A peaceful smile is on his face, and he looks almost angelic.
I start to stand up, but his fist grips my shirt.
"Where are you going?" He mumbles with a very raspy voice.
"I've got to run home and get ready. I'll be back soon. Get in bed, okay?" I tell him. He slowly stands and plops himself onto the small mattress with a grunt.
********
I walk back into Bridgewood after getting cleaned up at home, and I'm greeted by Harry at the doorway of the staff room.
"Good morning, Harley."
"Morning!" I smile and walk into the room, he slyly turns around and follows me in.
"I had a great time the other night."
"Me too."
He leans against the wall while I put my stuff away. He is so hot. He smirks dangerously, but there's innocence in his eyes that pull me in like the high tide. He smiles so large that dimples emerge on his cheeks. "We should do it again sometime, yeah?"
I blush, "Yeah, definitely."
"Like soon." He demands.
"Haha, okay? Like when?"
"Well, the fair is in town this weekend. Saturday?" He asks and runs his hands in his hair.
I wonder if any of the other nurses know about his tattoos.....
"Sounds great, Harry."
*******
I walk down the hallway and I'm greeted by the bright blonde hair of Noelle.
"Give me the details."
I give her a look of confusion. The thought crosses my mind that she might know that I spent the night here. I hope she doesn't. "What?"
"You and Harry."
I sigh in relief. "Haha, there's not much. We just went to dinner, that's all."
*******
I fed Niall and gave him his medicines, and now I have him sitting in a chair in front of the bathroom mirror, complete with scissors, a spray bottle of water, a blow dryer, and hair spray.
He's so nervous. His hands are resting on his lap and he won't stop twiddling his thumbs. His left knee is bouncing up and down quickly too, and he can't keep his head in one spot.
"Hey. Calm down. I'm not going to hurt you."
He bites his lip, but nods.
"You have to sit still, though. Especially your head."
He nods again. His hands are trembling.
On my way back here this morning, I stopped by the store and got a pack of Oreos. I put them in my small black duffle bag that holds all the hair stuff, on the bottom. I brought them not because I'm afraid I will lose the bet, but because I knew he would be extremely nervous, and if he wanted Oreos in the first place, he will want them while I cut his hair.
"Look what I brought." I pull them out of the bag, and his eyes light up.
"Yesssssssss!" He cheers.
I hand them to him and he looks at me in a confused fashion. "Wait, but you haven't lost yet."
Yet. Someone's over-confident.
"I know. I just thought I would be nice."
He nods and opens the bag. He offers me one, but I decline.
I take the spray bottle and start to spray his messy hair. I stop before actually spraying though, because I can tell that it hasn't been cut in a very long time, and that at one point it was a very nice blonde color, but now it's about 25% blonde, 50% brown, and about 25% in between.
"Did you used to dye your hair?"
"Yeah. Blonde."
"Well, I brought stuff to dye it. Do you want me to? It would look really good!" I beg, and he nods eagerly.
"Okay, well we have to dye it first, then. Then cut it."
I dig in my bag and grab the bleach, developer, the actual blonde coloring, a small mixing bowl and a paintbrush-like brush. And tin foil.
I'm not going to dye his whole head blonde. I'm going to leave a little bit of the roots brown, just so there's some contrast.
After I mix the bleach and developer, I start using the brush to put it in his hair. He cringes when I touch him, but quickly relaxes. He is staring at himself in the mirror, and he looks so stressed and worried so I decide to make a funny face at him through the mirror. He laughs.
"Chill out. You're okay." I smile as he eats another oreo.
Harry walks in the bathroom. He wanders over to us, smiling.
"What do we have here?" He asks.
"We're dying his hair. And cutting it." I inform him.
"You're letting her?" Harry astonishingly asks Niall, who nods.
I have the all of Niall's hair wrapped up in tin foil, waiting for the bleach to work. Harry sits back and watches us.
"Hey, hook me up with an Oreo." I tell Niall, who hands me one quickly.
I sit on the sink to the left of him, dangling my feet like a little girl.
"Where'd you get the Oreos?" Harry asks.
"I brought them as bribery. Shhh!" I tease.
Niall laughs and offers Harry one.
Harry looks confused, but he takes one anyway, "Thank you, Niall."
I hop off the counter and check Niall's hair. Since it was mainly blonde before, the bleaching is done already. I start to take the tin foil out of his hair, which falls over his head in a sloppy mess. He shakes it.
"Don't shake it! You'll get bleach in your eyes." I scold him, and he stops abruptly.
I glance over at Harry, who stares at the two of us with wide-eyed wonder and shock.
I rinse out the bleach and start to dry his hair. I use a towel, sliding it around his head the way you dry a dog's hair. Once it's basically dry, I use the blow dryer to finish the job.
I mix the dye and start placing it all over the tips of his hair. I work it back towards the roots slowly, almost like an ombré effect, so it blends better with the brown roots.
I leave it in for ten minutes and then wash it out, and repeat the drying process. I think Niall likes the feeling of the towel, because he closes his eyes and smiles a little when I do.
His hair is perfectly blonde in the right places and brown in the others, which is exactly how I wanted it. It's just long. It hangs over his eyes and he just pushes it out of the way usually. But I'm going to change that.
Harry still watches intently.
"You ready, Niall? I'm going to start cutting now."
He nods.
*NIALLS POV*
*italics indicate hallucinations/voices*
I don't know why, but Dr.Styles is still in here and it's making me uncomfortable. I'm just happy because I haven't heard or seen anything since she came in my room last night and saved me. Well, when she left in the morning I heard voices, but I didn't see anything so that's good. I don't know if she told the doctor about what I did. I hope she didn't.
My hair looks good so far. I really love the color it is. But I'm so afraid of the scissors near my head.
Harley sprays my hair with the cold water, damping it I guess. Her fingers feel good in my hair, it's really relaxing.
She takes some of my hair from the back of my neck between two fingers. I bite my lip and my whole body tenses.
"Oh, stop it, Niall. Sit still, damn it." My mom scolds, and slaps my face. It burns, but it's the least of my worries. She's got scissors to my neck, and she's high again.
She cuts my hair in the back, only slightly missing my skin. She moves to a piece near my ear, but this time it's not so lucky. She cuts right into my ear and I feel blood start to drip down my skin. It burns so bad. I jolt away from her.
"It's okay, Niall. I won't hurt you." Harley's sweet voice speaks, and I realize that I jolted away from her, not my mother. I touch my ear, and sure enough there is nothing there. I take a deep breath. I need to calm down. It's only Harley. She won't hurt me.
Yes she will.
No, no, no. Go away. Not now! I squeeze my eyes shut even though I know it won't help.
"It's okay, Niall." She grips my shoulder softly, comfortingly.
I open my eyes, and it looks like she is almost done. The doctor is still sitting near us, watching me like a hawk. He's on edge. He's afraid I'm going to freak out, but I'm determined not to. Freak out, I dare you.
Shit.
Every time I've had to have my hair cut, I freak out so bad that they have to tranquilize me. I would wake up with my hair cut too short for my liking, but I didn't care because I couldn't do anything about it.
Harley moves to stand in front of me to do the front part of my head. I can't see what's happening in the mirror and it terrifies me. I hear the slicing of the scissor blades and each one sends chills down my back.
Stay calm. Stay calm.
I focus on my breathing. I've heard that it helps. No it won't. I take long breaths in and out and I actually do feel better. I open my eyes, which I didn't even realize were shut. I see Harley's chest about 8 inches from my face.
Holy shit. I can't help but stare.
"Okay.... I'm done!" She says. She moves away so I can look at it. It's swept to the right side in perfect layers. It's definitely the best it's looked in years. And she didn't cut me.
"Well, you win." I tell her.
Dr.Styles' jaw drops at the sound of my voice. It's kind of funny.
********
*HARLEYS POV*
After Niall and I clean the bathroom, we go into the therapy room, where the piano is.
He sits on the left side of the piano's bench and I sit on his right. We sit so close that our thighs and shoulders touch.
"Okay. So each key has a name. It starts with F, then G, A, B, C, D, and E." He plays each note as he names them. "Got it?"
I nod.
"Oh, and you always lead with your thumb. See, you don't put your thumb under your palm like this," he plays a chord with his thumb playing the middle note, "you play it like this." He changes position so that his left thumb plays the highest note in the chord.
"Do you know the song 'She Will Be Loved'? By Maroon 5?" He asks.
"Yes."
He starts to play it, but he speaks over the music. "I learned this the minute I first heard it. It's weird, I don't remember much from that time, but I remember sitting in front of the piano in the school's band room playing this song because I loved it so much. It's pretty simple. I think you can do it. Yeah?"
"Yeah, I'm down."
"So it's pretty simple," he starts, but then looks off in the distance. When he recovers, he adds, "put your right hand like this." He places his fingers on a G, B flat and E flat. I copy him, but on a higher octave.
"And you put your other pointer finger here," he puts it on a C, "This is the base."
Once I put my finger on the C, he says, "okay, so you hit the C once, then your right hand twice, then the base, then the right, then you're gonna move your thumb down a whole step and pinky down one step."
I stare at him blankly.
He chuckles, "like this." He grabs my thumb and moves it down one white key. Then he takes my pinky, which is on the E flat, and moves it to the D.
He puts his hands back in position and plays through it, and I try to follow, but I'm slightly behind.
"Here, listen so you can get the beat." He plays it again, and the look of happiness in his eyes is completely beautiful. They're bright and wide, so full of life. He catches me staring at him and he smiles and blushes a little.
I can't get over the fact that I am beyond proud of him. I don't know how or why this has happened to him so suddenly, but whatever it is, it's incredible.
I'm mainly doing this for him. I know I will never be a great pianist, but I want to make him feel comfortable sharing his knowledge with people. I want to socialize him as much as I can, I know he hasn't had much of it in a long time.
*********
Niall is in his room sleeping, so I've got some time to relax. Well, not relax, I've got some minor things to help other patients with, but not really.
I've been thinking a lot over Niall's socialization. I understand that this section of the hospital, where he is placed, is reserved for "criminally inane" and other extremely violent patients, so they don't really get that much socialization, but I think Niall is in a really good place right now and could use some some socialization.
I spot Harry walking down the hallway, so I decide to talk to him about it. He's the main doctor for this section of the hospital, so I see him very often. I'm not complaining, I like it.
"Harry? Can I talk to you?"
"Yeah, sure. What's going on?" He answers. His dark hair is pushed back as normal, and he smiles lazily, but cutely.
"I was thinking, maybe we should start to give Niall some more social interaction with other patients? I mean, you've seen him. I think he could handle it."
He sighs and licks his lips while running his hand through his hair, like he's stressed. "I don't think that would be a good idea."
"Why?"
"Because, Harley. The Niall you know is not the Niall we know. We know him better than you and he's not ready. I don't think he ever will be. He's going to be sick for his whole life." He replies apologetically.
"I don't agree with that. I've seen so much progress in him and I just know there's more to come."
"Harley, as much as I would absolutely love for him to get better, you and I both know it won't ever happen. I mean, what you're doing with him is very admirable, but I don't see it actually going anywhere. He'll break again. They always do."
He has a hand on my shoulder in sympathy, but I just can't agree with him on this. I know that Niall will always have schizophrenia. It's in his genes, which we can't change. But there are plenty of people who have the illness and live perfectly normal lives. I know he is completely capable of living a normal life someday.
"Well, I'm not going stop trying." I protest.
"Okay. I just don't want you to be upset."
"I'll be fine. So will Niall." I tell him.
He smiles, "I like you. A lot."
"Thank you." I smile and walk away.