Chapter 31
The cab pulled up to the curb and everything slowed down. I jumped out and stared at the back of what looked like 40 plus paps on the front lawn of my house. Paps had never shown up at my house, why were they here now?
“LOOK ITS RILEY”
The 40 plus backs turned to look at me with comment hungry eyes and I froze in place. There was screaming, shoving and then I was surrounded by flashing cameras, being pulled every which way.
I screamed and covered my head with my arms, finger nails digging deep into the skin and hands pulling on my shirt. I tried to push my way through but they were like a brick wall, I couldn’t break through any way so I stayed hunched over with blood running down my arms.
“Get out of the way!” I heard Harry scream from somewhere behind the wall of reporters “Get out of the god damn way!”
There was a break in the yelling and two arms encircled my waist, pulling me close against their chest and picking me up under my knees, carrying me towards the house, breaking through the wall of people.
“Open the door” they called as we approached the house at a fast pace. The door in front of us opened and closed loudly behind us and everything suddenly got quiet.
“Riley, oh Riley are you okay?” asked Mum, kneeling down beside me as I opened my eyes and removed my arms from my head. I nodded and Mum wrapped me up in a hug, trying to be gentle on my arms.
“Mama!” cried Draco, running towards me where I was sitting on the floor, the little boy threw himself at me, face still streaked with dried out tears “Mama, mama”
“Its okay baby” I sighed, wrapping my arms tightly around him and kissing his cheeks and head “it’s okay, you’re okay now”
Draco crawled out of my lap and hung himself of Harry’s leg; the boy was standing behind me, shaking his head and rubbing his slightly scratched arms. “Is uncle Hazza okay?” asked Draco
Harry smiled and picked up Draco, kissing both of his arms, covered in pink scratches like his own “I’m okay buddy”
I looked around for the first time and noticed that Niall wasn’t here, Zayn was talking to Mum and Harry had Draco, but Niall was nowhere in sight.
“Where’s Niall?” I asked
Harry sighed “He had to go get Liam and Louis from the airport, they came back but they have no idea what’s happening, we said that it was best for Niall to go and get them, drop the girls off and then bring the boys here”
I nodded. That probably was best.
“Come on” said Harry, handing Draco to Zayn and helping me up off the floor “let’s go get your arms cleaned up”
Niall came busting through the door of the bathroom 10 minutes later “Riley?”
“Hey” I smiled, sitting on the bathroom counter, arm stretched out for Harry to clean the drying blood off of it “Did you get through the door alright?”
Niall’s eyes widened “You’re sitting here with blood all over you and you’re worried about me?”
“Well” I shrugged “I’m more worried about Draco but, yeah”
Niall shook his head and placed a hard kiss on my lips “I’m fine you idiot, are you?”
We both looked at Harry for confirmation and he nodded. “Just a bit of blood, you might need some disinfectant, you and Draco”
“Is Draco hurt?” frowned Niall
“A little shocked, his arms are better than mine though, no blood”
“But they still scratched him?”
“No, they pushed him into a rose bush” snorted Harry “Yes Niall, they scratched him”
Niall frown deepened on his face “I’m gonna kill ‘em”
I shook my head “Niall, don’t, they didn’t-“
“I’m going to kill ‘em!” he screamed, storming out of the bathroom, Harry and I ran out after him, Harry catching Niall by the shoulder as he landed on the bottom step.
“Niall stop” said Harry, pulling Niall around to face him and I “Don’t do anything stupid”
“Stupid?” scoffed Niall “They hurt Draco, how is anything I do against them stupid?”
“Niall you have to think about this, you can’t just go up and beat out on everyone for a few scratches on his arms, you aren’t a normal guy, you can’t just get away with it and have it never be spoken of again, it will be everywhere”
“You don’t think I know that!” he screamed, causing the other three boys to appear with Mum and Draco in the kitchen doorway “They hurt Draco and they hurt you, I’m going to kill ‘em”
“Mate calm down” said Liam, placing his hands on Niall’s shoulders. Niall shrugged them off and backed away from Liam with a frown, everyone stood still after that. Niall never pulled away from anyone, especially not Liam.
“Niall” warned Louis “You okay?”
Niall shook his head “I need some air”
The boys nodded and Niall stalked out to the backyard. Everyone let out a tight breath and Harry looked over at me. “You should go talk to him” he whispered
I nodded and raked my fingers through my hair and followed the path out to the backyard, where I found Niall kicking around one of Draco’s footballs.
“Are you okay?” I asked, leaning against the door frame, watching his feet work over the ball.
He shrugged “I still want to kill ‘em”
“Niall-“
“Don’t okay” he stopped me “I know what you’re going to say, I know what everyone in there is going to say, they hurt him and they hurt you and I’m not okay with it”
“You think I am?” I asked walking out to meet him in the middle of the backyard
“You look it” he accused “I’m trying to go out there and let them know they can’t mess with my family like that and your holding me back”
“It’s sweet you want to take care of your family, it’s sweet you even call us your family, but beating up on a guy isn’t the way to go about it”
“Then what is the way to go about it, sit and wait, listen to them scream outside the house, keep Draco inside until he’s old enough to sneak around paps or have a bodyguard with him 24/7, you really want to raise your boy like that Riley, I want to do something, I don’t want to sit and wait for them to get some idea of personal space because they won’t” he kicked the ball hard against the fence “The only thing we could do it wait for them to set the house on fire to smoke us out!” My jaw clenched as Niall turned back to look at me eyes wide and angry. He sighed and raked his hands through his hair, brunette roots growing out on the side of his head. “I didn’t mean it like that Riles, you know I didn’t”
“Then how did you mean it?” I whispered as he looked up at me again “Did you say it because your angry at me, because I won’t let you go out there and beat the shit out of some undeserving pap for a couple of scratches or did you say it because you’re still pissed off about what Justin said the other night?”
“We spoke about this already”
“No, we didn’t, we had a nice drunken chat about it before you pulled me off to bed and then we never spoke about it again”
“You were willing to go to bed with me” he hissed
“I was willing to go to bed with you to wake up with the guy I love the next morning and that didn’t happen, we never talked about it Niall, and if we did it was barely a talk at all”
“What do you want from me Riley!” he screamed “Yes, I’m pissed off at what Justin said because as much as you hate to admit it for some reason, Draco is my son, he calls my ‘Daddy’, I love him like a son, I’m willing to be his dad, I’m willing to be a family with you and you still can’t get with that fact can you!”
“You know why I can’t get around that fact Niall!” I yelled “I can’t get around the fact that Draco calls you Daddy because Pat only died about 5 months ago, he didn’t disappear, he’s not a dead-beat Dad, he’s dead; Draco’s dad is dead”
“I’m standing right here” Niall whispered
“You aren’t getting this are you” I said, squinting at him “He calls you Daddy because you’re the closest thing he has to a Dad, but you aren’t going to ever completely be his Dad, Niall, no matter how much you want to”
“This conversation is over” Niall growled, pushing past me and going inside “I’m going to beat someone up”
I rolled my eyes “Harry!”