Starless Night「Ziall AU」

Chapter 1

Starless Night

Pairing: Ziall (hints of Larry)

Synopsis: Niall's always been the strange kid at school that no one talked to. He never went to parties, never had people to his house. Zayn's dad owns one of the largest companies, and everytime he has a party, he invites Niall. He finally agrees, but what happens later?

Much to Louis' dismay, Zayn takes an interest in the first valentine he'd received in all these years that wasn't extravagant, expensive or full of hinting messages. It wasn't a joke to him, and it wasn't a joke to Niall. He's determined to find out who sent it, but Louis knows he can change it to Harry's advantage, even if it won't be to his own.

Chapter 1

It was hard for Niall not to notice the massive poster that was stuck on the door. It was big – wait no, giant, and let’s not forget it was possibly the most contrasting shade of pink possibly to be chosen, when in mind that it was going to be stuck to a blue door.

“Hey fag, you looking to send one of your boyfriends one?”

Niall rolled his eyes, not even bothering to look at whoever made that comment and fight back.

Niall wasn’t different as in he had different interests, or a different personality. It was more of a family issue, but had nothing to do with genes. It wasn’t his fault his mum had to choose possibly the worst person in the world to marry. It wasn’t his fault his perfect brother decided to stay with his real dad. The worst things just had a way of all piling up on him.

He shifted his backpack on his shoulder, seeing as it only had one strap. The other one had broken off long ago. His brother Greg bought it for him for his 12th birthday. He remembered his mum buying him his guitar too. That was back when everything was perfect.

He walked down the corridor, wanting to get to form as quickly as possible. He thought he was used to the way people acted around him, but he wasn’t. He still noticed the way some people tried to stay away from him as far as possible when he walked passed them; others would leave their conversations for another time to begin whispering all the rumours they’d heard about him. There was the occasional person who looked at him in sympathy, but it never lasted long. They had to stop, just in case their friends abandoned them for wanting to befriend the weirdo.

He took his seat at the front of his form room. His form tutor was really nice, letting him sleep for the ten minutes known as registration. It had become a known habit – whenever it was time for Niall’s to be called out, she’d simply look at the table in the front corner for the mop of blonde hair that often had brown roots showing.

Today showed no change in his yawns. Yesterday was so tiring for him. He couldn’t get any sleep from that loud party downstairs his stepdad decided to throw, although in a way, he was glad it was a loud party and not a loud beating. With his bag on his desk and his head on his bag, he could feel the tears forming behind his droopy eyes. Yet he promised himself ages ago that he’s stop caring.

“Hey Niall.”

He looked up to see golden eyes and the cheeky looking smile that always made his heart flutter. They belonged to none other than Zayn Malik, the richest person in the school, also the only person in the school that talked to him.

“Hey, Zayn.” Niall replied, still sleepy but not realising he was smiling dreamily.

“So uh, yeah. I’m having a house party tonight. Wanna come?”

Niall simply shook his head, although Zayn was expecting it. Every time he had a party, he’d always make sure to invite Niall. And Niall always declined. At first, he was disappointed; soon, he grew used to it. But he’d just turned eighteen, and he wasn’t going to let this go so easily.

“You’ve been saying for the past three years! I think it’s my turn to ask why.”

Zayn didn’t break the eye contact with Niall.

“I just – I can’t, I’m sorry.”

Niall didn’t want to say that at all. But there was a general rule when it came to parties. For a birthday party, you buy the person a birthday gift. For a house party, you buy whatever was the most daring, in most cases, booze. And what did Niall not have that all the other kids had? Money.

“You uhm...don’t have to bring anything, you know.” Zayn leaned down to speak to Niall. “To be honest, no one needs to. They just uhh...choose to.”

Zayn could feel that there was just something about Niall he had to know. He thought that if he invited him to his party, they could have some alone time and they could talk. He didn’t know how long it would be until Niall would finally say yes, so he decided to take another tactic.

Niall still shook his head.

“Sorry. But thanks for inviting me, and the same goes for all the other parties...” he trailed off, feeling guilty. Everybody else had given up so long ago.

“Please, Niall?”

Niall looked up to see that Zayn had given his best puppy face. He couldn’t help but giggle slightly before frowning again.

“I’m really sorry. I want to but I just...can’t...”

“And why not?”

Zayn knew from the silence that he wasn’t going to get an answer.

“Please?” he asked again. “You missed my birthday party last month as well.”

Zayn decided to focus on the puppy eyes, staring at Niall until he could literally see the walls being broken.

“Okay okay, fine! I’ll come.” Niall finally said, trying to stop the laughs that were escaping his mouth.

“Yay! It begins at seven, don’t be late!”

Suddenly the door opened, and a voice began to bellow.

“Have no fears! The Tommo is here!”

A boy with brown hair and wearing stripes ran in dramatically, pulling Zayn to where they usually sat, right at the back. Niall chuckled silently. How nice it would be to have friends like that.

...

Niall returned home, coughing at the smoke in the air. It smelt of weed. How disgusting. When his stepdad wasn’t drinking, he was either smoking, taking drugs, or messing around with women. He received money from the government every month for looking after Niall, which of course he never spent on Niall. He only ever got himself into more and more debt.

Niall walked to the kitchen, sighing in relief when he saw that his stepdad wasn’t there. He did his usual routine of opening the fridge to hope that something – anything could be in there to cure his hunger. He was in luck. He immediately saw the pizza box that one of the less messed up guests must have brought yesterday. Seeing as his stepdad had no cares about the food in the fridge, rather, all the cared about was the amount of money on the cheque billed to him each month, Niall took the whole box so he could enjoy it in his room.

He passed the counter on the way out, before he suddenly stopped. On it was a wad of cash. There was at least £250. It must’ve been exchanged from the cheque his stepdad received. There was a ten pound note just so oddly sticking out, almost begging Niall to take it. He knew he couldn’t, he’d never done it before. But the money was, technically, for him. Zayn had said he didn’t need to bring anything to the party, yet everyone did, and everyone knew it was courtesy.

Daringly, he pinched the corner of the note, slowly but swiftly taking it out. Immediately it was stuffed in his trouser pocket, before he found himself running up the stairs to his room.

Maybe tonight, he could enjoy his first house party.

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I promise you this won't be a cliche. Give it a chance, please? :)

~Q