Downfall [Punk Niall Horan]

13

"Bubba!"

My chubby child legs found their way down the long, empty hallway. A pounding music was just down the hall from my room, deafening to my fragile child ears. Thoughts of cupcakes and giggles were on my mind at this time, not thinking about what could be happening behind closed doors.

After I found myself in front of my brother's towering oak door, I banged my little fist on it as hard as I could. "Bubba, open up!" I whined, the lack of sleep making me even more grumpy. The music continued on irritatingly, and I knocked again assuming he hadn't heard me through the pounding bass.

Moments later, the music stopped and quiet footsteps padded towards the large door. The door swung open carefully, revealing my lanky brother. His unruly, curly brown hair was flung up in all different directions and sweat coated his skin. I smiled toothily up at him, "You look funny."

His striking forest green eyes smiled down at me like they always did when he talked to me. "That's what you get when you wake a teenager up," Harry laughed, reaching out to ruffle my messy hair that was so much like his.

My brother was 13, and I was 7. Always he had played with me when my parents hadn't. "Why are you up, Ty?" Harry questioned me, pushing his hair back from his face. Ashamed, I looked down, "Your music kept me up. How can you sleep through it?" A soft chuckle fell from his pink lips, "It's my lullaby, sis."

My eyes found their way back up to his kind ones, furrowing my little eyebrows. "Screaming puts you to sleep?"  I questioned confusedly. The screaming music still played softly in the background, still loud enough for me to pick up even though he turned it down a good bit.

A huge smile unraveled on his lazy face, "I guess you could say that. It scares the monsters away." He informed me, leaning against his doorpost and crossing his arms over his chest. Monsters?" I gasped loudly, pulling my hands up to my mouth.

Nothing was worse in my mind than the word monster at the time, and it still remained so until this very day. Who could have known that that word would haunt me all my life? My brother used the word monster so frequently that I was used to hearing it. But nevertheless, it always made my little toes curl in fear.

"Don't worry, Ty, you're too young for them to bother you," he assured me, crouching down to my level. "Harry," I whined childishly, "I can't sleep at all, and I have to get up early. Your music scares me so it's a monster." True, at that time his music made me shiver in fear for some reason. The smashing beats and screaming tones woke me up often with horrible nightmares, and trips like these were regular.

"Okay, gosh, you spoiled brat, come here," Harry told me jokingly, standing back up to his full height. His long foot wedged the door open more for me to walk in. No way was I walking into his room. He already made me walk down here so he was going to carry me the rest of the way. My little arms expanded towards him, begging to be picked up.

He sighed loudly and scooped me up. The white t shirt he was wearing smelt like a real home, and it was already luring me to sleep. My eyelids drooped as my head fell on his strong shoulder, too strong for someone his age. "Spoiled," he whispered in my ear, cradling an arm around my back.

A grin was on his face, I knew, because I'd caught him so many times before. His perfect white teeth would be illuminating the entire room. Harry was used to my antics by now because stuff like this always happened. I had always followed him around the house and always wanted in on whatever he did.

Most things I couldn't do, but it didn't stop me from trying. Over time he became used to having a shadow following him around, and this caused us to become inseparable. Very rarely did he push me aside and tell me I couldn't do something. Harry never once got angry at me. I loved him, and he was the best big brother in the whole world.