Take Me Home

Chapter Ten

On the weekend, Louis was happy again. Niall, however, was not.

"Ni, hurry up and come downstairs! Liam made pancakes for breakfast, they smell so good!" Louis yelled, running into the bedroom without knocking.

Niall was just pulling on one of the new t-shirts from out of his wardrobe. It was slightly too big, but that wasn't the problem. The problem was that he knew Louis had seen the scars along the bottom of his stomach. The ugly, long, big ones that Keith had given him as a punishment.

He quickly tugged down his shirt with his heart pounding as he glared at Louis. "I told you I was getting dressed!" he yelled.

Louis tried not to take any notice. He had seen the scars before, only Niall hadn't known about it. He chewed his lip. "Sorry, Ni. But are you ready now? Breakfast is nearly done, Liam said. And Zayn's spending the whole day here, and it's sunny out so we're allowed in the garden," he rambled, acting like his usual self since he knew he had two whole days away from school and Jackson and Hunter.

Niall swallowed down the lump in his throat, glancing at his schoolbag. He had been given homework in English, a whole load of writing that he couldn't do. It was too hard, but he didn't want anyone to think he was stupid. It was making him worry.

"Um. Okay," he said, taking a deep breath the way Liam had told him to do if and when he got angry. "What are pancakes like? I never had 'em," he mumbled, padding softly down the stairs beside Louis.

Louis grinned. "Wait and see. You'll love them!"

Niall, for some reason, couldn't seem to love the pancakes. He could barely manage to eat any of them, though they did smell nice. It was just that he couldn't stop thinking about the work sitting in his bag and how he couldn't do it even though all of the other kids could. He wasn't like anybody else, he was stupid. That thought made his stomach twist a little harder.

He carried on cutting up the pancakes into little pieces, none of them entering his mouth.

Liam noticed this and reached across the table gently, tapping him on the arm. "Everything okay, Ni?" he asked.

Niall frowned at him, looking back down at his food. "M'fine," he mumbled, though the angry glare he shot at anyone around the dining room table who even dared to glance at him was enough to say otherwise.

Liam frowned but decided not to say anything yet, thinking that perhaps the boy was just tired. He had gone to bed later than usual last night, because it was a Friday and the boys always watched a movie on a Friday night. He also found himself lifting Niall off of the floor in the bedroom again and putting him back on the lower bunk at around eleven o'clock last night - a habit which he hoped the boy would soon grow out of.

"Liam, can we go play outside? Me and Harry wanna have a kickabout!" Louis said, pushing back his chair loudly and smiling across the table at the curly haired lad. Ashton was visiting his Dad today to see if the two were comfortable with living together again, and the twins were more than happy to play in the sandbox at the end of the garden.

Niall just carried on glaring at his plate. Zayn cleared his throat to catch Harry's attention and silently gestured to the blond haired boy. Harry seemed to catch on and nodded.

"Hey, Ni, do you wanna join us?" he offered.

Niall glanced up with furrowed eyebrows, then shrugged. "Dunno how to play football," he replied. On the streets, he had never had the chance to play football with other kids. There wasn't anybody his age, just a few teenagers who weren't very nice at all. The only thing he had ever been good at was playing the old guitar that Keith had taught him to use to busk, and they had had to sell that eventually so that they had some money for food.