courage {Niall Horan}

XVII

It's been two weeks since I started working parttime and started my project. It's been absolutely fantastic to do something so close to my heart and really what I want. It was so scary at the beginning to talk to kids between 10-16 years about my story and to work together with amazing therapists.

There's a group of kids now that I'm working with every day while combining it with studying management. It's an evening class that takes about 6 months. The plan is to expand my project into a foundation and help people not only in Ireland. And also to start making enough money out of it so I will no longer have to rely on volunteers.

I drove up to Dublin today to go to the airport together with Maura and Chris. There were many fans around but I was so excited to see him again. I was going to celebrate christmas with him and his family this year and I was fully in the christmas spirit.

When I saw him my smile turned twice as big as it already was. I was more excited then the fans. I could hear them screaming outside as they weren't allowed in without a flight ticket.

"Just go." Maura said as she noticed how happy I was to see him. I smiled at her before walking towards him, it didn't take him long to find me once I started walking. He put his bag down once we were close to eachother and I almost jumped into his arms. He held onto me thightly while we hugged.

"This is so much better then skype calls." He said softly.

"Really? I thought the skype calls were a lot better." I said jokingly when I took a step back. He looked exhausted but still happy to be home.

"You look great." He said with a smile as he looked at me.

"You look exhausted." I said with a small laugh "but if you look past that, you look pretty good too." He smiled before lifting his bag up again and I took his guitar case from him so he didn't have to carry it all on his own. Judging by the size of his bag, he wasn't going to stay long.

"My second bag got send to Louis accidentaly. I'm staying for a month." He said softly before going to his mom to hug her. I smiled while watching them before looking around, the fans outside were going crazy but I forgot about them the second I saw him.

"Let's get out of here and head back home" Chris said after saying hi to Niall.

"I just want to take a few minutes to say hi to the fans, is that alright?"

"Ofcourse." Maura said with a proud smile. He left his bag with us and walked towards the door. I watched him take some pictures with fans and mostly, how airport security did their best to keep a safe distance.

"When are you doing the 12 bars of Christmas?" Maura asked me as we waited.

"I'm not going, but I think they are going on friday, atleast that was the original plan." I replied with a smile as I looked at her.

"Why are you not going? It would be a great way to meet the rest of his friends and they seem to have a lot of fun every year."

"Because we are organising a christmas party that evening. I'm working together with a few other places to give them all the christmas they deserve. It might be a day early but it was easier and cheaper to do it friday." I replied with a smile.

"Are visitors welcome to help?"

"Ofcourse, every helping hand is very welcome. Niall is coming to help with the preparations and he's going straight to his party night after." I said with a smile. When we saw him walk back to us, Chris picked up his bag and we walked to the elevators to go to the parking lot. He waited untill the elevator doors closed to put his arm around my shoulder.

"They all said that they liked you, a lot." He said to me softly.

"I'm glad." I replied with a smile. I put my arm around his waist and wegot out of the elevator. I got in the drivers seat and he got shotgun after putting his stuff in the back. When everyone was seated and had their seatbelts on I started the car and started the drive back home.

"They can't be serious right?" He said as he laughed a little before turning the volume up a little. It was one of the newest songs of one direction. "I do have something to tell you about the band." He said as he looked behind him.

"We have decided on taking a break. It will take atleast a year but after Zayn left everything changed a lot and I think everyone wanted to try out doing something of their own." He said. Well that's a surprise.

— Niall's POV —

I walked into the youth centrum and I could already hear the laughing and music coming from outside.

"You made it." Charlotte said excited as she looked at me. She was wearing one of those ugly christmas sweaters and picked up a santa hat from a table she passed. "Here, now you look atleast a little bit festive." She added before carefully placing the hat on my head. I couldn't get my eyes away from her.

"My parents still had a lot to prepare for tomorrow but they were going to try and come to help." I replied before looking around.

"Just a few rules." She said before taking my hand and pulling me back outside behind her. "No sudden movements, be gentle, if they don't talk, just talk to yourself and after a while they will talk too. I never wanted you to see me as a broken girl, but many of the kids inside are. Not all of them come from violent families as this are a few projects working together so some will be easier to talk with then others."

"Okay." I said and she nodded.

"Just stay with me for a while." She said before we walked back inside. I followed her to the christmas tree she was decorating together with a few kids.

I followed her around for an hour untill she had to go help in the kitchen, they didn't need my help there so I stayed to help with the kids. It didn't take me long to see Charlotte's guitar standing in the corner and a kid staring at it. "Do you like the guitar?" I asked the kid softly after bending down a little, she was not older then 7 years old and holding onto her teddy bear. She nodded slightly as she kept her eyes on it.

"Do you know how to play?" I asked and she shook her head so lightly that I could barely see it. "Do you want me to play a song for you?" I asked again and she nodded slowly. I picked up the guitar slowly before sitting down on the chair against the wall, she didn't move but she watched as my hands moved over the strings of the guitar. I started playing random songs and it took two songs untill she sat down beside me, holding onto her teddy bear thightly.

When I played a christmas song she smiled lightly so I started singing along. I could hear a few voices around the room sing along too. I smiled as I looked around at what she helped create. She brought broken kids together and is trying her hardest to make sure they can move on.

"Can you play Jinglebells?" She asked softly while looking down at her feet. "Charlotte teached us Jinglebells."

And that's when I realised that this sweet little girl, is one of Charlotte's group. One of the broken kids.

"Ofcourse" I said with a small smile, I started playing and she sang along with me so softly but I could hear her over the guitar and my own voice.

A lot of kids stopped with what they were doing and sat down in a circle around me to sing along. I looked behind them and met Charlotte's eyes. She was looking at me from the other side of the room leaning against the doorframe with a small smile on her face that grew a little when our eyes met.

Saying goodbye this time will not be easy.