Never • Say • Never § a Niam Horayne collab fanfic [AU]

Chapter Fifteen - "I'm not letting you go through this alone."

(written by MrsNiallHoran :3)

-- Niall's POV --

Liam tried to commit suicide?

Because of me?

I just sat on the bench, sobbing as he walked away. My God. I'm even more horrible than I thought. A sweet, amazing guy like Liam tried to take his own life because of something I said to him. I almost killed somebody with my words.

I deserved to die just for that! I was so glad that he was okay, though. Never had I realized that I might actually grow to care about him, but in only a few hours, I'd gone from hating him to crying and sympathizing with him.

I understood his trust issues. I had them too. Perhaps not as bad, but they were there. The only people I'd actually gotten close enough to recently to trust and let into my inner world were Zayn and Louis. Other than that, none of the 'friends' I had really knew me. They couldn't get past the walls I put up around myself. In a few hours, Liam Payne, my former nemesis, had completely torn them down and opened me up, exposing the raw reality. The real me. Few people saw the real me, and when they did, it took them years to get to it. Zayn hadn't gotten to know the real me for two years, Louis for one and a half since I took an immediate liking to his carefree, hilarious attitude. How Liam had done it in only a few hours, and when he was just coming out of hatred, was beyond me.

It took me a long time to realize that he was actually gone. It had to be at least twenty minutes before I went after him. I stood up and grabbed my backpack, running in the direction he'd gone and shouting out his name over and over again. Nothing.

Soon I found myself on a street I didn't recognize, in a part of town I'd never been. Great. I'm lost. I felt something cold and wet splatter onto my nose and sighed. And now it just had to start raining to make matter's worse.

How cliche was that? Somebody running after another person in the rain, shouting their name? Or how cliche was it that it just had to start raining while I was crying and feeling down? "Liam..." I called out once more, my voice hoarse from yelling and crying. I'd lost hope of finding him now. He was gone. I could only hope that I'd see him at school tomorrow.

And then I spotted the brown-haired head and immediately recognized it. I recognized the sweater, the jeans, the backpack. I ran after the figure and finally caught up. I put an arm on its shoulder and spun it around. To my luck, it was exactly who I was looking for. I hadn't mistaken him for someone else like people always do in movies. "Liam!" I choked out, relieved.

"What do you want, Niall?" he asked gently, his voice barely above a whisper. 

I held his face in one of my hands, using my thumb to brush a tear off of his cheek while I stared into his deep, watery brown eyes.  "I know what you're going through, Liam. I understand. I understand all of it. And I want to help."

"Niall..." he groaned, but I shook my head stubbornly, silencing him.

"I'm not letting you go through this alone."