Stand By Me

Chapter Five

Niall feels good on Friday.

Actually good, like — he isn't even pretending for the first time in what feels like forever, that kind of good.

He and Harry are on equal levels of enthusiasm as they sit on the couch in the Tomlinson-Malik living room, snacks littered around them, fizzy drinks set out on the coffee table that they hadn't been allowed to have until after dinner, playing the video game that Harry had somehow convinced his parents to let him have early.

It isn't hard to feel good when his best friend is talking excitedly beside him, or when Liam teasingly tosses a piece of popcorn at him from across the room only to look away and pretend it hadn't been him, or when Zayn ruffles his hair as he walks by the back of the couch and Louis asks him how his day has been the same way that he asks his real kids.

And knowing that he doesn't have to go home until the following day makes it that much easier.

He hadn't even bothered asking; his Mum and Paul don't tend to care much where he is so it hadn't seemed necessary. He pushes all thoughts about them both out of his mind and tries to appreciate the moment, the safety and security that comes with being in a house that isn't his own, with a family that treats him like he belongs there.

He wishes he did.

Slowly but surely, as the day wears on and he and Harry switch off the game in favour of watching A New Hope as planned, the sinking feeling in his stomach begins to creep back in. Day becomes night; Liam stops talking to his friends over the phone from the room above the living room, Zayn helps put up the inflatable mattress, pushing the furniture back to accommodate for the size of it whilst Louis walks in with a handful of blankets that he drops down on top of the boys in a way that makes them both laugh.

Time crawls closer to him returning home and he dreads it more and more with every passing second, makes him feel sick to even think about leaving this warmth, this happiness, this safety behind and going back to that house, to Paul's punches and his mother's ignorance of it all.

The movie ends with him and Harry buried under the blankets in the mattress, lights turned out so that the glow of the TV is all that fills the room.

"Wanna watch the next one?" Harry asks, looking half asleep but clearly trying to act otherwise since they've both been determined to stay up all night. Niall hopes that they do, because then it slows time down a little and prolongs the inevitable.

He nods. "Okay," he agrees, waiting until the intro music begins before he speaks again, nudging his friend with his elbow as they both lean back against the front of the couch. He knows it's Harry's thirteenth birthday on Wednesday, but he has no way of buying him anything. He always feels guilty, because Harry makes sure his parents buy Niall a little something on his birthday every year. "I — I don't have anything to give you on Wednesday," he says, as if it's something out of the ordinary.

Harry glances across at him and shrugs, rubbing tiredly at one of his eyes. "That's okay. This is basically a birthday gift anyway, we got to play the new game and everything."

Niall nods with a small smile, a rush of thankfulness for his best friend washing over him for a moment. "Thanks for inviting me. You — you could've invited some of your other friends over too," he says quietly, because Harry is likeable and kind and nobody dislikes him; he's pretty certain that he has friends in the classes that they don't share whereas Niall tends to sit in the farthest corner by himself whenever Harry isn't there.

His friend laughs at that. "Like who? I guess there's always Luke from P.E, he hides at the back with me sometimes, but I don't think he likes the things we like so that wouldn't work. I'm good with just me and you," he says with a shrug, then turns to look at him as the light from the TV flickers from dull to bright, eyes scanning over him with a frown. "Why would I want anyone else anyway?"