Mute Musician (Ziall Horlik) AU

Chapter 2

Niall's POV

Going to a new place had always been something I was excited to do, but always so afraid of. Coming to this university was something I had been wanting for most of my life. I had been playing guitar since I was five, then I started writing music later on in my teenage years and it became something I wanted to know more about. I wanted to be the best, we'll at least better at it than I was. I wanted the proper training so I could do something with my skills later on. I wanted this and to be here, but I was scared shitless because this was my first time ever being away from Ireland alone.

My family was pretty close with each other. My parents got a divorce when I was seven, but they were still good friends after. Even when my mum got remarried they were still fine with spending time together going to my band concerts and other music things I was apart of. Me and my brother clashed a bit, but what brothers don't? We still got along for the most part, but he's so much older than I am that it made it easier to just place some distance between us to save our relationship. No matter the problems my family had, I still knew we all loved each other. We never really went out on our own anywhere, not to a different country to go to school that is. I'm the first to do that, and I just really wished it would have been easier to say goodbye to them. Even with a hard goodbye, I knew I wasn't completely alone here.

When I was touring campuses and my dad and I came here, I met three of the nicest lads. We all were in the same tour group and hit it off immediately. Liam Payne, was the first one I had met that made me feel link I had been his friend for years now. He then introduced me to his friend that was already a student at the school. Louis Tomlinson was studying music writing and piano just like Liam was, so we hit it off wonderfully. Liam then went on to introduce me to both of their friend Harry Styles. He was a tall guy that was a little quirky, but he was probably the nicest person I had ever met in my whole life. He was studying voice and music writing as well, which gave us all one thing we could relate easily to and have a good conversation about. When it came time to getting in based off our auditions, we all made it and didn't dare turn down the chance of coming here. I wasn't completely alone, I was just away from the comfort of my family.

I looked over at my new roommate as I put the few clothes I brought with me in one of my drawers. He was working on setting up his piano in a different place so it would be out of the way of the bathroom we have to share. I was caught off guard a little when his sister pulled me out to the hall to explain that he was mute. She said Zayn, I believe that's his name, had been through stuff no child should have to and he just stopped talking. I don't think it's weird or anything, I just know that this is going to be a new experience for me because I've never had to deal with quiet people. I'm Irish, for Christ's sake, once you get a pint in any of us were all start yelling and singing. My eyes trailed over the multiple tattoos I could see that were shown off by his t-shirt and I couldn't help but want to see what other ink he had on his dark skin. I'd never seen anyone like him. He even looked different from his sister, he looked shinier or something. He just looked like there wasn't a single flaw on his body. I'm a strong believer that the inside shines to the outside so I guess he didn't have a single flaw in his heart either. I don't even think him being mute is a flaw, it just makes him that much more unique.

"Zayn, are you studying piano?" I asked him, making sure it was a yes or no question so he could answer me. He looked up at me from where he had been looking down at the keys on the piano, but that simple thing made my hands start to sweat nervously. Those brown eyes looked at me with such an intensity that I didn't know how to feel about it. It wasn't the bad kind, it just showed that he gives his everything no matter what he's doing. He nodded to me and pointed over at my guitar. I couldn't stop the chuckle that left my mouth because we were actually talking. Not using words on his end, but we could communicate nonetheless.