Ephemeral //H.S

Chapter 62

-Zayn Malik-

It's been a rough week to say the least.

Going to work everyday, seeing Russel everyday and pretending to be on his side, to track down Lucy while knowing that she's hiding in my secret apartment, a place Russel doesn't know about.

I bought this apartment a few years ago and decided to not tell Russel about it, which was not something I'm allowed to do. It felt so wrong back then, to go against him by simply buying something for myself only.

I was at rock bottom when he adopted me, my mom had just died, I was basically surviving because I was on the streets at first since I had nowhere to go, and I ended up being put in the system and hopped from one foster house to another basically every week. I was only nine years old, already wanting to not be here and he found me and took me under his wing.

He made me do school work, he bought my clothes, gave me a bedroom in Resilience and then bought my first apartment, he made me work for him and paid me. I was always so grateful for him, I owe him my life. But at some point I realized that every move I made had something to do with him, that I wasn't living for myself but for him basically. So I bought this place without him knowing, and thank god I did that because now it's really fucking usefull. I honestly don't know what we would've done if we didn't have anywhere to hide Lucy, we would've been fucked up.

But it's not the only reason why Liam and I have been so stressed out all week long.

When Lucy basically dropped that 'I'm gonna kill Giorgio and Russel' bomb on us, she's been harassing us every morning and night to help her do it, she keeps saying that she has a plan and everything but she can't really expect us to help her do that right? Especially when she knows what Harry would do to us if we did.  We keep denying her, telling her that we're gonna figure something out at some point but that it's gonna take time, but she doesn't want to hear any of that, and she lets us know alright.

I also don't know if she gets any actual sleep at night, every morning before Liam and I go to work she's already at the kitchen island, waiting for us. She doesn't have a phone or an alarm in her room, I honestly don't know how she does it.

"Zayn." She says but I don't answer, it's so early and I just want to have something in my stomach before she starts getting on my nerves.

"Zayn." She says again, and I sigh.

"No." I pour myself a cup of coffee.

"No what?"

"I'm not doing this again, not right now alright? I'm fuckin' exhausted." I yawn, running my palms over my face as if it would help wake me a little more, and I hear her actually scoff at me.

"I'm tired of being kept away from everything, all of it is my fault and I can't stand not being able to do anything about it! It's driving me fucking crazy Zayn! You can't keep me here forever while none of you are actually doing anything! I know you want to take care of it for me because that's exactly how Harry is, so that's why you don't tell me anything but god I'm going insane!" She rambles and I finally turn around to face her, coffee in one hand and a poptart in the other.

She's still wearing Harry's stupid doughnut sweatshirt, it's the only thing of his that we brought, maybe we should've brought something else too.

She's literally out of breath, I'm used to seeing the bruises and cuts on her face from what Russel did to her, but her eyes are bloodshot and it catches me off guard.

"How long have you been awake?" I ask, narrowing my eyes at her.

"That's not the point! I know you guys can help me, it's literally your job so will you just listen to me already?" She leans her hands on the countertop as if it would help her prove her point to me.