When no one's watching

Chapter 2

Zayn's pov:

Tuesday morning seemed to be bad since Louis had literature and I had english.
But as I walked into my class, I saw Liam, one of Harry's friends. He always had been in my class but I never really cared about the popular guys so I just ignored them anyway.

To my surprise, as I sat down at my regular place someone sat next to me. And what was even more surprising was that it was Liam. I actually thought that he was too popular to even notice me or dare talk to me.

"Good morning, Zayn. Can I sit here?"
Honestly, I was a bit overloaded with that question since my only social interactions were with Louis or smalltalk with someone.
Somehow I managed to answer and he smiled at me warmly.

Wow, I really didn't expect this Liam guy to be so nice nor have such an adorable smile.
I never thought high of the football team since they were no more that a bunch of dumb bullies. I knew that Liam never bullied anyone but still, his lifestyle called "I'll take any girl and throw her away again" really wasn't my favorite.

Still, throughout the morning Liam could convince me that he was extremely nice.
We talked through the whole classes, surprisingly we had the all morning classes together. And with a few admonitions, we made it to lunch together.

Louis was already there with Liam's friends and apparently they were chatting about the upcoming party. Wow, people really cared too much about stuff like this. Why not just go and have fun without discussing it?

After I grabbed lunch with Liam, we also went to our friends, the topic still didn't have seemed to change.

"And Liam, excited for the party on Friday?" Harry asked Liam and Niall added: "To get pissed and make out with some girl."
Then, they fell into a fit of laughter. Seemed to be common to laugh about these things.

But Liam wasn't that amused by the joke and just mumbled something inaudible.
Since they all seemed to be too busy laughing, they didn't really noticed Liam's reaction.

I had always been a quite sensitive person when it came to other people's feelings. I kind of noticed if they weren't alright.
And so, as I eyed Liam from the side, he seemed to be not that alright. The way he was holding onto his cutlery like his life depended on it.
A minute later he excused himself to go to the bathroom and left the table.

"Is he ok?" But with my question I just earned an eyebrow furrow and a "Yeah, why do you mean?" from the others.
So they really didn't see how Liam wasn't comfortable at all?

"Be right back." I also excused myself but didn't think they'll notice my absence since they were again full on talking. Louis really was invested in conversations as soon as Harry was involved.

As I arrived at the bathroom, I saw Liam standing at the sink. He wasn't doing anything, just staring at the water running down his hands.

"Hey Liam. Are you alright?"
He shortly flinched but caught himself and told me that he was fine and asked why I would ask.

"Well, you didn't seem comfortable earlier and I thought maybe it's because what they were talking about?"

"No, why would it be?" Liam hissed at me and I took a slight step back.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to raise my voice. Thanks for asking."
He smiled slightly but his eyes showed that I had definitely hit the bull's eye.

I sent him a smile back, not buying anything of what he was telling me.
But to be honest, Liam also didn't look well. Not that he wasn't handsome, he was 100% but just that he was very pale.

"Are you sure you're fine? You look as white as a sheet of paper."
"Yeah, just don't feel that good, I guess I'm gonna skip the afternoon classes."

"Alright, do you want me to sign you off or take you home?" I mentally facepalmed myself. Driving him home, exactly Zayn. Was I his girlfriend or what?

But Liam looked at the sympathetically and mumbled a "Thanks but no." before walking towards the door.

To my surprise, big surprise, he hugged me before leaving.
He really gave nice hugs. He indeed wasn't that bad and now I even was worried about him.

In afternoon class, I wanted to text Liam and ask if he was feeling better but firstly, I didn't even have his phone number and secondly, why was I acting so clingy after two days? He must think I'm a weirdo.