Rising Up From Ruin - Ziam (AU)

Chapter 7 - Cotton Candy

Zayn’s P.O.V.

8:00 A.M.—Saturday—January 5, 2013

            Liam hasn’t spoken since right after his beating. He’s gone completely silent. I can’t even get him to talk, there must be something seriously up with him. After the mattress incident, we were forced to switch the mattresses back, and now, Liam had to sleep on the broken spring with a beaten back, all cut up and painful from the lashings. It disgusted me. His eyes were growing darker, and there were blue streaks under them, showing the lack of sleep. He cried a lot too, sometimes when he was just reading his book, he would begin to cry, and he didn’t seem embarrassed by it at all—or maybe he thought no one was looking. But I noticed, and it killed me.

            “Morning Zayn,” Harry mumbled as we made our way into the showers.

            “Morning,” I greeted, my voice rough from sleep. I stripped and turned on my shower, becoming more and more used to this way of life. Once I was done, I grabbed a towel and dressed quickly.

            Liam was done before me, sitting cross-legged on his bed, away from the broken spring. He wasn’t reading, which threw me off. He was just sitting there, staring off into space. I walked over to him and sat beside him.

            “Where are your books?” I questioned, stroking the side of his face gently. He didn’t react to my touch; he just glanced over to Griffin’s bed, where a stack of books sat. “Did that son of a bitch take your books?” I said loudly, as anger gripped me. Liam didn’t do anything, he only grabbed on my hand, as if to say, ‘don’t worry about it’. “Liam, he’s making your life living hell, I’m going to kill him,”

            Liam knew my threat was empty. I talked about attacking Griffin all the time, but I hadn’t put a finger on his since the first day here.

            I thought I knew how to handle guys like Griffin, but apparently, jerks in the normal world are softies compared to jerks who are orphans. Everything I did to ward Griffin away only made things worse.

            “Zayn, Liam, we are all heading into town today!” Louis exclaimed happily, “Grab you coats! We’re going to the sweets store and then to see a movie!”

            A small smile came to my lips. This will be the first time I will be allowed to wonder in town freely. Normally there are nuns. But, since it’s Saturday, and we are all 15 and older, we are allowed to go on our own. I had a little of my own money (okay, a lot of money) that my parents had left me, so I was even more excited.

            “Ready then Liam?” I asked. He nodded and stood up, grabbing onto my shirt weakly when Griffin came out of the showers. I walked briskly past him, holding Liam close, and followed Louis, Harry, and Niall all out the door.

            It was still winter, and awfully cold. The coat the orphanage gave me was old and worn, and it wasn’t even too thick to begin with. Liam’s was even worse than mine, so I wrapped my arm around him to keep him warm. Harry eyed me when I did this, but he eventually shrugged it off. The first place we headed was the sweet shop, a small store that smelled like a giant glob of sugar. It was amazing. Niall was a frantic mess, trying to decide which sweets he should get, and how much he would be able to eat. I smiled as we watched him run around the store, putting his face close to the candy and smelling. Louis and Harry were looking at the chocolates, and I grabbed Liam’s hand, leading him over to the cotton candy.

            “Want some?” I asked, when I noticed his eyes light up. But his face turned down when I asked, and he pulled out his money, showing me that he only had enough to pay for the movie. “Not a problem,” I said, as I grabbed the blue cotton candy and took it over to the register, handing the worker my money. Liam pulled on my shirt sleeve in protest, but I just ignored him and smirked a little.