Seconds, Minutes, Hours

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"So Zayn has cancer?" Mia asked, perhaps a bit too bluntly. Liam winced a bit at her words, But nodded.

"Yeah. Lung cancer. Its been getting really bad lately." Liam confirmed.

There was an awkward silence for several moments before Niall spoke up, asking the question that king in the air.

"How much time does he have left?" His voice was soft and reverent. He may not be on the best of terms with Zayn at the moment, but he still cared about his former friend.

Liam shook his head. "Less than a year."

The tears were visible in Liam s eyes, despite his attempts to rub them away. Mia noticed, but decided not to mention it. She was awful at comforting people. Niall, on the other hand, felt the need to bring attention to it.

"Are you okay Liam?" He asked. And with that, Liam broke down into tears, crying into Nialls arms. Niall held him close, whispering in his ear. Mia was the only one to notice when the doctor came back out.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but he woke up. And I'm really not sure it's good for him to be alone After that trauma. Could one of you perhaps go sit with him?" The doctor asked with an apologetic smile. Mia looked over to where Niall was still holding a crying Liam. Not knowing what else to do, she nodded, and followed the doctor down the hall to Zayn s room.

The state he was in didn't resemble the way she had seen him in the past. A mask covered his nose and mouth, controlling his breathing, and he looked really pale. The doctor left the room, shutting the door on his way out. Leaving Mia alone in a room with Zayn.

"Where's Liam?" He asked, his voice raspy and muffled throigh the mask.

Mia took a seat in the chair next to the bed. "Crying in the lobby."

Zayn looked particularly troubled by this information. "&%#!. That was why I asked for company in the first place. I wanted him to know I was okay."

Mia watched him as he spoke, seeing how distraught he seemed by the fact that Liam didn't know he was okay. She almost pitied him.

"The doctors already said you'd be fine. They just didn't think you'd wake up for a couple of days." She told him, trying to show him that Liam knew he'd be okay.

"Yeah, well they didn't know I was hyped up on adrenaline." Zayn muttered.

Mia raised an eyebrow. "What was that?"

Zayn looked up and net her eyes. "Liam told you I've got cancer, right?"

Mia nodded, wondering how Zayn had known.

"Well to get me in that wonderfully cheery state you see me in at school, I take some adrenaline shots. Makes my heart race a bit faster than it needs to, and dosent exactly help with my lungs. But it keeps me awake and functioning as a normal human being. Otherwise I'd probably be too tired to get out of bed." Zayn informed her.

"And the doctors don't know about this?" Mia asked. Zayn shook his head.

"As I said, it dosent exactly help with the situation with my lungs. And they're all about fixing my poor lungs. I don't think they've realized I'm past the point of no return." Zayn mumbled bitterly.

"Don't be so negative Zayn. You'll get through this." She assured him. She had read that depression was one of the biggest battles cancer patients had to fight, and she would do her best to help Zayn with that at the very least.

"You wanna know something that's ready ironic?" Zayn s voice hadn't lost its bitter lilt.

"What?" Mia asked curiously.

"That sentence you said? The &~*#%](- about me getting better? It was five seconds long. I've got five months to live. Isn't that ?-[&_</ ironic?" Zayn spat. He wanted her to go. He was forgetting to count the sentences. He needed those numbers, those values that meant so much to him and so little to every one else.

But Mia didn't storm out in anger. Nor did she ask why he had been counting. Rather, in a very Liam like gesture, she reached over and hugged him tightly. Zayn focused on her grip and once again forget to count the seconds. Tears came to his eyes, and Kia wiped them gently away.

"Its going to be Alright Zayn." She assured him. Both of them knew it was a hollow assurance. It meant nothing in the rapidly changing world. But both of them desperately wanted the words to be true, and that counted for something. And it was touching that Mia had even tryed to comfort him. And in that moment, Zayn couldn't care less how many seconds her sentence had been. In front of him was soneone who knew nothing if his past, who had seen on my his worst side, and still cared. And still genuinely wanted him to get better. And it was right then that Zayn made the dangerous decision to open his heart up. Because with only four months to live, hi s heart was longing for something to beat for. And Zayn was starting to suspect that the girl in front of him would become that reason.