A Year Without You - Ziam

Chapter Five

October

It's now October, October 4th to be exact. Liam's been missing for two weeks now, and as each day goes by Zayn feels himself breaking inside more and more. He rarely eats now, and if he does it's very little, maybe an apple or a granola bar but nothing more than that. He spends more time than usual at the dance studio at school. He's sure his parents have noticed he's lost some weight but don't say much, or anything at all.

School sucks, he find myself staring at Liam's empty seat to his left in every class. There has been more than one occasion when his teachers have needed to call his name for Zayn to look away from it and pay attention. He doesn't eat lunch at school either, he spends the lunch hour in the dance studio, He feels like it's the only place he can let out all his frustration and pain without anyone noticing or judging.

Which is where he's currently at, in the studio dancing and with the music full blast; the door closed of course, don't want the music to disturb anyone or for anyone to hear it and want to know what is going on.

Mummified my teenage dreams, no, it's nothing wrong with me, the kids are all wrong, the story's all off, heavy metal broke my heart

Zayn danced staring at himself in the mirror, wanting to see what he was doing since he was doing everything as the song progressed not having an actual routine or dance for the song. Before he knew it, he was singing along to the song as well, his hands formed fists and continued dancing until the song ended and he was covered in sweat. His breathing uneven, he stared at himself in the mirror while he just stood there, or more like glared at his reflection.

"Zayn?" He looked at the door through the mirror, Harry, Eleanor, and Louis were standing there staring at him. Zayn stood up straight and turned to face them, still trying to even out his breathing.

"Zayn, is this what you do instead of eating? You're here dancing until you can no longer breathe?" Harry asked taking a step forward, concern taking over his face. Zayn ran his hand through his hair looking at them, before nodding.

"Listen, we know you're not doing okay, but you need to take care of yourself. Liam wouldn't have wanted this for you." Louis added stepping forward as well. Zayn crossed his arms over his chest averting his gaze to the floor.

"Zayn.." Eleanor spoke up, but he didn't look up, he didn't want to. "Don't do this to yourself, were worried about you and it's only been two weeks. How will we know you won't get worse as time progresses? Liam would have never wanted this for you, like Louis said."

"I'm fine. There is absolutely no reason to worry about me. I'm just working extra hard because homecoming is coming soon and the dance team needs to have the dance perfected." Zayn said not looking up at all.

"Zayn, will you take it easy if Eleanor and I came back to the dance team? Along with the rest who left?" Harry asked, Zayn looked up to him, staying quiet.

They all sighed before slowly turning around to walk out of the room, "I need you two back. There's something I need to announce on homecoming and I need you two in the team when I do." He finally said making them turn around to look at him. They both nodded before walking out, Louis staying behind. He bit his lip before walking over taking out a jersey out of his bag, handing it over to Zayn.

"It's Liam's jersey, he would have wanted you to wear it for homecoming." Was all he said before walking out to catch up with Harry and Eleanor. Zayn looked down at the jersey, the number 29 in bold green, and "Payne" right above it in bold green as well, three stripes on both sleeves, green, purple and yellow, and another 29 in the front side but this one covering most of the front. He lifted it up to my nose and sniffed it, immediately tearing up because it smelled just like Liam.