Broken Hearts

Chapter 9. This is it

I spent the next week finishing up my room, adding furniture to it, hanging up pictures and choosing which wall to leave for Zayn's art. I decided for the one right in front of my bed. I wanna have a clear view to whatever he does on it. Niall and I went out for dinner a couple of times and it never ceases to amuse me whenever a cute girl approaches him asking if it's okay with him to give her an autograph or to take a selfie. His fans are the most chilled girls I've ever seen, which is good because it allows him to go out knowing he won't get mobbed or pushed or harassed. Lou joins us only once, because he still has papers to go through, I never understood why he takes so long to grade them, but that's a torture conversation for another day.

Ni tells me about the album and how it is coming up. Looks like the couple of songs we penned the other day are helping him decide the mood he wants for the overall project, and 'm glad I was able to help. He laughs and jokes and I zone out a bit thinking how could I ever allow anyone to push me away from my friends. I know I shouldn't be thinking about it much, Zayn would call me out, but I think that, to a certain extent, it's good for me to do it, because that will help me avoid falling into that ever again.

During the week, Zayn and I keep texting each other. He sends me pictures of the canvases he works on, making me feel like a major procrastinator considering he finishes one every two or so days. He shows me one particularly cool and sad at the same time. We haven't spoken much about his other patients, but I do know he has a case of a kid with cancer. One day, he called me at the verge of tears because the parents told him the chemo was not working anymore and they decided to stop the treatment, but they wanted to keep going to family counselling with him, so Zayn wanted to do something for them and started working on a canvas picturing the kid as a superhero, the way he looked before the diagnosis. Zayn said he painted him resembling Silver Surfer (whoever that is), because the child loves comics as much as Zayn himself, and 'm a complete superhero ignorant, but Zayn mentioned something about the board having something or something similar to the Green Dwarf's (whoever that is) and that Jonas was gonna lose it when he saw it.

Based on the tone of his texts, I feel like he needs to talk about it, so I ask if I can call him. We spent the next few hours on the phone. He tells me as much as he can about Jonas without violating their privacy. He goes on about how artistic Jonas is, how he compliments Zayn's tattoos every time they have sessions, how he used to love spending summer afternoons on a skate and how he misses it. When Zayn goes silent for almost a minute, I know he is trying his best to keep it together. It's obvious he holds Jonas very dear.

Every single one of the terminations in my brain are yelling at me to ease his discomfort somehow. So, I do the first thing that comes to mind. I tell him about going out with the lads, how I have completely furnished my room and how cool my pictures look back on the wall. He sniffs a bit, but sounds proud of me, and hell, 'm proud of myself too. We talk about how close the party/gathering feels just because we have such a great time together, all of us, that we don't want it to end. I remember then that Niall said he would like to do something for us too, like for the whole group, so I tell Zayn about it.

"'Course it'll be alright, love. 'M sure it's gonna be great, yeah?"

"Dunno what he's planning, kinda scares me a little. His inner leprechaun sometimes is hard to contain." I hear him laughing, which was the goal.

"We could use the laughs anyways, I think that party is gonna be emotional enough as it is."

"Yeah, I agree. I think we'll all be weeping like babies by the end of it."

"Doesn't have to end there, yeah? We can always keep the chat and friends don't just go away because the therapy is done."

"I suppose you're right. It's just...like...we won't meet every Saturday and stuff."