"You can still be broken, even when nothing's wrong."
. . .
"I've taken care of myself for three years, I don't need someone to take care of me now. I'm eighteen in two years, mom." She believed her mom when she said that Liam was kind. But she did...
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TW: mention of rehab and self harm
"No!" Zayn spoke loudly, panicking. He would've shouted if it wasn't for the girl sleeping just a few walls away.
"Not again, you know we promised everyone that. I can't do it again, never." Liam took in his husband's form, the hands dragging down his face, clearing it from a few destressed tears, the rings under his eyes, both from the sleepless nights the last week had entailed and the stress from their contract struggles.
Liam knew himself how bad this could turn out, not only for Zayn but for all of them. They had been way past their breaking point back when the band went on hiatus. They didn't know what to believe, back then everything was controlled, to the point where they didn't even know what was true about themselves anymore.
They all had made a promise a few months later, when Liam had returned from his second rehab visit, Niall was released from the hospital, Zayn and Louis hadn't smoked for three months and Harry's cuts had healed enough to take off the bandages.
They had promised to never, ever again, let it get that bad. To steer clear of every path that could lead to the messes they had been in the band.
So now, when they all had their lives under control again, found the loves of their lives in each other and really enjoyed making music, they thought they were ready to come back.
But clearly, they were wrong. They knew that the contracts they had for One Direction were shit. A nightmare for any law firm to deal with, but Judy had found a loophole or something, no one really understood all the legal talk they had heard in the last weeks.
The kind lady had explained that there was a way to break free from SYCO's hold on them. But right now, they had also learned the downside of the industry. Because no management was truly much different.
Yesterday, four out of five men had met with five companies, and they all seemed to offer the exact same thing as SYCO. A sugarcoated living hell. By now, they had learned to read the fine prints of their dreams and were met with utter disappointment, even though they knew this would happen. They had hoped some company was different.
"Shh, we will find something," Liam soothed, dragging Zayn into a hug from his place on the bed. Liam breathed in the dizzying scent of his hair, a flowery scent contrasting his strong and intimidating body. He had probably borrowed Harry's shampoo again, the younger boy using his 'special curl shampoo' or whatever it was called, that nobody else got to touch. Clearly, Zayn had not listened to the instructions.
Over a decade into the relationship, Zayn probably knew how much it bothered Harry, he just did it because he liked to get on his poor curly husband's nerves.
-
Genevie stood up, her sock-covered feet touching the mattress as she did. She pushed one leg over the railing and with much difficulty climbed over the high bars. The little girl landed on the floor with a thump and whined a little, not having expected the pain from her small feet meeting the fuzzy carpet.
