31 Days.. (a zayn malik fanfiction)

chapter 13-gone

CHAPTER 13: GONE
1:37PM. Zayn still hadn’t come home. 8 hours and 7 minutes. 8 hours and 7 minutes I spent sitting in the exact same spot as soon as he left. Waiting. “I’ll be back in an hour! Promise!”, those words kept replaying over and over and over again in my head, for 8 hours and now, 8 minutes. I had no idea where he went, all I knew was that he was picking up a “friend”, a girl “friend”, that Lou obviously did not approve of, and that I had been waiting for him to come back, sitting at the dining table, with an incredibly sore ass, for 8 hours and 8 minutes. 
He didn’t return let alone answer any of my calls, or any of the boys calls for that matter. Lou had stayed upstairs all early morning in his room avoiding me since Zayn had left, and made a quick disappearing act to head out with his girlfriend, Eleanor, around brunch. He was clearly hiding from me, knowing that once I got a hold of him, I was going to interrogate him until he spilled every single detail. I knew something was going on, I knew for sure that this time I wasn’t over thinking.
“Maybe! It was raining in the early morning, like thunderstorms and stuff and Zayn couldn’t manage to head home, so he had to stay somewhere else..safe?” Harry suggested nodding his head,
His upbeat tone was like this all morning and afternoon as he sat with me coming up with endless ideas to where Zayn could possibly be. His eyes alerted up as he pointed his finger to the ceiling as if he had a genius idea, “Or! Maybe he.. he ran out of petrol! Yes! That’s gotta be it.” 
Despite Harry’s constant optimism I couldn’t get myself to pull out of this horrible and bland mood. It was one thing to leave without explanation, but it was another to leave me waiting hours on end without any form of communication to his whereabouts, when he said he’d only be an hour. When he said he’d promise to be home in an hour. The more I thought about it, the more I felt like shit and the more I felt like the situation was only getting worse. Harry had put up with my blank facial expressions and inability to speak all morning and I was surprised he stuck by me and didn’t just give up and walk away to play FIFA or something.
I stared vacantly into the distance and Harry’s head suddenly appeared in my vision, pulling a face. “Harry, what are you doing?” I asked with a facial expression as blank as a wall and a voice as monotone as Google Translator,
He pulled another face, popping out his eyes and flaring his large nostrils, “Pulling faces, what does it look like?” he changed again, going cross eyed this time and poking out his tongue, “Don’t let these looks fool you, I’m not just a pretty face!” 
I wanted to laugh, I really did. But the more hours that had gone by since Zayn’s disappearance, the more pissed off I got. So much for him being smitten, huh? 
Harry took my rejection well. It was like the more I ignored him, the more ambitious he got. Each time he attempted to make me feel better, it was just as innovative as the last try. 
“Do you know anything about what’s going on? With this girl?” I finally asked, emphasising my crude tone on ‘girl’, 
Harry smiled his quirky smile lifting his hands into the air, “Ah! She speaks!”
I shot him a tired and impatient look letting him know I wanted an answer straight away. He took the hint and cleared his throat, “Erm, no, no I don’t. Lou is much more closer to Zayn than I am. They talk a lot.”
I nodded and sat there in this pool of patheticness, feeling absolutely stupid for what I got myself into. I had been shredding the tissues in front of me that Liam thought I needed incase I were to burst into tears, using it as some sort of stress reliever. But more so to kill time.
Harry let out a long sigh, “Now that I think about it, erm, a couple days before he met you, I remember like, Zayn was a bit different. Well, he was acting differently. We were at the clubs… yeah, that’s right, we were at the clubs and something went down with him and this girl..Maybe that was it?”
I gulped, just what I wanted to hear. A girl in the way.
*** Louis’ P.O.V ***
Sometimes it was just too hard to grasp what was going on in Zayn’s head. He was a good and genuine lad, he would know what was right and what was wrong, but then this other side of him would sometimes just take over. His bad boy side. The way he just up and left this morning really left me speechless. Speechless and disappointed. After the stupid shit he went through a couple of weekends ago you’d think he would have learned his lesson. You’d think he’d appreciate Holly that much more. Holly basically took him out of that bad light as they met merely days after that dramatic weekend. Ever since they met, I had never seen Zayn so happy, so carefree and just so together. And it was all thanks to her. And here Zayn was fucking it up for himself and dragging along Holly’s feelings on top of it. 
‘Mate. What are you doing? You know I love ya but this is just crazy. You need to, no, you have to get your ass back to Holly.’
It was now 2:00PM and it was clear that he still did not return from ‘picking up his friend’. 
My BlackBerry buzzed as it received Zayn’s reply:
‘jus drp it. im 21 in 2 days. i can take care ov myselfff.’
There were two things I gathered from this text; 1) That yes, his birthday indeed was in 2 days, which meant so was Holly’s and 2) The extra letters in his text made me realise he must’ve been drunk. At 2 in the afternoon? This girl was just no good for him. 
‘Okay. Just please don’t do anything stupid. Take care. xx’
There was no point in arguing with Zayn, especially through text and especially since he was drunk. I was very worried about him, not for his safety though, I knew he would take care of himself, but I was more worried to what he would do. This girl knew how to twist Zayn around her little finger, she made that clear on that weekend, it sickened me. But I was more worried for Holly. It was so easy to see inside of her was a fragile little girl simply scared of getting heart broken and Zayn was walking on thin ice to make her fear come true. 
I only want the best for Zayn and as soon as Holly showed up in his life it was immediately clear that she was going to change him. She knew how to bring out the best in Zayn without any sort of effort or any knowledge on how to. She had to stay in his life and I wasn’t going to let Zayn ruin possibly the best thing that could ever happen to him. I owed him that as a friend. 
I picked up my phone, pressed his name on my speed dial and waited for him to pick up. I was sent directly to voicemail.
*** Holly’s POV ***
I laid my head on the table, closing my eyes, wishing everything would just go away. All of these stupid emotions. I wish they would just go away. This was on the top of my list of why I hate boys and relationships; they fuck up your mind and they fuck up your heart. 
I experienced a mini heart attack, jumping in my seat when I heard my phone ringing and buzzing beside me. An unknown number appeared on the screen and I quickly picked up without hesitation, “ZAYN?” I yelled with panic in my voice,
“Emily.” the voice on the other end said,
“Oh.” I slouched down on to my chair, rubbing the temples of my forehead, “Hey Em.”
Harry’s facial expression looked sympathetic and he gave me the nod telling me he’d give me a few minutes alone to talk with Em. 
“I’m calling you from our hotel room by the way. It’s nice to hear from you babe, since like, YOU NEVER ACTUALLY RETURNED ANY OF MY CALLS, MESSAGES OR EMAILS!!” she screamed,
“I.. I’m really sorry, I just,” the emotions inside of me began to surface as her voice reminded me of home, I tried my best to hold back the tears that were just screaming to come out, but I could only do it for so long, “I just, I just need you Emily,” I finally let out,
She paused, “Send me the address. I’ll pick you up. It’s time for you to come home.”
Her words made me feel safe again and less alone. Oh, how I missed my sweet Emily. We really hadn’t been spending any time together since we had arrived here in London, like we were meant to be in the first place. “I do. I’ll send it now. Bye.”
“See you in a bit babe, I love you.”
“I love you too.” 
I hung up and quickly texted her the address and got off from my seat to look for the other boys. I rubbed my sore butt staring at the imprint on my chair, not believing how long I actually spent sitting there waiting. When I remembered why I was waiting, it was like a knife through the heart.
“There she is!” Niall said as he came towards me arms open wide,
Ah. The classic Horan hug. I wasn’t going to lie, it did make me feel a little better. As we broke apart from our hug, Liam and Harry quickly bombarded me with their arms squishing me tight. I couldn’t believe how adorable they were. 
“Thanks guys, it means a lot..” I said, 
They all smiled. Liam reached from behind him and revealed a container full of cupcakes from behind his back, “We know you like donuts but we don’t have a donut maker. So me and Niall made cupcakes for you! We hope you like it!” he said while Niall swang from side to side smiling proudly at his efforts,
“Oh my God, guys, thank you! I love it so much!” I squealed, forcing them all for another group hug,
How the hell were they this adorable?
“….So I’m going back to my hotel, my best friend is going to pick me up. I should really be with her right now.”
“We understand,” Liam replied whilst the other boys nodded, 
We all made our way to the couch as they waited with me for Emily watching a bit of T.V. Every so often we’d casually talk and I was glad none of them brought up the whole situation with Zayn, I was glad they were making me slowly forget the fact that I’d been up for hours stressing and worrying.
There was knock on the door and I grabbed my things and gave everyone goodbye hugs. Harry picked himself up and followed me, walking me to the door.
“Don’t worry about this whole thing with Zayn. I’m sure it’s nothing. It’ll be fine.” he said, cuddling me on the side,
“Thanks Harry,” 
“And when Zayn comes back I’ll be sure to text you!”
I smiled half heartedly, “Please don’t. I think I’d like to have a day free of Zayn.”
He looked surprised but nodded like he understood. I opened the door and was greeted by Emily’s blue eyes and her warming smile. I really did miss her. She jumped at me for a hug and waved to Harry as they introduced themselves to one another. I peaked inside the apartment again yelling goodbye to the boys once more and waved Harry goodbye one last time.
*** Harry’s POV ***
I watched Holly and her friend walk through the corridors from my door until I could no longer see them. I was a bit taken away when she said she wanted a “Zayn free day”. I wasn’t completely sure how serious this situation was let alone what was happening so I had no idea how she could possibly be feeling. However, there was one thing I did know and that was that Zayn wasn’t known for leaving without a full explanation and the fact that he’d been gone all morning and afternoon was just not like him at all. 
As I turned around to shut the door behind me Liam came running up to me with his phone in his hand, “It’s a text!” he said, waving his screen in my face, “From Zayn!”