A Year Without You - Ziam

Chapter Thirteen

February

One month, it had been a month since Zayn was admitted into the institution. Had he gotten better? Yes, but not enough to be let out extremely early. Doctor Charles said that if Zayn continued to follow the rules and everything he was told to do that would help him get better, he might be able to leave early instead of on May when he was intended to.

Zayn took his medication everyday, without missing a single day or trying to hide them under his tongue like he used to do with his mother. They helped him focus on getting better, regaining appetite, energy, and sleeping regularly like it was meant. He saw less of Liam and Ethan as each day passed by, their figured becoming almost see through as if they were ghost.

He'd see his doctor once a week for check ups, his psychiatrist once a week for therapy and he'd spend his days in the dance room not causing trouble to anyone not himself. When he wasn't in the dance room, he was out with Jay, an employee who worked in the laundry room. Zayn was assigned to work there with him for at least two hours a day, and it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. Jay would take care of the actual washing, all Zayn had to do was set the clothes into the drier then pull them out once they were dry for Jay to fold them.

Jay had been helping Zayn keep his mind off Liam and Ethan, they once came up in a conversation, when Jay asked him the reason for his stay.

"Well, back in September by boyfriend went missing, and every since then it started getting harder for me to go on with each day. I stopped doing everything I loved, like dancing, hanging out with friends, things like that. I would go to school, not pay much attention or do work, then go home and lock myself in my room the rest of the day. Not eating or talking to my family. They of course began to worry, but probably more when they would hear me talk to myself when they would pass by my room." Zayn said Jay nodding ever so often to let him know he was listening despite being occupied doing the laundry.

"But I wasn't speaking to myself, well at least that's what I would tell them. I would tell them I was speaking to Liam. That put them on edge, really. I didn't think much of it, I just thought I was missing him so much I just wanted to believe he was still here." Jay finished loading the washing machines and turned to Zayn who was leaned against a counter playing with his hands. "I started getting high from time to time and, well mostly because that's when I would see him most, like he hated that I was ruining my life with drugs so he'd appear as if to stop me. Never worked, until one day it got me terrified when I heard another voice that wasn't his, which was when my parents had enough and decided to take me to psychiatric."

"And what did he do?" Jay asked, Zayn looking up at him.

"He said it was just my mind playing games with me and prescribed me medication to help the hallucinations stop, I took them like the first three days and then I pretended to, and flushing them down the toilet when no one was around."

Jay listened closely to what Zayn was saying, Jay was a male nurse but when he wasn't needed he would work in laundry until his assistance was needed, so he was trying to diagnose Zayn, his own way.

"They of course find out when I ran away after finding they had supposedly found my boyfriend's body in the snow. I fell asleep on a bench without a sweater or jacket almost freezing myself to death. So of course I woke up in the hospital and after running tests on me they found out no traces of my medication was in my system so I had to confess. Then I got pissed drunk on New Year's and almost jumped off a cliff but passed out before I could. Which is when my family had enough and decided to bring me here to get better." Zayn shrugged as he finished telling Jay he was there.

Jay nodded, he didn't think Zayn was in bad condition, he was just missing someone he loved dearly who had gone missing. And those hallucinations, were normal. His mind would do anything to see the person that was no longer around, just because he was missing him terribly. That was it, Zayn wasn't crazy or anything along those lines. He was missing his boyfriend and that was all. They couldn't expect him not to miss someone he knew since they were five years old, someone he was completely in love with, still is. His boyfriend was ripped out of his life so quickly it took them all by surprise, mostly Zayn.