Falling For You

Chapter 10

After being screamed at by Mr Cowell for nearly 20 minutes, Liam is finally excused from his office to return to class. He exits the office with 3 weeks of detention, while Maverick walks away with 2 days.

Bullshit. Liam had been screaming that in his head the entire time he'd been sitting there. He can feel everyone's eyes on him as he walks into his first period History class.

Mr Higgins doesn't say anything, only points toward his seat and continues with his lesson. Once Liam has sat down, he looks up toward the front of the class to where Zayn should be sitting. But his seat is empty.

Liam turns around in his seat to check the rest of the room, but no Zayn. Liam tunes out Mr Higgins for a moment while he thinks about where Zayn might be. Maybe he skipped? Went home? What if Maverick is stirring shit up again?

Lord knows Mr Cowell is homophobic as shit, and will let Maverick do whatever the fuck wants. Liam thinks to himself. He only gave Maverick the 2 days detention because it would have looked bad if he hadn't.

Suddenly, Mr Higgins says something that catches Liam's attention. "Liam, where's Zayn?" Liam glances up to see all eyes turned to him again.

"I'm not sure, sir." Liam says, and Mr Higgins looks back down at his attendance sheet, clearly concerned about his student after what happened early that day.

"Do you have any idea where he might be?" Mr Higgins asks.

"I might. Do you want me to go look for him?" Liam asks, praying that Mr Higgins lets him leave.

"If you could, yes. Thank you." Mr Higgins says, already dismissing the thought and turning back to the board. Liam jumps out of his seat and heads for the door.

Once he's out in the hallway, he turns left, heading for the bathrooms. Zayn's gone there to hide before, he might be there now. As soon as Liam enters the bathroom, he can hear sniffling coming from the very last stall.

"Zayn?" He calls softly, and the noises abruptly stop. Liam takes small steps toward the stall in question. "Zayn, please come out." Liam pleads, knocking softly on the stall door.

"Just leave me be." Zayn's voice comes quietly from inside the stall.

"No, Zayn, you're clearly not ok, and I can't leave you by yourself when you're like this." Liam reasons. "Just come out, we can go back home, you don't have to go back to class."

"No, I can't go back to your house." Zayn whispers, and Liam leans against the door.

"Why not, babe?" Liam asks, softly, trying to keep his voice quiet.

"I don't deserve how good you are to me. I'm the reason you got hurt and got in trouble, and I'm such a burden, and I don't deserve the way that you treat me." Liam can hear the tears returning to Zayn's voice.

"OK, Zayn, that's ridiculous. You are so amazing and you deserve the world." Liam tries to reason, but Zayn won't listen.

"No, I'm ruining your life. I don't deserve to be alive." Zayn whispers that last part, and Liam isn't sure if he was even meant to hear that, but he decides that is enough.

"Ok, that's enough, I'm coming in." Liam says, dropping to the floor and pulling himself under the stall door.

He stands up and turns to face Zayn, to find him sitting on the floor, a razor sitting in his lap, and cuts lining his wrists. Zayn is frantically attempting to cover his wrists, but Liam is just standing there in shock.

What is wrong with me? Liam thinks. How could I have not realized this was happening? Liam takes two tentative steps forward and kneels in front of Zayn.