"Who is Liam Payne.." Liam muttered, repeating Zayn's question.
"Tell me."
"Well, it's not a very interesting story," Liam finally said. "My parents were never married. Or even together for that matter. I was the product of a one-night stand. They dumped me with my grandparents in their ancestral home once I was born. My grandparents were the ones that raised me. Initially. My father visited once in a while. Sometimes for birthdays and Christmas. My grandma, uh, she passed away when I was fourteen. Cancer. Grandpa passed away a few months later. Probably depression from losing his wife. They have been together since they were eighteen. They really loved each other."
"I'm sorry."
"It's okay" Liam said. "After that it was just nannies or some other person that my parents hired to look after me. Until I turned eighteen. Then I moved out. Moved here. And that's about it." Liam shrugged once he was done talking, his face completely devoid of emotions.
Zayn kept glancing at him every couple minutes, a soft frown on his face. He had no idea that Liam grew up with absent parents, and the fact that he was talking about it so casually worried him.
"Do you still talk to your parents? I remember you mentioning something about your father the other day" Zayn pointed out.
"I haven't spoken to my mother in maybe five years now. Heck, I think I can count on one hand the amount of times I've physically met her in my entire life," Liam scoffed. "My dad... he's somewhat better in this regard. He apologized recently and we've been... we've been trying to build a relationship."
"Better late than never" Zayn said as he finally pulled into the parking lot of his building. "But this... this sounds rough. Not having your parents around"
"Going to parent teacher conferences in school sucked, so did shadowing your parents for a day's assignments but other than that I was fine" Liam shrugged. "My maman? She was epic. I was happy growing up, despite the crap with my parents. So, don't worry."
Zayn parked, before turning off the ignition and unbuckling his seat belt. He turned to face Liam, who had just gotten done removing his belt as well. Zayn was at a loss for words, he grew up in a big and happy family, so hearing Liam's story made his heart ache for the other man. All he wanted was to make things better for Liam. To make him happy.
"I'm glad," Zayn smiled, rather forcefully, before pressing his lips in a thin line as if he was keeping himself from saying something. Liam raised a brow in question.
"This is probably not the right time to be asking this but... did you think about what I asked you? About going to San Francisco with me?"
Liam licked his lower lip as he stared at Zayn, who looked nervous due to the anticipation of Liam's answer.
Liam did think about it. But he also didn't. He made a list in his head with the pros and cons, and when he got frustrated he pretended like Zayn never asked him the question. But ignoring it didn't make it go away, and he knew he had to give an answer soon. And the soon seemed to have arrived quicker than he thought.
There were a lot of things to consider. And Liam tried to calculate them all. But now that he was sitting in front of Zayn, with the other man waiting eagerly for his answer- the only thing that Liam could think about was whether he wanted to go with Zayn or not. Whether he wanted to be with him or if he wanted to spend four days alone?
"Yes" Liam said.
"Yes?" Zayn's eyebrows shot up in surprise, as if he was expecting Liam to deny.
"Yeah, why not?" Liam shrugged, trying to play it cool. "It's a free vacation."
