Life after Payne

Chapter 3

ZAYN'S POV

The phone buzzed on the counter, breaking the uneasy silence of the room. I wasn't expecting a call, especially not from him. The name on the screen stared back at me, and for a moment, I just stood there, unmoving. It wasn't a name that popped up often anymore—not since the group splintered, and our lives spun off in different directions.

Louis' name popped up in my caller ID.

My fingers hovered over the screen before I finally picked it up, something about the timing feeling... off. "Yeah?" I said, my voice rough from a sleepless night.

"Zayn..." The way he said my name froze me in place. It wasn't casual, not even close. His voice cracked like he was trying to hold himself together, and the sinking feeling in my chest deepened.

"What is it?" I asked, sharper now, the unease creeping into my words. I could feel it coming, something bad, something I didn't want to hear.

There was a pause—long, heavy, unbearable. And then: "It's Liam." His voice broke completely this time. "He's gone, Zayn. Liam passed away."

The world around me tilted, and for a second, I thought I might faint. "No," I whispered, shaking my head as if denying it could somehow undo what I'd just heard. "No, that... that's not true. What are you talking about? He can't be—"

"I'm sorry," the voice on the other end said, but the words blurred together, distant and meaningless. It was like the air had been sucked out of the room, leaving me gasping for breath, trying to make sense of it all.

Liam. Gone.

The phone slipped from my hand and hit the floor, but I didn't even register the sound. My knees buckled, and I sank into the nearest chair, my head falling into my hands. My chest felt like it was caving in, the pressure unbearable, my heart pounding so hard I thought it might stop altogether.

Images of Liam filled my mind in rapid flashes—his stupid grin, the way he used to tease me, the warmth in his voice when he called me "bro." I could almost hear his laugh, the sound of it clear and real in my head, like some cruel trick my mind was playing on me.

My throat tightened, and the first sob escaped before I could stop it. I hadn't cried like this in years, not since I was a kid. But now, the tears came freely, hot and relentless, streaking down my face as the full weight of the news crushed me.

He was the glue, wasn't he? The one who tried to hold us together when everything started falling apart. He'd been there through it all—the highs, the lows, the moments that felt like they'd last forever. And now... he was just gone.

The grief hit me in waves, each one more brutal than the last. I wanted to scream, to punch something, to drown myself in anything that would numb this unbearable ache in my chest. But all I could do was sit there, trembling, as memories of Liam overwhelmed me.

I thought about the last time we'd spoken—how casual it had been, how I'd taken it for granted that there'd always be another chance. My stomach churned as the realization hit me: there wouldn't be another chance. There'd be no more laughs, no more stupid inside jokes, no more Liam.

The silence in the room was deafening, broken only by the sound of my own ragged breathing. I pressed my palms to my eyes, trying to block out the tears, the pain, the truth. But there was no escaping it.

Liam Payne was gone. And with him, a piece of my life, my history, my heart—something I'd never get back. I felt hollow, like a part of me had been ripped away, leaving nothing but an aching void in its place.

For the first time in years, I felt truly, utterly alone.