Forever My Father

Chapter Eleven

The weekend passes by in silence. The only reason Zayn would leave his room was to use the loo, and the only reason Harry would make him leave his room was to shower but overall no one wanted to make the boy do anything really. When Monday came around, Harry was hesitant to even wake the boy for school, however, as he made his way downstairs he saw that the boy was already up and dressed.

Harry was quick to assure the boy if he wasn't ready he could stay home for the day, but Zayn was quick to deny the man, he even begged to be able to run to school. Now Harry and Liam were definitely hesitant over that, however, they finally seemed to agree and allowed the young boy to run on his own.

For some reason running always seemed to be the answer for Zayn. Now don't try and be a psychologists and say he's running away from his problems because that's far from the truth. Zayn runs to figure out his problems. Whether it be to decide if he goes with his friends on a camping trip or stay home and chill with one of his cousins who ends up getting sick. Or simply if he should ask a girl out or not. No one knows where it came from but Zayn always does it, and Harry and Liam can't bring themselves to deny him when he asks if he can go on a run.

So basically this entire week Zayn ran to and from school no matter how late he had to stay due to hockey practice. Another thing people might assume is that Zayn has given up putting effort into hockey for the moment because of everything going on, however, it seems to be the absolute opposite. This past week they had three games and in those three games Zayn scored 7 goals which is almost unheard of.

So all in all from the outsiders of Zayn's life they would assume everything is fine, if not better than before, whereas everyone who actually knows the boy can see he's dying on the inside.

Now as the following weekend approaches Harry knows it's now or never to talk to the boy about the things that happened due to the fact that it will only be him, Zayn, and Liam home this weekend. Louis was allowed to go on his camping trip, and Niall got invited to a music festival up in Leeds. So now Saturday morning has arrived and Harry has no idea where to start.

"Liam we need to talk to him," Harry says as he paces the kitchen for the umpteenth time.

"I know, Haz, you've said that, but what do you want to do? He's still in that funk think of his and you know how hard it is to get him to actually listen when he's in it. Babe we need to come up with a plan for what we're going to say," Liam replies once again.

"But how do you even plan conversations like these? Oh we're meeting with the lawyers tonight to discuss the custody issues, feel free to join? It doesn't work like that Liam," Harry says in an annoyed manner. And Harry expects Liam to reply something along the lines of he needs to calm down, however, a different voice replies instead.

"He actually sent lawyers?" Zayn asks in a quiet but painful voice, and Harry curses himself for having this conversation in the kitchen.

"We instigated the act, love. Originally it was a lawsuit for him assaulting you but then it turned into the custody agreement," Liam speaks softly while making his way over to the boy. "Love, I think it's time we talked." And with that being said Zayn nods his head but nonetheless doesn't move. Rather than speaking up again, though, Liam simply guides the boy over to the couches where he then situates him onto his lap as Harry sits in front of him.

"Throughout the week we've been talking to your father about everything that happened last week as well as everything that he's been hiding. We have all come to an agreement over a wide variety of points and choices and today we just need to have a verbal conversation with lawyers about any last minute changes," Harry speaks slowly watching Zayn's eyes throughout the whole thing.