Illusion (Ziall Horlik) AU

Chapter 2

Zayn's POV

My eyes burnt and my head begged me for sleep, but I didn't give in. I just splashed cold water on my face and went on with my morning. I slipped on a shirt that I had bought and wear almost every day because I know that it's real. I know it's real because I bought it after I was diagnosed, so it had to be real.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, so I picked it up but didn't bother even looking at it. I heard Louis start saying something to me like he was making sure I knew this was real life. I rolled my eyes and cut him off because he doesn't need to be stupid.

"Why are you calling me? Just checking up on the mental case?" I asked him. He went silent for a few minutes like he was trying to think of a nice way to call me crazy or a nice way to tell me I'm not crazy. It's the truth so why should I try to say I'm anything but that? You can't hidefrom the truth and you couldn't make an excuse for the truth either.

"No, l was calling to tell you to get ready because I'm in front of your house and we're going out for the day." He told me sadly. I scrunched my eyebrows together and walked over to my window to see Louis' car was parked outside my house. He cleared his throat over the phone, causing me to make sure that was real. I looked down at my shirt, then looked at the new tattoos I had on my arm. Those things made me know this was real, so I grabbed my wallet and made my way out of my room.

"Zayn, where are you going?" My dad asked me after I opened the front door. I just pointed outside and hoped he was seeing what I was seeing too. He gave me a smiled and kissed my temple before letting me out of the house. Sometimes it's like my dad thinks I turned into a little kid again and he ends up kissing me and tryingto cuddle me. One of the many doctors that tried to help me came up with the theory that I wasn't given attention as a child so my brain started making up people to give me the attention I didn't get. I think he really took that to heart even though another doctor said that theory was incorrect.

I climbed into the passenger seat and gave Louis a smile, but the smile that was on his face fell immediately. He reached out with his small hand and let his thumb run under the dark circles under my eyes. I turned my head to looked straight ahead of me and hoped that he would stop looking at me.

"When was the last time you slept, Zayn? I'm saying this in the nicest way possible, but you look horrible." Louis told me. I looked at him and shrugged to answer his question. He sighed, butjust started to drive off down the street anyway. We stayed silent as he drove for a few minutes before I remembered I hadn‘t taken my morning pills yet. I look around Louis' car and found a water bottle that was full. I took out the extra pills I kept in my wallet for reasons like this and put those in my mouth before drinking some of his water to wash the three pills down. I didn't think he would mind because we've been best friends for years and have literally shared just about everything with each other.

"What were those? You're not like a drug addict now, are you?” Louis joked, but I heard the small amount of seriousness behind his voice.

"I have to take two antidepressants and one bipolar medication. There isn't anything for schizophrenia so they make different combinations of pills that will cover some ofthe symptoms. You don't have to be scared of me getting hooked on these. I hate taking them and I have to take them three times a day." I told him, feeling the weird tension in the car build more and more as I talked. Neither of us said anything after that. He just drove us through town while I looked out the window.

We finally got to our destination and it was some weird modern art museum. I looked at him in confusion because he never goes to these things with me. I always end up going to art museums by myself no matter how many times | ask him. Hejumped out ofthe car, sol followed his lead and followed him into the museum. He didn't say much to me until we got to the middle of the museum where there was some really crazy paintings going on. My eyes seemed to pick out small details of things and get captivated with each and every art piece. A soft hand on my shoulder brought me back to remember Iwas with Louis.