Lean On Me ~Zouis Family

Twenty-Two

The meeting turned out to be a waste of time starting with the principal greeting Zayn and Lewis, and continuing to do so no matter how many times Louis tried to correct him, and ending with "At the end of the day, it's still Liam who threw the first punch so really we can't say that it was entirely Mr. Walker's fault." That was the point where Zayn walked out, lit a cigarette and cursed loudly.

Louis and Liam had dribbled out ten minutes later looking none too happy about the outcome. Louis walked with his shoulders hunched over, like he was trying to carry the weight of everything all by himself. Which he probably was, no matter how many times Zayn had tried to tell him that he wasn't to blame for anything, Louis continued to blame himself. That's just what Louis did, for as long as Zayn had known him Louis took the full weight of everything on himself.

Zayn wrapped an arm around Louis' shoulders as soon as he was close enough and pressed a kiss to his temple, trying to let him know that he was there, and it was all going to work out in the end. The three of them stood in silence for a while, all lost in thought until Zayn finally broke it.

"Well?" He asked, squeezing Louis' shoulders a little tighter.

Louis sighed deeply, "How many other schools are there here?"

"You want to move schools again?" Zayn asked, his arm slipping from around his sad husband's shoulders to grip his hand instead as they headed back to the car.

Louis' hand was loose in Zayn's as they walked, he shrugged, "I don't know." He replied, his voice soft and tired, "But they're clearly not going to take our side on this issue. Niall could have died for fuck's sake! But no, that's his fault because he shouldn't have gotten involved." Louis rolled his eyes, voice mocking that of the school principal.

Zayn tried to create reassurance by squeezing Louis' hand, "We'll figure something out alright, we always do."

Louis glanced down at Liam and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, bringing him into his side. "You okay Bud?"

Liam nodded, "I don't care what he thinks. Niall did a good thing. Stupid. But good."

"That's right." Louis agreed. "Stupid but good."

They parted ways when they reached the parking lot, Louis and Liam heading to Louis' car, and Zayn heading to his.

Zayn drove home in silence, he was starting to struggle at doing the whole strong parent thing. Louis was in pieces, he was doing a good job at hiding it, but Zayn knew him better, noticed the behaviour changes, the sadness, and the utter desperation. Louis needed Zayn to be the strong one to hold him up.

But Zayn wasn't sure he could do it this time.

He'd barely scraped by at being the strong one when Harry was going through hell, but Harry, in a way was easier to deal with. It wasn't too difficult to understand the emotions Harry was going through as a side effect of what had happened to him, Zayn had the comforting words to deal with that because at the end of the day it was another person's words and actions that put Harry in a dark place. Words and actions that Zayn couldn't relate to per se, but he was able to put himself in Harry's shoes, was able to understand the thought process of it all.

He couldn't do that with Niall.

Zayn couldn't look at himself in the mirror and call himself fat, he knew he wasn't and no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't understand it.

Niall was beginning to look like something out of a holocaust documentary. Even with his track pants and baggy jumpers, anyone could tell he was mostly skin and bone, and though he claimed to be eating, Zayn seriously doubted that was the case. Niall's cheeks were sunken in and hollow now, his hipbones looked as though they were ready to pierce through the skin containing them. His ribs were so visible you could probably play them like a xylophone. It was fucking scary.