What Are The Odds?

ten

"Zayn! Jawaad's here!" Zayn hears his mother yell.

"I'll be there in a minute, mum!" Zayn shouts back as he flushes the brown vomit down the toilet.

After getting changed and coming back downstairs, Zayn helped his family arrange some of the food platters a bit but after walking around for about fifteen minutes the boy had the familiar feeling form in his throat so he quickly excused himself for the rest room. He knows he should probably tell his mother that he was just sick, but then he thought about her crying on Doni's shoulder the previous evening and he decided to not ruin her day again.

So the boy rinsed his mouth a bit and added a bit of his sister's blush to his cheeks to make it look like he had some color in him before finally exiting the restroom and going over to the living room. Upon entering the room, Zayn immediately saw a good amount of his family there, and he couldn't help but wonder how long he was in the restroom, however before he could think about it he was cut off by a hug.

"Zayn!" Jawaad shouted as he ran over to his slightly younger cousin. "I've missed you! How are you doing?" Jawaad asks with the world's biggest smile.

"I'm doing great, was even able to come home for a bit," Zayn said in an attempt at being genuine. "Happy birthday by the way, um, I didn't have time to get you a gift."

"That's alright, you're here! That's all I could ever ask for in a present," Jawaad said as he hugged the boy once more.

From there Zayn was forced to go say hi to all his other relatives that were already at the house even though each greeting was basically the same. They would say their hello's, give the boy a bigger than necessary hug, and then turn to his mother with sympathetic smiles. Occasionally someone would ruffle his still existing hair and tell him that it's just hair, it'll grow back eventually when this is all over.

Jawaad assisted Zayn at going outside a little later where the rest of the cousins were running around and just having an overall good time. They were lining up to start their game of manhunt, a Malik family tradition and one of Zayn's favorite games, just as Jawaad and Zayn stepped outside.

"Jawaad come on you're on my team!" One of the cousins closer to Safaa's age shouted.

Jawaad immediately went down to meet them while practically dragging Zayn along with him. The two captains continued to pick players until someone said they were settled, and, well, they would be settled except Zayn's name wasn't ever called.

"Where do I go?" Zayn asked right before everyone went off to either count or hide, and that's when the group froze.

They had all assumed Zayn was just too sick to be playing the game. It was silent for a good ten seconds, and that's all it took for Zayn to get the message across.

"Nev-never mind, I'll just go help my mum with the food," Zayn said quickly only to be stopped by Doni placing a hand on his shoulder. "It's fine Doni, I'll catch the next game."

And that's all Zayn said before walking away from the group and started to make his way up the few steps that led to the back porch, however, as Zayn got to the fourth step he found himself once again out of breath.

"Here, let me help you Zayn," Doni said after noticing her brother struggling, but Zayn was not having it.

"I don't need help! Let go of me," Zayn shouted as he struggled to get out of his sister's grasp which only caught the attention of the rest of the family members on the porch, including his mother.

"Doni, go with your cousins, I'll help Zayn," Trisha said while wrapping an arm around the boy's waist to help him up the steps.

With a sigh Doni went back to the group of cousins and Zayn allowed his mother to help him up the steps, but the minute he was on single leveled land again he was shrugging himself away from her and walking over to the TV. Zayn situated himself on the couch by the TV, away from the rest of the family, and just frowned.