Hurt

Chapter 31 [Part 3 of Zayn's P.O.V]

ZAYN'S P.O.V

CHAPTER 31

Ten hours earlier

My phone wouldn't stop vibrating. I left it in my room to charge, because I thought it was just Bella texting me. I really wasn't in the mood to talk to her. Or anybody. After my phone vibrated for about the fiftieth time, I ran into my room and picked up my phone to see what was going on. It was Eoghan. I had forty text messages from Eoghan and they were still coming in.

I decided to call him instead of text him. He picked up right away. "Zayn!" he said in a nervous yell.

"Eoghan? What's going on?"

"Carly... Niall... she..."

I swallowed. Something bad happened, I could tell by Eoghan's voice. "Eoghan, mate! Spill it!"

"I found Carly, but Niall is nowhere to be found!" Eoghan said. I heard the highway behind him and a baby, which I assumed was Carly, crying in the background. "I found her on my front steps. There was no note, no nothing. Someone rang my doorbell and ran away. The only way I knew it was Carly was from the pictures Niall had sent me when she was born."

Niall had sent pictures to Eoghan when Carly was born? "This is crazy," I said running my hand through my hair. There was no way this day could get even more fucked up- Danae shows up at my door, now Eoghan is calling me, telling me that Carly is partially safe but Niall is not?

"I know, man," Eoghan said. "I'm almost to your apartment."

"What?" I said to Eoghan, sitting down on my bed. "Eoghan, you can't come here! You don't want to come here, at least. And how are you almost here?"

"I've been traveling since yesterday," Eoghan said in a worried whisper. I could tell he was confused. Scared, even. "I'm sorry. I should've told you earlier."

"Damn right, you should've told me earlier!" I almost yelled in the phone. "Where are you now?"

"Entering Bradford in about ten minutes."

I breathed in deep. "Alright, well, just come straight to my place, I guess," I said. I didn't need this much stress right now. I had lost the love of my life, not sure how to get her back, and not exactly sure if I wanted her back. "I'm 78 Abbeydale Drive."

One hour later

Eoghan entered my house with Carly in his arms. She was getting big. I wondered how Niall was feeding her without having a mother around. She was still alive, so he must've found some way to feed her. It was possible to feed a baby something other than breast milk, but it was uncommon.

"She's starving," Eoghan said as he sat her down on the couch.

"Wait, she can sit?" I asked as I grabbed a box of Cheerios from the cupboard. I surprisingly remembered my mom telling me that Cheerios should be a baby's first food.

"Do you have some sort of table we could put these on?" Eoghan asked. I nodded and ran into the other room and grabbed a stand-up table from the wall. I set it up in front of Carly and put the Cheerios out.

"Okay, what now?" Eoghan asked. I shrugged my shoulders. Carly wasn't touching the Cheerios. She just looked around my apartment. "Maybe she's too young to eat Cheerios."

Nine hours later

Carly had eventually eaten the Cheerios with no argument. She did throw some on the floor and make a mess chewing up random things I lay around in the house. Eoghan and I decided to put her to sleep, but before we could, I heard a knock at my door. "I'll get it," Eoghan offered, but I pushed him out of the way.

"No, Eoghan. It's fine. I'll get it," I told him with Carly still in my arms. I opened the door and came face-to-face with Bella. She looked stunned as soon as she saw me. Her mouth was wide open with feelings of both awe and uncertainty. "Hi," I said.

"Hi," Bella mumbled. "Um, I need to talk to you. Alone. Outside."

"I really don't want to," I said. "There's been enough stress on my back. Eoghan just came here with Carly and Niall is nowhere to be found. So, as of now, we're taking care of her. And I'm not exactly sure how long we will be taking care of her for. And when Danae showed up at my door this morning, that was just added stress. I don't need to get into a big argument with you right now."

I stopped and looked at Bella before I slammed the door in her face. She looked beautiful- her hair was ombre and put up into a high ponytail. Her outfit was cute, and she was wearing little makeup. She was always beautiful without makeup, but she was still absolutely stunning with it.

When Bella saw that Carly was in my arms, I swear her mouth dropped to the floor. "Zayn?" she said. "Is that Carly?"

I swallowed hard. I listened to Eoghan's footsteps come closer to where I was standing. Bella immediately recognized him. "Is that... is that the boy that you met in Ireland?" she said. Hopefully she wasn't angry at me. I did nothing wrong, and for her to be annoyed at me in any way would make no sense.

"Uh, yeah," I said, handing Carly to Eoghan. He took her in his arms hesitantly. "Try and put her to bed, will you?" I asked him. He nodded. "I need to try and explain to Bella what is going on here."

Bella walked into my apartment without an invite and plopped herself on the couch. I sat on the armchair across from her. There was no way I was going to sit that close to her. "Explain," she said suddenly, looking down at her nails and then back up at me. She tended to do that when she was nervous.

"Alright, well Eoghan found Carly on his doorstep-"

"Wait, how did he know it was Carly?"

"Will you let me tell my story without interrupting me?" I asked her. This was a bad habit of hers. Interrupting. I watched her nod her head up and down. "Alright. So Eoghan found her on his front steps. He happened to recognize her because he remembered seeing her in the pictures Niall sent of her when she was first born. But what I was wondering is why would Niall send Eoghan pictures?"

"We'll, weren't they close friends?" Bella asked. I nodded.

"But Carly looked different in the pictures than she does now," I said. "She was a premature baby."

Bella took a big breath in. "Do you guys know where Niall is?" she asked.

I shook my head. "He's nowhere to be found," I said.

Bella started to stand up. "I better go. It's not good for me to be here."

I didn't completely agree with her, but I needed to let her go home. She was probably overwhelmed with everything that I had just told her. I had to talk to Eoghan about Niall, though, and I demanded answers.