Rebuilding Zerrie

The Entire Day

ZAYN'S P.O.V.

The management had called to check on us. I told them the truth. We were fine. The girl was awake. Still no progress with Perrie. They told me that we were no longer excused to be late that day and we had to leave right away to make it to our interviews. They had given Harry the afternoon off to make sure the girl didn't kill herself or do anything stupid.

Although she was not the management's responsibility, she was ours. Every step she made would affect us and the way the public sees us. One mistake from her and it could be dubbed as a cry for attention as if she didn't have enough already. They'd manipulate every single one of her moves and find a way to blame it on us.

Niall seemed terribly worried when it was time for us to leave. He was talking to the girl with his eyebrows crumpled as he held her hand comfortingly. Liam, Kiefer, Louis and I allowed him those few cherished seconds of his and left as soon as they let go of each other.

We didn't speak at all on the way to the studio. Kiefer noticeably kept his distance from Niall who was oblivious to everything happening around him. He didn't even notice that his fly was open and that his shoelace was untied. I wondered what was going through his mind.

I knew what was going through Kiefer's, though. It was that the girl seemed to be treating Niall more like a brother than him. He was hurt and he felt regret from what he did but, honestly, as an older brother myself, his freak-out was understandable. But, as Harry's mate, I knew that he might have overreacted.

Everything seemed like a blur to me, right until the final agreement for the lawsuit. It was the first time ever, I thought, in the history of mankind, that someone had hoped for their opposing party to win.

To be honest, the brother of girl who I cheated on my girlfriend with wasn't exactly my first choice. He wasn't even one of my choices. He was a final resort. I knew nothing about his capabilities or his use of words or even his presence in the jury. All I knew was that he was our only hope for us not to put all our years of hard work to waste.

KLOE'S P.O.V.

The doctor had left but Harry hadn't. He might've been saying something but I wasn't so sure. There was a mild buzzing in my ear that muffled everything and the focus of my eyes were on that single crease on the crisp white sheets of the hospital bed.

I turned my head to look at Harry. "What?" I asked for him to repeat what he had just said but I was too messed up to fathom.

"I said," he repeated, not batting an eyelash in frustration at me for not paying attention which was a shame because I actually wanted him to be. I wanted someone to yell at me, to be angry at me for what I had done to my sisters, to my friends and to myself. They didn't know. Nobody knew but I wanted them to without having to say anything. "Do you want to go to your sisters?" He asked. "Kiefer and Zayn were there a while ago."

His voice was calm. There was no pity or remorse or any sign of emotion. It sickened me to the bone. If they wanted me to feel okay, they'd give me what I deserved, not what they thought I needed because I didn't need healing for my shoulder. I needed healing for the scars in my soul that would never go away unless someone would inexplicably loathe me.

Not a groan was uttered from my mouth when I pushed myself up from the bed, but the pain seared like pins and needles down my vertebrae. I fell flat on my back on the bed and Harry rushed in to help. I slapped him away in arrogance. "Gosh, I broke my shoulder, not my rib cage," I snapped at him as I tried once again to push myself up with one hand, succeeding this time.

I dared myself to take a look at Harry, just for one second. I wanted him to look upset with me or aggravated that I didn't accept something so simple and meant nothing more than sheer kindness, but he was actually smiling. That crooked smirk strewn across his face had my blood boiling.