Hypnophobic. 》Ziam AU

7 ➳ Hypnophobic

I watched as a tall, olive skinned boy with raven black hair and golden eyes plowed around the small cafe in search of me.

The moment he spotted me, he stomped all the way over to me, grabbed me by the hood, pulled me up from the cushion of the booth seat, and looked me right in the eye, and I half expected him to punch me. "You. Scared. The. Shit. Out. Of. Me. You fucker," he choked, pulling me into a hug.

"Careful," I said pulling away, and his eyes widened in alarm, thinking I was hurt as he pulled away, but I just leaned forward and put my mouth to his ear. "I might beat you into a coma," I whispered, and then I sat back down in the booth and began playing on my phone to avoid talking to the golden eyed boy.

"Liam..." He sighed, sitting across from me. "Look, I didn't mean that. I just... Look, I'm sorry. I just don't like to talk about... Yanno..." He mumbled.

"We spend most of our time together, Zayn. For the past two weeks you've gone with me wherever I go mainly. We have most of the same classes, we share a dorm, you've showed me more around town. We go everywhere together except to bed. Because you lay down, but then when I wake up, you're no longer there." I said, not really showing any emotion.

"I know, I know. Look, Liam, I will tell you. Okay? I'll tell you if that'll make this better. Because I don't want to spend the rest of the year having you hate me. So please. If I tell you, promise you'll forgive me, because this isn't something I usually ever share with anyone, not because it's all that bad, but because it's really no ones business, and it's something I have a lot of trouble with and am ashamed of," he tried to explain.

I nodded, sipping my hot chocolate and locking my phone, putting it face down next to me to signal to him that he had my full attention.

"Okay..." He took a deep breath. "I'm hypnophobic. Hypnophobia is the abnormal fear of falling asleep. I've had it as long as I can remember, so basically always. I'm scared of falling asleep so I find things to preoccupy me until I end up passing out, some times not even back at my dorm. Sometimes it's painting or drawing, sometimes it's driving, sometimes it's partying, sometimes it's walking or running, sometimes it's video games, sometimes it's just laying awake in bed.

"It's not something I ever talk about because who the fuck else do you know that's scared to fall asleep?" He asked, laughing bitterly and shaking head head. His fingers traced the grain in the wooden table we sat at, his hand trembling as he spoke.

"The doctors have tried everything. And the best part about being scared to fall asleep is I can never hold a relationship cause guess who's always gone by the time the sex is over," he looked down at his lap and shifted uncomfortably.

"Why," I asked.

"I don't know... There's more than one reason I guess. I mean, there's so much that could happen when you fall asleep, yanno? Mostly bad things. But you miss things too, you can miss good things. And what if you never wake up again? You risk so much when you fall asleep, so I just try to never risk it. And when I do fall asleep, I have nightmares. So I find it better to just stay awake as long as possible," he sighed.

"No, why do you think this is something to be ashamed of? We all have things we wanna hide, but believe me, it's okay to tell people this stuff. Because your friends will probably help you better than any doctor most of the time. I will help you Zayn," I told him softly, my eyebrows furrowing in sympathy as I reached across the table and placed my larger hand on his trembling one.

And he looked up at me and I saw pure fear, all throughout his eyes.

"It'll be okay," I whispered.

"Do you... Uh do you like forgive me..?" He asked quietly, as if he was scared to speak too loud for he might anger me.

"Of course, Zayn. Besides, at least you're not part of some Alpaca smuggling Underground Railroad, then we would have a real problem, cause I don't think I could handle something like that," I teased, the corners of my mouth tugging upwards genuinely.

He grinned and nodded. "No, no smuggling alpacas," he whispered, laughing.

➳ ➳ ➳

[[ Short chapter aha sorry. So Zayn finally showed his vulnerable side, opposed to his usual laid back self. Should he have waited? ]]

[[ Don't forget to vote & comment feedback! Thank you! ]]