Rebuilding Zerrie

Missing

DAY 19

Everything going swell. We got the tickets, Zayn was smiling all the time which made everyone else smile too and Harry was no longer avoiding me. We still weren't on speaking terms yet but I had a feeling we would be soon. I hoped, at least. We were finally okay enough to at least sit next to each other in the car on the way to my house.

He wasn't tense. He wasn't smiling either, though, but baby steps. On my other side was Niall and we played Ketchup until we stopped to hang out at my crib. They were already getting sick of their hotel room, plus, they missed my brother who had been too lazy to get off his freaking ass ever since the court trial ended. Now that he the case was over, he seemed to tired to do anything lately. I guess he was bored.

"He probably looks as hot as Mary now," Louis joked as we got out of the car. Oh, Mary. I remembered her. We were laughing up until we stepped foot in my house. The twins were on the couch playing Monopoly, looking as identical as ever since Spring's skin was now a rosy shade of pink. Maegan was looking active. She was skinnier but she was alive, at least.

Niall ran to give her a half-hug hello. "Glad you're okay now," he told her as he rubbed her arm. I went over and hugged my sisters as well.

"Where's Kiefer's room?" Louis cut our mini-family-plus-Niall-reunion short but I obliged anyway. I lead the boys to the attic where Kiefer made for his room. As usual, he was lying on his bed, half-naked and a laptop on his chest. Once we barged in without so much as knocking, he slammed the computer shut and slid it off and onto his bed.

The troublemaker of One Direction thumped my brother at the side of his head. "Get your crap together, Kief," he told Kiefer, not harshly. "You won £15,000 from the trial. Don't you think you should spend it on something important, you know, like a house? Or some decent clothes? Or Colgate? Man, your breath smells worse than Niall's farts."

"Hey!" Niall objected as he jokingly pointed a finger at Louis. "My farts are revolutionary and you know it."

"Niall," Lou gestured to my messed-up brother as if he wasn't there. "Please."

"You guys don't have to do this," was all Kiefer said before he tossed around on his bed so he would be facing the wall, away from all of us. Louis shook my brother hopelessly before giving up and looking at me for solutions. I exhaled like I was concurring to all their idea and waved my hand towards the door as a sign for all of them to exit.

Whilst on his way out, Lou rested his hand on my shoulder but I shook my head then nodded to tell him that everything was under control. I could handle this. The door closed behind the last guy who left which was Louis and my brother decided to turn around. He didn't expect to see me but when he did, he wasn't disappointed. "What the hell happened?" I asked as I sat on the edge of his bed.

He pulled the covers on top of his body and spoke in a low voice as for the guys eavesdropping outside wouldn't hear. "Kloe," my brother told me, his voice in between grave and depression. "They don't need me anymore."

"What do you mean?" I was appalled by his last statement. "Of course they do."

"No, they don't," he objected, sitting up on his bed. "I was their friend when they needed me to be. Now that the case is over, they can move on with their lives without me. Trust me, they aren't going to miss out on much."

My eyebrows furrowed. "You were Louis' friend even before they assigned you for the case," I argued. "Now, stop being so dramatic! Have a little fun with us."

He shook his head disapprovingly. "You don't get it," Kief tried to convince me of my cluelessness and idiocity. "Once they go on tour, they're gonna forget about me. We're not gonna keep in touch. Might as well let them go now before I get too attached to their company like you are." He flopped his back on his bed, raising the sheets outlining his body.