In My Brother's Eyes

junior year pt. II

Since the night Louis yelled at Zayn, the two haven't spoken much. In fact, Zayn hasn't been speaking much to anyone. Oral classes with Mrs. Teasdale have been slow. Telling his parents about his day at school doesn't happen anymore. Even socializing with Harry is rare.

Obviously Zayn's parents - let alone Louis - aren't oblivious to what's going on, however, no matter how hard they try to get him to speak the boy just stays to himself. They've tried therapy not only with Dan but with an outside therapist as well to try and see if that would help...it didn't. They've tried light bribery, but the boy won't even accept what they're giving him. Overall the parents are at a loss of what to do because it's not like this has only been happening for a couple days. No, this is nearing two months. Two months of silence from their little boy, and they can't stand it.

The parents have mentioned it to Zayn's teachers to see if anything has happened, however, they all deny anything occurring with them. So naturally the parents then asks Louis, but the boy also denies anything occurring amongst him and Zayn. No matter how worried both Jay and Dan are, though, they at least have one piece of hope to hold onto.

Swimming.

From what Jay's seen when she arrives early to pick the boy up from his swim practice, it's as if his personality bounces right back to normal when he's in the pool. He'll talk to his coach, attempt conversation with his teammates, and just overall he looks happy. About two weeks into Zayn's silence at home Jay had talked to the coach to see if he could find out if anything's wrong, however, when the man reported back to the mother he said Zayn told him nothing was bothering him. So the parents decided to let everything play out and simply hope this was just a phase.

"Zaynie, c'mon we need to get home so we can get ready for tonight," Jay says as she approaches where Zayn was talking to his coach after practice.

And unsurprisingly Zayn just nods as he runs over to his gym bag to pull on his sweatpants.

"No running, Zayn. It's slippery," Jay chastises as she goes over to help him put his shirt on, however, much to her shock Zayn shakes her hands off of him.

"I do it," Zayn says quietly as he rips the shirt from his mother's hands and tugs it on - only slightly having it get caught on his head.

Jay sighs at the boy's actions but nonetheless doesn't say anything because more and more lately this has been occurring. Actions that Zayn never had a problem being helped with now cause nightly episodes because he would have wanted to do it for himself.

"Still acting up?" Dwight asks Jay with a small frown.

"Unfortunately," Jay sighs. "I just don't understand. Something like this has never happened."

"He's probably just trying to act more grown up but he doesn't really know how to," Dwight suggests. "Have you and Dan talked about the next meet yet?"

And once again Jay sighs.

The next swim meet is to be in London which would mean the team would have to spend a minimum of one night away seeing as it is a rather long ride away. And obviously Jay and Dan want Zayn to go because they know how much he loves what he's doing, but the problem is both parents cannot be out of town that weekend. Now for most parents sending your nearly seventeen year old son off on a school trip doesn't seem bad - and if they're being honest they'd do it for Louis in a heartbeat - but this is is Zayn.

This is Zayn and he's never spent a night away from both Jay and Dan. This is Zayn and even if he's trying to act more grown up he still doesn't know how to take care of himself. This is Zayn and even though Jay hates to say it, but he's autistic and he needs people watching him 24-7. This is Zayn, and he doesn't understand why people don't understand him.