Broken Lanterns [ZIAM]

[4] - Falling Under

           Zayn feels strange. He doesn’t know what he should do. He’s never been invited to hang out with any of the family’s kids before. Normally they just see him as a stupid burden, something breaking into the family and screwing things up. Should he follow Liam outside? Timidly Zayn steps forward and opens the sliding glass door onto the back patio. It’s made of wood and large, with lawn chairs and a grill. Off in the distance is the lake, bright and clear, reflecting the sun’s rays. It’s a really nice summer day, and Zayn takes a deep breath of the air around him. He’s never felt this fresh and clean in a new house, he normally feels confined and upset and dirty. Everything about this time is different.

            “C’mon Zayn!”

            Liam is waving his arms above his head and splashing around in the lake as the three boys around him jump into the water and holler loudly. It’s a rather happy looking scene and Zayn finds himself taking a step towards them. Internally he scolds himself. He shouldn’t want to go and meet Liam’s friends. He shouldn’t want to be outside in the warm sun and the clean air, surrounded by blue skies and open golden fields. He takes another step forward, his converse hitting the ground. He clenches his fists. Is he really going to do this?

            And then he is walking. Left foot, right foot, and then left again, towards Liam and three strangers he has never met before. His heart is pounding and his mind is screaming at him. It’s not normal for someone to feel this much fear about something so stupid. He’s halfway across the dying field of grass and he can get a better look. There’s Liam, in the middle of the lake. There is a floating dock out in the middle and he is sitting on it casually, his feet in the water and his torso exposed and dripping wet. Zayn swallows. And then there are the others. There’s a blonde treading water around Liam’s legs and laughing about something, and two other boys with brown hair, one curly and the other not so much. Zayn is only a few steps away from the bank of the lake now and he can see the smile on Liam’s face.

            “I’m glad you came out,” Liam says, “These are my friends. Niall,” The blonde, “Harry,” The curly haired one, “And Louis,” The not so curly one. Zayn nods and waves a little, but it’s not really confident and it looks like he is simply batting away a bug.

            “I think it’s cool that the Payne’s started housing you at the beginning of the summer,” Niall chimes in, “You can hang out with us all summer long this is going to be great!”

            Zayn nods, and sticks his hands in his pockets. It’s rather warm out here and he wishes that maybe he had worn shorts. These skinny jeans are restricting and his short sleeved shirt is collecting sweat. Zayn hates being dirty. It reminds him of all those years ago when he was covered in blood. The thought makes Zayn shake his head and bit his lip to get back into focus.

            “Come on in!” Louis calls from the right side of the lake where he is sitting on Harry’s shoulders, “It feels really nice today,” Zayn makes a face. He’s not good in water. He doesn’t swim. There was never really an opportunity for him to be taught really, being thrown around to all those different houses. He shakes his head. “Aw, why not?”

            Zayn swallows and shrugs, sitting himself down on a patch of grass that’s relatively green because it’s so close to the water. It’s cold between his finger tips and he runs his hands through it absent mindedly. Before he knows it, a dripping wet body is sitting beside him and crossing his legs neatly. His paler skin is almost glowing in the sun. Zayn holds back a smile.

            “Niall and I used to come down here all the time,” It’s Liam, a smile on his face and a gleam in his eye as he stares at the water in front of them, “We were only like eight or nine, and we would try to see who could swim out to the dock and back the quickest. One time he almost drowned and my parents stopped letting us swim for awhile. But then Harry moved in down the street,” Liam takes this time to point off in the distance. Across a few hills and large fields there is a speck, assumedly a house. There is a nice long dirt driveway leading to it just like the Payne’s house. “He started hanging out with me and Niall and then he brought his friend Louis over. The four of us hang out all the time now,”