It's Difficult || Larry & Ziam - Book Two

twenty-two

"What happened now? You guys have been going so well over the past few months."

"It hasn't been 'going so well,'" Liam said, sighing as he sat down on his bed. Louis was standing in between the two beds in the room, looking over at his best friend with a look that seemed to be a mix of sympathy and frustration. "I don't even know what the problem is. I say one thing, and he thinks I'm saying something else, and he gets mad at me for that, and then we start arguing about how we argue. It just doesn't work. I don't even know why we keep trying if all we do is make it worse?"

"Well, I'd think that saving your relationship is more important than winning an argument, right?"

"I tried telling him that. I've tried saying that we should just forget it and go back to how we were before, but he just gets even more mad at me for that. 'This is a serious problem! Why do you want to just act like it doesn't exist?' I mean, then that leads back to how I say one thing and he thinks I'm saying another."

"Do you want me to talk to him?" Louis asked. "Or maybe Harry. Harry's good with this kind of stuff."

"No, Harry would just make Zayn angrier. Something about how I told you and you told him, and how it's not even either of you guys' business. Then he'd yell at me. I guess you might be able to talk to him with me, maybe?"

"Whatever you think will make it work. You know better than anyone else how much our little group will suffer if you two break up. Especially like this."

"I don't want to break up. I want to fix it." Liam sighed. "But I don't know how much he does."

"Where is he now, then?"

"Class. But it ends soon. After that, I guess he'd go anywhere that's not here, since he doesn't seem to want to talk to me much anyway."

Louis looked at him in sympathy. "We'll look for him when his class is over."

/ / / \ \ \

"Really?" Zayn asked, looking back and forth between Liam and Louis. "You have to bring him into this?"

"You wouldn't listen to me! And if this has gone on this long, it can't hurt."

"This isn't his business," Zayn muttered.

"He is right here. Not sure why you're talking about me like I'm not," Louis said.

"Just because you—"

"Zayn, please, stop," Liam pleaded. "Just listen, please?"

Zayn let out a deep breath. "Fine. But if we have to do this, can we go back to the dorm and not do it out here?"

Liam bit his lip and nodded. Louis sent him a look, silently wondering just how far this fight between his two best friends had already gone. Could they even be fixed? Was this the beginning of the end of their group?

"Okay, well, if I'm going to try and help you guys, I need to know the problem."

"Nothing's even wrong. Couples have fights; they argue; it's just something that happens." Zayn said. "And why are you the one who's trying to talk to us, anyway? It's not like you're some kind of relationship expert."

"No, I'm not," Louis told him, trying not to get offended by his best friend's words. "But it's pretty obvious something's wrong, if it's gone on this long."

"Just—"

"Z, come on," Liam pleaded. "Just help me out here."

"Help you do what? Look, I just need to go do all this work that Fitzgerald gave us."

Liam sighed in frustration and ran a hand through his hair. "Whatever. I'll talk to him later. He's not going to listen to anything you say."

"Okay. If you think that's best. Let me know if anything happens, alright?"

"Yeah. Thanks, Lou, for trying."

Louis tried to smile a little bit. "No problem."

/ / / \ \ \

"Zayn, I'm tired of this. I'm done begging you to listen to me, and I'm done arguing with you about literally everything I do or say. What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing's wrong with—"

"Seriously?"

"Why do you even care?"

Liam scoffed in disbelief. "Why do I care? Um, Zayn, you're kind of my boyfriend, and even if we weren't together, we'd still be best friends. I can't really believe you're asking me that."

"Why do you always act like everything I say is wrong?"

"Zayn, god, just stop dodging the damn question. I'm allowed to fucking know, especially if you've been taking it out on me."

"It's nothing, Liam! It's stupid!"

"Then why won't you tell me, if it's stupid and doesn't matter?"

Zayn sighed, and Liam felt horrible then, because Zayn looked so tired. Maybe Liam really didn't have a right to know. Maybe it was some kind of unspoken relationship rule that not everything has to be shared with each other. Maybe Liam should just leave it alone and let Zayn deal with it as he wanted.

He was just about to say something like, "I'm sorry; I'll just stop. You obviously don't want to talk about it," when Zayn stepped forward and embraced him in a tight hug. Liam stood, stunned, for a moment before wrapping his arms around Zayn and resting his chin on his shoulder.

"My parents are getting a divorce," Zayn murmured. "And Uni is kicking my ass. And so I got overwhelmed, which led me to be a dick to you. I'm sorry, Li."

Liam didn't say anything for a moment. He'd known Zayn's parents for so long that they were practically his own parents. He couldn't imagine them getting a divorce.

"And then Louis and Harry are there, having the times of their lives and managing to juggle Uni, work, and their relationship all while staying completely normal about it. Kind of just makes me want to yell at something, you know? I didn't want it to be you — of course I didn't — but you're just always there, right next to me, and you were just the easiest. I really am sorry."

"It's okay," Liam finally replied, biting his lip and hugging Zayn tighter. "I can help you through this, if you want."

"I'm fine," Zayn said, but the way his voice broke made Liam think otherwise. When Liam pulled back just enough to look him in the eye but still have his arms around him, he noticed tears in his eyes.

"You aren't," Liam told him, trying to reassure him with unspoken words. "How can I help? And you know that Lou is there to help you, too. And so is Harry. We're here for you."

Zayn wiped a few tears from his eyes. "Yeah. I know."