One More Spoon of Cough Syrup [Zayn Malik FanFiction]

Chapter 6

"Lay down a list of what is wrong, things you told him all along."- 'How to Save a Life' by The Fray.

I finished wrapping the cuts in silence; Zayn smiled gratefully. I found it weird, if you'd asked me yesterday, I would've left him to do whatever he wanted, thing is, something clicked inside my mind and curiosity lead me to a brighter place. I realized that helping Zayn out of his 'depression stage' was a way to cope with my misfortunes.

"Um, where do you keep these?" I asked him, gesturing to the bandages.

"Under my bed," he mumbled, embarrassed. 

I sighed, and we carried them to his room. "I think you need to tell the boys about this. If not, your family."

He looked at me like 'Are you crazy?' "I can't tell them that!" He wailed. "It was already bad enough when when m-my when my grandad - never mind..." He broke into a mumble at the last part and sadness flooded his mocha orbs. Sensitive topic. "Basically, they gave me all this attention and were really sensible but that just made things worse!" He shoved the boxes under his bed and covered them with a blanket. "No one ever cleans my room," he added.

"I'm not saying now," I said, hurriedly. "Maybe when you've gotten over it; when the thought doesn't affect you anymore."

He didn't look convinced.

"We'll talk about it later," I decided. "I should go."

I made my way downstairs when he called my name. I turned round and he met me halfway down the stairs. "We go on tour in a week," he said. I felt my heart sink a little; our time was limited. "So...come by tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow," I confirmed.

Lana was with the rest of the boys in the kitchen, laughing about some random comment probably. "You don't look so tired anymore," she commented.

"What did Zayn do?" The one whose name I still didn't know laughed, in an over-the-top accusing voice.

I cocked my eyebrow "I don't know you," I said, making it subtle that I was joking. "But I really want to hit your face right now."

There was a chorus of 'ooh's from the rest.

But he and I just started laughing - apparently he (like me) couldn't help but laugh at serious situations. 

"OK, so you don't know any of us?" he asked.

"Well," I began. "I know he's Zayn, since I just spoke to him literally two seconds ago -" I jerked my thumb to Zayn who was making his way to the table from behind me - "I know you're Harry and Liam from your little argument over the car breaking down -"

"Which still isn't over," Liam hissed at Harry.

"And I know he's Niall, considering Lana never shuts up about him - no offence," I finished. "So what about you?" I turned to Name-less. "Got a name, Joker?"

He seemed surprised at my confidence. "Louis," he answered.

"Well, Louis, d'you ever say random comments, stories that don't make sense and pull practical jokes that always work?"

He thought for a milli-second. "Minus the 'always work' and we're there," he said, blushing, probably at the thought of the pranks he'd pulled that failed.

Everyone laughed. "I like him already," I declared, ruffling his hair.

"So what were you guys talking about?" Lana asked us - by 'us' I meant Zayn and I. 

We exchanged a glance that was worth a nanosecond but I still caught the pleading in his eyes. "I agreed to talk to him about what you wanted me to," I said. Though that wasn't true, I made a mental note to tell Zayn about it anyway. I felt like I owed him that - he opened up to me, I open up to him.