Cheryl & Liam: Devotion

Part Seventeen

"Cheryl?"

She curled up on the bathroom floor even more, thick tears falling down her face as she rest her head on the side of the bath. A half empty bottle of vodka was in her lap, her stomach churned from the amount of drink she had already consumed, her throat burned from the bout of vomiting she'd just suffered with before managing to clean her face up.

She had reached such a low point in her life now; she wasn't even sure where to go.

"Chez? Are you okay babe?"

Her voice quivered slightly as she spoke; "No."

She could hear him shuffling around. She hated that she'd called him especially since he was halfway across the world on tour with his bandmates, but sometimes, she just had to hear his voice. She didn't need to hear the voices of her friends, she didn't need to hear the pity in their voices.

Liam – that was who she sometimes needed to hear.

"Okay babe sorry, the lads are watching the footie and I didn't want to disturb them," he replied, "What's wrong?"

'What isn't wrong?' she thought to herself, sniffling slightly.

"Him," her voice came out no higher than a whisper, "H-he is what's wrong."

Silence. Liam had gone silent, and more tears fell down her face.

She could see in Liam's eyes whenever she spoke to him how much he hated her husband, though he never would outright say it. She could see the hatred in his dark brown eyes, the way he tensed up whenever Jean-Bernard was mentioned. However, she ignored it and he always respected her marriage.

Now she knew why he hated Jean-Bernard so much.

She hated him too. The son of a bitch was currently in her room, sleeping without a care in the world – or maybe he had woken up when he heard her vomiting. If he had actually heard her, he clearly didn't care enough to come check on her, to even knock on the bathroom door to see if she was alright.

A sigh – Liam had sighed.

"What happened babe?"

She shakily lifted the bottle to her lips, taking a sip before managing to speak;

"We had a fight, the worst one," her voice wobbled as she spoke, "He-h-he...he..." She started to cry once again, trying her hardest to silence her sobs just in case she did wake him up. She didn't want him in her face right now because she had no idea what would happen if he did pop up.

"Cheryl – what happened, please tell me? You're scaring me!" Liam pleaded with her and she cried some more. She was shaking, tears continued to fall, the words finally escaped her lips;

"He hit me."

Silence again.

Then, the sweet, innocent Liam Payne she knew was gone, and replaced with an angry, protective version that began shouting straight away;

"He what?! Are you fucking kidding me, Chez?! I swear to God I will leave this tour and fly over to you right now – what the fuck? That son of a bitch, I swear to God-"

"Liam, please stop." She cried some more down the phone, his anger starting to scare her slightly as she had never witnessed Liam be so worked up before.

"I'm sorry babe, I'm sorry," he calmed down straight away, though Cheryl could still hear that slight growl in his voice, "I just – Chez, I've had to sit on the sidelines and watch the 'Cheryl' that I know, my best friend 'Cheryl' disappear for months now, and watch her be replaced by the woman who's constantly on the verge of tears and who's eyes no longer sparkle, and it's all because of him. Chez, I can't watch you go through this – you need to leave him, and you know I wouldn't normally get into your personal business, but you need to-"