TAINTED | Zayn Malik

Chapter 61| Orion's Belt

warning: very mature content

The entire room seemed to grow cold as we realized that Erica had woken up in the middle of our conversation, something that wasn't mean to be for her ears. But it was our fault, talking about this in public wasn't good at all. There was a chance that someone could hear the wrong thing at any given moment, even though it wasn't ideal for her to know. I rather it be my own best friend than my mother, because she wasn't too forgiving when it comes to all of this stuff; No one seemed to wanna speak up after that. All of us deep in thought with our own issues, there was no idea how we could all explain it to her.

But the thing was, I barely knew half of the stuff that went on due to Zayn and his privacy. We still had so much to talk about in private, I didn't think he would want her to know every single thing about him or the past that led us to this moment. There was just some stuff that she didn't need to know, and I rather he kept our talk for us.

"What do you mean?" I cleared my throat, walking closer to her bed as Zayn stayed behind me near the door. Her eyes remained on me for a moment until she looked up at Harry, wondering if he was going to be the first one to start talking.

Her voice was cracking due to the fact she probably haven't spoken or had anything to drink in the past two days, I walked over to the counter and picked up a pitcher of water and a cup to pour her a drink. I could hear the determination in her voice as she spoke to Harry, trying to get him to speak to her.

"What's going on, Harry?" Erica said sternly, glancing around the room to everyone before making eye contact with Zayn. If this was another time she would be telling me how she was excited because her favorite underground fighter was here, but that was out of question.

I handed her the cup of water before sitting on the edge of her bed, through my peripherals I could see him out the corner of my eye glancing out the door wary of someone coming at the wrong time. This wasn't any hidden secret that could be overlooked because it was minor, no, this was something dangerous and could threaten each life that came into contact with us and part of me didn't want her involved. But she was a walking target now, they've already gotten to her and I could feel a sense of nervousness that it was far from over.

"I think it's best if Harry talks to you, because I'm pretty sure he could explain it a lot better than I could right now. And I still have a lot to talk about with Zayn, so you'll be safe here with Harry for a while okay?" I admitted, feeling my heart clench as she reached out to grab my hand and intertwining our fingers.

"What? No." Her tone was heavy and I knew this wasn't just about being alone in this hospital, she was really concerned. It wasn't fair to her of being hurt than finding out your best friend is being harmed, all of this was connected and she didn't understand how. "I want to hear it from you. From all of you." She said softly while Harry gripped her other hand, sitting the drink on the table behind him.