The Inevitable (sequel of Haunting Memories)

Chapter 2

Ok so I have no time for a long author's note, like none at all. Sorry, lol I PROMISE I will upload this story again after this lol I already have the chappie written out so I probably will like right after and then FINALLY my schedule is back to normal! Yay! 

This is dedicated to KimberlyHoranNicol for fanning me! Yeah.

Stay laughing my greatalicious fudgekins. <3

Liam’s POV

“Zayn?” I choked out. “What are you doing here?”

“What am I doing here? What are you doing?” he angrily asked.

“Zayn, it’s not what it looks like.”

“It’s not? So tell me Liam,” he took a deep breath, he was obviously mad, “did you just accidentally hold the razor to your skin, and expect yourself not to get hurt?”

“Zayn, just–”

“Just what? Just stand by and watch you slowly kill yourself? I knew something was wrong, but I didn’t know it was that bad. Why would you do that? You could’ve talked to us. You could’ve talked to me!” Zayn yelled. “Sit down, let me bandage up your arm,” he sighed, and I heaved myself onto the counter.

“I’m sorry, but I’m so sick of other people’s pity. I’m so sick of them telling me to move on from Maddy, because they have no idea what it feels like!” I gritted my teeth, thinking of the earlier argument I had with Niall.

“And how does cutting help with that?”

“It doesn’t… It helps me with the pain of the heartbreak. It makes it a bit more numb,” I explained.

“Look, I won’t judge you for cutting. Obviously, you had enough reason. But I want to help you. I’m not going to stand by and watch you crumble,” Zayn looked up at me as he finished wrapping the bandage around the single cut on my arm.

“You can try,” I whispered. “But don’t tell the others.”

“But–”

“No. Just don’t tell them. Please,” I pleaded, and reluctantly, he agreed.

***

The two of us sat on the sofa with a packet of crisps in hand, looking for a good movie. Soon, we decided on watching Finding Nemo.

About halfway into the movie, there was a knock on the door and I heaved myself off the couch to answer the door. Niall and Arianna were at the doorway.

“How was it?” I asked politely, letting them in. Arianna’s gaze immediately flickered down to the bandage on my arm, and she bit her lip and shot a glance at Niall. Quickly, she forced a smile onto her face.

“Great, you really missed out on the fun,” Niall smiled, oblivious to the sudden tension between me and Ari. “You’re watching Finding Nemo without me?” Niall screamed as he saw the telly.

“Sorry mate,” I laughed.

“Niall, why don’t you go get some popcorn from your flat,” Arianna threw him a fake smile, and he nodded. As soon as he closed the door, Arianna turned to me, glaring fiercely at my arm.

“What is that?” she asked.

“A bandage.”

“For what?”

“I got hurt,” I gave her a sheepish smile.

“Don’t lie,” she clenched her teeth.

“Fine. If you want to know so bad, I was feeling so bad, I just so happened to cut myself. And guess who wasn’t there for me?” I spat. A while ago, I recalled Arianna telling me that if I was feeling too low, she’d be there to help me out.

“But you promised…” she trailed off and suddenly, her gaze flickered to the couch behind me, more specifically, to Zayn, and she gave me a questioning look.

“He knows,” I stated, not caring if Zayn noticed we were now talking about him.

“Liam,” Arianna sighed, “I thought you promised me you wouldn’t do it anymore. You promised yourself. I know you feel terrible, but that doesn’t mean you have to hurt yourself. I know it hurts, I really do, but–”

The door opened and immediately, she stopped talking.

“What are you two talking about?” Niall came into the room holding a massive bowl full of popcorn.

“Nothing,” Arianna muttered, and plopped down onto the couch, next to Zayn. I hated keeping secrets. But it was enough that Arianna and Zayn knew. I didn’t need anyone else to know.

Danielle’s POV

After Niall and Arianna left, I changed into clothes appropriate for my job. I worked part-time in a grocery store, and on the weekends, I had the afternoon shift.

As I got changed and ate something, I kept thinking of Liam. Why was I thinking of him so much? He wasn’t interested. I just had to keep telling myself that.

I couldn’t help but feel that there was an ever-present sadness in his eyes. It was there every time I saw him. What was the reason behind that? I had seen him plenty of times before on the telly, and he didn’t look so sad.

Someone couldn’t have that sad glint in their eye for some petty reason. It had to be something big. It had to.

For the rest of the afternoon, I did my tedious job of scanning items for people and soon, it was almost time to go. Just three more people in line… I shut off the light at my register so no one else would get in line and quickly scanned the items.

Soon, there was only one person left in line. When I saw his face, my mouth almost dropped open and I rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating.

“You okay there, Danielle?” he asked. I tore my gaze away from his face and instead to the moving belt of items.

“Fine,” I muttered. “Didn’t expect to see you here, Liam.”

He chuckled. “I had to do some last minute grocery shopping. Harry came down with a fever and since I was already here, I decided to stock up on food, as well.”

“Oh. So… Why didn’t you come over with Niall and Arianna today?” Shit… Why did I say that? I looked up to gauge his reaction. There was the sad glint again in his eyes.

“I was busy,” he mumbled unconvincingly. I knew it was untrue, but I let it pass.

“Oh.” His mobile began to ring, and after shooting me an apologetic look, he answered it. I finished ringing up his items and waited for him to finish the call. I couldn’t help but listen to his side of the conversation.

“Hey Arianna!” he greeted her with a bit of artificial cheeriness added to his voice. “I’m fine,” he rolled his eyes, making me wonder why he wouldn’t be fine.

Maybe I was just overreacting, jumping to conclusions, but it seemed to me that something was very wrong. Something bad happened to him today. I desperately wanted to know what, but his personal business was just that, his personal, private business that he didn’t have to share with anyone.

“Yeah, I’ll be home soon. In fact, I ran into Dani at the store, turns out she works here,” Liam pulled the phone away from his ear and I laughed to myself, no doubt the bubbly redhead was squealing in excitement. Suddenly, his whole expression darkened and he mumbled a quick goodbye into the phone.

What had she said to him that suddenly made him so upset? It was surely something bad. I’d never seen someone’s whole expression cloud like that in a matter of seconds.

“Are you okay?” I asked him as he handed me his credit card. All I got in response was a nod, and after collecting his bags and receipt, he hurried off, leaving me to wonder why he was so upset.

I didn’t even feel like upset was strong enough a word. It almost seemed like he was… depressed.