The Summertime & Butterflies » Zarry ✔

☀️ 11: Fourth Summer : Voicemail

Yaser was humming a tune when he pulled up into his driveway later that evening. But that tune died when he noticed Zayn's car in the driveway. That wasn't right. Zayn was supposed to be an hour and a half away from here. Why was he home? Was something wrong?

He hurriedly turned off the engine and got out of the car. Then he took the bag of groceries he had inside the house.

"Zayn!" He called out once he had set everything down in the kitchen. But there was no answer. "Zayn! Are you here?"

When there was still nothing but silence, he put a package containing a small trout into the refrigerator and dashed to Zayn's room. As soon as he burst inside, he stopped in his tracks because he saw his son sitting cross legged with his head in his hands.

"Zayn." He whispered. "Are you okay?"

Zayn looked up at his father and revealed red puffy eyes and tear stained cheeks. Not knowing what could be the matter, Yaser slowly walked over to him, sat on the bed and rubbed his back. "What's wrong? Why are you home?"

He actually expected Zayn to be very standoffish and reluctant to tell him what was wrong. But to his surprise, Zayn was ready to talk.

"He's getting married."

"What? Who's getting married?"

"Harry."

"Oh... He asked you to marry him, you mean?"

"No. He's getting married, but not to me. He's getting married to a girl named Jennifer that he apparently cheated on me with over the past year. And what's worse is she's the girl who always used to flirt with him even when I was right there."

Yaser's heart dropped to his stomach. He couldn't believe it. Was that true? "Are you sure, son?"

"Yes. We were arguing a bit as he was breaking up with me and he let it slip that he had to leave and go rent a tuxedo. I asked him if he was getting married and who he was getting married to and when I brought up jennifer, he didn't want to say yes or no."

"So how do you know it's her if he didn't say it was?"

"Because he has never willingly said her name to me because he knows how much I dislike her. So it's obvious it's her."

"Oh."

He burried his face in his hands again. "I don't know what to do."

He pat his back and then pulled his son onto him. "I don't know if I could tell you what to do in this situation either but what I do know is that everything will be alright."

"But it won't, daddy. It won't. The way he looked at me was like he knew that it would hurt me. He wanted to hurt me."

"And why would you think that?"

"Because..." He swallowed thickly. "Because I never told him I loved him back."

When he said that, Yaser didn't really know what to do. On one hand, he was upset with Harry for how he hurt his son, but on the other hand, he was confused because he couldn't understand why Zayn would keep something like that to himself all this time even after he came home last summer and was told what the consequences of keeping something like that in would be. Not wanting to blame his son or side with Harry, he chose his next question carefully. "You didn't tell him?"

"I couldn't. We live too far apart for me to just give myself to him."

"But he was also aware of the same circumstances and yet, he gave himself to you."

Zayn frowned. "Daddy, he cheated. How can you call that giving himself to me? I knew something was up when she kept coming around and he wouldn't make her go away. I just knew it. He didn't even call me or text me the whole week I was there and so I was scared because I knew something was wrong. I don't think he would've told me, daddy. If I hadn't called and asked to talk to him, he would have never told me he was getting married and that's what hurts the most." He buried his face onto his father's shirt and cried even harder. "He doesn't deserve my love. And I don't ever want to see him again."