Soft Spot (Zayn Malik)

XXXVIII

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Donnie Malik

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Andy came back to the waiting room not too long after my conversation with Louis and he looked... horrible. Messy brown strands were messily tousled on top of his head, seeming like they've just gotten over a wrestling match, all of them going on every directions. His hair had always been messy but it's never been this messy. His eyes were bloodshot and glossy, with deep bags underneath that indicates he refuses to even blink from the moment he was told that his sister was involved in an accident; his nose was pink and puffy and his usually broad and strong shoulders were slumped down like he'd been carrying all of the galaxies in the universe on his back, and he could only stare at the wall as something as little as forming words could cause him to break down.

I couldn't imagine how he was feeling if hearing about the news made me want to lash out and curse at Louis for no reason and demand the doctors to let me see my best friend. Andy and Aeanne were not blood related but he loved her like he was his own. He had his own little sister, see — Luna — but he got on with Aeanne more than with her because Aeanne understood from the moment that their parents introduced them to each other that Andy was Andy just because he was, and he felt the most freedom around his stepsister than his own because unlike Aeanne, Luna demanded to know why Andy did every single thing that he was doing. Aeanne meant the world to Andy and he's looked after her ever since their parents joined their households when we were only five, and Nash and Andy were ten. He swore that he would not let anything happen to her; he has taken her underneath his wings and sheltered her from everything bad in the world since her own father wasn't brave enough to do the job himself. Andy treated Aeanne as if she was more fragile than a porcelain dandelion — and in most occasions, she was — and I couldn't imagine how painful is it for him to think that he'd failed her at that job the way that her father had failed her.

Louis left us to get some caffeine from the cafeteria downstairs so that we'd all wake up. It was almost three o'clock in the morning and we still haven't heard anything from the doctors. Louis informed me that the last update they've received was around 1:45pm and it was just to let them know that three were in a critical condition as if it wasn't obvious.

Apparently, as I was told, Niall hit his head on the dashboard pretty badly and the doctors feated that the impact could have damaged his skull. Aeanne nearly suffocated from the airbags as they pushed hard against her ribcage and her head was cut open from hitting it against the window — hard enough to crack the glass and leave shards as big as Andy's thumbs in her skin — which caused her to lose a lot of blood. Zayn was somehow sent flying out of the car because the damned fucker didn't wear a seatbelt and left his doors unlocked. When the car flipped over, (Louis said the car wasn't flipped over when he got there but the cops told him that they've already fixed it before he arrived) Zayn flew out about twenty feet away from the car, far enough for the cops to almost not notice he was there, and landed hard on an oak tree; he smashed his head against a bulk of rocks, ultimately damaging not just spine, but also his skull.

"Do you believe in miracles?" It was the first time Andy spoke all day, though he spoke in a monotone manner and he only stared blankly at the cream walls in front of him. He turned around to look at me for the first time since I got here tonight (I was starting to believe that he doesn't realize I was there too) and smiled weakly, his lips chapped and if you looked closely, you'd catch them tremble. It was breaking my heart to see how this was affecting Andy and I knew if Aeanne saw him this way, she would do all she could to cheer him up because we all knew ever since we were little that Andy has always been the carefree one – he was always the one to cheer us up with his laugh and his crazy antics, and it truly was heartbreaking to watch him be so devastated and vulnerable. I just looked at him, not knowing whether I was supposed to say yes or no, so he just stared at the wall in front of him again. "Louis told me, you see, he called me as soon as he saw the accident. He said he knew where Aeanne was, that she needed me. So of course I rushed immediately to Reaves Boulevared because that's where Louis said he found her and when I got there..." Andy trailed off, not being able to finish his story anymore. "The doctors told us it was a miracle the accident didn't kill them immediately, like giving them one more day to live and suffer on those damn hospital beds was enough." He chuckled sarcastically and I felt my heart break more.