My Brother's Boyfriend ✓

Fourteen

"Hey Ni?" Zayn's semi nervous, but quiet, voice pulls me from my sleep. I don't know what time it is, but by how tired I am at the moment, it must be early.

"Yeah?" I groan and sit up, attempting to rub the sleep from my eyes as they land on his figure kneeling beside me.

"Will you walk me to the station? I have to catch my train to go home," he tells me and my eyes fly wide open, my heart immediately jumping into overdrive as adrenaline begins coursing through my veins.

"Give me two minutes!" I shout and jump off the couch, getting dressed as fast as I possibly can. So fast, in fact, that I trip and fall while trying to put on my jeans, which only makes him laugh at me.

"Oi! I'm trying here!" I exclaim, jumping around and getting dressed in front of him. I really hope I'm not waking anyone else up.

"Okay, doesn't mean it wasn't funny!" I shoots right back at me and I roll my eyes. Only Zayn can get me like this - laughing and bouncing around in the wee hours of the morning.

Not a minute later, I'm fully dressed and we're walking out of the house. Thankfully, one else is awake, but I'm sad that he won't be able to say goodbye to everyone properly. I know mum is going to be sad to wake up today and find him gone.

On the short walk to the train station, I hug myself with my arms to try and distract myself from the fact that my only friend is leaving me.

I mean...not leaving me leaving me, just leaving my presence. That's all. Nothing deeper.

Zayn wouldn't do that to me.

I know that.

But it still hurts to know that best mate, the closest thing I've got to a brother, my buffer, is leaving me behind to put up with everything all on my own. God, I'm going to miss him so much.

When he sees that I'm fighting with myself, silently of course, he pulls me into his side and his hand squeezes my shoulder reassuringly. I smile a bit, because he really knows how to make me feel better, but it's a sad smile because of how much I don't want him to leave.

"Hey, it'll only be a week until we're on our way back to campus, and we'll talk on the phone as much as you want. If anything happens with Toby or Harry or Nick or anyone, then you call me right away. If you need to, of course. I'm not saying you need me or anything, but if you need me you know I'll be there for you. You know that I'm here for you, right?" He finishes and I smile over at him a bit.

I nod my head, "Yeah, I know," I say quietly, because it's still all too surreal to have a friend, even though it's been a year and a half. I was so used to being alone all the time that when we met, I was so quiet and shy, more so than I was before, and it took months for him to pry anything out of me that wasn't my name and a few other basic details about myself.

It took half of our first year before I started to open up to him, but once I had, it was like everything just came gushing out. We were in my dorm room the night it happened. We were working on a project for our science class together when Nick and Harry came in to get some stuff, and for Nick to change, so they could go out on a date. It was their anniversary or something.

When they were finally gone, Zayn asked me what was wrong because I was staring at the door. Suddenly, my eyes began to water and he got really worried, so he put his arm around me and I just let it all out. I told him absolutely everything. He was the first person I ever told about my crush on Harry, and when I was done telling him my entire life's story, he was so shocked.

I remember he said something along the lines of how it didn't seem like I was in so much pain because I'm really hard to read or something. He told me he never would have guessed that I was heartbroken or anything. From that point on, he was my best friend. I've been able to count on him ever since.