Wings on Tailored Suits // Zarry

xxiv.

When Harry wakes up the next morning, he thinks he's dreaming. The first thing his senses catch is the fact that he's holding someone's hand and the next one is the fact that he must be in Zayn's room best because he can smell Gucci and remnants of smoke. He opens his eyes and sees Zayn lying next to him on his side, their hands clutching each other between them. Harry smiles at the sight and he keeps looking at him for a few moments in a haze of morning happiness. Then reality kicks in.

Harry starts to feel his body aching, the bruises on his hip pressed uncomfortably to the mattress since he's lying on his side. The memories of Sebastian's words hitting him as if a full building fell on top of him. 'You're my little slut.', 'Such a fucking whore. Wonder who else had you like this.', all of them echoing through Harry's head like the echo of a bomb going off. But then he also remembers seeing Sebastian whining in pain on the floor and the sounds get quieter, more bearable. Sebastian will never touch him again, never hurt him with his hands or words again.

For a few more minutes, Harry keeps looking at Zayn while the recollections of last night play inside his head like a terrible horror film he's being forced to watch. Then Harry softly says Zayn's name and squeezes his hand because he can't stay alone with the memories anymore.

Zayn slowly opens his eyes, never the one for mornings. Harry tries to smile again, tries to remember the better times when they shared beds almost every night and Harry didn't have his body cluttered with bruises that hurt.

"Hey, Haz," Zayn rasps when he finally manages to open his eyes. "How did you sleep?"

"Wasn't the worst sleep I ever had," Harry replies.

Their hands are still locked as they stare each other, their faces mostly blank.

"I have to thank you again for yesterday," Harry says after a while.

"Don't even mention it. I'm glad you weren't alone."

"Me too. I don't know what I would've done if you hadn't found me last night. Maybe smoked until my lungs hurt, cried for hours and then took some antidepressants."

"Well, it's okay to cry too."

Harry chuckles bitterly. "Not over him. I cried enough last night. Sebastian won't get any more tears out of me for his fucking lies. He was a whole different person than he truly is. And I tried to be so good for him. I tried to be honest. With him, with everyone. I stopped using the different... version of myself for different people all thanks to him. And it fucking turns out he was the one to play me the whole time."

"Are you gonna do anything about him?" Zayn asks. Harry lets himself think through some options. He could press charges against Sebastian. But he hit him too. And he should get a restraining order because clearly, Harry has no idea who Sebastian actually is and what he's capable of. But he can't. He can't because of a fucking party that he has to go to and fucking god. The fucking party.

"Zayn, you might have to help me get a fake passport, a whole false identity really because I need to get out of here to like... Russia, they never send people out of there, do they?" Harry says quickly and he sits up, his heart racing in his chest, breathing quick and heavy. Zayn sits up too and looks Harry at like he's crazy. And maybe he is, who knows?

"What the hell are you talking about Harry? Are you trying to flee the country because of him?"

"No. Well. Kind of? Not forever, just for the next month or so. Until after the fucking party," Harry babbles.

Zayn furrows his brows and shakes his head at Harry. "What party?"

"The celebration of the new branch of my stepdad's firm in Japan. Sebastian's family are invited because they invested quite a lot of money. He was supposed to be my date but it doesn't even matter, he's invited anyways. He's going to be there even if someone had to bring his corpse there. And I have to be there too unless I want to end up in a grave before I even turn nineteen. Well, not if I flee the country then I won't be there."

Zayn sighs and leans back on his elbow. "Harry you really scared me with this. You're not fleeing the country and Sebastian won't touch you. I'm going to be there too and I won't leave your side. I can even go as your date if you want to. Just please... don't run away, okay?"

"Zayn, he could beat both of our asses very easily if he wanted to."

"I know but we'll have security following our every move. And if he tries to even so much as talk to you, I'll have him arrested. That's it."

"This isn't a very good plan," Harry argues.

"Well, it's still better than running away to Russia when you can't read Cyrillic nor speak Russian."

Harry groans. "Zayn, you're always so fucking rational."

"Someone has to be," Zayn grins. They stare at each other like morons until Zayn's smirk disappears and is replaced by his worrying look that makes Harry both want to cry and run away.

"Are you feeling better, Haz?"

Harry nods. The crushing pain from last night is mostly gone as he had time to realize what Sebastian did for months. Anger replaced the sadness from last night but it can shift at any time but for now, he couldn't bear feel sad over Sebastian anymore. He just can't bring himself to mourn the loss of something that wasn't real. Everything Sebastian said was a lie, a fucking tale that Sebastian was feeding Harry for months as if Harry was a child and this was his bedtime story. He was naïve, so fucking naïve. It hurts especially because Harry felt more mature with Sebastian, like he was over all that high school bullshit and drama. Little did he know that Sebastian's poise, the way he talked like he's travelled the world and read a thousand books, all of it was an act. Harry didn't want to be the one pretending to be someone else all the time but he still did. Sebastian got a version of him that is long dead now – trusting and wide-eyed. Harry hasn't got a clue who Sebastian really is. He knows that Sebastian isn't the sophisticated gentleman going to Columbia Law. Maybe he's the high school junkie that Harry got a glimpse at last night. Or perhaps he's a heartless sociopath that would lie to someone for months only to use them for sex and play with their head. Either way, Harry doesn't want to find out.

"I'm sorry you didn't get to have your night with Grace. I just realized it," Harry says after a moment.

"It's fine. I was leaving anyway. Remember how I told you that I saw Sebastian in the lobby when I was just about to leave?"

"Oh. Why weren't you with her?"

Zayn shrugs without any disappointment. "I didn't want to spend the night with her."

Harry nods, looking down at the duvet scrunched in his hands.

"When did you talk to Gemma?" Harry asks after a moment, lifting his eyes to look at Zayn. He avoids meeting Harry's eyes as he plays with a ring on his left hand.

"The day after St. Nicholas Day party. After I saw the marks on your wrist," Zayn replies quietly. "She told me to keep an eye on you but it's not like she had to remind me. I was worried about you ever since I saw some bruises on your wrists in chemistry class. But back then I thought it was just like... something you two were into in bed, you know? And then when you came back to school after Thanksgiving with a bruise on your face, I knew something wasn't right."

"Why didn't you tell me something sooner?"

"I felt like it wasn't my business? Or perhaps I hoped it wasn't what it looked like because the thought of him hurting you like that... god, I just didn't want it to be true. He seemed to be a good person on the outside and you adored him. There weren't any warning signs from the outside other than the bruises. But the phone call on Thanksgiving and then the bruise on Monday... it was hard to deny it then."

"I wish I had listened to Gemma that night."

"Yeah."

Harry looks at Zayn again and their gazes lock. Everything doesn't sound so hopeless in the light of a new day.

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Omg, we're really like... almost at the very end! Y'all have an important decision to make - do you want the two other remaining chapters today and should I drag it out over a few days? Epilogue NOT included 😉

Thank you all SO SO SO much for your support, I haven't been able to reply to the comments yet because with the upcoming semester at school coming soon, I'm really busy but I read all of them and I will find the time to reply to them ❤️❤️❤️❤️