Bedding bad √

Zayn-38

         She still managed to look wild even when beaten down, shot and broken, the girl I love still didn’t back down, she fought to live and conquer and I couldn’t be more smitten.
She stirred in her sleep and frowned deeply, she must have been having a bad dream, I knew I would have a ton of them if I had gone through what she had, not that I didn’t have my fair share of nightmares. I guess it’s something we will both have to live with. Things will get better, for her sake, I had to believe they would.

Sue placed a hand on my shoulder, she had returned to the room with the doctor shortly after Meghan fell asleep. They said she was okay and that was all I needed to hear.

‘Go home Zayn. You’ve been here for over 24hours, you need rest and you stink. It wouldn’t hurt to shave too’. She pulled on a serious tone that just made me laugh.
‘What if she wakes up?’
‘I will be here. I’m her mother, stop acting like it’.
‘You have to agree, I make a kickass mom’.
‘Yeah. A stinking, kickass mom’.
‘Fine. I will go shower’. I caved

She gave me a hug before I left.
I was surprised to see Jake still seated outside the room.
‘Hey’. He said when he saw me. I took a seat beside him.
‘I thought you left’.
‘I needed to talk to you’.
‘You finally want to?’ He sighed
‘I know I’ve been a shitty friend’.
‘Do you?’

‘I didn’t know how to tell you’.
‘But you could tell Meghan’.
‘I didn’t tell her, she found out’. He defended
I paused when I realized I was being whiny.

‘I asked you, severally. Why didn’t you just tell me?’

‘We’ve been friends all our lives, I didn’t want anything to change. Plus I’m in love with someone I can’t have, what was the need of coming out?’
‘I wonder what y’all see in him. He is every bit a douche’.
‘I know he shot Meghan and there is no forgiving that but Travis doesn’t belong in jail’.
‘I strongly disagree’.
‘He lost his brother Zayn’.

‘We’ve all lost someone!’ Jake didn’t even flinch but I couldn’t stop.
‘Eventually we all have to lose someone or something, it doesn’t permit us to go on a killing spree. I know you love him and are blind to his flaws but I will make him pay for hurting Meghan’.
‘I’ve been blind to your flaws too’. He quietly said

‘What?’
‘Every time you messed up, every wrong decision you made, every kid you teased, every time you let you pride get in the way. Even when you decided to join that gang, I never once judged you because I love you and I know you deserve a few second chances. We all make mistakes eventually, we all lose our mind temporarily and do shit. Life fucks us up in different ways but don’t you think we deserve forgiveness?’

I thought of Steve who truly was in the middle of all these. He committed the crime because I had refused to and unlike me, he didn’t have much of a choice. Then momentarily, I tried placing myself in Travis’ shoes. Imagine losing your girl and brother to the same guy. Granted, he wasn’t deserving of Meghan but he was conflicted.

‘Please Zayn, do it for a brother. That place isn’t safe for people like Travis’. I let out a huge breath.
‘It’s not my call man and Meghan has to make this decision on her own, no pressure’. He sighed
‘I get that’.

‘And Jake, I truly appreciate everything you’ve been doing for me and I know I haven’t been the best of friends but nothing you do is going to change things between us. I got you, as much as you’ve got me. Even though secretly you want me, don’t deny it’.

‘Okay maybe I did want you but that changed after I discovered how violently you sleep’. I rose up and he did same.
‘What now, you don’t like it rough?’
He playfully smacked the back of my head as we walked out of the hospital. My life could blow out of proportion but I had a constant; Jake.


……………..


Pokello was seated in front of the room when I got back the next morning. She didn’t have that confidence in her eyes when she looked at me. I knew she didn’t think I killed her brother, word had already gotten out about who the real killer was.

‘Hey’. I greeted and she smiled weakly.
‘I thought you’d never speak to me again’. She said and I took a seat beside her.
‘And deny myself the pleasure of your savagery? Nah’.
‘I had you all wrong from the start Zayn. First I thought you just wanted Meghan as your pawn, then I thought you wanted to get in her pants, maybe the first time wasn’t enough…’

‘It wasn’t’.
‘I’m trying to have a moment here’.
‘Right. Continue’.

‘I tried to get Meghan away from you. I saw the way Travis wanted her like her needed her to breathe, then I saw the way she looked at you, you were a threat to my brother’s happiness and for me it has always been family first’.
He just needed her to prove his straightness, I thought but kept quiet.

‘I never gave you a chance, I didn’t have to but I fuelled Travis’ rage towards you that led him to do that horrible thing to Meghan’. She sighed deeply.
‘This is just me saying I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have judged you so hard’.
‘It’s okay and for what it is worth, I’m sorry about your brother. So, clean slate?’ I proposed.

‘I’d like that’. She smirked
‘Good’. I rose to go inside but she sat there.
‘You coming?’ She took a while to contemplate, then nodded.
‘Better not to prolong it’. She rose and walked into the room with me.

There were three people already in the room; Queenie, Katie and some dude cozied up to her. They were all laughing at a joke I had missed. Queenie was the first one to notice me.

‘Well if it isn’t our Romeo’. She said and the others turned to see me.
‘Morning ladies and gent?’ Katie rolled her eyes.
‘Zayn, this is Danny’. We shook hands. His smile was too bright, like Jake’s and he looked homely, like someone who served breakfast in bed.
I turned to the girl on the bed.

‘Hey Juliet’. She smiled
‘Oh Romeo, wherefore hath thou been?’
‘Cleansing my skin of bacteria coz your mom thought I was going to kill you with my stink’.
They all laughed and Meghan’s diminished when she saw Pokello. She moved from behind me and stood before Meghan.

Their friends kept anxiously looking between them, I understood their fear, those two could easily turn the place to a war zone but for now, the tension was as thick as ham.
‘How are you feeling?’ Pokello began but Meghan kept looking at her in a manner that said she didn’t appreciate her beating about the bush.

‘I’m sorry meg for turning on you, for disregarding your feelings and slut shaming you. I was hurt about Tyler, still am but it was no excuse to be a bitch, he was your brother too’. I saw a tear roll down as she referred to her brother in the past tense. I saw a hurt expression cross Meghan’s face before she masked it, if she wasn’t nursing a fresh bullet wound, she’d be hugging her friend.

‘Yeah you were a bitch, I’ve always known you’re one but why do you think I call you my best bitch? It’s because no matter what, you’ll always be my family, even if it cost me a lung’.
‘I’d hug you but I don’t want to harvest your intestines’.
Katie released a breath.

‘Thank God we don’t have to deal with sulky, remorseful Pokello anymore’.

We all spent a few hours together in the room that my mom had redecorated for the few days Meghan was going to have to stay there. It was large enough to comfortably accommodate all of us but it shrunk considerably when Gracie arrived with an entire floral shop to cheer up her sick baby sister.

Daniel had to leave because of his allergies to pollen or petals, my attention wasn’t exactly on him. I was just glad she was smiling, she even insisted on sitting up despite the pain. Her cousin showed up too with more flowers from his sisters and love from their dad.

Meghan smiled sweetly when she read the card attached to flowers but when I read it, I didn’t get the joke. It said;

SHOT BY AN EX? U DO SET D BAR PRETTY HIGH COUZ BUT U AIN’T GETTIN TO HELL B4 US.
DON’T DIE
          M & R
                 BRAINY, BAD AND BOUJEE

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Gosh, I suck at writing  romance... I need a love life🤦‍♀
This chapter was particularly hard for me, anyway, one chapter to go. Hope it's not as terrible