the fallen;; zm {slow updates}

thirteen

CHAPTER THIRTEEN;;

When I got home, Maria was on the couch watching American Horror Story and I joined her, since it was one of out favourite tv shows. I sat down next to her and grabbed a handful of popcorn from the bowl that she was holding and popped one in mouth.

"Where were you?" Maria asks, turning her head so that she was facing me.

I chewed, then swallowed. "Had lunch with Ethan at a Mexican restaurant."

"That's good. I thought you were out with that other guy. The one with the british accent."

"You mean, Zayn?" I raised and eyebrow at her and she nods. "Nah. Not in a million years, Maria,"

As those words came out of my mouth, I felt my eye twitch. Something I do when I lied and I wondered if I was lying right now, about not going out with Zayn.

"You're lying," She smirks. "I caught your eye twitching. Do you like him?"

I had no idea how to explain my conflicting feelings for Zayn to my aunt. Not only that, I had no idea how to explain Zayn, fullstop.

"Maria--" I started but was cut off when my phone went off. I took it out of my pocket to see Harry calling. "I have to take this,"

"Okay," She mumbles and I quickly pushed myself off the couch, then made my way towards the stairs

"Hello?" I say, once I answered the call.

"Did you remember what english homework we have?" Harry asks and I could hear a small faint of meows in the background; it must be Dusty, his black and white cat.

"We have to do an essay on how discovery can effect the individual and people around them. It has to be atleast three pages too,"

"Okay," He says, and the sound of pages being flipped was heard on the other end. "Thanks, Mia,"

"Hey, Harry?" I stopped him before he could end the call. "You okay? With like what happened--"

"Yeah, I'm good. Don't worry,"

"Right," I let out a breath. "I'll see you in school and good luck with your essay."

"You too," And with that we hung up and I stuffed it in my pocket then opened the door to my room.

My eyes widened at the sight of it. The drawers were yanked out, clothes strewn across the floor and the bed was ripped apart. The closet doors were open, hanging askew by their hinges. Books and picture frames littered the floor.

I saw a reflection of movement in the window across the room and swung around to see him. He stood against the wall behind me, in all black and wearing a ski mask. It's him, I told myself. The guy from the accident yesterday.

My brain was in a swirling fog, just beginning to transmit run! to my legs, when he lunged for the window, threw it open and ducked out.

I took the stairs down, three at a time while I screamed out my aunt's name as loud as I could. When I reached the bottom stairs, Maria showed up infront of me, her eyebrows furrowed.

"Mia, why the hell are you scream--"

"My b-bedroom. . .ransacked. . .intruder--ski m-masked guy--"

She grabbed my shoulders and shook me, "I don't understand a word you're saying if you keep talking like that! Breathe,"

I did as I was told and said, "My bedroom."

We climbed the stairs together and stood infront of my bedroom door. I held perfectly still, a tingle of fear creeping through me while Maria went inside, looking around.

My bed was made, dresser drawers were shut, picture frames arranged neatly on top. The floors were clean and the window drapes hung in long, smooth panels, one on either side of the closed window.

"What's wrong with your room?" Maria asks, turning around to look at me but I did not answer.

Have I imagined the whole thing again? What was wrong with me? Why was my reality convoluted? Why did the truth never match up?

For the sake of my sanity, I told myself it wasn't me. It was him. The guy in the ski mask. He was doing all of this and I didn't know how but he was to blame.

Maria walks towards my bed and her hand grabs something on top of if; it was a necklace and as she eyed it, a small smile appeared on her face.

"I remember this," She tells me, walking towards me with the necklace in hand.

I don't remember ever putting that on my bed. I kept it in a box along with other stuff that reminded me of my parents under my bed.

"You're dad got you this for your eighth birthday," She says, placing it over my head and the necklace rested on my neck.

I looked down at it to see a print of a hand on it and something about the print was familiar to me but I couldn't quite put a finger on it. But that did not matter to me right now. I stepped in my room but it lacked the familiar touch of comfort and safety. There was an underlying note of violation and menace.

Looking to where the window was, I wondered how he did it. Five minutes. He had five minutes to find a way back inside and put the room in order before we walked up.

"I'll be downstairs if you need anything, yeah?" Maria kisses me on the cheek before walking out. "Goodnight."

I sat on my bed and held the necklace in the palm of my hand as I stared out the window. "I'm losing my mind," I mumbled to myself.

My phone in my pocket rang and I quickly pulled it out. Without checking to see who was calling, I simply answered it and put it up to my ear.

"Mia, wait," I hear Liam's voice on the other end. "Before you hang up, just please, listen to what I have to say,"

"You have a minute,"

"We need to talk about it, about us, okay? I'm trying my best to change for you, for us-"

"Liam," I cut him off. "Stop,"

"No," He says firmly. "I'm not giving up on us, Mia. Haven't you gotten the memo. I love you and you need to know that whatever happened in the past, it won't happened again. I swear to you."

"I don't know. . ." I trailed off, looking out of my bedroom window and I could see the trees swaying harshly outside from the strong winds. "If you're asking me for forgiveness, you're already forgiven but I won't forget."

"I want us to happen again,"

"It's not that easy, Liam," I raised my voice at him, then sighed, raking my fingers through my hair. "We can't just pick up where we left off."

"Then, we'll start over,"

"Fine," I huffed since I was too tired to fight with him. "We'll start over, as friends,"

"Friends," He repeated. "I can do that. Baby steps, for you. Since we're friends now, do you want to hang out with me tomorrow?"

"I thought you said, baby steps, Liam?" I laughed softly at him. "Plus, I have work tomorrow,"

"After work." He says. "I'll meet up with you then and we can hang out, just as friends, ofcourse."

"Okay," And with that I hung up before he could say anything else to me, then throwing my phone behind me and I could hear it bouncing off the bed, hitting the floor.

Once I took the necklace off myself, I grabbed the box from underneath my bed and placed it on my lap. I took the lid off to find a small piece of note with a handwritten message on it:

stay away from zayn