Highschool Love

Chapter 9

*At the end of the day*
"Louis, I need to talk to you." Zayn said walking over to where he stood next to Louis.
"We're leaving. Bye guys." Niall and Shane called out in unison.
"I have to go to, see you later." Liam said as he got on the bus.
"I'm a phone call away, and remember what we've talked about." Harry said reminding them both.
" What do you want to talk about Z?" Louis asked not looking him in the face.
"Not here Lou, let's go to the ice cream shop."
"Z, I don't really think."
"Louis we're going." Zayn cut him off and pulled him towards the sidewalk. Louis huffed but walked with Zayn. The walked in akward silence that remained unbroken till they sat down in a booth with their ice cream.
"Louis, I know you've been upset with me. I need to know what I did so I can fix it. We've been best friend since forever, I don't want to lose you." Zayn asked Louis.
"It's just that, you hardly spend any time with me anymore, all you do is talk about Liam we haven't talked about anything else in forever, and that's when you even have the time to talk to me. On top of that, if you and Liam get in a relationship problem, it's going to transfer to the group, and you'll leave me for Liam." Louis said all this quickly and without looking at Zayn.
"Louis, I would never leave you. You're my best friend."
"You have. You've missed two of the times we were supposed to hang out, and your excuse was always Liam. You say that you wouldn't leave me, and yet you have. You've left me Zayn. A guy who you barely know has become more important than your best friend. Even Liam hasn't done this to Harry. I haven't talked to you in around three weeks, and Harry told me that he and Liam make sure they talk at least once a week."
"I'm so sorry Louis. I didn't realize that I was doing that. I've been a jerk haven't I?"
"He finally understands." Louis said sarcastically.
"I won't do that again. Today I'm all yours, and I promise to try not to talk about Liam."
The two boys spent the rest of the day together. Zayn kept his promise about Liam, and Louis never mentioned Harry. He was still confused about how he felt about Harry. He needed to figure it out before he could talk then someone else about it. Later that night after they split, Zayn called Liam.
"Hello."
"Liam?"
"Yeah, what do you need Z?"
"I can't go out with you."
"What! Why?"
"Let's just say I'm taking one for the team. I'm protecting my friends."
"From what?"
"From something they don't want. I've got to go, Safaa needs help with her homework, and I need to help her. I'm sorry Liam."
" I'm sorry too Zayn."
Liam hung up from the phone call. He sat their and tried not to cry. He looked back at his phone, and the grabbed it speed dialing Harry.
"Hello." Harry's low voice spoke slowly.
"Harry, what's wrong with me?"
"What do you mean? There's nothing wrong with you."
"Yes there is. Zayn just called me to tell me that he can't go out with me, and his reason was he's protecting his friends. What did I do?"
"Oh, ok. Liam it's not you. Louis was concerned that relationships would tear the friend group apart. Zayn hadn't called him in a couple of weeks and he was concerned that Zayn was going to forget about him. I'm going to tell you this about Zayn ,and I expect you to keep it to yourself. Zayn may look and act like a bad boy, but he will do anything to make his friends happy even if it means he is unhappy. I'm sure that phone call hurt him more than you know. I'm sure he had tears in his eyes and he wouldn't want you to see that. He knows it hurt you. Trust me it hurt him to, but he believes that was better for the friend group. Liam nothing is wrong with you."
"Harry I don't want to lose him."
"You won't loose him. Give it a couple of weeks and things will look better.
The boys continued talking about the situation with Harry consoling Liam. Meanwhile back with Zayn, he finished helping Saafa with her homework and managed not to fall apart. Somehow he made it through dinner and when he finally had some time to himself, he hid his face in his pillow and let all his feelings go free. He stayed there for a while not knowing what to do or who to call. He didn't want to call Louis after what happened earlier. He couldn't call Liam. Niall and Shane wouldn't understand, and Harry was probably on the phone with Liam. He was alone with his thoughts. He felt his phone buzz. He looked down to see Liam's caller ID. His finger hovered over the answer button until he finally tossed it to the end of his bed and hid his face in his pillow again. He felt his phone buzzing until whoever was calling finally gave up.
"I'm sorry Liam." He whispered. "I don't want to hurt you anymore. I don't want to hurt myself anymore." He fell asleep with the tears still coming down his face. Harry went to bed feeling exhausted after organizing the friend group back to normal, or whatever the new normal would be. Louis fell asleep completely oblivious to the heartbreak he had just caused. Niall and Shane were having a sleepover with just each other. Liam called Zayn several times before giving up. He silently cries himself to sleep. Tomorrow would be an interesting day.

(So, how are you all? Please don't be ghost readers, I'll respond to your comments.
Anyway enjoy this chapter and pls vote🧡)
Published 6/7/2020