chasing (zarry)

20

zayn cries silently, sitting curled up on the floor with bloodied arms wrapped around his shins. it happened again, after he swore it wouldn't. but harry came over and zayn was feeling lonely, so when harry kissed him, he went with it. and an hour later, harry left. leaving zayn alone. his guilt got the best of him, so he ended up on the bathroom floor, waiting for the bleeding to stop.

"zayn? are you home?" zayn hears niall yell from downstairs. he slowly scrambles up and pulls on his sweater, not bothering to wash off the dry blood. he struts downstair and goes to the kitchen, where niall is helping himself to some strawberries. "oh, hey! there you are," niall says, smiling. zayn widely smiles back at him, as if he wasn't crying just a few moments ago.

"hello, niall," zayn says, dragging out the l. he throws his arms around niall's neck. "how are you?"

"oh, i'm great! where's my goddaughter, though?" niall asks, pulling away and looking around.

"you do know she's not actually your goddaughter?" zayn asks in return, giggling.

"yeah, religion and stuff, i know," niall huffs, making hand gestures. "but i did the honey thing—" **

"niall, that's nowhere near a baptism or anything," zayn laughs. niall sighs loudly.

"sod off. where— oh. hey," he suddenly says, voice much softer and gentler than before. "have you been crying?"

"what? no. no, i haven't," zayn laughs. "my lenses were just bothering me a lot, i was taking them out when you arrived," he says, smiling. niall squints his eyes, grabs zayn's face, turns it and examines it.

"you're lying," niall states, releasing zayn.

"no— how did you even figure that out?" zayn asks, tilting his head slightly. niall smiles smugly and shrugs. "no, tell me."

"fine," niall huffs. "for some reason, whenever you cry, you get these red splashes under your ears and jaw."

"i do?" zayn asks. "oh," he mumbles when niall nods.

"so, why were you—" niall cuts himself off with a sharp breath intake. "zayn..."

"no. no! i didn't," zayn easily lies. "i promise."

"alright. just, why were you crying?" niall questions, jumping up the counter and sitting on it. he leans back, resting against one of the cabinets.

"just some stuff with harry," zayn says, shrugging. "anyways, is there any reason you blessed me with your presence?"

"yes, there is actually. so, there's this party tonight, that i really want to go to, because i haven't gone out in weeks. and i wanted to go with you, because it's literally been four years since we went out together. so...?" niall trails off, clasping his hands together and giving zayn his best puppy eyes.

"i want to," zayn says, "i really do. but what about bella?" he helps himself to a glass of water and sits down on the kitchen chair.

"mali. i already asked her, she's okay with it. she'll spend the night here and if anything goes wrong, she'll call you. and she's already babysat bella a billion times, so she knows the drill," niall rambles. "are you coming with me, then?"

zayn's silent for a few moments, contemplating his decision. if he stayed home, he would just be sulking and that doesn't seem like the nicest way to spend his saturday night. "alright. yeah. i'll go, but i'm not drinking and we're taking your car."

***

zayn does end up drinking.

a lot.

way too much.