When no one's watching

Chapter 10

Louis' pov:

I was waiting for Zayn at our lockers so we could walk to our class together but he didn't show up until the bell rang.
So I made my way to Biology alone.
To my surprise he was already sitting there. And what was even more surprising or rather concerning was that he had rolled up in his hoodie so much that you couldn't even see his face properly.

And that meant something was extremely wrong.
I sat down next to him and carefully laid my hand onto his shoulder.
"Morning Z, are you ok?"
He nodded slightly and kept his head low.

3 minutes later the teacher came in and welcomed the class.
"Mr. Zayn Malik, please take off your hood, you know it's not allowed to wear those during class."

Zayn pulled down his hood and continued to stare down.
I now could look at his face properly.

He had definitely been crying. His eyes were still puffy and red and black circles were under them.
After 20 minutes of the class he asked for permission to go to the bathroom and 10 minutes later, after he still hadn't returned I went behind him.

I opened the door to the bathroom and he was standing at the sinks, just staring at his reflection.
"Zayn, tell me what had happened."

He never was the one to talk about his feelings and I knew that he wasn't quite ready to talk about it.
"You wanna come to my house after school?"
He nodded in response and I walked closer to him.

Then I embraced him in a tight hug. "Thanks Lou." He smiled at me before pulling me by the arm so we could go back to class.

I loved him as my best friend so much and I really had to know what was bothering him.

At lunch we were sitting with Harry, Niall and Liam once again.
But the mood seemed quite glumly. Zayn was just sitting there staring outside of the window.

And as Liam asked him something he just ignored it. Then Liam nudged him with the elbow.
And to all of our surprises, Zayn's reaction was harsh.
"Don't you fucking touch me!"

With that words he left the table and made his way out of the cafeteria.
We were now all looking at Liam questionably since he was the only one knowing why he reacted like that.

Liam stood up as well to follow Zayn but I held him by the arm.
"No, stay here, he wants to be alone and I guess you would be the last one he wants to talk to since you seem to know why he reacted like that."
Liam nodded and slowly sat down again.

I also saw no sense in following Zayn since I knew him for so long and I was aware that he needed some time alone.

But now I knew what was bothering Zayn.
It was Liam.

He didn't come back until lunch was over so I guessed that he went to class by himself already.

After the endless afternoon classes I went to my locker to wait for Zayn as he wanted to come over to mine.

5 minutes passed and he finally came around the corner, head hung low and clutching onto his books.
It was breaking my heart seeing him being so down.

After a quick smalltalk we made our way to my car and drove to my house in silence.
Thank goodness no one was home so me and Zayn sat down on the couch in the living room.

He grabbed the cuddly blanket and wrapped it around himself.
"Are you tired Z?"
"Yeah, I haven't slept tonight, quite tired."

"Would you mind still telling me what's going on between you and Liam?"
He looked at me with wide eyes. "Why-why do you know that? Did he tell you?!"

"No but the way you guys acted at lunch was uhh not that nice."
As a response Zayn just mumbled something and looked at me.

"Common, you know that I'm your best friend and I would never judge you for anything. Just tell me."

Zayn then started telling everything Liam had said in the locker room yesterday. It was audible how hard it was for him to talk about it.

"Louis?"
"Yeah?"
"You were right..."
"Right about what?"
"I really like him, I like Liam."

Tears started to form in his eyes again no matter how hard he tried to suppress it.
I quickly crawled over to him and hugged him.
"I know Z."

We just stayed hugging for a few minutes.
To be honest, it also didn't leave me untouched that Liam was seemingly homophobic and just hiding it from Harry. Also, the slurs he had used spoke for itself...

"You know Zayn, maybe he really didn't mean it. He maybe just got caught up in the moment and said something stupid."

Zayn just looked at me with sad eyes, he also knew that I just tried to cheer him up and didn't believe it myself.

"I'm gonna talk to him about this."
"Louis no, you'll probably punch him in the face."
"Uhh yeah probably but he really deserves it."

After another few minutes Zayn finally fell asleep.
I laid him down on the couch. He would probably sleep until the morning since he hadn't slept at all last night.
But my mom wouldn't mind anyway since Zayn was over all the time.

While Zayn was sleeping his phone lit up several times.
After the 10th time I quickly glanced at the screen to see what could be that important.

7 missed calls from Li :)

Li :) :
Zayn please answer my calls! I know you're mad but I have to explain myself. I really didn't mean it.

Li :) :
Ugh whatever I tried

After I had read the second text, I was extremely mad at Liam, more than I had already been.
Who did he think he was?! He literally broke my best friend's heart. Maybe didn't break it on purpose but made that statement on purpose which was enough.

I had never liked Liam because he was using girls like objects but since I got to know him better, I really liked him. He was actually a kind and funny lad.

Now he had definitely proved me wrong in everything.
Tomorrow I was going to confront him with the bullshit he was babbling.

Zayn really slept until the morning. I didn't even want to wake him up but I had to since we had to go to school.

After I had woken him up and we ate a bit of breakfast, we made our way to school.
Zayn wasn't in a good mood at all but at least he had slept and hadn't cried the whole night like the night before.

As we arrived at school I actually wanted to confront Liam immediately but firstly I really didn't want everyone, especially not Harry to hear it and secondly I couldn't find him anyways.

Unfortunately I had the first period alone.
It was Maths and my teacher hated me abysmally. So of course I had to sit in the front row even if she knew I wouldn't listen to the boring shit she was talking anyway.

30 minutes into the lesson, I saw someone walking in the corridor through the small glass pane next to the door.
And as I looked closer I realized that it was Liam.

I jumped up immediately and ran out the door.
I could hear the yells of my angry teacher behind me but she couldn't hate me any more so I didn't care at all.

"Stay right there!"
I ran over to Liam who had turned around and was now facing me.

"And? Already told your best friend Harry that you actually despise gay people or are you too much of a coward for that? Only brave in front of your 'cool' friends, huh?"
He looked at me with widened eyes and just wanted to open his mouth to defend himself but I just continued.

"So you really think that your fucking behavior is correct?! I swear to god you have no fucking idea of what you have caused with your goddamn homophobic slurs!
And don't you ever dare thinking that your "acting like girls are toys and just throwing them away again after you had them in bed" behavior is any better than being gay! Don't you dare talk to Zayn like that ever again!"

Before he could reply I turned back around and just walked away.
I hoped that he would now finally come down to earth and would have the guilty conscience he deserved.