Icarus | Z.M.

26 | Alright

Victoria Tomlinson

"Does he have breathing problems?" Zayn's voice interrupted the past hour or so of silence that had been awkwardly hanging between us.

I lifted my head from where it had been resting on the window and I had been in a half-sleep. I was sure I hadn't properly heard him, or if I had actually heard him at all. I looked at him and blinked a few times. "What?"

We were in the car driving to the safe-house my dad had made us go to. Zayn had stopped by my house, and I had ten minutes to pack a suitcase and all my essentials, which was not helpful in any way because I had no idea how long we were going to be there. So my entire wardrobe had been squished into a suitcase. I had packed a bag full of Cujo's things too, making sure I had all his food and his favourite toys and his favourite bed so he could enjoy the holiday he would be going on.

We had been driving for what felt like hours and I had no concept of time, so I had no idea where we were or how long until we arrived at the destination.

The only thing I knew was that we were getting further from the city, which was something that excited me. I spent all my time there as much as I did love my garden and the small, wooded area surrounding the house, it wasn't as good as being further from the city. There would be less people, less noise, less things to worry about. I didn't know exactly where we were going but we seemed to be getting closer to the beach. Probably towards the Hamptons, I knew my dad owned a lot of properties there.

"Cujo." Zayn repeated, there was a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and the smoke blew from his nostrils and out the open window beside me. His wrist rested gently on top of the wheel. "Does he have breathing problems?"

My eyebrows furrowed at the completely random question, "Why do you ask?"

He gave me a disbelieving look, tilting his head down so he could look at me like I was an idiot over the top of the sunglasses that were perched on his nose, "Am I the only one out of us two that can hear him snoring like a fucking chainsaw in the backseat?"

He nodded his head to the backseat, where Cujo was laying down asleep, snoring.

"He has narrow nostrils, and his nose is short and stubby," I mumbled, glancing at Cujo to double check he was okay because he was snoring pretty loud. I nodded. "So yeah, he sometimes struggles to breathe properly."

He just gave a short nod in response, "Right."

"He's fine right now though." I added, reaching to the backseat to give him a soft scratch between the ears. I didn't miss the way his tail began to slowly wag as soon as I did. "he's just snoring."

"How do you know?" Zayn asked.

"When he's struggling to breathe it's usually because he gets too hot and starts panting, then can't take in the breaths properly." I explained to him, sitting back in the seat properly so I was looking out the front window, "He's snoring right now, I can tell the difference between his snores and when he's not breathing properly."

"Ah." he just nodded again.

I glanced at Cujo one more time before raising my hip up on one side to retrieve my phone from the pocket of my jeans so I could check the time and find some way to entertain myself for however long this journey was going to be.

I huffed in annoyance when I went to turn it on, only for it to be dead.

"How much longer?" I asked, putting my phone into the cupholder besides where Zayn's phone was.

He looked at the time on the dashboard.

"Three hours." he replied, "It's only been half an hour so far."