Pressures of the Night

Chapter Fourteen

This chapter is mainly based in the past

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"You know," Paul started, "When you lot told me what you were gonna be doing with Zayn, I'll be honest I was really nervous for the outcome. I thought for sure Zayn was gonna put up the world's biggest fight, and eventually you lot would just let him be. But I'm happy to say I was very wrong, and you boys did a good job with him."

"Yeah this morning when I saw Zayn's picture on the news about leaving Louis' event last night, I could have sworn he was just still acting out, but after seeing him today I can tell he's getting a lot better," Josh says while sipping his beer.

"He is getting better. It's a slow process, but I rather it take a year then try to rush this and have him spiral out again," Liam said, Harry and Niall nodding along with him.

"Remember how bad it had gotten? I genuinely thought he was gonna turn into one of the child stars gone rogue," Sandy said.

"Yeah, so did I," Liam said sadly.

-.-.-.-.-.-Flashback-.-.-.-.-.-

"Wanna go down to the lobby bar for a couple of pints? Zayn went out with some of his school friends for the evening," Niall offers to the other lads as he sees them seated in the living room area of their joint suites.

"Yeah I wouldn't mind letting loose a bit," Liam replies while standing up. "Lou you can come too, but only one beer, okay?"

"Alright," Louis says with a smile as he gets up from Harry's lap to go pull on a slightly looser pair of sweats.

"What time did Paul say Zayn had to be back at?" Harry asks as he stands up to stretch out his legs.

"Think midnight-ish, maybe a bit later. This is his first time with people his age in awhile so I think he was being a bit more lenient with the curfew," Niall said and the boys just nodded.

Eventually all the boys were done getting ready and they were making their way downstairs. The bar was relatively empty seeing as though their crew took up most of the small hotel, so they really were able to let go and just be themselves. Everyone drank (within control) and had a good time, but after a while Liam noticed Paul's more stressed than usual look.

"Everything good, Paulie?" Liam ask as he approaches the man in concern.

"Zayn's not answering his phone and he was suppose to be home about an hour ago. At first I was fine with him being late, but now he's worrying me," Paul said as he tried calling the boy once more.

"Zayn's a bright boy, I'm sure he and his friends just got distracted while watching a movie or playing video games. Don't stress too much Paul."

And Liam was genuine about that. Zayn's always been a very rational and sophisticated person seeing as though he spent his childhood surrounded by adults. However, after another hour passed by and Zayn was still not back everyone began to worry. The once light hearted, happy moment was now filled with distress and concern because Zayn wasn't answering his phone to anyone.

"Do any of you boys have Danny or Ant's number? Zayn said he was going out with them," Paul said as he arranged a group of people in front of him to help him locate the boy.

"M'sure Zayn's mum does, we can just call her," Harry offers but Paul shakes his head.

"I don't wanna call Trisha yet. We don't need to put this stress on more people than need be," Paul said while rubbing a hand over his face, and just as he was about to speak again the boy everyone was worrying about walked through the lobby door.