The Forgotten Child

14

"Zayn."

"Dr. Ford." the boy retorted as he crossed his arms.

"You are very stubborn, do you get that from your mum or dad?" Dr. Ford asks with an amused smile. Zayn's eyebrows furrowed at the mention of his parents but he still didn't say a word. "You're not going to feel any better unless we talk."

"I feel fine." Zayn says with a shrug.

"I was talking mentally."

"I still feel fine." Zayn retorts.

"You know I was talking with your dad about some stuff, just so I could get an idea of what's going on in your life. He talked about your mum leaving you in the middle of the night and that's how everything sort of arose like his friend, your social worker, finding out about you." Dr. Ford says with a raised eyebrow.

"So?" Zayn snaps quite harshly.

"So, what went through your mind when you found out she was gone."

"I don't know." Zayn sighs.

"Zayn come on, Harry really wants what's best for you. Why don't we talk about how he was when you were younger. Was he good to you?"

"He was fine until Niall and Liam came into the picture, then he always forgot about me." Zayn mutters and Dr. Ford gives a small smile because this was good, they were making progress.

"What do you mean 'he forgot you'?" Dr. Ford asks and Zayn sighs.

"Like he would almost always be late picking me up, but always early dropping me off with my mum. He didn't care that I was there, like it was never just me and him, its was always us and Niall or Liam or Louis." Zayn says and Dr. Ford nods.

"So do you think that he favored Liam and Niall more than he favored you?"

"Of course he likes Liam and Niall more, it was obvious. They play football, they're naturally smart, they had a "rough" past. They didn't have a rough past, Liam cried when he left his orphanage which was quite nicer than a normal orphanage. And Niall was adopted after his parents died in a car crash, he says he doesn't care because he doesn't remember them." Zayn huffed, doing air quotes around rough.

"How are Liam and Niall now around you? Are they nice?" Dr. Ford asks and Zayn shrugs.

"I don't really talk to them now."

"What about when you were younger?" Dr. Ford asks and Zayn remembers those days quite well. He remembers Liam and Niall calling Zayn the cinderella of the house old because he was the step brother, he remembers them introducing Zayn to their friends as "their papa's kid", he remembers being told he wasn't allowed to play with any of their toys because he wasn't related to them. It was stupid, but Zayn was hurt by all of that. Especially when he introduced his brothers as his brothers, letting them take and play with any of his few toys, and he would even let them pick on him and not tattle so he would stay on their good side.

"They hated me." Zayn mumbles with a frown,"But like I never did anything. I tried so hard to be good to them but they absolutely hated me." Zayn sighs as he remembers the few days of hell he spent with Liam and Niall

Zayn's flashback:

"Come on boys, we gotta go pick up Zayn." Louis says as he helps his sons out of the car in front of the run down apartment.

"Why can't we just wait in the car? You let us do it when you run inside the grocery store." Niall says as he jumps out of the black SUV.