Wrong Side of Love (Ziam bodyswap)

Chapter 17

Getting back to the hotel, though, has him feeling sick all over again. They all pile into the elevator while Niall talks about plans to go out with Louis for a bit, take advantage of their night off while they can. "What about you three?" Niall asks.

"We're going to stay in, probably watch whatever trashy TV we can find like we normally do," Perrie answers for them. "Right, Zayn?"

"Uh." Liam looks at Zayn, panicked. "I guess?"

"Liam's more than welcome, too," she adds. "If you'd like, Liam."

"Sounds great, yeah," Zayn says immediately. "Thanks."

Once again, Zayn follows them to the room. Liam wishes he had his own; wishes he weren't expected to share with her, because all he wants is to crawl under the blankets, pull them high over his head, and pretend like this isn't happening. Any of it. He doesn't want any of it. He doesn't want to be Zayn; he doesn't want Zayn to be Perrie's; he doesn't want to feel anything for Zayn but friendship, because that would be so much easier. That would make his whole life so, so much simpler. And it'd make his heart hurt a lot less, too.

"I'm going to take a quick shower," Perrie says once the door is closed. "That alright with you two?"

Zayn shrugs and falls onto the bed, spreading out, head tipped back against the pillows. Liam goes and sits on the other side, tense and straight, nodding only once. Perrie gives Liam another one of those confusing, secretive looks before ducking into the bathroom with one of her bags. As soon as she's gone, Liam lets out a sigh of relief, and Zayn falls onto his side, reaching over to pull Liam down next to him.

"We're doing good," he says, "right?" He nervously bites at his pinky nail. "Right, Li?"

"Yeah." Liam nods stiffly. "I don't think she suspects anything."

Liam hears the shower in the bathroom turned on, soon followed by Perrie's soft, melodic singing. He reaches blindly for the remote and turns on the TV, flicking through the basic channels for something, anything to watch. Eventually Zayn tugs it away from him, check the guide, and puts on some random sitcom that does little to hold Liam's attention.

That's more because of Zayn's fingers tracing patterns on the inside of his wrist than the quality of the show, though. "Zayn?" Liam blurts, moving his hand up to capture Zayn's. "Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah?" Zayn doesn't look away from the screen, only squeezes Liam's hand in acknowledgement.

Liam sucks in a breath, looks far away from Zayn's eyes, and asks, "Is she really what you want? For the rest of your life?"

He can feel Zayn looking at him, his gaze like the sun on a cloudless day, the kind where you stay indoors or seek shade if you can't ignore it: too hot and too much to handle. "That's a really dumb question, Liam," Zayn says lowly.

It is, Liam thinks. "Sorry."

Zayn sighs. "It's fine." He curls up against Liam's side. "Why do you ask?"

Liam shrugs. "Just wondering," Liam lies. "What are we watching, anyways?"

"Fuck if I know," Zayn admits. "I don't recognize any of these channels." He goes back to the guide, skipping past show after show. "That's one thing I really hate about being in other countries; I never know what channels anything good is on."

"I can get my laptop," Liam suggests. "We can watch something on that."

"Nah." Zayn sits up, covering his mouth to hide a yawn. "I think I'm gonna go to my room. Today was exhausting."

Liam's eyes widen. "You can't leave me alone with her!" he hisses. "Zayn—"

"Just go to sleep," Zayn says. "I pass out on her all the time. She won't even care."

"Wow," Liam says. "You must be a great boyfriend, Zayn."

Zayn grins at him, reaching down to cup Liam's cheek. "I would be, you know," he says before his hand slips away and he climbs off the bed. "Goodnight, Liam. See you in the morning."

Liam stares after him, a little dumbstruck, too flabbergasted to move. What did that even mean? What the hell just happened? He doesn't even get a moment to try to figure it out, because the shower turns off and he can hear Perrie moving around in the bathroom.

Liam quickly climbs under the covers, pulling them up, and faces away from the door, pretending to be asleep as he listens to Perrie bustling around in the bathroom. A few minutes later the door opens, releasing a cloud of sweet, cherry smelling steam that Liam wrinkles his nose at.

"Seriously?" Perrie groans. "Every time with you, Zayn," she mutters. Liam keeps his eyes clamped shut as the bed dips behind him. "I know you're not sleeping, you shit. You snore."

Liam winces, guilty, and rolls over. She's not under the comforter, at least, and they're not even close to touching. She's dressed in a pair of worn, loose sweats, her hair piled up on top of her head in that messy bun thing that everyone does, her face wiped clean of makeup. It makes her look a lot younger, a lot softer, as does the way she smiles down at him. "Where'd Liam go?"

"To bed," Liam says. "He, uh, told me to tell you goodnight, and that he was too tired to stay."

"I'm sorry, babe," she says.

Liam frowns. "For what?"

Perrie playfully pokes his side. "You know what," she teases. "You're pathetic, Malik. Completely pathetic."

"I am?" Is this what Zayn meant about banter that he wasn't supposed to listen to?

"Absolutely," she says, sounding delighted as she snags the TV remote. "I've never met a bigger lovestruck idiot in my life. But it's okay, I still love you." She bends down, her lips falling against his cheek, instead of his lips the way he'd expected them to. "You can go to bed. I'll just watch TV and order myself something to eat."

"We just got back from dinner," Liam reminds her. And she'd eaten a whole plate of food, fought with Niall over the last of the nachos they'd had, and how could she possibly consider eating again? There's no way.

"And?" Perrie shoots him a look. "I'm hungry. Don't give me that judgmental look. I want cheesecake."

"Okay," Liam drags out. "Night, then."

"Night, babe."

Liam rolls over, turning his back to her, laying at the very edge of the bed, as much distance between them as possible. But he can't sleep. The TV is distracting, as is the way Perrie laughs at even the most terrible jokes. She orders food, just like she said, and Liam hears her fork scraping against the plate as her phone beeps and beeps, all night long.

But he's not looking forward to the moment it ends, because when it does, she finally climbs under the covers. Liam waits for it, stomach knotting as he anxiously waits for her to cuddle up to him, wrap her arms around his waist. But she doesn't. The entire night she stays on the other side of the bed, far, far away from him.

What the hell? Liam's done the whole long distance relationship thing before, and Danielle hadn't even been his fiancée at the time. He knows what it was like, finally being back with each other (when things were good between them, anyways), the way they'd go at it for hours until they were breathless and exhausted, and then curl up tangled in each other, trying to make up for lost time. But, actually, Perrie's barely made any effort to touch him, except when they'd been shouldering their way past the cameras and screaming fans.

Something, Liam thinks, is going on here. But whatever it is, he really doesn't want to know.

*