Stuck Here (Ziall)

Chapter 3

(Niall’s POV)

I didn’t know what Zayn meant, and I couldn’t even ask him the next day because he wasn’t in class. Was it even the next day? For all I knew it was the next week or even the next month. Time slipped through my fingers. It was hard to get a good grasp on anything lately. Chad still wasn’t around. I hadn’t seen him since, well, probably since I died. I still don’t know how that could happen. There was no way I was dead. I couldn’t be? Could I?

“Today in class we will be studying….”

Every day started like that. Everyday started in class. I never woke up. I was just there. I was missing a huge chunk of my life and I didn’t even know where it went. It was frustrating to say the least. All I wanted to do was talk to someone, anyone, but no one responded. I was stuck in a terrible dream, unable to wake up.

My name wasn’t called during attendance. It was skipped over. I silently said ‘here’ to myself, because well, I was there. I was sitting right there. I made myself believe that this was all just an ongoing joke. I had to tell myself that it was. I think that if I didn’t convince myself that this was all a ruse, I would go crazy. Hell, I already was getting to that point.

The day moved on slowly. I grew anxious with each passing moment. My heart pounded in my chest. I stared at the clock and with each second that passed my breathing quickened. I felt like I was going to burst. I needed answers and Zayn was the only person to talk to me. He knew the answers. I just knew that he did. I needed to find him.

I searched around the school, hoping that maybe Zayn had just skipped his first class. I had no luck in finding him, but the ending bell of the day sounded and everyone was free to go home. At least I had the chance to get out of that place and search for him elsewhere. I walked up to the front entrance, ready to step out into the sunlight when my body froze. It was like an invisible wall blocked off the doorway, preventing me from going any further. I stood back and looked for some sort of field in my way. There was nothing, only a moment where my body would stop working and my mind would become fuzzy.

Students passed me, walking through the door with no problem. It looked like the school was just keeping me in and only me. Yet another question to add to the books. What the hell was going on?

I stood there and watched the students file out of the building and enter the parking lot where they got into their cars to go home. Off in the distance I saw Louis Tomlinson, a friend of Zayn’s, one of many. Maybe he would know where Zayn was. I had no way of getting to him or even calling out to him. My plan was useless. Next were the teachers, carrying their bags full of papers to grade. Lastly, the janitors worked their way through the school. All the while, I stood there, watching them all as they passed around me without a clue that I was there.

They shut the door in my face once everyone was out of the school. I turned and leaned against its cool surface. My legs felt weak and gave out beneath me. I slid down to the ground, not caring about dirtying my clothes. My body trembled as I pulled my knees to my chest and pressed my face into my kneecaps.

“Why me? Why is this happening? Please, I just want to wake up. Am I being punished for something? I’ve never done anything wrong.” I let my tears fall onto the fabric of my jeans. They soaked through and my nose dripped disgustingly. After a good cry, I leaned back against the door; my eyes closed, and took in a deep breath. A light feeling came over me and when I opened my swollen and red eyes, I was sitting in class.

It was a new day.

“Dammit!” I jumped from my seat, pushing my seat back so roughly that it fell back, crashing to the floor. A normal reaction would be to look back at my seat, but no one moved, no one reacted. I couldn’t get their attention even if I grabbed them by their collars and shook them. I shoved my desk and turned around. “Look at me!”