'Summer of '69' blared through Harry's kitchen as he fixed himself a cup of tea and danced around to the old classic. The sun shone through his window and hit him perfectly on his back, warming up his bones even more so than his joy did.
"Now Jonathan with your sports,"
"Thanks Carol. First up, some rather unfortunate news, Man. United player, Zayn Malik was involved in a car accident last night. Officials at the scene claim that Malik was indeed intoxicated well over the limit and swerved to avoid an oncoming vehicle, crashing into a lamppost. He has since been rushed to hospital and said to be in a 'stable' condition. More to follow later on at the five o' clock news. Liverpool is set to play...."
Harry was busy stirring his cup of tea but his hand stilled as soon as he had heard Zayn's name. His entire body stiffened as soon as the news announcer had mentioned the accident.
Had he heard correctly?
... Zayn.Malik?
He picked up his phone and looked at it like it was a foreign object, but in all honesty, it was just that to Harry in the moment. Shock had completely taken over him and he had forgotten how to work his phone. He stared at it, his hands trembled as he swiped, not knowing what he was doing. He looked through all of his apps over and over again.
What was this? What was he doing?
Finally, he found the icon that showed all of his contacts and this time he slowly scrolled through the names, as if he had forgotten everyone there too, and had to remind himself of who he knew. He scrolled and felt his breath grow shorter and shorter, the radio in the background suddenly so deafening to him that he had to press all the buttons at once to turn it off.
Finally he found the name that he needed. Liam.
After the contact was selected, he pressed the ice cold screen to his flaming skin. Tears welled up in his eyes as the ringing persisted. He cut the call and tried again.
"Shit. Liam, no." Harry tried calling him yet again, his heart now full on racing in his chest. Liam was his only link to Zayn and he was unavailable.
He crouched down on the floor and cupped his hands over his mouth.
Harry, it's okay. They said that he's stable. He's alive.
He stood up again, gripping at the back of the chair and squeezed his eyes shut, forcing the tears back.
06:55
Shit.
Late. Late, he was going to be late.
Abandoning his tea, he grabbed whatever he needed for work and rushed out of his apartment. There was an eleven year old child that he needed to see first thing that morning who was experiencing severe anxiety from trying to manage her workload, athletics and, home life and he just couldn't cancel the same day, just mere minutes before.
Harry had jammed and turned his car key into the ignition so hard, if he was a little more forceful he would have broken the key clean off. Suddenly his phone rang which made him let go of his keys and grab at it like someone was about to steal it.
"Liam??" He answered, not caring to check the screen.
"... Harry, are you alright?" It was a teacher from the prep school.
"Yes. Yes," He cleared his throat. "Sorry..."
She spoke to Harry, asking him if he could help her compile some questioner for a Life Orientation lesson. Harry agreed, not even knowing what to, cut the call and made his way to school.
*
"Harry, I honestly feel like you're not even listening. You're just like everyone else I try to talk to, really. My parents, friends. Just forget it."
"What? - Wait! Lana, wait." Harry quickly got up when he realised that his young client had left her seat, ready to leave the classroom they were using. "Lana, please come and sit back down." He pleaded and luckily for him, the young girl had listened to him.
"It looks like you need someone to talk to just as bad." She said in a flat tone with her brown eyes moved from his green ones to her scuffed up black school shoes.
Harry felt embarrassed at how unprofessional he currently was. He took off his glasses and placed Lana's file aside. "I apologise. Uhm, I'm just..." not in the right frame of mind. "Had a lot on my mind today, but that's no excuse." He forced a smile and grabbed his glasses again and let them sit on his nose.
Lana gave him a blank look and he could see that she was still frustrated with him. "You know, we can reschedule for another time. You can't help me with my issues when you're thinking about other things." She said tiredly.
"Are you sure? We could -"
"I'm sure. I've got to go to maths anyway."
Harry was already getting his diary out to make a new appointment for next week when she stood up.
"Alright, I apologise again, Lana."
"Don't sweat it, yea? If it gets worse I'll come see you during one of the breaks." She sighed, grabbed her backpack and left the room.
Harry leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees and covered his face with his hands. He must have looked at the clock on the wall for the hundredth time, just waiting until he could get out of here.
*
After school had ended, Harry sat in his car in the school parking lot. He didn't want to go back home just yet, he needed to get into contact with Liam or one of Zayn's friends to make sure that he was okay.
"Louis?"
"Hey man, what's up?"
Harry frowned and picked at his steering wheel. "Zayn's been in an accident." There went his temperature spiking up again as the words left his lips.
".. So you heard?" Louis said in a small voice.
"You heard too? Why haven't you said anything?! I've been worried sick!"
"I'm sorry, Harry! We haven't spoken about him in however long it's been so I didn't really know how you'd feel about this??"
"I feel sick about it. Things may have not ended on a great note between us but I really just want to make sure that he's okay." Harry said and Louis had heard his voice shake on the other end. "I've tried calling Liam but he's not answering, I even tried damn searching for what hospital he's in on Google, looking like a right old crazed fan, but found nothing."
"Alright just calm down,"
But how could Harry be calm when he saw what was left of Zayn's sports car. It was as if a giant had crushed a little tin can and left it on the side of the road.
"It's okay, Harry. He's going to be okay. We'll just keep trying Liam - Niall too."
"Yea, okay." Harry breathed out morosely before he started his car.
Upon getting back to his eerily silent home, he grabbed his untouched and ice cold tea and dumped it down the drain. He was unable to eat or drink anything, feeling like a lump of lead had already been dropped into his stomach. It was only the next morning that Louis' searching and badgering of others had paid off and he was able to text Harry the name of the hospital that Zayn was taken to and Harry wasted no time to call in to work, claiming personal problems for his unexpected absence so that he could finally go to Zayn.
YOU ARE READING
FRidAY? ↠ zarry AU
Fanfiction"What does that mean, I'm a 'Friday'?" "I look forward to seeing you. I never used to before, but now I can't wait until you come around... like a Friday." Zayn immediately takes a liking to Harry upon meeting him and wants to be with him - however...
