Stand Up (1D - Zayn Malik Fan Fiction)

Thirty One- Talking to Liam

‘So how am I supposed to run this place without money for the meantime?’ I yawn, throwing a grape into my mouth boredly. Lily sat on the other end of the couch, crushing twisties in her mouth.  She shrugs and sighs, looking down at our freshly painted nails. 

‘Well, I can buy the apartment with the money my parents gave me for the apartment downstairs. You get $300 a month in your account; you’ll survive on that + my $1,400 a month. We’ll live.’ She takes another twisty and crushes it in her hand. She looked miserable.
‘Lily, about Niall… I-‘ She quickly cuts me off with a twisty hanging out her mouth.
‘It’s not your fault. Listen. I’ve decided to Skype call him later and break it off. I don’t think it’s his entire fault, even though he’s a stupid idiot anyways. He can find someone else. I think the only apologizing needs to be to Liam- I didn’t really consider his feelings in all of this. Fuck.’ She mutters, looking down into her lap. My head snaps up as she says this.

‘Does he still live downstairs?’ I frown, not recalling seeing him around.
‘Yeah.’ Lily sighs, scratching her head. ‘I’m going to go now.’
‘Do you want me to come with you?’ We both hop up at the same time, sending food onto the floor.
‘It’s cool. See you soon.’ She sends me a weak smile, and I say weak not only does it look fake and miserable but weak because that’s what she was feeling inside.

-Lily’s POV-
As I trot down the stairs, the all too familiar memories flood back of Liam and I bouncing up and down them for fun. I shake my head and skip down the last one and shuffle along the landing, doing my best to stay quiet. I approach my old apartment door, but I hesitate before knocking. There was something that screamed danger. My hand hits the door rapidly and I knock a few times, breaking into a sweat. Was this even a good idea? Snap out of it Lily, of course it is. Shut up, mind.
The door swings open and a very nicely toned Liam stands on the other side, shirtless. Without thinking I wedge my foot in between the door and the frame, stopping the door from slamming in my face.
‘Oh.’ He gives me a dirty glare.
‘Oh to you too. Liam, can we talk?’ I plead.
‘I have company.’ He spits, opening the door enough to reveal a bright red headed girl in his shirt that I used to wear. A lump appears in my throat.
‘I didn’t realize. Just let me have a word to you.’ I stutter, trying to speak my mind.
‘No.’ He answers and goes to slam the door, but it rebounds on my foot.
‘AH, FUCK!’ I yelp and grab my foot. He almost looks apologetic for a second before his face sets in stone again.
‘Let me try this differently. Your sister is a fucking crazy bitch and she looks like the mad hatter.’ The words come flying angrily out of my mouth, but the last part I didn’t mean to say. I’m almost amused with myself.

‘What?’ He looks taken aback, and I knew I had his attention.
‘She SLEPT with Niall.’ I state, spitting in his face. He laughs an extremely humourless laugh and just shakes his head down at me.
‘Serves you right.’ He spits, and I bite my lip.
‘Liam, I came to say sorry, and that’s what I’m going to leave it here. I’m not here to make fucking daisy chains with you and declare peace in the world. If you want to know, Niall and I aren’t even together anymore. I didn’t take your feelings into account, and that was extremely selfish of me. I see that now. So if you want my apology, there it is. But just make your mad bitch sister stop. Okay?’ I breathe out with adrenaline pumping through me. Liam looks shocked. His mouth opens to speak but nothing comes out, and I feel accomplished.
‘Okay. Apology accepted. You’re not moving back in, though. Mirabelle lives here now.’ He gestures to the girl on the couch, who is ‘focused’ on the TV. I nod once and turn to go, but Liam grabs my arm lightly to stop me.

‘I loved you, Lily. Don’t forget that. You might not have loved me, but I know I had your full undivided attention, once. You’re a heartbreaker. One day you’ll find that someone. It just wasn’t me, yeah? Let’s stay friends, for the sake of it.’ Liam says softly. This time, I had no words. I nod and we automatically embrace each other. No words could explain how I felt. Shocked? Relieved? Confused? The words passed through my brain in a jumbled mess. I felt a tear slip down my cheek once more and as Liam and I pulled away, he wiped the tear without a word and returned into his apartment. That wasn’t what I expected at all. He had like a sudden change of attitude there. I hadn’t expected that it all. Total shock.

-Violet’s POV-

‘You’re both alright now?’ I smile as Lily walks into the apartment, looking better than when she left.
‘Yeah.’ She simply says, before walking straight to her bedroom. I continue picking up the food from the floor and lifting it into the bowls, watching the Simpsons blare on the screen in front of me. Just as I go to relax my phone buzzes and the caller ID shows Zayn.
‘Hey, hot stuff.’ I casually answer, hearing Zayn chuckle on the other end.
‘Afternoon beautiful. Guess what?!’ He exclaims. A smirk crosses my lips.
‘WellPaulsaidyouhadthejobandIgotexcitedbecauseyou’recomingontourwithusandbythewaydidtheotherboystellyouaboutwhathappenedwithNiallshockingisntit!?’ Zayn says in a rush, nothing making sense. I giggle as he takes a deep breath.
‘Breathe, Zayn, breathe. Now, what is it?’ He relaxes.
‘Okay so I heard that you got the stylist job, meaning you’re coming on tour with us next year! But did the other boys tell you what happened with Niall?’ Zayn blurts out.
‘Yes, exciting right?!’ I exclaim. ‘Yes, Lily found out.’
‘What?!’ Zayn basically shouts. ‘HOW!?’
‘Well the girl he slept with was a crazy chick and came and told Lily!’ Zayn almost laughs, but remembers it’s a serious conversation.
‘They’re skyping about it now…’ He trails off, and I listen to Lily’s voice breaking in her bedroom. I wanted to comfort her but it would be intruding on their conversation. Zayn and I stay quiet for a little while before I feel the need to break the silence.

‘I miss you.’ I state, sighing dramatically.
‘I miss you too, babe. We’ll see each other. Soon, I promise.’ Zayn whispers into the phone, and it was times like this I really wished he was with me.
‘I’ll leave you to comfort Lily. Niall looks pretty distraught. Bye, beautiful.’ Zayn says.
‘Bye, love you!’ I chorus.
‘Love you too!’ and the line goes dead. I can hear Lily sob so I just stand still, my heart breaking, listening to her sob. To drown out the sobbing, at least until they end the Skype call, I decide to take a nice warm shower. I leave my phone on the couch and rush into the bathroom, and immediately shut the door and turn on the fan. The bathroom warms up quickly so I strip off and jump straight into the shower. My hair tie slips over my wrist and I let my hair out, washing it with the apple scented shampoo Harry suggested I try. I rub it in thoroughly, letting the scent waft through the bathroom. I do this twice then condition my hair and scrub my body in kiwifruit scented body wash, feeling relaxed and clean.

As I hop out, I grab my towel and wrap it around me, looking in the fogged mirror. I smile at myself, my hair dripping wet. I gather my clothes and make a mad dash to the bedroom where I get changed into some ‘around home’ clothes and some socks, and I feel more relaxed than ever. Apart from the constant worries and questions running through my mind, I was carefree. I trot back into the lounge and see Lily on the couch, sobbing into her knees. My immediate reaction is to run over and hug her, but my feet feel frozen to the floor. My mouth hangs open as she looks up, her eyes stained red and tear stains once again down her cheeks. She rubs her nose.
‘It’s over.’ She whispers, blinking. My feet decide to co-operate and I run over to her and take her into a big hug.

‘It’s okay baby, everything is okay. You don’t need no man!’ I try to encourage her, but she ends up giggling.
‘I said preach it!’ She joins in, laying her head on my shoulder. I lean my head on hers and watch as the cartoons on TV silently flicker across the screen, confusing both of us. We stay like that for at least an hour before Lily glances at the clock.
‘Work time.’ She sighs, hopping up off the couch. I pat her knee as she slumps off to her dark bedroom, and I feel bad for not having a job. I grab my laptop off the coffee table and log onto all the networking sites I can find that I have an account, and make an update on each. I notice quite a few pictures of Zayn and I across tumblr, and I smile. I notice how I only have 300+ followers and realize no-one knows that I own the blog, and I intend to keep it that way- maybe just a crazed stalker fan updates account thing. I don’t even know what to call it, but I guess I’ll look like a crazed stalker if I put up pictures and updates before anyone else knows them.
Or, they put 2 and 2 together and realize I’m the one who owns the blog.

I flick onto Hotmail and send Monique an email, because it costs way too much to call and text her and I know she always checks her emails from her phone’s inbox.

To: Monique1D@hotmail.com
From: VioletHatton@Hotmail.com
Subject: How’s America?

Hey babe,
How’s America so far? It’s been what, a week and three days? You must love it there! It’s so different without you here, the apartment is so empty L Is it warm over there? Sunny California, baby! Has anyone recognised you as being Harry’s girlfriend? Awkward turtles if they have. Any news to report? No? Okay email me back soon. Call me if it’s dire.
-Violet xx

*Sent*
After I send that, I have a feeling she’s going to be partying and not going to respond.