Hidden Beneath Brown Eyes (A Zayn Malik Fanfiction)

Chapter 52 - Paint

Those giant iron gates stared me in the face, menacingly, and I could feel my heart was ready to burst inside and leave me to bleed out in agony. Half breaths slipped between my lips in an effort to get some kind of oxygen to my deprived lungs that threatened to break my ribs every time they expanded. My stomach turned over and over, tying itself into more complicated knots with every small movement. My head was spinning, either that or the world was spinning. I was starting to feel nauseous.

"Louis! Stop the car!" I panicked, startling everyone in the car.

It figures that I was sitting in the middle, between Jack and Paola. There was no clear way out of the car, unless I wanted to trample my son or Zayn's girlfriend. But I could already feel the stinging in my throat and all I knew was that I had to get out of the car before I let loose all over Louis' expensive upholstery.

Without thinking, I reached over Paola and grabbed the door handle. Flinging the door open, I pushed her aside and tumbled out of the car onto the cobblestone ground. I hurried over to a nearby bush and was fortunate enough to crouch behind it just in time for the awful tasting bile to spill from my mouth.

My insides violently tensed each time my stomach sent another searing wave up my throat and out between my lips. I could feel the sting of the tears that were pooled at the corners of my eyes, while their comrades teamed up with my mascara to stain my cheeks.

By the time my body's mutinous assault was finished, I was on my hands and knees in the grass, dry heaving just to be sure that it was really over. I brought one hand up and swiped it across my swollen lips, wiping away any excess chunks.

I remained on all fours, inhaling deeply as my body struggled to recover from such a horrendous episode. Slowly, I started to calm down. My breathing started to return to normal, but that only allowed for the stillness needed for me to feel the ferocious beating of my heart. I might have survived the vomiting, but would I survive if I went into cardiac arrest?

Suddenly, I felt a hand gently stroking my back. The hair on the back of my neck and arms stood on end, meanwhile goosebumps began to pop up all over my skin. It was such a tender touch, full of comfort and concern, but I couldn't focus on anything else but the static charge that was slowly making it's way up my spine and leaving a trail of heightened nerves in its wake.

"Just breathe." His voice soothed every frazzled nerve in my body. Such a contrast from his touch.

I could feel the heat radiating from him as he knelt down next to my still shaking body, and began rubbing the back of my neck. I outstretched my neck slightly, allowing him better access to my aching muscles. I inhaled and exhaled slowly and deeply, feeling his fingers massaging away the pain.

"Why?" I choked out, my throat still raw from the vomiting.

"Hmm?" he responded, seemingly in a daze.

"Here. Why here?" I whimpered, feeling my throat start to constrict with the threat of some actual sobs.

I waited. I listened; listened to the increase in the speed of his breaths. I felt him shift nervously behind me, retracting his fingers from my neck. The grass squished and crunched underneath his body as he sat himself down, one leg stretched out, and the other bent with his knee up and foot on the ground. I could see it in my peripheral.

I don't know why I didn't move. Why I stayed in the same position I'd been in for the last few minutes. But I didn't want to move, so I didn't.

"I didn't think-" he began, but I cut him off before he had the chance to say anything more.

"No, Zayn. You didn't."

Neither of us knew what else to say. I think it just went without saying; how we both felt at the moment. Instead, we chose simply to just surrender to the silence that overcame the air.