Spaces Between Us

History

The wind howled against Zayn's ears as he stood in the open field, rows and rows of headstones surrounding him, the dead keeping him company. However, only one grabbed his attention. He stood there, staring at the gravestone, tears trickling down his cheek. Perhaps, he thought, perhaps if he prayed hard enough, the stone would disappear and instead the person it was meant to honour would stand before him, alive.

"So this is it." Harry spoke as he stood next to Zayn. He didn't respond but Harry didn't need one, both of them continued looking at the stone, different thoughts and emotions clouding their minds. They felt the presence of the others but they made no move to acknowledge them. They were all dressed dapperly, in exquisite yet simple black suits each with a small white flower pinned to the front. They were here for Simon, they hadn't had the chance to properly say goodbye after royally fucking up his funeral, so this was it, their final goodbye. However, it wasn't just Simon they were saying goodbye to, none of them wanted to say it out loud but they were also saying goodbye to each other. After a turbulent set of weeks, it was finally time for them to go their seperate ways again, they all knew it was coming yet they hadn't anticipated it would be soon.

"I find it funny that this slab of stone is supposed to commemorate such an important person." Harry whispered, interrupting the silence that had comfortably settled between them.

"At least they got the year right. At my nan's funeral they got the year wrong so it looked she was just a toddler when she died." They all chuckled through their tears at Louis' words, only Louis could find a way to make people laugh in a situation like this. A quietness was invited back into the atmosphere as the boys continued to remember the good times, the less complicated times.

"It's crazy to think that a month ago, I thought I'd never see all of us together again, joking like old times. I thought we were too broken to be fixed." Niall said, Liam wiped a tear from his eyes and walked over to Niall draping an arm over his shoulder.

"Even in death, Simon knew how to whoop us all back into sorts." Louis mumbled. Suddenly, Zayn broke down in tears, sniffing as he wiped his eyes with his sleeve.

"I'm sorry, it's just so much has happened these past few days. And now, Simon's gone and I didn't even get to say sorry to him or at least see him. The last time I saw him was the day I left, six fucking years ago and I didn't even leave him so much as a message on his birthday, nothing. Now, he's just gone and there's nothing I or anyone can do to change that." Zayn sobbed as Harry embraced him.

"You're right Zayn. Simon is gone and we will never see him again. We can't change what has happened but at least we can change the future. Think about it, all of you, we could have come here and left without even bothering to amend our broken relationship. We could have decided not to come at all but we did and we decided to do better, to be better. That is all that matters, we did better.That is what Simon would have wanted, for us to do better and we have." Liam explained, reassuring all of them.

"How lucky were we, to have Lauren set us up like that." Louis chuckled. Niall scratched the back of his head nervously, his gaze dropping to the floor. Louis eyed Niall suspiciously, "You had something to do with it, didn't you,"

"Well, actually, I planned the whole thing. Lauren just sent out the emails." Niall admitted shyly, all the boys' head snapped over to him and their eyes widened in shock.

"What!" They all exclaimed, surprised that Niall even had it in him to orchestrate something like this.

"Please don't be mad. I was just tired of all the fighting and I really didn't want us to leave still hating each other cause I knew this was our only shot of ever being the same place at the same time." Niall begged and the others all shared glances, they weren't mad, how could they be? They owed Niall so much, without him their reunion would not have been possible.