chapter six:
Days passed by and Zayn kept routinely visiting Liam's house, sometimes they'd work, other times they'd awkwardly sit on the cheap coach and not say a word, rarely ever were there times when they actually had a formal, non-stopping conversation. Then, they got used to their own company, well slightly. Liam still felt a little odd around Zayn, but he started to talk a little more than before.
"Liam! Liam! Your friend is here!" Liam's mom said in her overexcited tone, she was having the time of her life having a 'friend' of Liam's over.
"Okay, mom..." Liam walked towards the door and opened it to reveal Zayn, who was leaning against the doorway wearing a leather jacket along with a white shirt, combat boots and ripped pants with marks of oil and dirt on the knees.
"Liam," Zayn greeted.
"Zayn," Liam replied.
"Come in! Come in! We're just about to have dinner!"
Zayn shifted his weight between his two feet contemplating whether to go back to his car and wait there until they finished lunch or awkwardly eat.
Liam who was staring at dead air, hoping he was making eye contact with Zayn, could feel the awkward in the air about whether he wanted to have dinner with the guy who has made his past three years in high school hell or whether he should slam the door in his face.
"What are both of you waiting for?" Liam's mom placed the dinner on the table, wiped her hands on her apron and pulled both boys by their arms toward the tiny, plastic, dining table.
"I'm sorry it's nothing fancy," Liam's mom said sheepishly, "I wasn't really expecting company," Liam's mom hinted.
"Sorry mom," Liam mumbled. "I didn't know either."
Zayn furrowed his eyebrows, "I thought we met up every other day?"
Liam stuffed his mouth with food to avoid talking and simply shrugged.
"So, Zayn are you and Liam like best friends?" Liam's mom asked completely blindsided to the fact that his son gets bullied.
Liam chocked on his food, but really he couldn't wait to see what words Zayn would jumble up.
"I... Um... Yeah, yeah, we're, like, um, really close...? We have a couple of classes together actually...?" Zayn said, all his sentences sounding unsure and like questions.
"Oh, you do? What classes?"
"I... Um... What classes are they, Liam?" Zayn wanted to take the spotlight off himself, but it wasn't possible since he was the guest.
Liam shook his head with a bitter smile, of course he wouldn't know, "We have English and math."
"Oh," Liam's mom took a birds-bite-sized bite off her food and tried to be really polite, "So, why did you never come around?"
"I don't like to have friends over, mom, you should know that by now,"
"Yeah, but you and Zayn seem close."
Liam frowned and thought whether his mom was blind too, I mean how did she not notice the tension between Zayn and him?
"Yeah... Yeah we are..." Zayn hated silences, mainly when parents were around, they were the most uncomfortable ones.
