A Studious Affliction [Ziam] [Student/teacher]

Chapter Twenty-One.

Can't stop listening to Midnight Memories bc it's groovy and happy and I like the music video (and they're very hot and it hurts ok). Sorry for the late update! I'm in the middle of my ten week art exam, and it takes a lot of my time up. Sorry (again) but I hope you understand. Enjoy awkward Zayn ^.^

This is an important but pretty short chapter, and I'm afraid I haven't proof-read it, either. Sorry about that, loves. At least you had some smut last chapter. ;)

Dedicated to mrhoran93 for almost screaming in the eye doctor's office. Sorry, love! ;)

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I feel so euphoric the next day when I wake up, so excited to see Liam again, that when I realise it's not actually a school day, my heart plummets through my guts and tears me in half, and I'm grumbling for the rest of the morning.

Okay, that's a lie. I'm grumbling for about five minutes until Liam texts me, and then I am giggling like a school-girl and blushing profusely at my phone, at the words he has written for my eyes only. I reply, and he replies in turn, and this goes on forever until I feel my stomach rumble and am finally forced to slump up and roll out of bed for breakfast. I'd rather eat Liam, in all sincerity but I don't think my mum would appreciate a naked (hot, albeit) man lying on her kitchen table whilst I devour him. Or, maybe he'd be devouring me - he wears the pants in this relationship, after all. If this is even a relationship.

In which case, Mr. Payne needs to ditch those pants.

Typing with one hand and pulling my jeans up with the other, I grin to myself as Liam texts me back with a: You're leaving me for cereal? I have a taste for something a little meatier.

And so, of course, I text back: You're ridiculous. That's a gross insinuation.

You wouldn't consider yourself meaty? he asks.

And I'm laughing, and laughing, and laughing because I know this is a joke and this is definitely not Liam. Hi, Harry, I text him.

I can practically picture his sneaky grin, and want to kick myself for not realising it was him sooner. Hi, Zayn. Liam just went to the bathroom and I thought I'd sext you.

Cleverly done, I text him. I hope you enjoy your balls whilst you still can.

I'm still waiting for a reply five minutes later, so I decide that they're bickering and stuff my phone in my pocket, heading downstairs for some food. I guess I should say hello to Mum, anyway, even if I would rather be at Liam's, and with Liam, and laughing. Not that I don't love my mum; she is one of the best people in my life, if a little intrusive. She seems to live to make my life more awkward than I make it myself, and I just know it will be my undoing.

 "Hi, darling! How lovely to see you. I was afraid you'd been sucked into the pile of clothes on your floor and suffocated."

Ah, my mother. Already jabbing at me with love and interest. "How lovely of you to check," I quip sarcastically.

"And suffocate myself, too?" My mum grins, placing a plate on pancakes in front of me as I sit down. "Never. That would be a waste of intelligence."

"And modesty."

Mum laughs, and winks once at me. "Of course, of course," she says. "I am the epitome of modesty."

I only chew on my bite of pancake, hardly daring to breathe in case she makes some form of witty remark and whacks me around the back of the head with it as she usually does - a lot, actually. She's like Niall or Louis or Harry or even Liam in that remark, and I'm starting to question my taste in people; I think my mum has influenced me more than I realised. It's... ah... illuminating. I need to think some of my decisions through, now I've realised this. Jesus - just how big a mark did this woman leave on me?