Roses | ziam.

Drenched in Dusk

It was way too bright for it to be night.

Zayn whined as he yanked the bedcovers up and burrowed deeper beneath them. He curled his body up into a fetal position and sighed, snuggling happily into his pillow. Now, for him to return to that sweet, sweet dream about Liam-

"Zayn! Zayn, wake up!"

And then something was shaking him, jerking him out rudely from hallucinations of LiamLiamnothingEVERYTHINGaboutLiam- The blinds were suddenly yanked open and jarring, blinding light glared their way into the raven's drowsy state. Zayn rubbed his face and moaned, cracking open a sleep-swollen eye. Barbara was perched edgily at the edge of his bed, urgently tearing out the blankets from Zayn's grasp.

"Let me sleep-"

"Liam's leaving you!"

Well, that certainly got his attention.

"What?!" Zayn yelped, catapulting upright in shock. He immediately regretted doing that; the room tilted crazily around its axis and a dizzying constellation of stars popped stunningly behind his eyes. Groaning, Zayn cupped his face with his hand and leant to his side.

"Drink this. I fed you some last night, but you didn't take all of it."

With that, Zayn felt someone nudge the lip of a bottle near his mouth. His eyes still closed, the ravenette gratefully gulped the hangover potion down, feeling his senses clearing up fractionally.

"W-What did you mean by that?" Zayn pressed on, his voice rubbing painfully against his throat like sandpaper. He hadn't regained full control of his faculties yet, but what Barbara had said just seconds ago was demanding answers in his teeming brain.

"Liam came to the party yesterday, and he caught you kissing Gigi!"

Now, the bile rising up in Zayn's throat had nothing to do with alcohol.

"I didn't kiss her... Liam told me he wasn't going to be there... doesn't make sense," Zayn stuttered disjointedly, but even as he spoke there were vague snatches of moments, snapshots of last night's horrors bowling down through his foggy mind.

"I saw him, Zayn! I think he finished his trip early just to see you, he even had a present all ready and... and he saw you with your ex-"

"Why didn't you chase him-"

"I did, but it was so crowded! I couldn't get close enough to grab him!"

A horrible concoction of fear and guilt was welling up in Zayn as he ignored the sonorous ringing in his head and tried to focus on the topic at hand.

"It was just a kiss right, we didn't go any further-"

"If I hadn't stormed over there to tear the two of you apart, it definitely would have progressed to something further! Zayn, you already knew I had my reservations about inviting Gigi last night! Everyone at work knows how she's been trying to win you back after you dumped her. You should have seen Liam's face, it was horrible," Barbara pointed out fretfully, wringing her hands in despair.

Zayn cursed sharply under his breath and thumped his forehead with his fist, blaming himself fully for yesterday's altercation. It had all gone up in smoke; every planned detail, all the painfully patient battles fought and won to gain Liam's affections, every single thing that he had worked so hard for was crumbling into uselessness simply because of that split second scandal.

"Go and talk to him, Zayn! It's Saturday, he'll be at home! Make him understand-"

"Barbara, thanks... but I can't do anything about it now," The pounding in his head wasn't going to go away anytime soon; Zayn predicted that he would need the whole day to recuperate and gather his wits about him, and a while more to worry about the next best tactic that he should perform. Maybe it would be better to let Liam cool down too before Zayn showed his face again. "I'll get some time off work on Monday and see him."