Battle To Be Free (z.m) ✔️

Chapter 12

Alanna’s POV

It was now March and the usual cold weather that cascaded over England over the winter months was slowly ebbing away to reveal warmer temperatures.

I liked warm weather more than I liked the cold. When it was cold and dreary it seemed like all my hopes of a better life was pointless but the warm weather brought with it new hope which seemed to ignite my veins.  However, I knew that most of my hopes were futile whichever weather was covering this part of East London.

But a girl can dream.

It had been two weeks since the dreamy doctor had put my cast on and I was finding it just as difficult as I thought I would. We hadn’t been to school all week, not that I was complaining, because Zayn had said that he needed to tie some loose ends up.

Every night Zayn would carry me to bed. Now, don’t get the wrong idea it is simply because, as he put it, he can’t handle my ‘slow pace’ when I’m walking up the stairs. In crutches, may I add, but he doesn’t seem to register that fact.

He had let me call Kyle, so he wouldn’t worry, and tell him what had happened. Kyle had laughed so hard when I told him that I’d fell down the stairs and broken my ankle, which was a lie of course but he didn’t know that.

I read something before that which said that friends will help you when you fall but best friends will only help you after they’d finished laughing. That must mean that me and Kyle were the best of friends.

After he had finished laughing he wished me well and asked if he could see me but I didn’t think Zayn would like that idea.

It was my birthday soon and I was dreading it. Full Stop. Nobody knew it was my birthday and I didn’t know whether to feel elated or disappointed by that fact because as much as I hated my birthday it just felt like nobody knew me enough to know and that fact saddened me.

I would be seventeen in a matter of weeks. The years before this had seemed to go disastrously slow and I hoped that this year would go quicker, because a slow year usually meant it wasn’t a good one. 

Zayn and the others had said that they were going out on ‘business’ and anybody else would have been curious about what that was but I didn’t want to know.

They had left me alone with Mr Grumpy, the old guy that was hanging around the place seeming bored all the time, and I realised I still hadn’t learned his name.  Even Mr Grumpy had said that I would be fine on my own but oh no Zayn still didn’t trust me not to tell Dean where they were blah, blah, blah.

I was sat downstairs with my legs spread apart, because of the cast, and a blanket over me. I was still in my pyjamas and I didn’t usually do this, but I was on my period and I was trying to focus on anything but the pain.

I had found some painkillers in the cupboard and took some, maybe too much, but I wasn’t too worried.

I was watching the Vampire Diaries which was a new experience for me, as we didn’t have to do un-gang related stuff and when we did it wasn’t watching TV, and I was really starting to enjoy it.

I was nearly through the first series and I was definitely Team Stefan.

Unfortunately Mr Grumpy made an appearance just as the sun had started to set behind the silver wisps in the air which they call clouds.

He came downstairs and the mood which seemed to constantly be around him made the atmosphere around us thick and depressing. I focused my eyes on the Vampire Diaries and much to my surprise he started watching it too.

His piercing blue eyes were focused on the TV and I felt the need to ask him his name as it was rude of me to keep referring to him as Mr Grumpy.

“What’s your name?”