Everybody Needs Somebody

Chapter Four

"So how was your first week of being a jock?!" Danny asks Zayn with a massive smile present during lunch.
"Ha ha, Danny! I'm not a jock, I'm just on the football team. But it has been pretty awesome! Like this is probably one of the best things I've ever decided to do," Zayn replies truthfully. Since joining the team this week, Zayn's actually had something to look forward to at the end of the day. It's currently Friday and all Zayn wants to do now is finish his last two classes so he can go back to practice. Ant is about to reply to Zayn when a group of older lads walk over to the three boys.
"'Sup rook! We just want to make sure you're coming tonight? Just cause you're the youngest doesn't mean that you weren't included," Liam says while sliding in next to Zayn.
"Oh, uh, yeah. I just have to tell my mum before I leave," Zayn says childishly and the three year thirteens laugh a bit.
"Well we wouldn't baby Zaynie's mummy missing him now would we?" Liam says in a baby voice teasingly before standing up again. "I'll see you at practice, oh and this looks good so I'm taking it as part of the hazing!" Liam finishes while grabbing the other half of Zayn's sandwich, not knowing that that is all the food Zayn had and was trying to save. Once the group walked away Zayn sighed before holding his stomach trying to make the hunger go away.
"Want my chips, Zay?" Ant offers to the boy but Zayn just shake his head. Always a stubborn one, he is.
+
Being hungry sucks. Like it seriously sucks. You can't concentrate because you're putting all your effort into not thinking about being hungry which in the end makes you think about it even more. Now Zayn, he's starving, but he's too stubborn to tell anyone or use the meal plan the school provides him. Since he hasn't been showing up to help Joe at the shop, the young boy feels too guilty to ask for food so he's simply been trying to ration the food he has which really isn't much. The biggest meal Zayn has had in the past two days is probably the last third of the sandwich he got from Joe on the first day of school. So now the raven haired boy is sitting in his art/drama class, clutching his stomach and willing for the pain to go away. When nothing happens Zayn decides getting water might help, but right before he can ask to go Louis is calling for his attention.
"Zayn a word outside, please." And that's all Louis says before walking into the hallway, Zayn following quickly after. Once in the hallway, Louis closes the door and gestures for Zayn to sit on the bench. "Relax you didn't do anything wrong I just wanted to check up on you. Are you feeling alright? You looked like you were in pain while I was explaining the work," Louis asked the boy carefully, but Zayn just played with his fingers. "I need you to answer me, Zayn," Louis says strictly this time and Zayn finally looks up, desperately forcing the tears not to fill his eyes. He succeeds for the moment.
"I-I'm fine, my stomach hurts s'all," Zayn says and once again it's not a lie. Louis goes to reply but he's cut off by a loud sound from Zayn's stomach, and Zayn knows he's been caught when he sees Louis sigh.
"When was the last time you've eaten Zayn? A full meal, not a little snack."
"Monday," Zayn says with his head down.
"Jesus Christ Zayn! That's not healthy, you need to eat!" But then a thought occurs to Louis so he lowers his voice a bit before gently asking, "Zayn are you choosing not to eat, or is something else going on?" Zayn hesitates a bit but knows he needs to answer at one point.
"Times are tough, a-and I can't work while playing football but I want to play football so I sort of have to ration off what we have," Zayn says with his head still down and Louis sighs again.
"I'm gonna talk to Mr. Higgins to get you on the free lunch plan-" Zayn cuts him off.
"I already have it."
"What?!"
"I said I alrea-"
"No I heard you the first time, Zayn! If you have it why don't you use it?!" Louis asks with shock evident in his voice.
"I-I don't know," the boy says in a small voice. "I want to do stuff for myself."
"You're a kid, Zayn, you don't need to do stuff for yourself! Alright here's what we're going to do, I'm going to give you a granola bar when we get back into class cause that's all I have and you're going to eat it. Also starting next week you're coming to the locker room for lunch so I know you're eating! Some of the older lads eat there too so you'll have someone other than me to talk to." Louis finishes and Zayn knows better than to even think of doing otherwise so the boy just nods before going back into the classroom where Louis gives him the granola bar as promised.
+
"This is team bonding, boys, not a party."
"We know dad."
"I'm serious, me and your father will be home and watching! You older lads can have two beers, but no more. Niall you can have one, and I'm serious when I say one!"
"We get it dad! It's just the team coming over, we didn't invite anyone else. I promise," Liam says while rolling his eyes at his father. Louis has been giving the two of them the same spiel for the past fifteen minutes they've been in the car. It was decided that everyone will go home to shower real quick before going over to the Tomlinson-Styles' residence for the team get together.
"Damn right you better not have invited anyone else! You did tell Zayn to come, though, right? I know he's young and shy but you guys need to learn to incorporate him in a non-hazing manner," Louis said chastisingly.
"Yes dad I told him to come. He said he'll be there as long as his mum allows him to go." And with that Louis stops asking questions. Well also cause they pulled into the house and Louis was now alone in the car. So the man quickly stepped out of the car and into the house to be met by the smell of pizza and every other glorious junk food of the world. "Oh what it would be like to eat all this food without having to worry about your doctor telling you about high cholesterol," Louis said to himself but Harry heard.
"We never listen to doctors anyways so it's not that bad," the curly headed man says while pressing a kiss to Louis' lips. "How was your day?"
"Good, first week of the year done. Too many more to come," Louis says with a chuckle. "And you? How was the meeting with Simon and Aussie lads?"
"It went well actually. I told the lads they could stop by tonight if they wanted to, for practically living in London they don't have many friends here." Harry says and Louis laughs.
An hour goes by and Liam and Niall are now downstairs, showered and changed, along with the rest of the team. Well minus one small member. Zayn. Across the street from the house that is blasting music and laughter can be heard coming from the backyard, Zayn is stood in front of his mother's door contemplating whether or not to go in. Finally after a good five minutes of debating with himself, Zayn chooses to go in. Walking around the empty beer cans and discarded cigarrette buds, Zayn finally makes it to his mother's bed where he can very vaguely see her underneath it.
"Mumma?" Zayn says quietly but the woman doesn't respond. "Mumma wake up." Zayn says a bit louder but still no response. Zayn begins to worry, thinking the worst, and soon starts to shake the woman. "Mumma! Wake up! Mumm-" Zayn is shut up by a hard slap to the cheek.
"Shut up, you unwanted alarm clock! I'm trying to sleep!" Trisha says to the boy through the pillows.
"I'm sorry mumma, I just, I uh wanted to know if I could, uh-"
"Spit it out will you! I don't send you to school so you can learn how to stutter."
"Sorry, um, there's a football team bonding party and I was gonna go. Is that okay?" Zayn asks nervously.
"Perfect, maybe I can get some peace and silence tonight. Spend the night for all I care." But Zayn knows he can't actually do that. Rather than saying anything else Zayn walks out of the room and over to his so he can get changed real quick. After throwing on a random outfit, Zayn looks at himself in the mirror for a moment and notices his slightly pink cheek but decides not to care as he walks across the street. Once at the front door Zayn waits a few moments before finally knocking. No one answers. A minute or so later, Zayn knocks again but again no answer.
"Should've known it was a stupid prank," Zayn said to himself as he begins to walk away from the porch, but he quickly silences himself when he hears the door opening.
"Zayn! Hey where are you going? Everyone's here already," Louis says from behind the door.
"Oh, I was just going to, uh, you know, uh-" Louis cuts him off with a small laugh.
"Nothing to be nervous about Zayn. Yes they might be upperclassmen but most of them have the maturity of a five year old," Louis says with a warm smile while gesturing for Zayn to come in. And the boy does. Once Zayn enters the house he quickly starts looking around at the house he used to always visit. It looks exactly the same yet completely different, basically how Zayn would explain his life. "Alright lads everyone's finally here, so you guys hang out and I'll bring food out later."
Once Louis said that all the boys sort of just crashed into the middle of the room, looking very much like a bunch of primary school girls, and began telling everyone everything they missed over the summer. Zayn learned a lot during this conversation. Like how Josh lost his virginity on the beach to some island native. Or how Andy and Liam told their parents they were at Andy's lake house while really they were doing a roadtrip down the coast of England. He even learned about how four of the guys practically got arrested while trying to sneak into a music festival but ended up losing the cops in the crowds.
"You're awfully quiet Zayn. What did you do this summer? Any interesting, newly, year ten drama?" Andy asked the boy.
"Uh, I didn't do too much. There were a couple parties but they were rubbish," Zayn says, but the boys keep pressing.
"Come sit in the middle, Malik. We all know each other pretty well here, you're the only stranger to us. We're gonna play 20 questions but it's only gonna be us asking the questions. Got it?" Zayn nods. "Good. So I'm gonna go first, does baby Zaynie have a girlfriend?" Andy says in the same type of voice Liam used earlier while pinching the boy's cheek only to have Zayn playfully swat it away.
"Not currently, no."
"Have you had a girlfriend?"
"I had a summer fling with this girl Melissa but she moved back to Bradford."
"Have you had your first kiss?" Zayn nods.
"What about your first blow job?" And yeah Zayn chokes on air a bit.
"Wh- No!"
"Hand job?"
"N-"
"Are you a virgin, Zayn?" Louis walks in before Zayn can even think to answer.
"OI! I said to bond with each other not sexually taunt each other! Zayn don't answer these idiots. Idiots, and Zayn, there's pizza on the table." That's all Louis says before he's ducking for cover from the rushing heard of fifteen high schoolers. The sixteenth one staying behind a bit, still trying to gain his composure from the previous embarrassing questions. "Zayn I need you to go eat, buddy?" Louis says when he notices the boy still in the room.
"Wh- oh yeah. I'm going, sorry," Zayn says while walking into the kitchen. The boy manages to grab two small pieces before following the rest of the team to the outdoor patio to eat.
+
It was only around 8:30 now and Zayn was having a blast! Currently he was kicking around the football with some of the guys while some of the others sat around the pool drinking a beer that Louis had allowed them to have. Everything was going great. Well that is until Zayn felt someone lift him off the ground and be put over a shoulder. Zayn popped his head up quickly to see that it was Liam and Andy holding him so he just assumed they were joking around again.
"Ha ha Liam and Andy. Carrying the baby, I get it. Now why don't you put me down?"
"Nah I think we're good. Actually you look a bit hot right now, I think a nice dip in the pool will cool you down," Andy says teasingly but Zayn stiffens. No.
"No, no, no! Wait, please don't throw me in the pool!" Zayn practically begs.
"Did you hear something Andy? I keep hearing a faint voice?" Liam jokes but Zayn seriously is terrified now.
"Liam stop! Please don't! I can't swim, please don't!"
"Nice try Zayn but we're not falling for that! Who wants to play launch the freshmeat?!" Liam yells to the rest of his teammates who quickly begin to encircle the pool.
"Liam stop, please! I'm begging! I'm being serious, I can't swi-" Zayn is cut off cause the next thing he knows he's in the air and landing in the pool. Once under the water, he begins to freak out. He tries swimming to the top but he's too scared to even move. It feels like he's been under the water for a lifetime and his lungs quickly begin to hurt, when he hears a splash and then feels a set of arms wrap around his torso. Zayn is quickly brought to the surface where he immediately gasp for air and is then being picked out from arms of his "savior" by Andy. Zayn then sees that his "savior" is the same man who threw him into the devil's pit. Zayn is still choking up a bit of water when Harry comes running out the door.
"What the hell happened?! Do I need to call an ambulance?!" Harry says in a frantic voice.
"We're fine, Pops. Can you get us some towels?" Liam ask and before the other man could even turn around, Louis is walking out the door with two towels and a stern expression.
"Liam James!" Louis seethes out causing the rest of the teammates to 'ooh' childishly. "What the hell happened?!"
"Uh, you see-"
"I fell! I wasn't looking where I was going and I bumped straight into Liam which caused me to fall in the pool. I'm not really a swimmer, so I freaked out a bit. We're all fine," Zayn said smoothly, successfully shocking not only Liam but all the other guys too.
"Is that true Liam?" Louis asks with a raised eyebrow.
"Wha- oh yeah! That's exactly what happened. When I saw Zayn freaking out I jumped in to help him out, uh, we're all good dad," Liam says with a crinkly smile and subtle wink to Zayn.
"Fine. Here are your towels. Strip down before going inside cause I do not want you wetting up the house." And with that Louis and Harry walked back in and Liam picked Zayn up so he was eye level with the boy before planting a kiss to his forehead, making Zayn grimace.
"Thank you! You saved my ass from a lecture and I am so sorry! I thought you were joking, I mean everyone knows how to swim it's just common nature. Wait- no! That's not what I meant, I just meant-" Zayn cuts him off.
"Can you put me down?" Liam obliges. "Don't worry about it, I didn't want you to get in trouble. It's not a big deal." Liam goes to object that it is a big deal but Zayn continues. "I think I'm gonna go home. Thanks for inviting meh," and with that Zayn waves before removing his wet socks and t-shirt and steps into the house. Zayn looks around the house before quickly spotting Louis and Harry in the kitchen.
"Hey Zayn, did you need something?" Harry ask the boy when he catches his eye, causing Louis to turn around as well.
"Oh, uh, no. I have to head home, I just wanted to say thank you for allowing me over," Zayn says while trying to avoid eye contact.
"It's only 9:00, you sure you don't want to stay a little longer?" Louis ask this time but Zayn shakes his head.
"I told my mum I would be home early, she wasn't feeling too well today so I feel bad leaving her alone," Zayn says and again it's partially the truth. "Thank you for having me Mr. and Mr. Tomlinson-Styles."
"Outside of school it's Harry and Louis, love. Here let me fix you a plate of food for home," Louis says and stops Zayn before he can object. Louis makes a quick plate before handing it back to the skinny boy and walking him to the door. "Practice tomorrow at 9. We're going to the park down the street so if you want just come over to our house at 8 and we'll get some breakfast in you before practice." Zayn just nods his head before exiting the house and going across the street. Zayn slowly and quietly enters his house and rushes up the stairs, vaguely hearing someone shout for him, but he seriously couldn't bring himself to listen to it and continued up the stairs and into his room. Bad decision. Not even a minute later and Zayn's door was being slammed open, revealing a drunk Tyler.
"Did you not hear my yelling for you, boy?! First you have the audacity to disappear all afternoon and then you blatantly ignore me?! Get your skinny ass here right now!" Tyler seethed out and Zayn was using all his force to stop shaking as he walked over to drunk man. The minute he was in arms reach, Tyler grabs the boy before throwing him against the wall."I'm gonna teach you to listen, child!" And that's the last thing Zayn hears Tyler say the rest of the night.
Twenty minutes later, Tyler leaves the room and Zayn is laying flat down on the bed clutching his stomach in pain, while forcing himself not to cry. He hasn't cried in so long, he surely wasn't going to start now. Not being able to sleep, though, Zayn gets up from his bed and sits on his windowsill where he has a perfect view of the Tomlinson-Styles' house. Zayn gazes over the house when he sees Harry hugging Niall through the still open window.
"Why couldn't I have a family like that?"
_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:
A/N: I can't think of anything to say except for thank you! So thank you so much!!!! Next book I'm updating will be ABW I promise, byeeeeee :)
DB