Last Hope (Ziall Horlik) AU

Chapter 6

Niall's POV

The soft rays of the sun woke me up, but I couldn't find anything in myself to get up from where I was laying. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing if I stayed here for the day. It's Friday so that means I can rest up for three days and go back to school.

The doctors told me I had the flu and my fever got too high, making me pass out. They gave me some Tylenol to take to bring down my fevers, but they couldn't do anything else for me because I don't have any legal papers. I'm now 18 as of last week so I could cheek myself out of the hospital, but I still needed some type of papers for them to help me more than they did. I only got a few cups of water and two tablets for my fever. I also got a hospital bill I'll never be able to pay until I'm out of college and have a job. If any of that happens I should say.

I stayed where I was curled up, not even feeling bad I wasn't going to school. I knew I should probably go later to tell Mr.Malik I'm fine and to apologize again for being a disruption in class again. I wasn't really sure if I should thank him for what I thought he did. In my fuzzy state of mind my fever put me in, I swore he was holding me when I came to a bit before I passing out again. If he was, that was nice of him and deserves me to thank him for being a good teacher.

As the day went on, I found myself thinking of my teacher more than I was thinking about how I needed to rest. I thought of his smile, the sleeve of tattoos that are sometimes exposed when he rolls up his sleeves, his hair that is always styled perfectly, even the small holes in his ears and the small one on his nose. I can only sit in class imaging what he would look like with earrings in or a small nose ring. I like when he rides his scooter around class like a big kid because I get to see some of his muscular back when his shirt hugs his body because he hunches over. I like to watch his lips when he's talking about something because it's like they mumbled, yet pronounced words all at the same time.

Then my mind went deeper into thinking of his personality. He's always helping someone. He makes sure everyone is feeling okay, or even just takes time with each of us individually to get to know us. But one thing I noticed about him is I'm the only student that he calls by my first name. He does small things like that make us all feel special, or like we mean something to the teacher. I did distance myself from him because I know that if he gets too close then he'll know everything I don't want him to, but I hope he knows I really enjoy his class. Even with my one word answers on my opinions or excuses of how I'm clueless, I love his class.

I love how he teaches, I love to learn through experimenting, I even love to sit there quietly as the whole class is in an uproar to fight over a sensitive subject. His class makes me feel less crazy in a way. I usually try to fight feeling sorry for myself for all that I've been through to keep myself from depression, but the ways I fight it is by analysis. I analyze how I feel and I think if it's a logical feeling or teenage hormone feelings. Mr.Malik does the same thing, and I know it. Even if he hasn't said it, I see how he thinks before he speaks. Just like the other day when someone was saying that depression doesn't exist, I saw he didn't like that answer but he took a moment before countering his opinion. He was thinking if getting angry at the kid would get anywhere, or if everyone is entitled to an opinion. Even if he didn't say that, I knew.

The small things he does feel like we're all more than just students to him. I'm not used to it, but it's a nice change. The teachers at this school only care about your grades and your behavior. Someone could act out in class for attention they don't get at home, and all the teacher would care about is making sure you get to the principal's office. They don't care, but Mr.Malik does.

The sun was started to dip down past all the buildings, which made me happy because I could see the sunset now. That's my second favorite part of the day, my first being Mr.Malik's class. I sat up slowly, my body still feeling a bit weak, but the Tylenol definitely helped the aches go away. I folded up the blankets I had and put it on the bottom of my backpack before looking around then slipping off my shirt. I got my old white shirt that I was thrown out of my house in two years ago.