Pressures of the Night

Chapter Eleven

"Boys! Oh, you all look so handsome, hold on I need a picture of the five of you!" Jay, Louis' mum, exclaims as she sees the five boys enter the building.

"Hi, mum," Louis says as he breaks away from the boys to hug his mother. One by one the boys go up to hug Jay before finally Zayn is awkwardly approaching the woman who automatically coos.

"Well aren't you a little cutie, how are you, Zayn?" Jay asks with a smile as she hugs the boy gently.

"I'm good, Jay. How have you been?" Zayn asks while fiddling with his sleeves a bit only to have Liam subtle grab ahold of his hand to make him stop.

"I've been excellent, dear. Just busy planning this," she says while gesturing to everything around them. And honestly, it was beautiful. Everything was so elegant and poise and overall fit for a princess.

The group goes on to talk for a bit longer before finally they go to get their hair fixed up. The process doesn't take too long seeing as though the boys had done half the work beforehand, so at exactly 7:00 they were able to hit the red carpet. Louis went out first with his mum seeing as though it was their event, followed by Harry and Niall whom went on to different directions, and lastly Zayn and Liam. Unlike the two before them, though, Zayn stayed next to Liam the whole time.

It was as though he was terrified to be pulled away or something because Zayn was practically glued to Liam's side. Through pictures and interviews, the boy always found himself turning to Liam to see if he should answer, or how he should pose, and Liam can just see the fans going insane over the "Ziam" moments now.

About forty or so minutes went by before finally Liam began to escort Zayn into the building only to hand him off to Harry when they got to the entry way.

"Liam?" Zayn questions as he sees the man begin to walk in another direction.

"I'm gonna be in that table right over there, Zee. You're gonna sit with Harry for a little bit, but don't worry I'll be right over there," Liam says as he points two tables down.

Though internally Zayn is shouting at himself to tell Liam no, he decides to just nod his head as he moved on with Harry. It's not that he doesn't love Harry, because it really does, it's just with this being the first time in the real public eye since the end of the tour he feels more vulnerable than used to. Luckily for him, the thoughts are pushed aside when the children dressed as princes and princesses begin to usher into the ballroom to the soundtrack of Cinderella.

As Zayn sees them he feels his heart swell a bit because he knows for some this might be the first time they're having genuine fun since being diagnosed with whatever illness they might have. Eventually three children and their parents approach the table, and immediately Harry starts up conversation with them while gesturing for Zayn to jump in whenever he's ready.

People sit and talk at their tables for the next hour while dinner is being distributed out to everyone, but finally once everyone was done eating the DJ arrived and the "ball" part of this event began. One by one children would go up to dance around the dance floor while the boys watched on in utter bliss before finally Zayn was told to start heading over to the face painting station.

"And what would like to be drawn, princess," Zayn coos as a girl around the age of four sits in front of him.

"A sunflower, please," the girl ask with a smile and Zayn can only comply in the same manner. One by one Zayn was painting kids faces to be anything from flowers to princesses to even the occasional flower, and he couldn't be more happy.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome. On behalf of myself and everyone that has helped arranged this I want to thank you for your time and dedication because as far as I can see, this has turned out amazing. Now we are having a bit of a raffle and auction now, so if people would like to grab a seat somewhere," Louis says into the mic as he watched people return to their tables. Well except Zayn because he saw that the other boys weren't moving either.